Selections From Mencius I

Selections From Mencius I
by Scott Bradley

"It was by sharing their enjoyment with the people that men of antiquity were able to enjoy themselves." (Mencius I A 2; D.C. Lau)

"You must work at it [rightness] and never let it out of your mind. At the same time...you must not help it to grow either...There was a man from Sung who pulled at his rice plants to make them grow...There are few in the world who can resist the urge to help their rice plants grow." (II A 2)

"Had it been necessary to perpetrate one wrongful deed or kill one innocent man in order to gain the Empire, none of them [ancient worthies] would have consented to it." (II A 2)

"The Yellow River and the Sea are no different from the water that runs in the gutter. The sage, too, is the same in kind as other men." (II A 2)

"Yang Hu said, 'If one's aim is wealth one cannot be benevolent; if one's aim is benevolence, one cannot be wealthy.'" (III A 3)

"There never was a man who could straighten others out by bending himself." (III B 1)

"I am not fond of disputation. I have no alternative." (III B 9)

"If others do not respond to your love with love, look into your own benevolence; if others fail to respond to your attempts to govern them, look into your own wisdom; . . . . In other words, look into yourself whenever you fail to achieve your purpose." (IV A 3)

"The Way lies at hand yet it is sought afar off; the thing lies in the easy yet it is sought in the difficult." (IV A 11)

"There has never been a man totally true to himself who fails to move others. On the other hand, one who is not true to himself can never hope to move others." (IV A 12)

"The trouble with people is that they are too eager to assume the role of teacher." (IV A 23)

"Only when a man will not do some things is he capable of doing great things." (IV B 8)

You can check out Scott's other miscellaneous writings here.

Tao Bible - Proverbs 16:19

Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.
~ King James version ~

If the sage would guide the people, he must serve with humility.
If he would lead them, he must follow behind.
~ from Verse 66 of the Tao Te Ching ~

Pride springs from an inflated ego. When we are so filled with ourselves, it pushes everything else away. We lose our sense of connection with the divine. We lose our step along the path.

If you're interested in reading more from this experimental series, go to the Tao Bible Index page.

Chapter 24, Part 15A - Chuang Tzu

The foot treads a very small area of the ground, but although the area is small, the foot must rely upon the support of the untrod ground all around before it can go forward in confidence. The understanding of man is paltry, but although it is paltry, it must rely upon all those things that it does not understand before it can understand what is meant by Heaven.

To understand the Great Unity, to understand the Great Yin, to understand the Great Eye, to understand the Great Equal­ity, to understand the Great Method, to understand the Great Trust, to understand the Great Serenity - this is perfection. With the Great Unity you may penetrate it; with the Great Yin, unknot it; with the Great Eye, see it; with the Great Equality, follow it; with the Great Method, embody it; with the Great Trust, reach it; with the Great Serenity, hold it fast.
~ Burton Watson translation via Terebess Asia Online ~

Go here to read the introductory post to the chapters of the Book of Chuang Tzu.

Will El Salvador Soon Be In the News?

On the morning of Friday, May 6th, President Mauricio Funes of El Salvador's left-wing FMLN party arrived at the La Maroma agricultural cooperative in the department of Usulután for a potentially historic meeting with hundreds of small family farmers. Usulután has often been referred to as the country's breadbasket for its fertile soil and capacity for agricultural production, making it one of the most strategic and violent battleground zones during El Salvador's twelve-year civil war between the US-supported government and the FMLN guerrilla movement.

Once again, Usulután has entered the spotlight for its agricultural reputation. The FMLN, which initially formed around an ideology of national liberation from US hegemony, has now adopted the goal of "food sovereignty," the idea that countries hold the right to define their own agricultural policies, rather than being subject to the whims of international market forces. On Friday, officials representing the Ministry of Agriculture and the local governorship accompanied President Funes in inaugurating a new plan aimed at reactivating the country's historically ignored rural economy and reversing El Salvador's growing dependence on imported grains.

