Re: CHAT: Tao Te Ching translations (long-ish ;)

>From: John Cowan <jcowan@...>
>>Andy Canivet scripsit:
>
> > Of course, I think my favorite is #65...
>
>Le Guin's comment:
>
>Where shall we find a rule wise enough to know what to teach and what
>to withhold?  "Once upon a time", maybe, in the days of myth and legend,
>as a pattern, a model, an ideal?
>
>The knowledge and the ignorance or unknowing Lao Tzu speaks of may or
>may not refer to what we think of as education.  In the last stanza,
>by power he evidently does not mean political power at all, but something
>vastly different, a unity with the power of the Tao itself.
>
>This is a _mystical_ statement about _government_ -- and in our minds
>those two realms are worlds apart.  I cannot make the leap between them.
>I can only ponder it.
>
>Le Guin's further comment:
>
>A dictator and his censors migth all too easily cite from this chapter.
>A democrat might agree that the more people know, the harder they are
>for a ruler to govern -- since the more they know, the better they are
>at governing themselves.  Anyone might agree that an intellectual
>agenda pursued without reality-checking is indeed a curse on the land.
>From the divine right of kings through the deadly teachings of Hitler
>and Mao to the mumbojumbo of economists, government by theory has done
>endless ill.  But why is Lao Tzu's alternative to it a people kept in
>ignorance?  Ignorance of what?  Lao Tzu may be signalling us to ask such
>questions when he speaks of "understanding these things".
Interesting....  I think she hits the nail on the head right at the end
there.  I think the idea of "ignorance," "not-knowing," or "beginners mind"
in the Taoist sense is pretty much like what Socrates meant when he said "I
am wise because I know that I don't know" and "Wisdom begins in Wonder" - we
can only learn new things and see the world as it is if we are willing to
give up our assumptions and begin asking honest questions of the world
without expecting any answers that we can put into words.  Lao Tzu's
ignorance is the constant reminding of oneself that whatever one thinks one
knows, the real truth is far more - that once we settle into belief, we have
lost possibility.  This is wisdom.

>
>For the record, my favorite chapter is 20.
>
Yes - 20 is another good one!  The first line of the Mitchell - "Stop
thinking, and end your problems."   I know from personal experience that
over-thinking can often be a bad thing.

Andy


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