What Would The Sage Do?

[goldisheavy]

I think it would be nice if we kept a chain like this up so that we can take a whack at actual real life situations, applying the concepts of the Tao. Please feel free to comment on this situation or add one of your own to the mix.

 

 

Situation 1: The Sage's mother is losing it from Alzheimer's and her mother has been the family trustee forever. It was taken out of the Sage's mother's hands by the Sage's brother most recently, a good qualified fellow and an attorney to boot who handled the legalities himself. The Sage was a little baffled that the brother didn't tell the Sage that he was doing this, although the Sage had previously moved out of state and away from the whole friggin situation. Now the Sage notices that the brother is getting a bit cocky and incommunicative about financial things involving the trust, but the Sage is awfully far away and really isn't in a position to do anything effective anyway. Kind and gentle friends, What Would The Sage Do?

 

All the Sages are unique individuals and there is no guarantee whatsoever that they'll all do the same thing. I'm afraid there is no such thing as a Sage personality template.

[Aaron]

All the Sages are unique individuals and there is no guarantee whatsoever that they'll all do the same thing. I'm afraid there is no such thing as a Sage personality template.

 

 

I've never actually believed that the Sages existed quite as people tend to believe, rather I see them more as Archetypal figures that Lao Tzu presents as an example of Tao in practice. Much like Jesus is viewed by Christians and Buddha is to Buddhists.

 

Aaron

[Otis]

That's an interesting take on the situation. It wasn't a very good situation, after all. I think there's something to this idea of WWTSD?, but I think the questions need to be more complicated. I never realized how difficult it is to come up with something out of thin air (like the above spider thing). Apparently I don't have that kind of imagination that 'creates' scenarios, like a book. It's really hard to squeeze an original scenario out. Not much of a manifester, I guess!

 

Actually, I'm not sure the sage would be arachnophibic (sp?) anyway. If a true sage is in harmony with nature would he still have an irrational fear of spiders? I don't know, maybe he would. But if the sage were afraid of spiders, your meditation idea would either kill him or cure him. Actually, I think that's the way I'd do it too - grab the bull by the horns.

Well, I figured the title of the game couldn't be taken too literally. I couldn't tell you what an enlightened person would do, because how the hell would I know?

 

But what I can do (and what I figured you were asking for) is give my most enlightened answer. That's the best I've got, anyway.

 

In that case, the sage is just a substitute for "me", and there's no reason I couldn't be arachnophobic.

 

I think it was a good situation, because (among other things) it plays with some mental assumptions as to what an enlightened person would do (would he have phobias, would he kill bugs)? I think it's good to approach these questions from our guts, rather than just provide hearsay (academic) answers.

[manitou]

They're almost koan-like.

 

I agree that we wouldn't know what the Sage would do, but I do figure there's a Sage living inside all of us, even if it's still covered up. I really don't see anything wrong with guessing What The Sage Would Do because it's a comparison on everyone's take on Right Action.