Tao Te Ching: Chapter #3
3
If you overesteem great men,
people become powerless.
If you overvalue possessions,
people begin to steal.
(It is basically what is happening right now in Western society, just to point it out.) We rely on "great men" to solve problems instead of developing our own self-sufficiency. We abdicate our potential.
As a society, we are constantly searching for the next shining thing, which usually comes along with a manufactured scarcity, absurdly high priced, so it creates desire, envy and social recognition.
"Greed and peace exclude each other" (quote from To Have or To Be?).
Q:
Ok for the materialistic part, but what is wrong with celebrating people for their accomplishments? It could inspire others to do the same.
Q:
Ok for the materialistic part, but what is wrong with celebrating people for their accomplishments? It could inspire others to do the same.
A:
The problem is not sharing virtuous examples, but the social consequence of placing someone on a pedestal. It creates an artificial hierarchy. It encourages competition, not virtue.
The Master leads
by emptying people's minds
and filling their cores,
by weakening their ambition
and toughening their resolve.
He helps people lose everything
they know, everything they desire,
and creates confusion
in those who think that they know.
A true Master could help us to clear our judgment of old preconceptions and bias; fill our inner core (Qi); help us to see through the foolishness of our ambitions, and the attachment to things or goals and strengthen our inner steadiness. A true Master helps transcend ourselves.
Practice not-doing,
and everything will fall into place.
Practice the Wu Wei.
Conclusion
We should rediscover, as a society, that this chapter shows that we have the necessities to achieve harmony and self-sufficiency by embracing the Taoist path of non-action.
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