Trey Smith
People may go to a certain place by boat or by carriage; though they take different routes in either case, their destination is one. People with fine figures do not all have the same bodies; beauties do not have the same faces; but all of them are pleasing to the eye. Pears, oranges, dates, and chestnuts do not taste the same, but all of them are palatable.The above ideation is what first drew me to philosophical Taoism.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~
We live in a world that pushes the notion of conformity. To be rich, beautiful, successful or pious, we are browbeat to accept the "truth" that a person must do x, y and z. If someone embraces x and z, but eschews y or embraces d and j, they are looked on either as a lost soul or some sort of deviant!
The ancient Taoist sages, among others, understood that there are a multitude of ways to discover virtue and wisdom. Just because one route will lead some people to the destination, this does not mean that all people must follow the same path! In fact, more often than not, if you take a route prescribed by others, the chances are great that you will soon discover you are lost in a maze of brambles and thistles.
Though we all share the commonality of originating from the same source, our unique and individual experiences color the ways we view the world. Because of these differences, we generally can't identify the same paths and so what may appear to you as a straight line from Point A to Point B may look anything but straight to me.
To read the introduction to this ongoing series, go here.
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