The opening ceremony for the new plan was hosted by the Mangrove Association, a non-governmental organization established by members of a grassroots social movement called La Coordinadora del Bajo Lempa y Bahia de Jiquilisco (known locally as La Coordinadora), which has been supporting initiatives for food security and environmental sustainability in Usulután for over 15 years. Over the last three months, the Ministry of Agriculture has been working closely with the Mangrove Association and other campesino organizations to develop what may represent the new program's greatest break from past governments' agricultural policies: a goal that by 2014 all corn and bean seeds needed for agriculture be produced by Salvadoran farmers, rather than purchased from multinational seed companies, namely Monsanto, as has been the case in recent years.

With ongoing support from the U.S.-based NGO EcoViva, La Coordinadora and the Mangrove Association have been working since the mid-1990s to promote diversified, sustainable agriculture for small family farmers in Usulután as a means for reducing hunger and building a strong rural economy. According to official figures, almost 95% of fruit and vegetables consumed in El Salvador are imported from abroad, along with 30% of all its beans and 40% of corn. Meanwhile, non-commercial small family farmers are said to produce up to 70% of the basic grains that are cultivated domestically, mostly for their own families' consumption, making them particularly important for El Salvador's food security.
~ from El Salvadoran Government and Social Movements Say No to Monsanto by Carlos Martinez ~

In all honesty, before reading The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, I wouldn't have thought too much about this article. My reaction would have been, "Good for them" and then I wouldn't have thought much else.

I certainly would have realized that Corporate America -- particularly the agri-business sector -- would not be pleased with such an initiative, but I don't think I would have expected much to come from it.

My opinion has changed drastically since reading Klein's book. Now, El Salvador will be on my radar. If this movement takes hold and looks like it will come to fruition, I expect to see a negative scenario play out in the US mainstream press.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least for President Obama or other government leaders to badmouth El Salvador and warn Americans that it has been taken over by thugs who are attempting to thwart democracy.

It won't surprise me at all to learn that the CIA is working with opposition groups to try to overthrow the democratically-elected government.

You see, the hegemony of powerful corporations must be protected at all costs. We certainly don't want to see them take a hit to their bottom line. If our government sat idly by and allowed El Salvadoran farmers to adopt sustainable farming practices, wealthy corporations like Monsanto might lose some of their market share. Far worse, other countries might follow El Salvador's lead!

Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. We can't have that! So, we should nip these efforts in the bud. If they won't play the game by our rules voluntarily, then we will cram those rules down their frigging throats.

Hey, it's the [capitalistic] American way!

Afternoon Matinee: Science Can Answer Moral Questions

Chapter 24, Part 14B - Chuang Tzu

Kou-chien, with his three thousand men in armor and shield, took up his position at K'uai-chi; at that time Chung alone was able to understand how a perishing state can be saved, but he alone did not understand how the body may be brought to grief. Therefore it is said, The owl's eyes have their special aptness, the stork's legs have their proper proportions; to try to cut away anything would make the creatures sad.

It is said, When the wind passes over it, the river loses something; when the sun passes over it, it loses something. But even if we asked the wind and sun to remain constantly over the river, the river would not regard this as the beginning of any real trouble for itself - it relies upon the springs that feed it and goes on its way. The water sticks close by the land, the shadow sticks close by the form, things stick close by things.

Therefore keen sight may be a danger to the eye, sharp hear­ing may be a danger to the ear, and the pursuit of thought may be a danger to the mind. All the faculties that are stored up in man are a potential source of danger, and if this danger becomes real and is not averted, misfortunes will go on piling up in increasing number.

A return to the original condition takes effort, its accomplishment takes time. And yet men look upon these faculties as their treasures - is it not sad? Therefore we have this endless destruction of states and slaughter of the people - because no one knows enough to ask about This!
~ Burton Watson translation via Terebess Asia Online ~

Go here to read the introductory post to the chapters of the Book of Chuang Tzu.

Numbers That "Look" Big

You read or hear about these sorts of agreements. Corporation X engages in practices that are patently illegal and, when their fingers are caught in the cookie jar, they eventually negotiate with the government to pay a fine that looks significant and causes most people to say that it is a punishment justly deserved.

Take this recent news story posted at TPM Muckraker.

