The Master takes action
Posted by Dobrien 2 years, 6 months ago to Philosophy
From- The Tao Te Ching
by Lao Tzu
Verse 64
What is rooted is easy to nourish.
What is recent is easy to correct.
What is brittle is easy to break.
What is small is easy to scatter.
Prevent trouble before it arises.
Put things in order before they exist.
The giant pine tree
grows from a tiny sprout.
The journey of a thousand miles
starts from beneath your feet.
Rushing into action, you fail.
Trying to grasp things, you lose them.
Forcing a project to completion,
you ruin what was almost ripe.
Therefore the Master takes action
by letting things take their course.
He remains as calm
at the end as at the beginning.
He has nothing,
thus has nothing to lose.
What he desires is non-desire;
what he learns is to unlearn.
He simply reminds people
of who they have always been.
He cares about nothing but the Tao.
Thus he can care for all things.
by Lao Tzu
Verse 64
What is rooted is easy to nourish.
What is recent is easy to correct.
What is brittle is easy to break.
What is small is easy to scatter.
Prevent trouble before it arises.
Put things in order before they exist.
The giant pine tree
grows from a tiny sprout.
The journey of a thousand miles
starts from beneath your feet.
Rushing into action, you fail.
Trying to grasp things, you lose them.
Forcing a project to completion,
you ruin what was almost ripe.
Therefore the Master takes action
by letting things take their course.
He remains as calm
at the end as at the beginning.
He has nothing,
thus has nothing to lose.
What he desires is non-desire;
what he learns is to unlearn.
He simply reminds people
of who they have always been.
He cares about nothing but the Tao.
Thus he can care for all things.
Men knowing the way of life
Do without acting,
Effect without enforcing,
Taste without consuming;
'Through the many they find the few,
Through the humble the great;'
They 'respect their foes,'
They 'face the simple fact before it becomes involved,
Solve the small problem before it becomes big.'
The most involved fact in the world
Could have been faced when it was simple,
The biggest problem in the world
Could have been solved when it was small.
The simple fact that he finds no problem big
Is a sane man's prime achievement.
If you say yes too quickly
You may have to say no,
If you think things are done too easily
You may find them hard to do:
If you face trouble sanely
It cannot trouble you
It is also said Tao te Ching is the second most interpreted work to The Bible.
Yet Tao precedes The Bible by some 800 to 900 years; precedes Judaism by some 300 years; precedes Aristotle as well.
As this work has been a part of my philosophical development for 44 years, I found that this has prepared me for objective philosophy far more than Rand;s publishings. And as far as I know, the first objective philosophy documented in human history.
Humans have developed many "Hows" [sic] Constitutions, yet I've not come upon a formally based "Why" [sic] Philosophy, as a formal pretext of explanation, incorporated into, or as preamble to, a "Constitution". Example: I've been told many times that I need to refer to The Federalist Papers or The Declaration of Independence to understand the "Why" of The US Constitution. Why has this not been done? A good Quest-I-On or Quest-Shun? A choice.
I'd love to continue this more in depth, yet, My (very possessive) Gulcher's beckon and the chicken poo needs spreadin'
Pax!