Verse One Hundred OneIn the Way there is no correct, and yet it can be used for correctness. For example, you need forests for lumber: so lumber is secondary to forest, forest is secondary to clouds and rain, clouds and rain are secondary to negative and positive energies, negative and positive energies are secondary to harmony, harmony is secondary to the Way. The Way is what is called a stateless state, an image with nothing in it, unfathomable; yet by it the world can be molded and transformed.~ Wen-tzu: Understanding the Mysteries ~
We humans seem overly preoccupied with hierarchies. Who is number one? Which idea is the most important? Who gets to sit at the head of the table?
As this verse underscores, all things are connected. Each variable plays an important role and, if we remove one element from the equation, the entire process is affected. So, how can we deem one part of an equation as being more important than any other part?
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
As this verse underscores, all things are connected. Each variable plays an important role and, if we remove one element from the equation, the entire process is affected. So, how can we deem one part of an equation as being more important than any other part?
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
On my little island, someone has taken to posting a blown up image of me, along with words I may or may not have written, taken from my taoist website.
ReplyDeleteWhy they do this, I don't know.
What the words say, I don't know.
Who they are, I don't know.
This has been ongoing for six months or so, and today was the first time I have actually seen one of these posters.
It ran to four pages.
What was amazing was that I left it where it was, didn't read the words, and didn't care one way or the other.
My wife was bewildered as to why I didn't remove it.
So was I, in retrospect.
But I had not put it there, the words - if tampered with - were not my words, and I felt no reason to react to it.
If there was, indeed, a hierarchy at work, I wasn't going to mess with it.