AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Mao te ching9/2/2023 ![]() ![]() The entire premise of Taoism is constructed upon such a profoundly spiritual preoccupation with the concept represented by the yin and the yang that it allows those principles to enter into the realm of official religion in a way that its precursor Confucianism cannot. The duality represented by the symbol of the yin and the yang is fundamental to the few aspects of Taoism that can be irrefutably claimed. It makes as little sense to be disappointed over the outcome as it does to celebrate it. Likewise, a loss is the way things were meant to be. A celebration of victory is really only a celebration of the way things were meant to be. The result of any competition is the natural result of the playing out of these attempts at imposition. Humans can only attempt imposition of their will, but can never actually do so. In any competition there has to be a winner and loser the loser will inevitably react with disappointment while the victory celebrates when in fact neither should be celebrating or disappointment. The consequences of competition, however, is the result of that natural course. The nature of competition is the imposition of human will upon the natural course of nature. The twofold aspect of everything that is the foundation of Tao Te Ching mandates disappointment in competition. Any attempt to remove the yin from the yang (or the yang from the yin) and the consequence of attempting not just what is impossible, but what is futile, is a disappointment directly tied directly to refusing to accept with serenity the existence and fundamental nature of this duality. The most inviolate tenet outlined in the Tao Te Ching is the assumption that one has the power to affect the natural course of the universe. According to the precepts the Tao philosophy, the best way to assure a loss is to put all of one’s efforts into the drive to win. Hank has failed to understand the vitality and necessity of the twofold aspect of everything. They want nothing and have everything.” Bobby has learned and accepted that the fundamental premise of Taoism is directly oppositional to American ideology: “competing against others is not the way to happiness. The two have urged Bobby to follow the teaching of the Tao Te Ching: "The wise stay behind and go ahead. Bobby has to this point fallen under the philosophical spell of Lao Tzu as espoused by two potheads whose somewhat shady business Bobby and his father have mistaken for a flower shop. His father, Hank, initially disapproves as it has nothing to do with sports, but at the urging of his wife to use this hobby as an opportunity to connect with his son, the two eventually enter one of Bobby’s roses in a flower competition. ![]() In an episode of the animated TV series King of the Hill, 13 year old Bobby Hill takes up the art of growing roses. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. Breathing fresh life into these classics, Hinton's new translations will stand as the definitive series for our era.These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. These new versions are not only inviting and immensely readable, they also apply much-needed consistency to key terms in these texts, lending structural links and philosophical rigor heretofore unavailable in English. Highly regarded for the poetic fluency he brings to his work, David Hinton is the only twentieth-century translator to render these four masterworks: Tao Te Ching, Chuang Tzu, Analects, Mencius. ![]() ![]() This is one in a series of translations presenting the four central masterworks of ancient Chinese thought. Together, they allow a breathtaking new translation that reveals how remarkably current and even innovative this text is after 2500 years. Hinton's fluency in ancient Chinese and his acclaimed poetic ability provide him the essential qualifications. In the past, virtually all translations of this text have been produced either by sinologists having little poetic facility in English, or writers having no ability to read the original Chinese. Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching is not only the single most important text ever composed in China, it is probably the most influential spiritual text in human history. He shows how Lao Tzu's spirituality is structured around the generative life-force, for example, and that this system of thought weaves the human into natural process at the deepest levels of being, thereby revealing the Tao Te Ching as an originary text in deep feminist and ecological thought. Like all of his translations, Hinton's translation of the Tao Te Ching is mind-opening, presenting startling new dimensions in this widely-influential text. Having masterfully translated a wide range of ancient Chinese poets and philosophers, David Hinton is uniquely qualified to offer the definitive contemporary English version of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. ![]()
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |