Approach to Life

[manitou]

Fellow bums,

I have The Importance of Living by Lin Yutang, written in 1937. Most everyone here will know Lin Yutang was a well-known Tao translator, and a prolific writer. This is the most endearing and engaging philosophical book, and I would like to share some of its contents with you. He seems to have the Tao philosophy intervowen into his thoughts and his humor. - Manitou

 

APPROACH TO LIFE (PAGE 1)

 

"The Chinese philosopher is one who dreams with one eye open, who views life with love and sweet irony, who mixes his cynicism with a kindly tolerance, and who alternately wakes up from life's dream and then nods again, feeling more alive when he is dreaming than when he is awake, thereby investing his waking life with a dream-world quality. He sees with one eye closed and with one eye opened the futility of much that goes on around him and of his own endeavors, but barely retains enough sense of reality to determine to go through with it. He is seldom disillusioned because he has no illusions, and seldom disappointed because he never had extravagant hopes. In this way his spirit is emancipated.

For, after surveying the field of Chinese literature and philosophy, I come to the conclusion that the highest ideal of Chinese culture has always been a man with a sense of detachment (takuan) toward life based on a sense of wise disenchantment. From this detachment comes high mindedness, a high mindedness which enables one to go through life with tolerant irony and escape the temptations of fame and wealth and achievement, and eventually makes him take what comes. And from this detachment arise also his sense of freedom, his love of vagabondange and his pride and nonchalance. It is only with this sense of freedom and nonchalance that one eventually arrives at the keen and intense joy of living.

It is useless for me to say whether my philosophy is valid or not for the Westerner. To understand Western life, one would have to look at it as a Westerner born, with his own temperament, his bodily attitudes and his own set of nerves. I have no doubt that American nerves can stand a good many things that Chinese nerves cannot stand, and vice versa. It is good that it should be so - that we should all be born different. and yet it is all a question of relativity. I am quite sure that amidst the hustle and bustle of American life, there is a great deal of wistfulness, of the divine desire to lie on a plot of grass under tall beautiful trees of an idle afternoon and just do nothing. The necessity for such common cries as "Wake up and live" is to me a good sign that a wise portion of American humanity prefer to dream the hours away. The American is after all not as bad as all that. It is only a question whether he will have more or less of that sort of thing, and how he will arrange to make it possible. Perhaps the American is merely ashamed of the word "loafing" in a world where everybody is doing something, but somehow, as sure as I know he is also an animal, he likes sometimes to have his muscles relaxed, to stretch on the sand, or to lie still with one leg comfortably curled up and one arm placed below his head as his pillow. If so, he cannot be very different from Yen Huei, who had exactly that virtue and whom Confucius desperately admired among all his disciples. The only thing I desire to see is that he be honmest about it, and that he proclaim to the world that he likes it when he likes it, that it is not when he is working in the office but when he is lying idly on the sand that his soul utters, "Life is beautiful."

[3bob]

 

Edited November 2, 2010 by 3bob

[strawdog65]

 

 

 

"The Chinese philosopher is one who dreams with one eye open, who views life with love and sweet irony, who mixes his cynicism with a kindly tolerance, and who alternately wakes up from life's dream and then nods again, feeling more alive when he is dreaming than when he is awake, thereby investing his waking life with a dream-world quality. He sees with one eye closed and with one eye opened the futility of much that goes on around him and of his own endeavors, but barely retains enough sense of reality to determine to go through with it. He is seldom disillusioned because he has no illusions, and seldom disappointed because he never had extravagant hopes. In this way his spirit is emancipated.

 

And from this detachment arise also his sense of freedom, his love of vagabondange and his pride and nonchalance. It is only with this sense of freedom and nonchalance that one eventually arrives at the keen and intense joy of living.

 

 

 

Hi Manitou!

 

This is great stuff!

We live in such a cynical world, kindly tolerance generated by a high

minded approach to life would be considered foolish to many people.

But to me, Sometimes, being seen as the fool is better.

 

Detachment from the world of 100,000 things, impartiality of judgment

concerning all things coming to pass, a life without expectation....

all things that not only make life simple and more enjoyable but

show our true nature as part of the same.

 

Contentment is to be found in every moment... especially when

we remove the judgment and expectation for this moment to be

anything other than what it is.

 

Peace!

[manitou]

But to me, Sometimes, being seen as the fool is better.

 

 

And being willing to be seen as the fool is freedom. It takes courage to be a high minded fool.

[Marblehead]

"Life is beautiful."

 

Totally agree. I have nothing to say at the moment; just wanted to let you know that I am reading the thread.