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Tao Te Ching
THE TAOISM OF LAO TZU
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Tao Te Ching
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The Book
The Taoism of Lao Tzu Explained. The great Taoist philosophy classic by Lao Tzu translated, and each of the 81 chapters extensively commented. Click the image to see the book at Amazon (paid link). |
Tao Te ChingHumility Brings Honor
"Blessed are the meek," said Jesus, and continued: "for they will inherit the earth." That's also Lao Tzu's message in this chapter. Humility is praised, whereas its opposite meets with protests and contempt.
It's not a question of envy. We can live with the success of others, even congratulate them wholeheartedly. But not if they brag. We accept that other people have power over our lives, but not if they are rude. We need to feel that privileged people are worthy of their privileges. At least, we don't want them to be unworthy. That upsets us.
We expect life and civilization to have some kind of built-in justice. That may be naïve, stemming from the morals of fairy tales, myths, and legends. It's also the principle applied to just about every Hollywood movie. We would loathe a movie ending with the villain being victorious at the cost of our hero.
Aristotle pointed it out in The Poetics, his text on the rules of drama. The audience can come to terms with the good and virtuous meeting a tragic end, but not with the bad and immoral achieving final success. It would upset and disgust us. Every playwright since before Aristotle's time has been aware of this, so a drama ending in conflict with this principle is mighty hard to find.
We would really like life to be the same. So, whenever we have the chance, we act to make it so. We hurry to condemn people who don't behave nobly in their splendor, and we take any chance to strip them of their privileges. Even kings can fall, when confronted with this power of the people.
The only thing they have to do in order for us to accept their good fortune is to be modest about it. Then we congratulate them.
To Lao Tzu, this is more than a necessity to avoid provoking others. It's in accordance with nature and the principle of Tao. The universal world order of Tao is meek. It acts in a submissive way, but still it rules the universe. The world is run by yielding principles, so we must do the same in order to succeed with our intentions.
We might not always be successful when walking this path, but we are sure to fail miserably if we choose the opposite direction. Neither mankind nor nature will comply.
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Tao Te Ching Explained
Preface
Introduction
Literature
translated and explained by Stefan Stenudd.
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Tao Te Ching Explained
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