Saturday, November 19, 2011

Huainanzi - Entry 22

Trey Smith

Fashions, manners, and customs are not people's natures but what they take in from without. Human nature is innocent; when steeped in customs for a long time, it changes. When people's natures change, they forget the origin and conform to a seeming nature.
~ a passage from
The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~
Culture plays a huge role in who we each are. It is this socialization process that significantly impacts our worldview. As social creatures, we cannot escape the socialization aspect of our culture.

The task before each of us is how to keep these external forces at bay so that our own internal nature can shine through.

It certainly is not an easy assignment. Society pushes its members to conform -- to stay within prescribed parameters. This message is hammered home daily through the media, government, religion, education and peer pressure. It is not uncommon at all for people to come to believe that the external is all that matters.

One of the great messages from the ancient Taoist sages (as well as modern-day Taoists on this blog) is that the internal is as important, if not more so, than the external. The voice of Tao within each of us can serve as our compass, IF we would only listen to it.

To read the introduction to this ongoing series, go here.

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