"The sage has no mind of his own.
He is aware of the needs of others.
I am good to people who are good.
I am also good to people who are not good.
Because Virtue is goodness.
I have faith in people who are faithful.
I also have faith in people who are not faithful.
Because Virtue is faithfulness.
The sage is shy and humble - to the world
he seems confusing.
Others look to him and listen.
He behaves like a little child."
When I opened the Tao Te Ching I found my self looking at chapter forty-nine and it caught my eye from the get go. While reading the chapter I found some of the descriptions of the sage as some of the personality traits that I see in myself and that others have told me that they see in me.
I also realized that I knew many other people that also seem to posses the traits of a sage as well. Some of these people are people I go to for advice and people that also come to me so I think that in everyone there is a sage even if you do not notice it that it is there.
I think that this is what Lao Tsu wants the reader to realize while looking over his words and that they will then take those words and apply them to their lives to help others find the sage in themselves so that we can all help one another in times of need, and to help us all on our path of life.
Thoughts??
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I am struck that in western thought we agonize over what "good' is, and finally give up and accept that we cannot define it adequately. Go ahead and try. Lots of people have definitions for good that include a little bit of not-good in it . . . well, philosophically, that little bit of not-good means the good is not-good 'cause good is all good or it is not-good.
ReplyDeleteSo, while we have a hard time defining it -- and the definition I heard in class fell far short of good in my eyes -- we shouldn't. It is as simple as put forth here: "virtue is goodness". And what is virtue? Why, being good to everyone. It really is that simple. We know what 'being good to someone' means even if we can't exactly define it (all true experiences are hard to define in these crutches we call "words"). So, as long as we know . . . all we have to do is, do.