Tao Te Thursday

4/5/2012

For governing a country well, there is nothing better than moderation.

The mark of a moderate man is freedom from his own ideas.
Tolerant like the sky, all-pervading like sunlight, firm like a mountain,
supple like a tree in the wind, he has no destination in view and makes
use of anything life happens to bring his way.

Nothing is impossible for him. Because he has let go, he can care for the people's welfare as a mother cares for her child. Verse 59

Laura Novak

4/5/2012 12:55:30 am

I tried to put this post up yesterday, but our Intertubes just bail on us whenever they want to and I could not make it work. This comment box is pretty messed up looking now as well. Well, at any rate, all this Today show stuff as me appreciating the Zen Master we have at our helm. He is free from his own ideas and can therefore analyze and assess what he believes is best for the nation. I appreciate that. I hope this comment section works for everyone. Looks very strange on my computer.

mistah charley, ph.d.

4/5/2012 01:13:20 am

John Heider's interpretation:

Whether you are leading a group or going about your daily life, you need to be conscious.
You need to be aware of what is happening and how things happen. If you are aware of what is happening and how things happen, you can act accordingly. You can stay clear of trouble, and be both vital and effective.

Remember that you too are a natural process. Being aware of how things happen includes being aware of yourself. Your life unfolds according to the same principle that governs every other unfolding. You are rooted in the common ground of all creation.

Being like everything else means that you are ordinary. But consciously knowing that you are like everything else is extraordinary. And knowing how that universality works and having the sense to act accordingly is the source of your power, your endurance, and your excellence.

Consciousness or awareness, then, is the source of your ability. Learn to become increasingly conscious.

[end of text from Heider]

Witter Bynner goes for the rhyme:

To lead men and serve heaven, weigh the worth
Of the one source:
Use the single force
Which doubles the strength of the strong
By enabling man to go right, disabling him to go wrong,
Be so charged with the nature of life that you give your people birth,
That you mother your land, are the fit
And ever-living root of it:
The seeing root, whose eye is infinite.

[end of text from Bynner]

Rolando link

4/5/2012 01:33:57 am

This is a very interesting quote. Being anchored to a specific set of ideas can become a problem when reality changes and the ideas are no longer good to implement. A leader must be above all flexible and practical. However, there seems to be a portion of the population of our country which has elevated both right and left wing ideology to a form of virtue. These people vociferously denounce any deviation from these ideas and even require pledges from their leaders that they will not compromise on these ideas. This seems to me like a recipe for disaster, especially in a world that is changing so fast as ours.

Laura Novak

4/5/2012 02:42:50 am

Rolando, it's always such a treat to see you here. You and MC have a lot of brain power in common!! Your individual intelligence reminds me of each of you (did you understand that?)

I agree that the polarity has become almost unfixable in addition to being inflexible. The tension is so ratcheted up right now, it's a miracle anyone can see the forest for the trees.

I have a friend who came to dinner one night. Under the influence she began arguing hard with someone else about Rachel Maddow...about how much she hated her and KO, about how shrill they are and adamant and furious. The other person started to get into it from the other side, eviscerating Rush et al. until I had to get between them. They both had their points. The pedantic, strident behavior occurs on both sides. Now, I fully admit to being in one camp, but I heard for the first time that night how an intelligent, gracious woman was so infuriated by the left-wing mouth pieces. I had to hear what she said. I might agree with their outrage, but I've thought of it a few times since.

V-A

4/5/2012 06:30:21 am

Interesting comments, Laura and Rolando. I think of Hillary Clinton, and how she has won me back by the hard, quiet, thankless work she's doing as Secretary of State. And from left field, I think of the book I mentioned in the last post, about OJ being innocent. This world is so fluid that we cling to our beliefs as if they are rocks. The older I get, the harder it is to name something true.

4/5/2012 07:05:46 am

What is entirely true? Truth differs based on one's viewpoint. One of my favorite X-Files was Jose Chung's From Out of Space, which dealt with this issue, showing the same occurrences from the viewpoints of each character.

v-a

4/5/2012 08:15:46 am

UP--- you may be right. I cling to the idea that some things are true, across all boundaries. Incest is wrong. Men and Women are Different. Children deserve to be loved. Pastured eggs taste better than factory eggs. Some people are not cut out for political office.

from above: "Being like everything else means that you are ordinary. But consciously knowing that you are like everything else is extraordinary."

In being like everything else, that's where I look for what's true.

Laura Novak

4/5/2012 08:59:23 am

I love the way you think, V-A. You always expand my mind and either challenge me to think further, or you offer me clarity on a topic. Same for you, Up...well, for ALL of you!

I would like to think that we also, too, hold some truths to be self-evident. But then those truths have to be wrapped in a flag lately, or they have to have a counter balance of the other side not believing enough in it. As John Stewart said: it must be exhausting having to think that way all the time.

I did see that article on the Daily Mail about the OJ son. Wouldn't any parent take a bullet for their child? But what was the boy's motivation? Was HE the one watching RG get a hum job from his mom while he hid outside in the bushes looking in? What about phone records, blood matches? It was all such a bad nightmare. The words Cato Catelin (sp?) had finally been replaced in my head by Levi Johnston. And now this!

I was pregnant and on serious bed rest during that trial. I remember a lot, but not all of the details. I swore I was going to name my baby either Criminalist Fong or Criminalist Mazzola depending on the baby's sex. :-)

Ottoline

4/7/2012 02:00:42 am

My main take on today's lesson is that our past leaders have NOT felt themselves to be ordinary in a humble sense.

I think of this as I am reading the review of two books in the NYT,

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/books/review/zbigniew-brzezinski-and-robert-kagan-on-the-state-of-america.html

in which the reviewer says: " As you’d expect, there are big differences between the two [books]. Kagan barely mentions the Iraq war in “The World America Made,” and certainly feels no need to explain his past enthusiasm for a decision that many now regard as a calamity. By contrast, Brzezinski is scathing in “Strategic Vision,” judging Iraq “a costly diversion” from the fight against Al Qaeda. The war, he says, was justified by dubious claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that “evaporated altogether within a few months” and that sapped America’s international standing. "

To my mind, I see the wars as huge successes for those who wanted them, the war profiteers. Otherwise, why would they have gone on for so long? ("a costly diversion" -- right, one that is intended to line a few pockets.) And there's no denying the results: dramatic redistribution of American wealth away from the middle class (due to other factors as well, of course), so that few disagree with the 1% / 99% shorthand terms.

No, I think it was a conscious effort for our past leaders to think that a few people are way better than the rest of us and deserve the best: wealth, health care, education, services, a favorable SCOTUS. The rest of us can do without, or with far less of everything (incl contraceptives and civil rights for women and people who are "not like us."). The deaths of military people, the decline of the U.S. reputation in the world, the obscene profiteering -- not really a problem for those who made it happen.

I don't understand why this is not discussed more. Oh, right, I forgot: they have the MSM buttoned up, too, and fill the pages with celebrity news. Just like in Farenheit 451.

4/7/2012 09:57:03 pm

i was thinking of this today too, for a different reason. The public radio show Living on Earth this week had a segment on veterinary use of antibiotics, and mentioned how the EU addresses the issue differently. It seems the concept of "US is #1" can be used as a tool to protect interests. If we are constantly reminded that we unquestionably are the best at everything, we are less likely to consider alternative viewpoints. The oil industry seems to have done this quite well, allowing the GOP to paint alternative energy sources as un-American.

Happy Sunday!

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Laura Novak

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