from Verse Forty-Seven
Gain is a matter of time, not a matter of competition; order is in the Way; not in the ruler.
~ Wen-tzu: Understanding the Mysteries ~
For me, this is a very poetic way of stating a common theme in the works of the Taoist sages: Don't force things and we each will receive benefits!Anytime we attempt to force a particular result, we meet with resistance. It is this friction which causes stress and conflict. We're pushing one direction and another person or the circumstance themselves push back! Sure, we may win round number one to get what we want, but the friction doesn't go away. So, we must continue to push, lest we later get pushed back.
When we go with the flow of the circumstances, no friction exists because there are not two opposing forces pushing against each other. There is no conflict which must be overcome.
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
I get the idea that this book by Mr Wen is consistently good and quite a bit longer that the book of Mr Lao.
ReplyDeleteI know you already said in an earlier post that it is longer but I didn't click until just now that it is longer, not for waffle, but for more great content.
The big difference is that the TTC comprises 81 poems and the Wen Tzu is poetic prose blocked out in paragraphs. The latter is also more than twice as many pages as the former, but probably contains 4 times as many words.
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