Wen Tzu - Verse 18

from Verse Eighteen

As to the roaming of Sages, they move in utter emptiness, let their minds meander in the great nothingness; they run beyond convention and go through where there is no gateway. They listen to the soundless and look at the formless; they are not constrained by society and not bound to its customs.

~ Wen-tzu: Understanding the Mysteries ~

I sometimes worry a tad about presenting these snippets of verses. We humans seem to have a propensity to pick and choose random bits of information to justify and rationalize our disharmonious behavior. So, I can easily envision a pedophile, rapist, braggart or ruthless killer seeing the above snippet as a license to do whatever they damn well please! Hey, they might chortle, Lao Tzu is my best defender!!

My point is that, to understand the meaning of the above passage, one must understand the entirety of the context it is derived from. One of the key themes in Taoism for humans is to do no harm unless it involves a matter of utter survival. Raping children/adults or killing someone because you covet their wristwatch does not fall within these narrow parameters!

In this instance, when it states that the sage is not bound by human convention, I take that to mean those customs, thoughts and behaviors that seek to soothe, comfort or protect the ego. It means not bowing to ritual just because that's the way we've always done it before.

This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.