#we just process information without regard for provenance because we are finite creatures with finite attention | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

kaurwreck · 17 days ago

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Paradoxes Nothing in the world is as soft, as weak, as water; nothing else can wear away the hard, the strong, and remain unaltered. Soft overcomes hard, weak overcomes strong. Everybody knows it, nobody uses the knowledge. So the wise say: By bearing common defilements you become a sacrificer at the altar of earth; by bearing common evils you become a lord of the world. Right words sound wrong. [Ch. 78 of Tao Te Ching, ascribed to Lao Tzu; English version by Ursual K. Le Guin]

I'm water like how raging rivers are water, so I also find solace and praxis in Ch. 63 (excerpted from the same English version as above):

Consider Beginnings Do without doing. Act without action. Savor the flavorless. Treat the small as large, the few as many. Meet injury with the power of goodness. Study the hard while it's easy. Do big things while they're small. The hardest jobs in the world start out easy, the great affairs of the world start small. So the wise soul, by never dealing with great things, gets great things done. Now, since taking things too lightly makes them worthless, and taking things too easy makes them hard, the wise soul, by treating the easy as hard, doesn't find anything hard.

I'd recommend the entire Tao Te Ching, actually, for self cultivating mettle, but if nothing else, the above is presently, as ever, salient.

If you'd like something more literally applicable, however —

Living With Change When the government's dull and confused, the people are placid. When the government's sharp and keen, the people are discontented. Alas! misery lies under happiness, and happiness sits on misery, alas! Who knows where it will end? Nothing is certain. The normal changes into the monstrous, the fortunate into the unfortunate, and our bewilderment goes on and on. And so the wise shape without cutting, square without sawing, true without forcing. They are the light that does not shine.

(In other words, according to Ursula K. Le Guin's footnote to the above Ch. 58, Taoists gain their ends without the use of means.)

I won't promise it'll be okay, regardless of what happens over the next few days, but I can promise the outcome is navigable.

#tao te ching #idk if it's ever really helpful to just post excerpts of works like the tao te ching #especially in non native languages #like the chapters make more sense when read together and when used to elucidate each other #which requires great footnotes to catch where phrases are terms of art if you're reading in a language other than literary chinese #and even then like.#it helps to know the context of its compilation and arrangement (which is likely v different from its original form)#and if you're western you need to dissect your cultural backbone to identify and recognize inapplicable foundations #if you haven't already. otherwise you're going to hit walls with eastern philosophy like you wouldn't believe.#i was raised in a multicultural east meets west framework and I studied western civ & politics extensively #and it was still a massive lift to scrape the surface of enough china culture & philosophy to feel capable of interpreting my danmei faves #and even then it's like a fraction of comprehension #I'm not arrogant or silly enough to think I could ever like sparknotes thousands of years of cultural history the vast majority of which #I'm not capable of accessing at all #i don't have to feel this way about aristotle because so much of my world is built on his thought and theory and research #that like. my comprehension is involuntarily. his bonemeal is mixed into the concrete forming my existential foundation.#so much of what we think is innate is learned #we just process information without regard for provenance because we are finite creatures with finite attention #all of which is to say #this feels gaudy and shallow and like i'm conflating a smear of fat with the whole boar #but i'm not qualified to teach most of the shit i'm learning from so I just sprinkle enough that those who might similarly enjoy themselves #or find grit and meaning in similar or the same kinds of things as me #can latch onto what catches their eye #and do with it what they will #me and mine. i will do my silly little firm tasks that I've been putting off.#i will take a shower and reread the tao te ching.#i will read a chapter of frankenstein.#i will wake up tomorrow and continue to yearn and think and wonder #while tending to my survival and performing my obligations and conducting the petty rituals that afford me a life i can live with #the means may change but the end won't.

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