Huainanzi - Entry 94

Trey Smith

To wish to be a partner of evolution and respond to the times by means of the transformations of a single generation is like wearing cloth in winter and leather in summer. You cannot make a hundred shots with the same aim; you cannot go through a whole year with one set of clothing. Your aim must conform to high and low; your clothing must be suited to cold and heat.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~

Though I will never be confused for a basketball prodigy, there was one aspect of the game that I was very proficient at: free throw shooting. I often could stand there and hit 20, 30, 40 or even 50 shots in a row without a miss.

One of the tricks to shooting free throws successfully is to develop a routine. Each time you step to the line, you repeat the routine with the idea that, by blocking out distractions and concentrating instead on your routinized approach, you will meet with success time and time again.

It's a good theory and one that proves successful...most of the time. There are times, however, that you follow the routine devoutly and yet the ball clangs off the rim and does not fall through.

There could be many reasons for this. Maybe your hands were more sweaty than you realized. Maybe the basket is slightly off center. Maybe you went through your routine a fraction slower or faster than usual. Like I said, it could be any one of numerous reasons.

If you keep repeating your same approach and yet you keep missing the basket, the flexible person -- not routinized me, of course -- would recalibrate the routine to net better results!

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

Huainanzi - Entry 93

Trey Smith

In a degenerate society, those who possess the wealth of the land and are in positions of authority over others exhaust the energy of the common people to serve their own sensual desires.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~

For me, this snippet goes straight to the heart of the current debate in Congress. The arch conservatives don't want to see the Bush tax cuts expire because that would mean that the wealthy would have to pay a bit more. The only way they seem willing to cut a deal is if services that the poor depend on are cut drastically.

Both of these stratagems "exhaust the energy of the common people" because both impact the poor substantially. If the rich don't pay their fair share, then services will be cut because the government will be bringing in far less revenue. If services are cut in order to cajole the rich to pay a wee bit more, we still end up in the same place. The common people get screwed!

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

Huainanzi - Entry 92

Trey Smith

In a confused nation, those whom everyone praises are rewarded even if they have done nothing to merit it.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~

We must live in the quintessential confused society because we fete celebrity like it means everything. Athletes become gods and entertainers become role models. Even those who merely claim their 15 minutes of fame are lionized like saints and apostles!

Meanwhile, those individuals who truly make a difference in the lives of others -- like teachers or home health caregivers -- are looked down upon. Most go about their daily business in complete obscurity.

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

Huainanzi - Entry 91

Trey Smith

An ancient sage king warned, "Be careful of each day that goes by, with the greatest possible caution. No one stumbles over a mountain, but people do trip over anthills." So, the fact that people generally slight small problems and subtle matters is the very reason they have so many regrets. To worry about trouble after it happens is like a sick man seeking good treatment only when his condition becomes critical.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~

This is another way of saying, "The devil is in the details."

Often, I think one of the greatest banes of humankind is inattention. Even when we THINK we are focused and detailed, we fail to recognize the ripple effect of our actions. We ignore the variables that most likely will blow up in our faces to create [foreseeable] difficulties and controversies.

Our vision tends to be so myopic. We tell ourselves that we are looking with our eyes when, in fact, we gaze at life through our egos and those egos are champions of self-serving distortions.

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

Huainanzi - Entry 90

Trey Smith

The Way of sages is like setting up a keg of wine at a cross roads; passersby ladel out more or less, according to their individual needs. Therefore, the way to win one person is the way to win a hundred people.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~

OMG! I knew there was something subversive about these ancient Chinese Masters. They were communists! (From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.)

Round up all the copies of this book and burn them! We can't allow such ideas the opportunity to take hold!

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

Huainanzi - Entry 89

Trey Smith

Cultivated people can live only by justice; if they lose justice, they lose their raison d'etre. Infantile people can live only be desires; if they lose their desires, they have no way to live. Cultivated people fear loss of justice; infantile people fear loss of material advantages. By observing what they fear, you can tell their differences.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~

If this truly represents the dividing line, then we must admit that there are few cultivated individuals in the world today!

This is an especially pertinent issue to think about during this consumer-driven holiday time of year.  Almost everyone of any means is out to get theirs by whatever means necessary.  It is at this time of year that we hear reports of people fighting or trampling others to get their hands on this year's most popular gift items for children and, sometimes, adults.

