Tao Te Ching (book)

✒️ Note-Making

🔗Connect

⬆️Topic:: Existentialism (MOC)

💡Clarify

🔈 Summary of main ideas see "notes"

🗒️Relate

⛓ by following this method, what will happen? What is the goal of this book?

🔍Critique

✅ relevant research, metaphors or examples that helps to convey the argument

❌ the logical jumps, holes or simply cases where it is wrong...

🧱 Implementations and limitations of it are...

🗨️Review

💭 my opinions on the book, the writers style... A short collection of poems, all reference the "Tao" or the "Master" of it in someway, describing the indescribable.

As opposed to Nietzsche's writings that are often poem based, I actually enjoyed this book, even more than the translators comments. Perhaps because it's short, and the poems are intriguing yet easy to digest, no added layers just for flair.

🖼️Outline

📒 Notes

Several ideas that resonate from all these poems:

1. To try is to push away - same idea as The law of reverse effect. Much of what we try to achieve gets farther away from us simply by trying. For example, those who care about money and want more of it, will never be rich. While it's those who are content with what they have that are rich. When we actively try to do something, when we have a goal we pursue, we only get farther away from it, suffering along the way attachment.
2. The goal is flow - The only state of peace, of mastery, of strength and harmony comes when we live as flow. When we become one with nature, when we only listen to the natural rhythms of the world, when we don't fight it, we resonate with it, when there is no separation between us and nature, no "self" and "it", just "us". Every human action, whichever goal we pursue, whatever we try to do in the world, only detaches us from the natural harmony of the world, which will only bring suffering and weakness will to power
3. The best action, is no action - When we are one with nature, when we live the "Tao", we don't "do" anything, yet with this "non action" we achieve much. It's like a state of flow, or Wu wei. A rock doesn't "want" to fall, yet it does. A river doesn't try to carve the rock, and yet it does. When we free ourselves completely from our human desires and actions, we prosper. Like an artist that by not focusing has the best ideas, or how aikido manages to defeat their enemies by using their momentum against them. The less they do (or the more they do nothing), the better off they are.
4. Thinking damages experience - The "Tao", like nature, is something that can't be taught, nor can it be described. When we name it, we don't understand it. To be is a matter of immersion, of experience knowledge. We can't reason our way to it. Thinking, as is reason, are methods by which we try to detach ourselves from nature, to grasp in our limited mind an endless reality, we can't handle that complexity. It can only be lived, be experienced, but never "thought of".

Highlights

• In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present. When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you. (Location 292)
• Care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner. Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity. (Location 303)
• If you want to become whole, let yourself be partial. If you want to become straight, let yourself be crooked. If you want to become full, let yourself be empty. If you want to be reborn, let yourself die. If you want to be given everything, give everything up. (Location 437)
• He who stands on tiptoe doesn’t stand firm. He who rushes ahead doesn’t go far. He who tries to shine dims his own light. He who defines himself can’t know who he really is. He who has power over others can’t empower himself. He who clings to his work will create nothing that endures. If you want to accord with the Tao, just do your job, then let go. (Location 467)
• The Master sees things as they are, without trying to control them. She lets them go their own way, and resides at the center of the circle. (Location 536)
• Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. (Location 579)
• If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich. If you stay in the center and embrace death with your whole heart, you will endure forever. (Location 581)
• The Master doesn’t try to be powerful; thus he is truly powerful. The ordinary man keeps reaching for power; thus he never has enough. (Location 623)
• If you look to others for fulfillment, you will never truly be fulfilled. If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself. Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. (Location 692)
• Act without doing; work without effort. Think of the small as large and the few as many. Confront the difficult while it is still easy; accomplish the great task by a series of small acts. (Location 890)
• Rushing into action, you fail. Trying to grasp things, you lose them. Forcing a project to completion, you ruin what was almost ripe. (Location 907)
• simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Simple in actions and in thoughts, you return to the source of being. Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are. Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world. (Location 943)
• Men are born soft and supple; dead, they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail. (Location 1012)