Two lenders who wrongfully foreclosed upon active duty members of the military without obtaining court orders will provide more than $22 million in million in monetary relief under settlement agreements with the federal government.

BAC Home Loans Servicing LP -- formerly known as Countrywide -- will pay at least $20 million in the agreement to resolve allegations they foreclosed upon about 160 servicemembers between January 2006 and May 2009 without seeking court orders, said DOJ. They also agreed to pay any servicemember wrongfully foreclosed upon during that period.

Saxon Mortgage Services Inc. will pay $2.35 million to resolve allegations they foreclosed upon about 17 servicemembers between January 2006 and June 2009 without court orders, according to DOJ. They also agreed to pay any servicemember who was wrongfully foreclosed upon from July 2009 through 2010...

Twenty MILLION dollars doesn't sound like chump change, but as Matt Taibbi points out in Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America, that is precisely what it is!

It's nothing more than a teeny tiny slap on the wrists. These lenders have made tens and hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars off of illegal foreclosures. If over this five year period a corporation like Countrywide realized, say, $10 billion in income, that $20 million fine amounts to 0.2% of their windfall!

Oh yeah, that will really, really hurt!

Put in terms that normal folks like you or me would understand, it would be tantamount to paying a $50 fine for defrauding your neighbor out of $25,000. If that's all you had to pay, do you think it would stop you from defrauding more neighbors out of $25,000 each?

Line by Line - Verse 31, Line 8

victory (by force of arms) is to him undesirable.
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

And victory no cause for rejoicing.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Victorious but without glory
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

and never celebrates a victory;
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

It is difficult for me to fathom how anyone could whoop it up over a victorious war or battle. Regardless of who "wins," almost all participants and bystanders lose. Some lose their lives. Others lose use of some aspects of their bodies. Some lose their minds and all those who survive lose a bit of their humanity.

War is a wound that can fester for a lifetime and, often, generations.

To view the Index page for this series to see what you may have missed or would like to read again, go here.

Convoluted As It Gets

Okay, let's see a show of hands. How many readers are aware that yesterday the US Senate passed the Small Business Additional Temporary Extension Act of 2011? Whether or not you were able to raise your hand, do you have the slightest idea what this bill pertains to?

Here's the official summary from the US Senate website:

A bill to provide for an additional temporary extension of programs under the Small Business Act and the Small Business Investment Act of 1958, and for other purposes.

Does that clear it up for you? Do you now understand what this bill pertains to?

Probably not! Hidden in this plain vanilla description are three controversial provisions of the "Patriot Act."

So, how is a citizen supposed to comment on legislation of such importance when it is presented in such a convoluted fashion? Why do the House and Senate create so many misnamed bills? What are they trying to hide...in plain sight?

Chapter 24, Part 14A - Chuang Tzu

Therefore the Holy Man hates to see the crowd arriving, and if it does arrive, he does not try to be friendly with it; not being friendly with it, he naturally does nothing to benefit it. So he makes sure that there is nothing he is very close to, and nothing he is very distant with. Embracing virtue, infused with harmony, he follows along with the world - this is what is called the True Man. He leaves wisdom to the ants, takes his cue from the fishes, leaves willfulness to the mutton.

Use the eye to look at the eye, the ear to listen to the ear, and the mind to restore the mind. Do this and your levelness will be as though measured with the line, your transformations will be a form of compliance.

The True Man of ancient times used Heaven to deal with man; he did not use man to work his way into Heaven. The True Man of ancient times got it and lived, lost it and died; got it and died, lost it and lived. Medicines will serve as an example. There are monkshood, balloonflower, cockscomb, and chinaroot; each has a time when it is the sovereign remedy, though the individual cases are too numerous to describe.
~ Burton Watson translation via Terebess Asia Online ~

Go here to read the introductory post to the chapters of the Book of Chuang Tzu.

So Much For the Prognosticators

Month after month, we're told that this or that figure or statistic falls outside of the range of our most learned mainstream economic prognosticators. When they predict that things will improve, they usually don't. When they predict that we should expect a downturn, the statistics don't come out half so bad.

