The Tao Te Ching is a compilation of poems about life, from ancient china I think. My point is, that it is the closest thing to today's literature as we have come to read in class. I have only read the first 12 parts, and I am already automatically relating to these poems and the message I take from them. These 12 poems talked mostly about how each thing is balanced out by its opposite, how whatever we do we should do it well, but we should also do it balanced. These are some aphorisms that really caught my attention from the texts:
'Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness. All can know good as good only because there is evil.' 'Work is done then forgotten. Therefore it lasts forever.' (TWO) these two passages are explaining what I said about everything and its opposite. They are representing a kind of yin-yang relationship, where each thing can be defined only because we know its opposed.
'Not seeing desirable things prevents confusion of the heart.' 'If nothing is done, then all will be well.' (THREE) Here we see the parallels again, but in a different situation. This is basically telling us that by not knowing that there is something better, then we will always be happy with what we have. If we don't see anything more than what we have, we won't want anything more, if we do know that there is more we will never be content with what we have even if it is enough for us. It is a perfect definition of human greediness which I think is pathetic, if we live controlled by greediness then life will just seem like any other competition and we will eventually get too tired to continue the race.
'More words count less.' (FIVE) This aphorism could also compliment the last ones I mentioned. It means that the more there is, the less it matters, the less value everything has. The same goes to greediness, the more we want the less we want what we do have.
'Heaven and earth last forever. Why do heaven and earth last forever? They are unborn, so ever living.'(SEVEN) What I understood by this passage is that everything will end. Everything that has a life, a soul, that is. Heaven and earth, being as majestic as they are, are lifeless and that is basically what makes them so majestic. They will live forever because they are so different to humans, so much more perfect.
'the sage is guided by what he feels and not by what he sees.' Senses make your body numb, just as logic makes your brain smart but your head dumb. Don't listen to what you can prove, follow your heart and your imagination to live a full life.
I think I'm really going to like this book.
No comments:
Post a Comment