Friday, December 4, 2009

Wen Tzu - Verse 51

from Verse Fifty-One
When you are not confused by calamity or fortune, then you accord with reason in action and repose. When you are not joyful or angry at random, then you do not flatter people in hopes of reward or fear of punishment. When you do not crave what is useless, you do not hurt your nature by greed.
~ Wen-tzu: Understanding the Mysteries ~
Over and over again, Lao Tzu urges us to keep to the middle of the road. It's not that joy or anger are evil in and of themselves; it has much more to do with the intensity of feeling and the way we become possessive of ideas, things and people as the result of our emotions.

Take one example: brown-nosing. People brown-nose because they want to satisfy a desire that has become overly important to them. Instead of doing the necessary work that will lay a foundation to reach their chosen objective, they try to take a shortcut by fawning all over someone in a superior position in the hope that their fawning will produce a positive result with less time and effort.

Of course, brown-nosing doesn't always work as intended! Sometimes it can blow up in your face. Even when it does work, you usually earn the ire of your coworkers and colleagues who resent the favors you have curried. It's a ready-made mechanism for creating conflict where none previously existed!

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

3 comments:

  1. Actually, today I'm craving a favored curry.

    Sorry, I'm in a giddy mood today. It's Friday and I'm looking forward to a weekend, two whole days, of solitude.

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  2. I was thinking of the same idea recently when I saw someone who forever pats people on the back. Their motive was obviously to have someone praise them but all they got was people coming to have their back rubbed.

    PS Is there a reason you keep saying "Lao Tzu says.." when this is the book of Wen Tzu? :-/

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  3. Baroness,
    Too bad you don't live in the vicinity of South Bend. I plan on making a curried pumpkin soup this weekend!

    Ta-Wan,
    Yes, there IS indeed a reason. Each verse of the Wen Tzu begins with the following words: "Lao-tzu said:". So, Wen Tzu merely is relaying to us what the great master supposedly communicated previously.

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