Post by Noah SombreroPost by onePost by Noah SombreroPost by oneTao Chia's Tao tends to decline, toward the soft and low and contrasts
with philosophies which suggest the opposites such a high, masculine,
powerful, yang, etc. Water overcomes the hardest rock patiently.
People have survived for thousands of years farming, weaving
and doing things which the Tao Te Ching suggests are natural.
In the orient where such people for centuries were wracked by famine
caused in large part by depredations of warring leaders. Actually
similar to the warring going on in europe at a similar time in world
history. It is not like the leaders were different creatures from the
farming weavers.
If there were no leaders, being all mighty and hard power hungry
sorts then the farmers may have had their farms left alone.
War is said to be not the Way. Nor is high taxation.
Yet leaders are not different creatures.
If, by definition, leaders and followers are not different,
then, by definition, so goes a validity of a set of sayings.
Post by Noah SombreroLeaders would not be leaders
if farmers/weavers refused to follow.
In the village, the ideal village, a mayor may or
might not be needed aside from being a figure
of some stature the same as a garbage man,
the chief can seeing all the cans collected.
If the leader wants more power, a bigger statue,
then, he, naturally he would be a man among giants,
wanting to make a name for his Elf, he thinks he is.
Post by Noah SombreroBoth are part of a social
structure that says there must be leaders and there must be
farmers/weavers.
Egalitarian societies may engage in practices and place
no great weight on a position held for a time being.
Post by Noah SombreroIf the farmer finds himself without a leader, he and
his fellows will choose one. The same thing with chickens. If a herd
looses it's rooster, a hen will take on the role until a new rooster
is found. The pattern is older than humankind itself.
The Tao Te Ching may suggest how a ruler rules. Be soft, kind,
gentle and invisible. The greatest go unnoticed and when a great
accomplishment is accomplished the people think they did without one.
https://terebess.hu/english/tao/gia.html#Kap17
http://www.mobilewords.pro/Tao/chap17.htm#top
Post by Noah SombreroPost by onePost by Noah SombreroPost by oneImagine, TTC 80 may say, having fine food, clothing, and
neighbors. A perfect harmony. No need to go nor do.
Simply be without strife, nor to strive for more.
Yes, imagine that.
A point made in the shade.
Post by Noah SombreroUnfortunately, there is another need that humans
feel and seek in addition to fine food and clothing. They seem to
need status one relative to another.
The hard-nosed, power-seeking, may have such a need.
A point being, don't be as those are. Be soft as the dust, etc.
Both the dust and the rock are needed.
Some sayings might insist dust and rock are not the mountain.
Some may say the mountain is made, made of rock and dust.
Some could see how the mountain is not made, it simply is.
If a leader wanted to make a mountain
he could begin with a small hill of mole powder
and get the people all involved with his construction
project and move a mountain to make his mountain stand
taller than any mountain ever stood before in his land.
Driving his people, his peons and pawns, working them day
after day and long into the night with his knights in dull armor
protecting his land, eventually he drives them into the ground.
Dust they were and dusty they go down to the dust
of which they were formed by none other than the god
he thinks he is, by decree, he says, with his statue ingraved.
Post by Noah SombreroPost by onePost by Noah SombreroWhich is how ancient societies
got farmers/weavers and leaders to war with each other.
Power corrupts a saying may say.
Indeed. It is the curse of the human condition.
Solutions vary.
Water is said to be a if not the universal solvent.
Some humans on a pale blue dot find their condition poor
or bad or worse and some leaders might say, it's only natural.
Some might try and change the system using might, power, force
and some may say, that's not the Way, use inaction, non-violence,
only to find that a blend of both doesn't work either and then, a few
simply leave such a condition and find solace laced within their minds
and hearts not being all caught up in the drama.
Knowing impermanence, being uninvolved, soteriologies vary.
Being in the world yet not of the world could be a saying.
Post by Noah SombreroPost by onePost by Noah SombreroPost by oneThere is need for any savior god. Tao is akin to empty space.
Imagine, TTC 80 continues, having technologies, vehicles
yet no desire to use them as one is content, totally.
To be content, be as a newborn again.
Newborns cry a lot.
Missing points could be an art.
Assigning a fantasy to a baby could be an art.
Pointers point. Myths may contain grains of truth.
Returning to the Garden, being born again as an infant,
being cared for by the Great Mother, hollow be her name
to those who don't care for such imagined sayings to a point.
Post by Noah SombreroPost by onePost by Noah SombreroPost by oneAlong with a Tao is Te, virtue.
TTC 10 may explain.
TTC 55 articulates further.
It seems humans have had such teachings for many centuries in various
forms, yet remain much as they were, generally. Meanwhile there are
also, in the population, spiritual athletes who wonder why it is that
all cannot be athletes like them.