Take, for example, these two forecasts featured in an article from Bloomberg.

More Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, a sign the labor market is struggling to gain momentum.

Jobless claims increased by 10,000 to 424,000 in the week ended May 21, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg News survey called for a drop to 404,000.

and

The U.S. economy, the world’s largest, expanded at a 1.8 percent annual rate in the first three months of this year, Commerce Department figures showed in Washington. The revised rise in gross domestic product was the same as estimated last month and compared with a 3.1 percent gain in the prior quarter. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 2.2 percent increase...

What are we to make of these consistent missed predictions? Are the people making them simply not very bright? Are they misleading the public on purpose? Why are they habitually wrong?

Honesty

Honesty
by Scott Bradley

There is no Truth
In honesty.
There is no belief
In trust.

We speak of 'the honest truth' and there is such a thing, no doubt, but this 'saying' speaks of another kind of honesty and another kind of truth. This is the truth to which we might assign a capital 'T', Truth about things we cannot possibly know. In other words, this is about triumph over self-deception.

The honesty, therefore, to which this refers is the willingness to face the stark unknowns and unknowables of our apparent existence. Beginning here, I have called my philosophy of life a 'bare-bones' philosophy. It is an attempt at honesty. It is not easy to be honest; nor, indeed, could I ever claim to entirely be so.

As usual, all this is about me and my own particular pilgrimage -- it is where I find myself. It is not Truth. It may not be true for you. The reason I so enjoy Zhuangzi is that he seems to have had a similar point of departure, and he would be the first to tell you to just follow what works for you.

Without Truth, there is nothing to believe. Belief, for me, implies Truth. It requires an object; we have to believe in 'something'.

There is an alternative, however, and this is trust. Trust is the simple surrender of the heart to things as they are, whatever they are. One entrusts oneself to Mystery. One 'hides the world within the world', surrenders one's otherness, so that there is no longer anything that can be lost. Isn't this true peace and the absence of all fear?

You can check out Scott's other miscellaneous writings here.

Tao Bible - Proverbs 16:16

How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!
~ King James version ~

Wisdom is the greatest treasure of all.
~ possible Taoist alternative ~

From time to time, we find Christian sentiments that closely echo Taoist ones. This is one of those times!

If you're interested in reading more from this experimental series, go to the Tao Bible Index page.

Chapter 24, Part 13B - Chuang Tzu

What I call the bent-with-burdens are those like Shun. The mutton doesn't long for the ants; it is the ants who long for the mutton. Mutton has a rank odor, and Shun must have done rank deeds for the hundred clans to have delighted in him so. Therefore, though he changed his residence three times, each place he lived in turned into a city, and by the time he reached the wilderness of Teng, he had a hundred thousand households with him.

Yao heard of the worthiness of Shun and raised him up from the barren plains, saying, "May I hope that you will come and bestow your bounty upon us?" When Shun was raised up from the barren plains, he was already well along in years and his hearing and eyesight were failing, and yet he was not able to go home and rest. This is what I call the bent-with-burdens.
~ Burton Watson translation via Terebess Asia Online ~

Go here to read the introductory post to the chapters of the Book of Chuang Tzu.

Mostly Cloudy

One of the new rages in computing is the "cloud." I don't understand it completely, but I do know there are a lot of services out there that offer consumers the ability to store their data, music, images and whatever else in this virtual world of servers and storage banks. One of the chief selling points that I've seen is that a consumer can access their information using different devices and while in different locations.

On the one hand, I can understand why this newish service attracts a lot of people. So many constantly are on the go and I bet it's tough to utilize the same software on a multiplicity of devises. (I wouldn't know this personally because I don't own a cell phone, IPod, Blackberry or anything other than a desktop computer.)

So, while I have read that people are signing up in droves to utilize various "clouds," I am in no rush to do so. Why? Because of privacy concerns! What with the misnamed Patriot Act being renewed for another 4 years as well as many other laws, regulations and presidential signing statements, storing one's information online seems to me like an open invitation for the government surreptitiously to browse your data.

