I’m not sure how following the precepts in this book would work in most people’s lives, unlike, for example, applying a few Buddhist tenets. No wonder some famous Daoists were monks. Putting such ideas into practice, however, seems problematic. It is full of things such as, “He who speaks doesn’t know.” And “He who knows doesn’t speak.” You’ll be nodding your head at things like that, comparing them to your own life experience.
Daoist philosophy (or Taoist, if you want to use the old spelling-but Daoist is how you pronounce it) is intriguing because it seems to rely on not taking action rather than on actually doing anything. Since the Teaching Company doesn’t have a course on this book as they do for the Analects, I’ll just have to rely more on my own first impressions. Compared to the Analects of Confucius, this is a shorter, easier read, but like that work, I’m sure it benefits from reading in multiple translations and from reading more about it-not just of it. There are also certain ideas that are repeated in nearly identical phrases in different parts of this very short work. Like the Analects of Confucius, there are passages that are corrupted and whose meaning is either unfathomable or in dispute. Instead, the contents of the Tao Te Ching seem to be a distillation and compilation of early Daoist thought. Lau points out in his highly readable introduction to this Penguin Classics edition, it is highly unlikely that Lao Tzu was an acutal person, despite stories of Confucius once going to see him.
What should I do now?” Sono immediately said, “‘Thanks for everything. “I’ve said your prayer over and over, and yet nothing in my life has changed I’m still the same selfish person as before. I have no complaint whatsoever.’” The man did as he was instructed, for a whole year, but his heart was still not at peace. One day a fellow Buddhist, having made a long trip to see her, asked, “What can I do to put my heart at rest?” She said, “Every morning and every evening, and whenever anything happens to you, keep on saying, ‘Thanks for everything. There is a wonderful Japanese story (adapted here from Zenkei Shibayama Roshi’s A Flower Does Not Talk) which portrays this attitude:Ī hundred and fifty years ago there lived a woman named Sono, whose devotion and purity of heart were respected far and wide. Honoring the Tao means respecting the way things are.
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