Tao Te Thursday

3/22/2012

Throw away holiness and wisdom,
and people will be a hundred times happier.
Throw away morality and justice,
and people will do the right thing.
Throw away industry and profit,
and there won't be any thieves.

If these three aren't enough,
just stay at the center of the circle
and let all things take their course.
Verse 19

Laura Novak

3/22/2012 01:45:35 am

The political climate has me so crazy right now, I had to latch on to something that makes sense. Missed yesterday, but the Tao is always there. Holier than thou morality is at the core of much of what is happening right now. But how can we just let things take their course?

Ottoline

3/22/2012 02:27:01 am

This Tao reminds me of Shakespeare's

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Problem is, as my old college English teacher asked, why did Shakespeare have these words said by the blowhard/fool Polinius, who went about spouting platitudes, a pretty ridiculous old man? The answer, as I understand it, is that in Shakespeare's time, man was viewed as a frail vessel who needed support from the authority of God, from his betters like the king/queen, from the commonly-held wisdom of that time. But probably not from the likes of Polonius.

The idea of an authority higher than ourselves is not such a popular concept now, in part because (1) we think truth resides in ourselves and we are able to sort it out, and (2) the holier-than-thou behavior of persons/institutions who claim to be in authority has been a major turnoff.

If people through the ages trusted ourselves to do the right thing unaided, there would be no effort to codify right and wrong, as in all the faiths.

So my view is that there ARE some basic rights and wrongs, the trouble is to separate the wheat from the chaff, to understand them, an ongoing struggle. And often a complex one. One that it is good to have help with. That the process of thinking about it will yield better answers. That some things have no easy right/wrong answers. That it's complicated and one size does not fit all.

Political climate has you crazy? I think it should, if one is paying attention. If it proves to be true that this is the era before our Hitler emerges, or before our version of the fall of the Roman empire, or before climate change changes everything re the prosperity of us human beans -- well then, not-crazy-enough is the problem rather than too crazy.

I think we are under real threat if this fall's Obama/Dem win does not happen, if it gets snatched away by 3rd party, dirty tricks, or voter fraud -- all real possibilities IMO.

Like lying. We can all think of a lie that was good, principled, did way more good than harm. But the Romney lying that Rachel Maddow identified on her show yesterday does not fall into that category.

Nor does the Palin Hoax, although a die-hard fundie supporter would say "end justifies means," so it was ok to lie about this.

Ottoline

3/22/2012 02:33:31 am

Oh, Laura, my last two paragraphs are out of order, should come earlier. Please just delete the comment above and this one. I guess it's all just making me way too crazy too. Sigh.

mistah charley, ph.d.

3/22/2012 03:30:58 am

Ottoline, don't worry about whether Romney (whose nomination is now certain) will beat Obama. Maybe he will, maybe he won't; but I feel certain that the president inaugurated in January 2013 will be an honest politician - i.e. one who stays bought; and the buyers are the banksters, in either case.

3/22/2012 10:35:31 am

Mistah Charley, I'll take my bought and paid for politicians without the religious fervor.

I've been pondering whether all this craziness on the right is meant to distract the Dems, allowing the right wing to sneak something in, or to distract the Republicans so they don't notice the improving economy.

Thank you for the Tao no matter which day. A little sanity is always welcome.

Ottoline

3/23/2012 01:56:57 am

I'm still thinking the buyers are different for Obama vs the GOP candidate. I prefer Obama's, and I prefer Obama's better ability to deal with it all, not just the buyers. Vastly prefer!

ALTERNATE RENDERINGS OF CHAPTER 19 mistah charley, ph.d.

3/22/2012 03:36:23 am

Witter Bynner's poetic translation - it even rhymes:

Rid of formalized wisdom and learning
People would be a hundredfold happier,
Rid of conventionalized duty and honor
People would find their families dear,
Rid of legalized profiteering
People would have no thieves to fear.
These methods of life have failed, all three,
Here is the way, it seems to me:
Set people free,
As deep in their hearts they would like to be,
From private greeds
And wanton needs.

John Heider's interpretation:

Forget those clever techniques and self-improvement programs, and everyone will be better off.

Do not promise to cure people, to make people feel good, to make life sane or fair or humane. Do not offer programs that appeal to selfishness, programs that teach how to be rich, powerful, sexy - and greedy, paranoid, and manipulative.

No teacher can make you be happy, prosperous, healthy, or powerful. No rules or techniques can enforce these qualities.

