If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.In the present case, there both are points of agreement and disagreement. On one side of the ledger, both perspectives agree that unbounded desire is the aspect of ourselves that tends to trip us up the most. Unfettered desire swamps everything else and we lose our sense of context. In time, such desires can serve as the engine for everything we do or think.
~ King James version ~
Do your best at whatever you undertake and leave it at that.
~ possible Taoist alternative ~
Where the KJV and Taoism depart is over the idea of expectation. Both Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu urge us to do our very best at whatever we do without the expectation of reward, recognition or acceptance. If we expect such accolades, then it becomes yet another unbounded desire. We will find ourselves no better off than we were before!
If you're interesting reading more from this experimental series, go to the Tao Bible Index page.
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