Three: 1
Jonathan Star
Putting a value on status
Will cause people to compete
Hoarding treasure
Will turn them into thieves
Showing off possessions
Will disturb their daily lives
D C Lao
Not to honor men of worth will keep the people from contention;
Not to value goods which are hard to come by will keep them from theft;
Not to display what is desirable will keep them from being unsettled of mind.
Lok Sang Ho
The wise ruler treats able men
The same as he would treat others.
In so doing he avoids strife.
He plays down precious goods.
In so doing he discourages thieves.
He makes an effort to stem the emergence of objects of desire.
In so doing he ensures that his citizen's minds
Will not be thrown into disarray.
Commentary
Here Lao Tzu as the sage is instructing the wise ruler how to govern in accordance with the Tao. The key again is the recognition of duality as unity – one gives rise to the other. The key is to realize that duality manifests as ends of a continuum which flow outward one towards the other, the two exists as an inseparable union and unity.
The starting point is the mind's recognition of a thing. Then it is the mind's evaluation of that thing. Out of this act of evaluation stems the potential for divisiveness. Only when one end of the continuum is labeled as having more worth than the other does contention arise. Putting to much worth on one end of the continuum creates strife.
By focusing on the extreme ends one fails to recognize the flow of the journey between the two. Contentment and wisdom is found in the harmony of the flow in between the two end points.
Wisdom is found not solely in knowledge.
Better is not the same as Best. Better is a direction, a journey, a goal. Best is a fiction that leads to strife.
Beauty resides everywhere. Wisdom resides everywhere. Truth resides everywhere. Goodness resides everywhere.
It is only folly and foolishness to declare that "Only this is good." Or "Only this is beautiful." Or "Only this is true." The folly is the statement: "Only this…"
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Comments: 4
It is as though such truths are always timely. Your wisdom is greatly appreciated.
I agree with all you have stated so far. But I suspect that we may diverge some soon based upon my communications with other TAOists that see everything as either duality and unity where the dualists are those of ego and the 'enlightened' see themselves as of the unity ... yet they seem to have much conflict that denies such claimed unity.
I see the way to involve a trinity in order to understand all of the other that is but parts of that trinity of understanding because unity just is ... within unity there would be no conflict, we are not there yet ... and will never be in part only ... it will be all or nothing.
(+=-)=:-)
(+/-)=:-(
I don't understand, why must it be "it will be all or nothing"?
That all or nothing logic is a flawed and limiting logic and is not the only possibility. Which is the whole point of Taoism and Alfred Korzybski's Non-Aristotelian logic system.
I for one see Taoism as pointing towards duality as a form of manifestation, unity as an expression of human attempted to go beyond the conceived duality.
Taoism says it is both and neither. A dynamic flow that once you try to conceptualize it, one has artificially created a staticness.