Taoist ideas of strength
Jan. 17th, 2012 06:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabrinamari"Men are born soft and supple; dead they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail."
~Lao Tzu
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Thinking about this, Lao Tzu is describing the strength of water: it assumes the shape of whatever vessel into which it is poured, yet maintains its integrity. It is persistent, like a continuously falling drip, and powerful over time, like the rivers that carved the Grand Canyon.
I like this image.
~Lao Tzu
******
Thinking about this, Lao Tzu is describing the strength of water: it assumes the shape of whatever vessel into which it is poured, yet maintains its integrity. It is persistent, like a continuously falling drip, and powerful over time, like the rivers that carved the Grand Canyon.
I like this image.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2012-01-17 01:08 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2012-01-17 01:55 pm (UTC)Thank you
Date: 2012-01-17 02:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-17 02:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-17 09:14 pm (UTC)I have been reading A Short History of Chinese Philosophy, which is not quite short enough for my liking and is trying to force me to play word games with the Tao Te Ching instead of taking it as my Bible as is my wont. Thanks for the pure, paradoxical, confusing, simple, non-obvious and probably mistaken truth!
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