If you wish to improve yourself, try silence or some other cleansing discipline that will gradually show you your true selfless self.

Ottoline

3/22/2012 05:13:35 am

Geez MC, have you ever heard about Total Quality Management, or Continuous Improvement? A management fad that tsunami'd over a lot of lives in the 1990s. Today's wisdom sounds like it is addressing TQM and CI -- bankrupt programs that wasted a LOT of resources. Even Dr Zhivago has a scene in which Lara's child waxes enthusiastic about CI in her communist school, as Zhivago and Lara subtly roll their eyes at each other, but dare say nothing critical.

Conscious at last!

3/22/2012 09:25:48 am

O/T (actually re: previous post here)

@ Laura and other published writers:

What are your thoughts about (and experiences with) independent publishers?

Laura Novak

3/23/2012 07:53:31 am

Ottoline, I recall when TQM was a hot topic in the late 80s. Funny you should mention that! Thank you MC for these interpretations. I like the "silence or some other cleansing discipline..." I hadn't thought of silence as such a thing, but I guess it is. I know that getting silent is better for me than trying to control everything. If I can listen, I might hear the answer (is my reasoning.)

CAL, I will try to create a post about publishing with indie publishers. I might just put it out there as a question and ask the Twitter verse to weigh in. Not sure. Let me think how to approach it. I myself didn't go to one. I just uploaded to Amazon.

For now, peaceful weekend everyone. Stay with the center and let the craziness swirl away. And with it, all the GOP candidates. :-)

Duncan

3/23/2012 12:19:53 pm

Well MC, now I'll have to drag out my my copies of LI CHI, haven't been in there for a while.

And Ottoline, as a union negotiator in the early '90s, I became quite conversant in TQM, BPI,and Winning the Future. Mutual gains was the byword. I wish there was a market for those books now.

Laura Novak

3/24/2012 05:05:28 am

Duncan, it's always a great pleasure to see you here! Thank you for weighing in.

Ottoline: my Amazon rank is now down to 40,000. Serious drop, which means more books selling. You can never tell from one day to the next what will happen. But selling is always good.

New post going up.

Ottoline

3/24/2012 06:52:50 am

I saw that! Yessssssssss! It is my opinion that you have already done better than you would have with a small publisher, or even a big publisher. My understanding is 2,000-5,000 copies sold is the best a first-timer can hope for, unless you win the word-of-mouth go-viral lottery. And I think you are a fair way farther to doing the prep work for that than if you had languished under the inattentive eye of an indie or a big traditional publisher.

Laura Novak

3/24/2012 07:09:36 am

Thanks, Ottoline. And curiously enough, I'm already down in the 30K's since I wrote that comment. I have no idea how the algorithm changes so quickly.

Yes, I am pleased with my choice of taking my own destiny into my own hands. Ten agents was enough for me. Now, my question is whether or not to print. And I'm glad that CAL has posed the question.

Thanks for weighing in. I always love your enthusiasm and intelligence.

Ottoline

3/24/2012 07:51:33 am

At this exact moment, I see you are at 34,000 on amazon!

Re print vs ebook: my thinking right now is to do both, have the profit on the paper book (POD only!) be almost zero, and the price on the ebook be v low but with a little profit. My thinking is skewed by my garden book being all-color, therefore v expensive in the paper version (because no print-it-in-China for POD, which actually I like a lot). Still, no room for profit unless the price is too high to be reasonable. The ebook is cheap, but rather than thinking I will get any money to speak of, I'd rather just get the book out. Sell more copies.

Like the old joke: A man is selling eggs on a busy street, and his brother walks by and asks what he is doing. The man says "I buy eggs for $0.10 each, wash them, put them in a carton, put this nice rubber band around each carton, and resell them for $1.20/dozen." His brother shrieks "But, but, you aren't making any money!" And the man responds "No, but I'm in BUSINESS!"

Laura Novak

3/24/2012 08:45:18 am

LOL! Thanks for the laugh. And I hope to see your book in print one day. I would buy it just b/c it's you and b/c I love white gardens (as I said about VSW) Continue on the new thread so that Conscious doesn't miss anything you say!

Windows 7 vs Windows 8 link

6/2/2013 09:03:53 pm

The poem portraits the happenings that should be followed in this world to have social equality. Normally, more privilege is given to the wealthier sections of the society compared to the poor and author is striving hard against this social evil.

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