If you winnow chaff, and the dust gets into your eyes, then the places of heaven and earth and of the four cardinal points are all changed to you. If mosquitoes or gadflies puncture your skin, it will keep you all the night from sleeping. But this painful iteration of benevolence and righteousness excites…
Those who think that wealth is the proper thing for them cannot give up their revenues; those who seek distinction cannot give up the thought of fame; those who cleave to power cannot give the handle of it to others. While they hold their grasp of those things, they are afraid (of losing them)….
‘I performed first the music calculated to awe; and you were frightened as if by a ghostly visitation, I followed it with that calculated to weary; and in your weariness you would have withdrawn. I concluded with that calculated to perplex; and in your perplexity you felt your stupidity. But that…
What the world thinks the most valuable exhibition of the Tao is to be found in books. But books are only a collection of words. Words have what is valuable in them; – what is valuable in words is the ideas they convey. But those ideas are a sequence of something else; – and…
Of course everyone is aware of events in Israel. No need to recount details of the attack by Hamas upon Israeli neighborhoods. Over a thousand were murdered, and hostages were taken to Gaza. The tit-for-tat bloodletting continues apace, as no leader has come to the fore lately, advocating a statehood resolution for displaced Palestinians. …
There is an interesting dialog in Zhuangzi between Confucius and a librarian, Lao Tan, who represents the Taoist philosophy of Lao Tsu. This exchange is reminiscent of the manner of conversation between Socrates and a younger student in the 4th century BCE Agora of Athens, Greece. Confucius who represents conventional thinking desires to place…
Zhuangzi has said, “This Teacher of mine, this Teacher of mine —he passes judgment on the ten thousand things, but he/she doesn’t think himself severe; his bounty extends to ten thousand generations, but he/she doesn’t think himself benevolent. He is older than the highest antiquity, but he/she doesn’t think himself long-lived; he covers heaven,…
He who knows his stupidity is not very stupid; he who knows that he is under a delusion is not greatly deluded. He who is greatly deluded will never shake the delusion off; he who is very stupid will all his life not become intelligent. If three men be walking together, and (only) one…
“The brutality of Hamas, this bloodthirstiness, brings to mind the worst rampages of ISIS … Stomach-turning reports of babies being killed; entire families slain; young people massacred while attending a musical festival to celebrate peace; women raped, assaulted, paraded as trophies. In this moment it must be crystal clear: We stand with Israel. We…
Ancient texts often describe a long ago period of idyllic society, a time when humans lived in harmony with one another and with Nature. This is a literary device, a means of contrast with present conditions in order to advance the writer’s point of view. Whether Eden could have existed, if furthermore any of…
