The Wise Child
After a couple of days of 'getting down to business' it is nice to stumble across the other side to the Taoist paradox - irreverence. Please do not be fooled by my self-improvement blather - at the end of the day I am happy to be whatever I am (even when 'what I am' is somebody who feels the need to improve. Like I said: it's a paradox!)
My ultimate ambition is to be as the man described below, and I take joy in knowing that this man - this Wise Child - is already inside me (and you) always waiting for the best moment to poke his head out and say 'Boo!'
"The contented man can be happy with what appears to be useless. He can find worthwhile occupation in the forests and mountains. He stays in a small home and associates with the simple. Wherever he goes and whatever he does he can be happy-he knows when to stop. He does not pick the brief blossoming flower, does not travel the dangerous road. To him the possessions of the world are as dust in the wind. He sings contentedly to himself as he travels the green mountains.
He finds sheltering branches more comforting than the roof tiles of a mansion, the plough in his hands more rewarding than titles, the fresh spring water more satisfying than the feasts of the wealthy... He has no profit to gain, no salary to lose, no applause, no criticism. When he looks up it is not with envy. When he looks down it is not with arrogance. Many look at him but few see him, a dragon hidden among men." -Ko Hung
On a different, yet identical, note (and as a former Christian, although more by upbringing than by choice) I bring you this late breaking and very excellent link was Jesus A Taoist?
Now, I'm off to watch some dumb horror movie,
Flow Like Water...
posted by Seamus "Moose" Anthony at 5:48 pm
3 Comments:
Well. this may sound a bit off
But everything converges. Taoism, christianity, martial arts, philosophy, buddhism.
I've recently read a book on muslism thinking. And I was very surprised to read stuff I had read before in chinese culture.
We're all humans, after all.
9:10 pm
Indeed. In fact those Christian dudes who do 'get it' (usually those we call Mystics) totally get it.
Of course to 'get it' means to realise that there is no 'it' to 'get', or perhaps that we just don't fully fathom 'it'. The latter had always seemed more plausible to me.
8:29 am
Yes, those who ' get it' are the right kind of people, aren't they? They are the right kind of people, because they get it! Get it?Seamus, you were an adopted child of the Father? By upbringing? Really? How did it happen, then, that you came to be un-adopted? Even if you were orphaned, you would still be your father's child. Your inheritance would be immediate as well. If you understood that you were talking about a personal relationship with the maker of the cosmos, then you would have to lay off claiming some lapsed "christianity". A relationship and a choice are the only things Christianity purports to be. If you have another (made up) definition in mind then how can you accept any of the claims that any philosophy makes of itself? If I were to say I was a martial artist once, mostly by upbringing, but had failed to ever make any of the dedication that martial arts requires -- you'd say I was being dishonest.
Mat says, 'everything converges'. In fact, Christianity is outright anarchy when weighed against those sane, reasonable, useful and utterly of-their-age philosophies. Where they converge, Christianity never fails to up-end them. Taoism is "correct", but insufficient.
5:13 pm
Post a Comment
<< Home