vtrader125 Posted August 2, 2015 Reading Bruce Lee's Striking Thoughts(also recently Tao te Ching), sounds great and a few ahh ha moments. But how do you actually apply the information? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fate Posted August 2, 2015 (edited) If you have internalized the wisdom and truth reflected in those works, your life should have a different quality. However, people usually can only learn what they already know or what they have come to understand from their own experiences. If you want applied philosophy, the purest philosophy in my opinion is "I know that I know nothing." That is what Socrates said, and he was the original philosopher in the West. He also refused to write anything down or have any sort of 'doctrine' because he said it discouraged inquiry. True applied philosophy is just an approach to life, one of inquiry. What is below the surface here? What is this event/emotion/person telling me? Tao te Ching also has this spirit, as it began "the name that can be named/the way that can be walked..." So walk on, see for yourself. Always keep that spirit of inquiry, always seek to understand yourself. An antithesis to your worldview will arise and you will have to integrate that, and this process continues. Wave upon wave, higher and higher. I do not think "information" is the right word at all, but I won't split hairs. Information is more like "water boils at 100 degrees" or "this is how you change your own oil." Philosophy is concerned with light, truth, and is always merely a guide post to what it is trying to explain. So look beyond the words to where they are pointing. All texts with "truths' or at least ones that resonate with your path so far are pointing to that same truth. I personally read the TTC 7 years ago and loved it, and as I reflect back on my life I see how what I absorbed was applied (i.e. not being ambitious. Decreasing what I want and what I have, etc.) There was never a conscious "applying" of the TTJ though. However I have just now come back and I see just how much more it contains, how I've gone even deeper and have more wisdom reflected by understanding more "aha" moments on a re-read. And even this post has become to complicated! To apply wisdom, "Go on, live." Keep moving. Edited August 2, 2015 by Fate 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
