Tao Te Ching – 18

“大道废，有仁义；智慧出，有大伪；六亲不和，有孝慈；国家昏乱，有忠臣。”

This passage in general seems to talk about how some things, be it good or bad, only appears after others have occurred as a contrast. I understand it similarly to the second passage which talks about how beauty only exists as a comparison to the ugly.

This passage states that —

only when the “Tao” (which I understand here as something close to justice/morality) is abandoned will kindness be seen. When people become smart, is when there will start to be lies and trickery. When the family is in conflict you will be able to notice those that respect the ancestry. When the country is in chaos is when you will be able to see who is loyal and faithful.

It’s like the saying of “a friend in need is a friend indeed”, one event will reveal the characteristics and properties of those involved in it. When you connect this with mindfulness, you need to be able to see it in another way, as in, don’t try to search for a spiritual experience deliberately, because like all those qualities above, it is hard to find when being searched for, but it will show itself when the right time comes, whenever that may be.

Prophet – Love

“Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.”

If someone asked me how would you know when you are in love, and I had to pick one sentence to explain I would pick the sentence above. When you have that internal motivation, that flame which drives you to do things, that’s probably what Passion is. But it’s when that flame does not need you to feed it with achievements, compliments, or other fuel of external sources, when that passion stems from something much more internal, and when it can feed itself, I think that then would be Love.

 

Perhaps this is a reason that some people say, love makes you stupid. Because when you really love someone, you can’t help but love them, even if to others they have nothing worthy to love. When you really love someone, you don’t need them to love you back to continue loving them.

I love my dog, and with less and less time I spend with him since I’m away for university, he has been a little more distant. But I’m happy just seeing his photos and videos that my mom sends over. I am known to stare at his photo and smile a stupid smile, or watch that 10 second video on 100 * loop, trying to take in every single hair that moves with his tail wagging. He would not know I’m watching him, but I don’t need him to, and I will continue to love and miss him.

The assigned section has many references back to love, including work. The work chapter spends a long time emphasizing that to do work is to do something with love, and this would require a prior understanding of what love is. It’s really the fundamental base of every other understanding.

I don’t think I have quite experienced that “big” love for the world and all others. perhaps it’s a cultural thing, but my family doesn’t really show love very often. I’m sure it’s there somewhere, but if I am asked to list examples of when love was demonstrated, I would struggle to search my memory. This is not to say that I don’t feel loved, at least that’s not what I meant to convey. It is rather the explicitness of the love in questions, is love in hugs and kisses, or high expectations, or freedom, or something else? Sometimes you may not be able to list examples but you know you are loved. It’s like a child not being able to explain gravity but she knows that her ball will fall back down.

Then again, the same child may be confused about why the clouds never come down. We may not understand how some people get less love than others. Why is it so hard to love everyone? Why are some people so “unlovable”? Is it their problem? Or is it our problem? Do we need to strive to love everybody? Or should we acknowledge that we do not love some, and move on?

Some Thoughts on Money

We had some interesting discussions about being rich in class today. It seems that most people believes that it is the natural tendency for people to always want more money to be happy. For some reason I do not think that is the case for myself.

Of course, I would never turn away free money. But as a flyer girl, I take pride and great pleasure when I can stretch a dollar to the most it can be. I get happy when I know I’ve got a good deal. It was during second year that this habit began to form. I started out with Food Basics (FB) and Nations, where I made it a “tradition” to take advantage of every Tuesday where students get 10% off. Then in the summer, knowing that I would be moving further away from FB, into downtown, I started to expand my views and looked into electronic flyer apps. I tried out No Frill’s price match, and have been going there almost every week since then. Giant Tiger also made my weekly watch list after I got amazing deals for grapes from them in the summer.

Compared to having unlimited amounts of money to buy whatever I want, I find myself happier keeping to a $20-25 weekly grocery budget. So I think the amount of money isn’t what people want for happiness, but rather the magnitude of impact that amount of money can make. This can confound the actual goal because of course more money means more impact, but I think in the end it is not a paper or coin that people are looking for, but rather what they can get using that paper and coin.

Work

The “correct” way to work, as described in this chapter, is doing something our utmost attention, and with our whole heart, while enjoying it at the same time. It’s not easy to find a job like that in the modern world. The victim mentality is almost etched in most people’s minds.

We are limited by expectations, by qualifications, and by our own self-doubt. Perhaps we can treat the most ordinary actions as “work”, as long as we do it whole-heartedly. Like tying a shoe, walking on the street, or even typing these words here. To be fulfilled with simple tasks is really no different than being fulfilled with more complex or advanced tasks such as may completing a surgery or constructing a landmark building.

There is an excerpt on the side bar of the book from a Chinese proverb, it quotes:

“When the sun rises, I go to work.

When the sun goes down, I take my rest,

I dig the well from which I drink,

I farm the soil which yields my food,

I share creation, Kings can do no more.”

I tried to find the original Chinese version of this proverb, which turns out to be a song, from around 2377 B.C. to 2259 B.C.

《击壤歌》
日出而作，日入而息。
凿井而饮，耕田而食。
帝力于我何有哉！

After reading it I believe the last line of the English translation strays a little from the original meaning. From my understanding of the original text, it means something along the lines of:

“I work when the sun rises and rest when it sets. I can dig a well if I want to drink and eat from the field. This life is very fulfilling, who would wish for the life of a King!” It seems to express that even doing ordinary things can be very fulfilling, so much that the power and privilege of a King is no longer something to be ambitious for. Thi can apply to our current society. We somehow classify some jobs as less desirable and some more, such as a custodian and a doctor, but if one is happy handling a mop and a broom and seeing the school clean and orderly, who is to say that being a doctor would be more fulfilling?