It's not that I necessarily have something to hide, it is more that it's not any of their damn business!! That's why I utilize an anonymous proxy to travel around the web. That's why I password-protect my computer. That's why I use Linux as opposed to Windows.

Unless the government has a substantive legal reason to believe that I am breaking the law, what I do on my own time should be of no concern to them.

Afternoon Matinee: We Need to Call Ourselves Atheists

Chapter 24, Part 13A - Chuang Tzu

There are the smug-and-satisfied, there are the precariously perched, and there are the bent-with-burdens. What I call the smug-and-satisfied are those who, having learned the words of one master, put on a smug and satisfied look, privately much pleased with themselves, considering that what they've gotten is quite sufficient, and not even realizing that they haven't begun to get anything at all. These are what I call the smug-and-satisfied.

What I call the precariously perched are like the lice on a pig. They pick out a place where the bristles are long and sparse and call it their spacious mansion, their ample park; or a place in some corner of the hams or hoofs, between the nipples, or down around the haunches, and call it their house of repose, their place of profit. They do not know that one morning the butcher will give a swipe of his arm, spread out the grass, light up the fire, and that they will be roasted to a crisp along with the pig. Their advancement in the world is subject to such limitations as this, and their retirement from it is subject to similar limitations. This is what I call the precariously perched.
~ Burton Watson translation via Terebess Asia Online ~

Go here to read the introductory post to the chapters of the Book of Chuang Tzu.

Run It Like a Business

What is it we too often hear from candidates and political leaders of BOTH mainstream parties? We need to run government like a business! Yes, if we adopted a business-style model, then the economy would be sitting pink, not dragging its butt through the proverbial muck.

While I don't accept this thesis at all, it is readily apparent that most of the folks who voice this rationale don't either. According to Sally Kohn in an article post at USA Today,

The way politicians from both parties are shouting from the rooftops about the dangers of the federal debt, you'd think such high rates of borrowing are always cause for alarm. But some of our nation's largest and most successful businesses not only run even higher levels of debt — they actually consider carrying significant debt to be good business practice. In fact, the private sector teaches us why increasing government debt right now is a good idea.

The United States generates approximately $14.5 trillion in GDP each year and carries, currently, $14.3 trillion in debt. That represents a debt-to-income ratio of roughly 1-to-1.

By comparison, here are the debt-to-income ratios of some of the leading corporations in America:

• IBM — 2 - 1
• Dupont — 3 -1
• United Technologies — 3 - 1
• Boeing — 4 - 1
• Caterpillar — 14 - 1
• JP Morgan Chase — 50 - 1
  

In other words, IBM borrows twice as much money as it earns annually. Boeing borrows four times more than it earns. And JP Morgan Chase, clearly not too big to borrow, borrows 50 times more than it earns — getting $50 from lenders for every $1 it makes...

While all of these numbers astound me, the JP Morgan Chase ratio boggles my mind!!

How can a corporation survive that borrows 50 times more than it earns? Wouldn't you worry that, if something went wrong with your financial affairs, you might easily go bankrupt if, say, the market had a major downturn or an economic bubble burst?

(Of course, we all know the easy answer to that question. If your suicidal financial plan blows up in your face and you happen to be JP Morgan Chase, you can count on the government to save your sorry ass with taxpayer dollars!)

A Cool Top Ten List

Want to see a really insightful and funny Top Ten list? Head over to Thurman's Notebook to read the Ten Reasons Why Gay Marriage Must Never Be Legal.

To whet your whistle, here's #2 on the list.

Legal gay marriage would encourage people to be gay, the same way that associating with tall people will make you tall or being around blue-eyed people will change your eye color.

Line by Line - Verse 31, Line 7

Calm and repose are what he prizes;
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Peace and quiet are dear to his heart,
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Calm detachment should be above all
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

He does so with great restraint,
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~

When we go rushing around in one hundred different directions and thousands of bits of data are flowing through our heads, our decision-making processes are fragmented and disjointed, at best. We make snap judgments and rash decisions that, on further reflection, aren't usually our most well thought out.

The calm mind -- free of attachments and distractions -- is the most productive.

To view the Index page for this series to see what you may have missed or would like to read again, go here.