Saturday, September 15, 2007
Lao-tzu
What is the master’s attitude toward action?
From reading Thoughts from the Tao-te Ching, I found the masters attitude to be direct but humble. According to Lao-tzu, “The Master doesn’t talk, he acts.”(23).As I relate this to today’s leaders there is a lot of talking about actions, but nothing is actually being done in our government. Our presidents talk to compete.
“Just stay at the center of the circle and let all things take their course.”(Lao-tzu 23).
The master repeated this many times in his writings, giving peace the highest value (25)
With these two quotes, I think that the master strongly believes that all things have some form of symmetry to nature. If everything is at peace, everything will fall into place as it should, but the only way to obtain that peace is to do less of what we try to do and we will be doing more. “If you want to be a great leader, you must learn to follow the Tao. Stop trying to control. Let go of fixed plans and concepts, and the world will govern itself. (Lao-tzu 27). Everyone is trying to be a leader and we are all fixed on the idea that the more laws and economic growth we have the better our world will be, but the way of the “Tao” says to drop all concepts and let the world do its part. According to the Master, to be centered in the Tao we must not desire, but we must be content with ourselves and if we are content all things are at peace and we are centered in the Tao.
Works Cited
Lao-tzu. "Thoughts From The Tao-te Ching." A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. Trans. Stephen Mitchell. 7th ed. New York:
Bedford/St. Martins, 2006. pp 22-31.
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4 comments:
Hi, I think your thoughts are very good and very deep. I hadn't thought about our government in that way. I liked how you took examples and quotes from the Tao and applied them to the way our government runs things. You are right our government could learn a few things from the Tao. Great Job!
I agree that nature has many symmetrical qualities and that things fall in to place when you stop worry so much and let things take there course. In addition, I agree with you that everyone is fixed on the idea of using more laws and restrictions in order to run a sufficient country, when really they limit the growth of our nation.
Your thoughts and ideas are agreeably presented clearly by relating them to our world today. “…but nothing is actually being done in our government. Our presidents talk to compete”. This I totally agree with because more talking then actually doing something is what the government is known for in today’s world. I also thought that the idea of “symmetry in nature” was very interesting. Nicely done.
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