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza and/or the Winter Solstice,  this time of year is supposed to be about family and community.  It is supposed to be a time of giving selflessly.  Sadly, in far too many cases, it has turned into an orgy of materialism in which honor or justice simply doesn't figure into the equation.

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

Huainanzi - Entry 88

Trey Smith

People are comfortable in large houses, but birds are distressed when they get into them. Deep mountain forests are delightful to tigers and leopards, but humans are scared when they go into them. Deep ponds are suitable for turtles, but people drown in them.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~

It's not just that each species has it's own way, but each individual does too. I have had numerous dogs and cats throughout my life and no two have been the same.

I happen to be an individual with a large personal space who feels suffocated by crowds. While I can be social, at times, I am much more at ease tooling around by myself. I know a lot of people who would go stark raving mad living MY lifestyle. Such people need to be where the action is and many of them loathe being left alone for any significant period of time.

I'm not interested in convincing you that my path should be your path and that if you don't follow the path I follow, then something is wrong with you. I would appreciate the same courtesy.

To each his own.

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

Huainanzi - Entry 87

Trey Smith

When nature has been lost, humanitarianism is valued; when the Way has been lost, duty is valued.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~

The problem with morality and ethics is that they involve calculus. We encounter a situation or circumstance and then try to figure out -- via external rules or standards -- the least we can do and yet still come out smelling like a rose! It's like filling out a tax return. Most people try to get creative in manufacturing deductions, so that a tax refund is the result.

It seems like most of us have lost the ability to do what needs to be done WITHOUT thinking about all of the possible ramifications, both positive and negative. This is not to suggest that we should go through our lives like emotionless robots -- it is more to suggest that this constant human calculus lessens our capabilities to be genuinely compassionate and just people.

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

Huainanzi - Entry 86

Trey Smith

If you indulge in desires so much as to lose sight of your essential nature, nothing you do is ever right: to train yourself in this way leads to danger; to govern a nation in this way leads to chaos; to take up arms in this way leads to defeat.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~

Let's be honest about one thing. We each have desires and they aren't going to go away.

Our desires are what motivates us to action. It spurs progress in humanity society and no poem would ever be written without a desire as the spark. So, while the Taoist sages focus a lot of attention on desire, I'm certain they realized that desire is an essential part of the human make-up.

This is why I often term such urgings as centered on unmitigated desire. When our desires crowd out all other criteria, that's when we find ourselves in trouble. It's like trying to make a cake and pouring so much sugar into the mixing bowl that there is not any room left for the flour!

Desire is okay...as long as it is proportional to everything else.

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

Huainanzi - Entry 85

Trey Smith

Mariners who are lost and cannot tell which direction they are headed have only to look at the North Star to find out. Essential Nature is the North Star of human beings. If they have the means of seeing themselves, they will not miss the feelings of others. If they have no means of seeing themselves, they will be agitated and strive in confusion.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~

In general, I think this passage is spot on.  However, I don't think the ancient Chinese Masters were familiar with Asperger's Syndrome or other forms of autism.  So, while this idea may apply to most people, it doesn't necessarily apply to us.

I see myself quite fine; it's other people I have trouble with!!

When I use the way I perceive the world as a judge as to what will cause others to feel warm and secure or angry and incensed,  it rarely turns out the way I expect.  I can't tell you the number of times I've tried to express sympathy and support, but it's received as anything but. 

And I can't tell you the number of times that I've created a tempest with someone or a group when that was not my intent by a mile.  Someone will take me aside and point to something I said or did and say, "Now do you understand?"  Most of the time, the answer is no.  For the life of me, I can't understand WHY what I said or did would upset anyone.

If someone said or did the same thing to me, it wouldn't upset me at all.

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

Huainanzi - Entry 84

Trey Smith

Those who have the Way can respond to the unexpected without lack and can escape from trouble when they meet.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~

For me, this little snippet deals with the danger of expectations. When we expect or blindly anticipate a particular outcome and it does not occur, we easily can be thrown off our game. We flail around trying to catch our bearings and, in doing so, we miss obvious remedies that are within reach.

