Collection of favorite Taoist sayings, fables, stories, etc

[ViscountValmont]

I would just like to start an archive of everyone's favorite sayings and so forth, as well as accompanying discussions and interpretations of them, how the lessons are applied to life, and why they're particularly your favorites. I apologize if there is already such a thread, and this may be merged with it, if so.

 

One of my favorites is this story by Lieh Tzu-

 

On the way to Song, Yang meets a man at the town of Ni. The man has two wives, one is very attractive and the other one is quite plain. But the man favors the not so attractive one.

So Yang asks him why. The man answers:"The pretty one knows she is pretty. I don't. The plain one knows she is plain. I don't. A bad person knows he is bad. I don't."

Yang says:"I will remember what you just said. The Saint behaves as a Saint, by his own volition."

 

 

 

How does everyone see this?

 

 

 

I also very much like the painting, The Vinegar Tasters. It perfectly shows how Tao's approach is starkly different to the other school's of thought.

[Daeluin]

On the way to Song, Yang meets a man at the town of Ni. The man has two wives, one is very attractive and the other one is quite plain. But the man favors the not so attractive one.

So Yang asks him why. The man answers:"The pretty one knows she is pretty. I don't. The plain one knows she is plain. I don't. A bad person knows he is bad. I don't."

Yang says:"I will remember what you just said. The Saint behaves as a Saint, by his own volition."

 

 

 

How does everyone see this?

 

This reminds me of "not daring to be ahead of anything else" and "what is cast down must first be raised up", two of my favorite concepts of the tao te ching, which are applied in behaving like water, voluntarily flowing to the lowest places.

 

"When the whole is divided, parts need names."

 

When labels are bestowed, polarity is branded. Pretty and plain. What identifies as pretty has something to defend and maintain. What identifies as plain needs defend no title. The Saint who identifies as a Saint is not a Saint.

 

The main message I see in all this, is that when one cultivates, one changes and refines. As one's virtue, beauty, skill, power, etc, become greater, to acknowledge this change is to raise something up and to have something to defend. When something must be defended, it is difficult for it to continue to grow.

 

"Where sincerity is, the way is open."

 

Thus the Sage places sincerity on being humble, compassionate, frugal, and not daring to be ahead. Thus the Sage dissolves any hint of identified value - the fire always being brought down to merge with the water - and thus sincerity forever placed low, growth is without limit.

 

 

I also very much like the painting, The Vinegar Tasters. It perfectly shows how Tao's approach is starkly different to the other school's of thought.

Indeed, why should suffering not be embraced as part of the whole? What part of the whole is not beautiful? What is ugly that is not also beautiful? They have the same root. What point in labeling pieces of the whole?

[Marblehead]

Nice thread. I'll participate once I catch up with my life. It got way ahead of me.

[soaring crane]

I'm thinking the OP of this thread should be given an irony award

[Basher]

Question: What is Irony ?

Answer: Iron.