2005-12-20
Tao Te Ching - 3 and intelligence
Tao Te Ching
by Lao-tzu
J. Legge, Translator
from: Sacred-Texts
3
Not to value and employ men of superior ability is the way to
keep the people from rivalry among themselves; not to prize articles
which are difficult to procure is the way to keep them from becoming
thieves; not to show them what is likely to excite their desires is
the way to keep their minds from disorder.
Therefore the sage, in the exercise of his government, empties
their minds, fills their bellies, weakens their wills, and strengthens
their bones.
He constantly (tries to) keep them without knowledge and without
desire, and where there are those who have knowledge, to keep them
from presuming to act (on it). When there is this abstinence from
action, good order is universal.
My Thoughts on This:
As someone who values my intelligence, I found this particular lesson a hard one to take. I don't like being kept in ignorance.
But I suppose, when you think about it, 'knowledge' is a label in itself - a man-defined label. Those who claim power in society are the ones who insist on the type of knowledge that is valued above all others.
The same goes for 'superior ability' - who defines this? Those who wish to gain and maintain power do. Who is to say that being silent and contemplative isn't superior to being active and 'goal-achieving'? And, conversely, just because someone is 'contemplative' does not mean that they are 'mindful', their minds may be filled with what others would call rubbish.
What I find so fascinating about Tao is that it outlines what I have always believed - that everything is relative.
It doesn't give us a 'set of rules' to follow - in fact some would say that it's very absence of rules is confusing in itself, but that, I think, is because we are so used to accepting that there will be rules.
This has been a rather round-about discussion of what some Taoists would see as an easy text to understand.
But that's what I like about Tao - it makes me think!
meyamind at 5:14 p.m.
