Like any type of classic works, there is more than one thread that wends its way through the prose and poetry of the Taoist sages of antiquity. Too often, we each tend to pick one of these threads, only to neglect others.
For example, while much of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu's messages are aimed at each of us as individuals, there is just as much aimed at the political leaders of their day. In fact, much of the second half of the Tao Te Ching -- we probably won't get to much of it in the Line by Line series until the end of this year -- is a proposed primer for generals and kings!
In many ways, these two legendary visionaries are very much like our present-day social critics. They gazed out onto a world marked by wars, corruption, poverty and oppression. They didn't like what they saw and so they put pen to paper, so to speak, to draw up their ideas of how to transform and revolutionize the society of their day.
A large measure of this transformation had to do with how each individual views the world. By changing the individual perspective, it was their hope that, in time, the whole of society would change as well. While their hopes were forward-looking, a great deal of what each contemplated had to do with changing life on the ground in their here and now.
For example, while much of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu's messages are aimed at each of us as individuals, there is just as much aimed at the political leaders of their day. In fact, much of the second half of the Tao Te Ching -- we probably won't get to much of it in the Line by Line series until the end of this year -- is a proposed primer for generals and kings!
In many ways, these two legendary visionaries are very much like our present-day social critics. They gazed out onto a world marked by wars, corruption, poverty and oppression. They didn't like what they saw and so they put pen to paper, so to speak, to draw up their ideas of how to transform and revolutionize the society of their day.
A large measure of this transformation had to do with how each individual views the world. By changing the individual perspective, it was their hope that, in time, the whole of society would change as well. While their hopes were forward-looking, a great deal of what each contemplated had to do with changing life on the ground in their here and now.
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