When we simply react to circumstances without the burden of expectations, it is so much easier to sidestep trouble. When the mind is clear, we can see what is before us and what we need to do to avoid disaster.

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

Huainanzi - Entry 83

Trey Smith

Everyone strives to be prepared to solve problems, but no one actually knows how to cause problems not to arise. It is easier to cause problems not to arise than it is to solve problems, yet no one actually knows to how to work on this; so you cannot talk to anyone about such arts.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~

Think about this passage in terms of a current event. Here in the US, some conservative Jews and Christians made a sophomoric movie about the religion of Islam that slanders the prophet Mohammad. Not surprisingly, conservative Muslims in the Middle East have reacted badly.

While the folks who made this film have every right to exercise their free speech, there is little question that they have created a furor. Even worse, it looks like this was their intent all along!

Don't we have enough problems in the world as is?

The mark of wisdom is to try to avoid conflict -- rather than create it -- as much as possible. When any of us goes out of our way to goad others, our actions are about as reprehensible as those who react to the provocation.

Free speech does not mean free of responsibility! Yes, you can say what you want, but you must realize there often are consequences to your words!

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

Huainanzi - Entry 82

Trey Smith

Something desired for its advantages may turn out to be harmful, while something intended to hurt others may on the contrary help them. It is imperative to examine the reversal of benefit and injury, the door of calamity and fortune.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~

There have been many occasions in my life when I have made an absolutely dumbass decision and yet everything has worked out a-okay. On the flip side, I have also made some very well thought out and well reasoned decisions that have blown up in my face.

I know that a lot of people say that we each control our own destiny, but it's not really true. There are too many variables to account for and some of those variables are beyond our comprehension.

For example, an individual could make all the right moves in their life and still die in a horrific commercial plane crash. There is no way in the world they could have known that this particular plane would crash on this particular flight. The person may have been on that flight for honorable reasons, but none of that matters when the plane crashes to earth.

Life is a crap shoot. We don't ask to be born and few of us know when, where and how we will die. Between these two monumental events, all we can do is to try to put our best foot forward. Yet, in our attempts to lead a smart and compassionate life, we should understand that life will take us where it may.

For me, while how one chooses to live in the world is important, what is more critical is how we deal with what life throws at us. It is how we deal with bad situations turned good and good situations gone bad.

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

Huainanzi - Entry 81

Trey Smith

[There are three dangers in the world:] To receive a large salary without personally accomplishing much is the third danger.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~

So often, when you hear someone complain about another person being lazy, their animus is leveled at a working class stiff. "Why should my tax dollars go to support the laziness of those welfare mothers?" they sigh. "If they want to live the good life, why don't they get off their butts and find a job?" (Yeah, like there are a lot of living wage jobs out there these days!)

I'm sure there are people on "welfare" who need not be. You'll get no arguments from me on that score. But the very same thing is true of many corporations and wealthy individuals. These folks simply collect a different kind of "welfare" and most of them don't need it to turn a profit. Why is it that people look down on lazy people who are poor and not lazy people who are rich? The rich ones cost taxpayers far more than the poor ones!!

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

Huainanzi - Entry 80

Trey Smith

[There are three dangers in the world:] To be high in rank but low on ability is the second danger.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~

This same general idea was restated in 1969 by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in the book, The Peter Principle. The thesis of this funny book was that, in organizations, people rise to their level of incompetence.

The principle holds that in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Eventually they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their "level of incompetence"), and there they remain, being unable to earn further promotions. Peter's Corollary states that "[i]n time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties" and adds that "work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence." "Managing upward" is the concept of a subordinate finding ways to subtly "manage" superiors in order to limit the damage that they end up doing.

Since we humans tend to live our lives in one organization or another (e.g., family, job, church, school, government, civic group, etc.), we each will land into our own sphere of incompetence!

Of course, the danger of incompetence in hierarchical organizations is that the poor decisions rendered impact everyone below. So, for example, if the US President makes an incompetent decision, it can jeopardize the livelihood and health of millions (or billions) across the globe!

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

Huainanzi - Entry 79

Trey Smith

There are three dangers in the world: To have many privileges but few virtues is the first danger.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~

In my mind's eye, this passage is aimed clearly at the rich and powerful of any given society. While the poor and middle class may lack the same virtues of the elite (or they may not), they lack the requisite privileges.

