Wednesday, April 07, 2004

For anyone who actually ran across my link

on The Insight, here's a little Eastern Religion for you. As I say, by way of taking a few deep breaths.

The Sarangama Sutra feels a little heavy to me at the moment, so I'll give you a little of Laotse's Tao Te Ching, The Book of Changes.

XLVIII. CONQUERING THE WORLD BY INACTION

The student of knowledge (aims at) learning day by day;
The student of Tao (aims at) losing day by day.
By continual losing
One reaches doing nothing (laissez-faire).
By doing nothing everything is done.
He who conquers the world often does so by doing nothing [By moral influence].
When one is compelled to do something [By ordering people about],
The world is already beyond his conquering.

The translation, in case you forgot, is by Lin Yutang. I've put the footnotes in brackets. Everything else is as he published it in The Wisdom of India and China.

XLII. THE VIOLENT MAN

Out of Tao, One is born;
Out of One, Two;
Out of Two, Three;
Out of Three, the created universe.
The created universe carries the yin at its back and the yang in front;
Through the union of the pervading principles it reaches harmony.

To be "orphaned," "lonely" and "unworthy" is what men hate most.
Yet the kings and dukes call themselves by such names.
For sometimes things are benefited by being taken away from,
And suffer by being added to.

Others have taught this maxim,
Which I shall teach also:
"The violent man shall die a violent death."
This I shall regard as my spiritual teacher.

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