Given: the Great Dream Drama. The cast of characters contains
many who are extras, a few who are stars. Shooting, laughing,
forms of the actors change with a scene seen by audience folk.
This is something. There is an undercurrent in religions about how
the masses are provided as a environment where masters will be able to
grow and mature. This feels to me like the ultimate ego massage. The
great lack of compassion.
Canon fodder.
Sets of scripture, writ by men in power, stone them! Stone them all
at once the stones cried out saying, hell know, we won't go.
And so to rock the mountain, the mountain roared as
it shot hot lava and destroyed those wicked men.
Superstitions, animism, beliefs leaving trees of life.
Knowing good and bad how duality breaks branches.
Not touching a tree of a form of knowledge is advised.
Post by Noah SombreroPost by one<< "Lady Li was the daughter of the border guard of Ai.
When she was first taken captive and brought to the state of Chin,
she wept until her tears drenched the collar of her robe. But later,
when she went to live in the palace of the ruler, shared his couch
with him, and ate the delicious meats of his table, she wondered why
she had ever wept. How do I know that the dead do not wonder
why they ever longed for life?
How do you know that you have not been corrupted? Like the master who
accepts that the masses are there so he can learn to be wise.
I get corrupted most every day.
A solution for me is to remain in the day.
To water down the drama, go with a flow.
To know how media pump sensational bits
of a virtual reality to a brain to claim legal tender is
obtained by making it so. And so it is. All in the game.
Being soft on those who get all worked up
about the latest disaster be it natural or man-made, aye,
for me to be able to relate and at the same time
to not identify too much is just fine.
Walking two paths is a saying in the Chuang-tzu.
Post by Noah SombreroThe thing that we often miss when taking a pet is that the animal
exists for itself, not to make you happy, although it might. But for
itself, it exists to be a cat or dog. The cat, for instance chooses
to own you or not. You do not own the cat, in the cat's mind. If you
mistreat your dog, it will run away and seek whatever fortune it can
find for itself in the world. Perhaps another meal provider, perhaps
not.
Personally, the private ownership of animated forms of life
including but not limited to, wives, children, horses, fish, dogs,
cats, birds, rodents, reptiles and other such organisms is odd, imo.
To eat them is very strange as well.
From the struggle of a turnip root to a head of cabbage,
forms of life in the plant-world get eaten all the same and different.
Post by Noah SombreroPost by one"He who dreams of drinking wine may weep when morning comes;
he who dreams of weeping may in the morning go off to hunt.
While he is dreaming he does not know it is a dream, and in his dream
he may even try to interpret a dream. Only after he wakes does he know
it was a dream. And someday there will be a great awakening when we
know that this is all a great dream. Yet the stupid believe they are
awake, busily and brightly assuming they understand things, calling
this man ruler, that one herdsman - how dense! Confucius and you are
both dreaming! And when I say you are dreaming, I am dreaming, too.
Words like these will be labeled the Supreme Swindle. Yet, after ten
thousand generations, a great sage may appear who will know
their meaning, and it will still be as though he appeared
with astonishing speed. >> - Watson's version.
https://terebess.hu/english/chuangtzu.html#2
<< Watson's translation >>
What is acceptable we call acceptable; what is unacceptable we call
unacceptable. A road is made by people walking on it; things are so
because they are called so. What makes them so? Making them so makes
them so. What makes them not so? Making them not so makes them not so.
Things all must have that which is so; things all must have that which
is acceptable. There is nothing that is not so,
nothing that is not acceptable.
For this reason, whether you point to a little stalk or a great
pillar, a leper or the beautiful Hsi-shih, things ribald and shady or
things grotesque and strange, the Way makes them all into one. Their
dividedness is their completeness; their completeness is their
impairment. No thing is either complete or impaired, but all are made
into one again. Only the man of far reaching vision knows how to make
them into one. So he has no use [for categories], but relegates all to
the constant. The constant is the useful; the useful is the passable;
the passable is the successful; and with success, all is accomplished.
He relies upon this alone, relies upon it and does not know he is
doing so. This is called the Way.
But to wear out your brain trying to make things into one without
realizing that they are all the same - this is called "three in the
morning." What do I mean by "three in the morning"? When the monkey
trainer was handing out acorns, he said, "You get three in the morning
and four at night." This made all the monkeys furious. "Well, then,"
he said, "you get four in the morning and three at night." The monkeys
were all delighted. There was no change in the reality behind the
words, and yet the monkeys responded with joy and anger. Let them, if
they want to. So the sage harmonizes with both right and wrong and
rests in Heaven the Equalizer. This is called walking two roads.
<< end of quote >>