Great straightness seems twisted. Great intelligence seems stupid. Great eloquence seems awkward.
— Gia-Fu Feng, #daodejing, Verse 45

Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt. Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench. Care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner. Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.

— Stephen Mitchell, Tao Te Ching, Verse 9

#daodejing #taoteching #Daoism #Daoist #Taoism #taoist zi #LaoTzu

A Book for Our Time, written in 400 BC (only $2 on sale )

If you want to get away from our present world, check out Laozi’s ‘Dao De Jing’, “a compassionate soul in a world torn by hatred and ambition, dominated by those that yearned for apocalyptic confrontations and prized ideology over experience

By speaking out against the cleverness of elites and the arrogance of the learned, Laozi upheld the wisdom of the concrete, the humble, the quotidian, the everyday individual dismissed by the great powers of the world.”

Translated by #KenLiu (who also translated ‘#TheThreeBodyProblem’)

#Laozi #DaoDeJing #Books
https://www.amazon.com/Laozis-Dao-Jing-Interpretation-Transformative-ebook/dp/B0CL5FGJG4

"And to draw on the popular teaching of Yoda, as well as the more obscure work of Moshe Feldenkrais , “trying” to do anything tires and frustrates, while “doing” unfolds without excess strain or parasitic effort."

#JimSchubert, 2012

https://meaningness.com/preview-eternalism-and-nihilism/comments

It's amazing how often people reference the core ideas of Daoism without giving Laozi due credit. He wrote about this in Daodejing millennia before George Lucas or Feldenkrais.

For me the essence of wuwei (無爲) in the #Daodejing is not literally "doing nothing," but rather acknowledging the reality that a lot of things in life are not brought about by virtuous, heroic effort but part of the way things are. Like, you got a university education and a well-paid job? Good for you. Chances are, though, that your background and privileges set you up for success and it's not anything special you did. It's therefore worth it to remember that meritocracy is a construct that upholds the status quo, and to avoid the trap of thinking your fortunes are morally mandated results. #Taoism

持而盈之，不如其已；
揣而銳之，不可長保。
金玉滿堂，莫之能守；
富貴而驕，自遺其咎。

To persist and overflow is worse than to stop.
Oversharpen a blade; you can't keep it long.
Amass gold and jade; no one can protect it.
Be proud of wealth and titles; you'll bequeath calamity.

#Laozi 老子, #Daodejing《道德經》 #9
(my #watercolor) @philosophy @chineseliterature

Even though my English is for all intents and purposes equivalent, when I'm trying to understand the #daodejing I often find myself translating fragments back into my mother tongue, Dutch. Almost as if the text demands words that I didn't acquire through education. #moa