From Confucius to Lao-tzu

I know what you are thinking. Wow you guys read fast! Every week a new book. Well, this time it is the Tao Te Ching. I am starting to notice that before they made us read longer and longer books every time, but now it is shorter but more complex books.

Anyways, until there is a book written in chronological order to blog about, I will keep my quote-reaction-quote-reaction way of analyzing the chapters.

The first quote I want to talk about is at the beginning of the Tao. "Therefore having and not having complement arise together. / difficult and easy complement each other. / Long and short contrast each other; / High and low rest upon each other; / Voice and sound harmonize each other; / Front and back follow one another (Chapter 2)" I like this quote a lot. It was something I have been told all my life, which surprisingly works for many of the quotes in this book. Every time I asked why ugly people existed or something when I was little, they answered that if there were no ugly people, there wouldn't be any pretty people either. The same concept is used here.

Something that I have been liking a lot from this book is that it is a lot easier to understand than the Confucian Analects. If you want to know what they believe in, you don't have ti search all over and interpret the text, but you only have to read it and understand. "The wise therefore rule by emptying hearts and stuffing bellies, by weakening ambitions and strengthening bones. (Chapter 3)" I like this quote because it says that desires and excessive feelings aren't good, but making your body stronger is.

The next quote I would like to talk about is this: "Heaven and Earth last forever. / Why do heaven and earth last forever? / They are unborn, / so ever leaving. (Chapter 7)." I like this teaching because it is very Buddhist. It says that heaven and earth were never created so therefore can never be destroyed, and that is exactly what Buddhism says.

The next quote I thought was very pretty, and I think it will be my last for today. It says this: "The highest good is like water. / Water gives life to the ten thousand things and does not strive. / It flows in places men reject and so is like the Tao. (Chapter 8)" I liked this quote a lot because of the water simile, and also because I learned a new vocabulary word. I had no idea what the Tao Te Ching meant, but at least now I know that Tao means "the highest good." It must be what Taoists want to achieve.

I think that the poems or whatever they are from this book are really nice. I really like them and I think that most of what they say is true according to my ideals. I know I have said this a lot, but I find it impressive that many of the things we say today come from these ancient texts that according to us we don't even believe in. Check again.