Sunday, October 11, 2009

Tao te Ching: 34

The Great Tao flows everywhere.
It may go left or right.
All things depend on it for life, and it does not turn away
from them.
It accomplishes its task, but does not claim credit for it.
It clothes and feeds all things but does not claim to be
master over them.
Always without desires, it may be called The Small.
All things come to it and it does not master them;
it may be called The Great.
Therefore (the sage) never strives himself for the great, and
thereby the great is achieved.
 This goes back to chapter 10 very soundly when we think of The Great. Finally we have a word, or at least a concept, for nurturing all things but not mastering them as a good parent ideally should. The small goes back further, to chapter 2.

I wonder how many times "the great" from the last lines have been interpreted to mean not the nurturing without ruling, but actually whatever great goal of society was important at that time.

"Let us all do our thing, and this magnificent thing will come from it," they might say. It sounds like reaching to me.

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