from Verse One Hundred Twenty-FourSages are not ashamed of being lowly, but they dislike it when the Way is not practiced. They do not worry whether their own lives will be short, they worry about the hardships of the common people.~ Wen-tzu: Understanding the Mysteries ~
For me, this is an extremely important passage. While much of Taoist philosophy focuses on the internal over the external, I sometimes worry that people will view the sage as a guru sitting alone on a mountaintop chanting, ommmmmmmmmmmmm.
If we embrace the Way in our lives, but we keep it under wraps, what good have we accomplished? It would be like having a magic elixir to cure cancer, but not sharing it with anyone!
In order for anyone to claim the mantle of sagehood -- at least, in my book -- such a person would need to be the kind of individual who looks out for the welfare of all life forms and models the Way for others to emulate.
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
If we embrace the Way in our lives, but we keep it under wraps, what good have we accomplished? It would be like having a magic elixir to cure cancer, but not sharing it with anyone!
In order for anyone to claim the mantle of sagehood -- at least, in my book -- such a person would need to be the kind of individual who looks out for the welfare of all life forms and models the Way for others to emulate.
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
You are describing the way of a Bodhisattva.
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