In reading this snippet, I think of the maxim: Where much is given, much is expected. If you grant your progeny a lot of privileges, you expect them to show care and responsibility. If you discover that they lack these two qualities, then the privileges are withdrawn.

It may work that way in a healthy family, but sadly it doesn't seem to work that way in society, at large. Many who enjoy the greatest privileges our society can bestow on someone are the very same people who abuse the system with abandon. We give them so much and yet they don't believe in the concept of reciprocation. They view their privileges as a birthright and virtue as a tool of the weak-minded!

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

Huainanzi - Entry 78

Trey Smith

Birth and maturation must have the vital energy of harmony. This why why the Way of sages is broad yet exacting, strict yet warm, gentle but direct, powerful but human. What is too hard snaps, and what is too soft folds; sages are between hardness and softness, thus finding the root of the Way.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~

I find it interesting that a lot of people view the middle path as narrow. Because they see it as narrow, they believe that, to live a more vibrant life, they must skirt along the edges of each path.

The generalized middle of any area is the widest contiguous space. The edges -- off to one side or the other -- are not as contiguously broad. So, by eschewing the broad space to live in, we unwittingly choose those areas that are more confining and, not surprisingly, we find ourselves falling completely off of our chosen paths again and again.

Think of it this way. Which is easier: Walking down the middle of a mountain trail OR walking on a tightrope suspended high above a gorge? While there may be times when we feel that it is necessary to choose the latter, we stand a much better chance of getting from Point A to Point B by choosing the former.

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

Huainanzi - Entry 77

Trey Smith

Nowadays moralists extol the culture of antiquity but do not put it into practice; thus they speak of what they do not do. They criticize the present age but do not reform it; thus they do what they criticize.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~

When I read the snippet above, the first group that came to mind were fundamentalist Christians. They constantly talk about following in the footsteps of Jesus, while traveling down an entirely different path!

This Jesus fellow seemed to be against war/violence, but the majority of fundamentalist Christians embrace it. Jesus hung out with the poor, the homeless and other undesirable folks; the vast majority of fundamentalist Christians don't want anything to do with the same people.

Most importantly, Jesus warned about the evil of self-righteousness, yet self-righteousness goes hand-in-hand with fundamentalist Christianity!

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

Huainanzi - Entry 76

Trey Smith

Right and wrong are situational. In the appropriate situation, nothing is wrong. Without the appropriate situation, nothing is right.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~

In a nutshell, the point made in the above snippet underscores the prime reason that -- even when I called myself a Christian long ago -- I have never been enthralled with the 10 Commandments. They are rigid and unbending rules that don't take factors and situations into account.

Almost anything a person might do could be justifiable in a particular circumstance. It all depends on the multitude of variables involved.

Of course, we humans like it when life is clear-cut. It makes living so much easier. You just pull out your handy mental Rolodex and scan down to find out if what you want to do is on the OK list.

Without these clear-cut [external] rules, we are forced to think deeply. How will my preferred action impact myself and others, now and in the future? Is this thing I want to do (or not do) based on an attempt to satisfy my ego-based craven desires or is it the proper thing to do in this given situation?

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

Huainanzi - Entry 75

Trey Smith

When punishment is overextended, it becomes cruelty; and if you are cruel, you have no friends.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~

There are a lot of parents in this country that subscribe to the "spare the rod, spoil the child" strategy. The way they see it is that this is how they were brought up and they didn't turn out so bad, now did they? Yet, many of them are in therapy -- or should be! -- and so it begs the question: Is use of the rod (belt, paddle, baseball bat, cane, stick of wood, etc.) the best method for disciplining a child?

[In the efforts for full disclosure, I was never spanked nor hit by my parents or any other adults as a child.]

From my perspective, the chief problem with the use of corporal punishment as a means of discipline is that it is far too easy to overextend it into cruelty. This form of punishment tends to be utilized when the parent is upset and angry at their child for disobeying a directive. When a person is angry, most of us tend to be a little (or a lot) out-of-control. We say things we might not have said otherwise and, when wielding a belt or a paddle, we likely will hit harder and longer than we would when calm.

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