Tag Archives: Philosophy of Life

BOOKS: 道德经 by 老子 [a.k.a. Daodejing by Laozi]

Posted on by
Reply
老子道德经校释（简体中文版）: 中华传世珍藏古典文库 (Chinese Edition)老子道德经校释（简体中文版）: 中华传世珍藏古典文库 by 王弼
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Available in Traditional & Simplified Chinese [w/ multiple translations] at YellowBridge

Packed into the 81 brief chapters of this book is the core Taoist philosophy on life, human relationships, governance, and war. Most often, it offers a wisdom that turns conventional wisdom on its head, advocating for inaction over action, less over more, simplicity over complication, and for recognizing the usefulness of what isn’t.

Some of the book’s central ideas are captured in these quotes:

上善若水。水善利万物而不争. “The greatest good is like water. It benefits all without fighting.” [Ch. 8]
金玉满堂，莫之能守 “A house full of jade and gold cannot be guarded.” [Ch. 9]
知人者智，自知者明。胜人者有力，自胜者强。“He who knows others is smart; he who knows himself is enlightened. He who conquers others has power; he who conquers himself is mighty.” [Ch. 33]
柔胜刚，弱胜强。“Softness overcomes hardness; weakness overcomes strength.” [Ch. 36]
道常无为而无不为。“The Dao is constant inaction, yet nothing is left undone.” [Ch. 37]
善者，吾善之；不善者，吾亦善之；德善。“The good, I treat well; the bad, I also treat well. Yeah Virtue!” [Ch. 49]
知者不言，言者不知。“He who knows does not speak; he who speaks does not know.” [Ch. 56]
千里之行，始于足下。“The journey of a thousand li (“miles”) begins with a single step.” [Ch. 64]
天之道，不争而善胜 “The way of heaven is to win without fighting.” [Ch. 73]
信言不美，美言不信。“True words aren’t pleasing; pleasing words aren’t true.” [Ch. 81]

I think this is one of those works that should be read and reread. It may help rewire your brain in useful ways.

View all my reviews

“Nuns Fret Not at Thier Convent’s Narrow Room” by William Wordsworth [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
1 
Nuns fret not at their convent's narrow room;
  And hermits are contented with their cells;
  And students with their pensive citadels;
  Maids at the wheel, the weaver at his loom,
 Sit blithe and happy; bees that soar for bloom,
  High as the highest Peak of Furness-fells,
  Will murmur by the hour in foxglove bells:
  In truth the prison, into which we doom
 Ourselves, no prison is: and hence for me,
  In sundry moods, 'twas pastime to be bound
  Within the Sonnet's scanty plot of ground;
  Pleased if some Souls (for such there needs must be)
 Who have felt the weight of too much liberty,
  Should find brief solace there, as I have found.

PROMPT: Hardest Decision

Posted on by
3

What’s the hardest decision you’ve ever had to make? Why?

Probably to leave a job. Because it was a move from stability, security, and respectability to… not.

PROMPT: Pet Peeves

Posted on by
2
Daily writing prompt
Name your top three pet peeves.
View all responses

[Note: I will assume this to be the colloquial usage of “pet peeves” as I have no peeves about pets whatsoever (in fact, compared to most human children I see running around, I find pets to be positively civilized.)]

With that in mind:

1.) Forcing a “favor” on another person in expectation of some kind of reciprocation (usually outsized in scale to the fake favor.)

2.) Using the Q & A section of a program to make one’s own speech (the subtext being that one — rather than the lunkhead who just presented — should have been the one invited to speak in the first place.)

3.) Acting as though one particular set of cultural norms is the only moral / ethical way to live.

Bonus response: As we are presently on a blogging platform, I should mention a blogger’s peeve: Using another’s comment section as an advertisement for one’s own content — particularly with no actual comment about the post to which one’s “comment” is attached. I realize blogging is inherently a self-centered activity, but let’s not fall full-Narcissus into it.

“The Human Seasons” by John Keats [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
Reply 
Four Seasons fill the measure of the year;
   There are four seasons in the mind of man:
 He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear
   Takes in all beauty with an easy span:
 He has his Summer, when luxuriously 
   Spring's honied cud of youthful thought
     he loves
 To ruminate, and by such dreaming high
   Is nearest unto heaven: quiet coves
 His soul has in its Autumn, when his wings
   He furleth close; contented so to look
 On mists in idleness -- to let fair things
   Pass by unheeded as a threshold brook.
 He has his Winter too of pale misfeature,
 Or else he would forego his mortal nature.

“O Me! O Life!” by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
Reply 
Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these
     recurring,
 Of the endless trains of the faithless,
     of cities fill'd with the foolish,
 Of myself forever reproaching myself, 
    (for who more foolish than I, and who
    more faithless?)
 Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the
    objects mean, of the struggle ever 
    renew'd,
 Of the poor results of all, of the plodding
    and sordid crowds I see around me,
 Of the empty and useless years of the 
    rest, with the rest me intertwined,
 The question, O me! so sad, recurring --
    What good amid these, O me, O life?

                                           Answer.
 That you are here--that life exists and
    identity,
 That the powerful play goes on, and you
    may contribute a verse.

FIVE WISE LINES [November 2024]

Posted on by
Reply

Inspiration enters at the border between hard work and laziness.

Lu juren in “Poets’ jade splinters” [Trans. by Barnstone and Ping in The ART Of Writing]

I will not own anything that will one day be a valuable antique.

Miyamoto musashi in “My way of walking alone” [Dokkōdō] (Trans. by Teruo machida)

A house full of gold and jade can’t be guarded.

Laozi in the DAo De jing [Ch. 9]

Writing is a struggle between presence and absence.

Lu ji in The ART of Writing [Trans. by Barnstone and ping]

The best leaders remain unknown; the next best are praised; the next best are feared, and the worst are mocked.

Laozi in dAo de Jing [Ch.17]

“Beginners” by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

Posted on by
Reply 
How they are provided for upon the earth,
   (appearing at intervals;)
 How dear and dreadful they are to the earth;
 How they inure to themselves as much as to 
   any -- What a paradox appears their age;
 How people respond to them, yet know them not;
 How there is something relentless in their fate,
   all times;
 How all times mischoose the objects of their 
   adulation and reward,
 And how the same inexorable price must still
   be paid for the same great purchase.

PROMPT: Proud

Posted on by
Reply

What are you most proud of in your life?

Keeping going.

But if pride goeth before the fall…

FIVE WISE LINES [October 2024]

Posted on by
1

If any thing is sacred the human body is sacred

walt whitman; Leaves of grass; “I sing the body electric”

Strong in their softness are the sprays of the wisteria creeper;
The pine in its hardness is broken by the weak snow.

Saying of Master Jukyo as Translated by Trevor Leggett in Zen and the Ways

When there is mutual ignorance, confidence indeed is king.

Trevor leggett; Zen and the Ways

Do not see the gate and think it is the house. The house is something which is reached by passing through and going beyond the gate.

YAgyu Munenori’s Art of War (As translated by trevor leggett in Zen and the ways)

Students of the Ways must see clearly that in an untrained man the intellect is like a barrister. It argues clearly and logically, but the aim is not truth, but to reach a predetermined conclusion.

Trevor Leggett; Zen and the Ways