from Verse Eighty-SixEven the ignorant do not harm those they love. If you could truly have all people in the world embosom a heart of human love, where would calamity come from?~ Wen-tzu: Understanding the Mysteries ~
The message contained in the passage above is one of the central theses of philosophical Taoism and what differentiates it from many other belief systems. While our world emphasizes an us versus them mentality -- with the us and them representing a wide diversity of individuals and groups -- Taoists view the entirety of the world as one solitary us. We are each manifestations of the One, this mysterious force called life.
If every rock, tree, butterfly and person is in kinship with each other and everything else, then there is no them apart from us. So, if we love those of our "kind" and our kind is everything this world contains, it would greatly alter the manner in which we relate to anything and everything.
War would be obsolete.
Discrimination would evaporate.
Poverty would be blotted out.
Justice would be commonplace.
Love would rule.
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
If every rock, tree, butterfly and person is in kinship with each other and everything else, then there is no them apart from us. So, if we love those of our "kind" and our kind is everything this world contains, it would greatly alter the manner in which we relate to anything and everything.
War would be obsolete.
Discrimination would evaporate.
Poverty would be blotted out.
Justice would be commonplace.
Love would rule.
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
The American Taoist would like to add to the list. IT DOES NOT MATTER IF ONE TYPES IN ALL CAPS OR not.
ReplyDeletePeace and Love. poppop@lifetrax.com
Stunning quote.
ReplyDeleteIf indeed Lao Tzu (who you claim never existed) wrote this, it must have been when he was about nine years old.
ReplyDeleteIt is a wonderful vision, one can not deny.
But we are not dealing with "If"...
We must deal with the reality of living among real people.
And most real people are not much like this at all.
They could be. They might be. But they certainly are not, yet.
There is - too - this small problem of mental illness, which causes even those who are not "ignorant", to harm those they "love".
To wit: the many vitriolic and often violent confontations between the far left and the far right.
They engage in this behaviour because they hold differing viewpoints. Extreme ones.
So perhaps being far-anything is probably not a good idea, if peace and love is the desired outcome.
The message of taoism, if there is any message at all, is that being neither right nor left is the desired state.
This balance, once acheived, is rather easy to maintain, while being far from easy to achieve in the first place.
Wings: right or left, exist only to enable flight.
To favour the one over the other is to never touch the sky.
Oh! Too funny!!!
My verification word is:
wingless
Well, well...