Tao Te Thursday

3/29/2012

The gentlest thing in the world
overcomes the hardest thing in the world.
That which has no substance
enters where there is no space.
This shows the value of non-action.

Teaching without words,
performing without actions:
that is the Master's way.
Verse 43

Laura Novak

3/29/2012 03:17:21 am

Apologies for taking so long to update this. I've been putting out fires left and right, which, of course requires action. I just try to let the chaos flow over and by me.

Thank you for a great discussion on the earlier post. Feel free to keep going, OT or otherwise here.

I am off to my teaching job. I hope I telegraph as much without words as I do with words.

mistah charley, ph.d.

3/29/2012 04:33:10 am

Here is John Heider's version:

Gentle interventions, if they are clear, overcome rigid resistances.

If gentleness fails, try yielding or stepping back altogether. When the leader yields, resistances relax.

Generally speaking, the leader's consciousness sheds more light on what is happening than any number of interventions or explanations.

Few leaders realize how much how little will do.

3/29/2012 10:52:19 am

Mistah Charlie, could you shed more light on the next to last line about performing without action? I'm finding that hard to envision.

mistah charley, ph.d.

3/29/2012 11:05:24 am

With regard to "performing without action" - rather than trying to produce my own explanation, let me just add Ursula Le Guin's interpretation:

WATER AND STONE

What's softest in the world
rushes and runs
over what's hardest in the world

The immaterial
enters
the impenetrable.

So I know the good in not doing.

The worldless teaching,
the profit in not doing ---
not many people understand it.

3/29/2012 12:28:43 pm

Thank you.

Duncan Campbell

3/31/2012 01:21:46 am

You guys crack me up...

I'm not doing anything!

4/3/2012 10:55:31 pm

I don't know if any of you are readers of Andrew Sullivan, or are following his series of blog posts on Christianity. This morning's post reminded me of Verse 43

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/04/the-crisis-1.html

In it, he mentions the Franciscan dictum: "Proclaim the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words."

Does this encapsulate the lesson of Verse 43?

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Laura Novak

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