Tao Te Ching Analysis

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Many of the poems from the Tao Te Ching and the Hua Hu Jing touch on the practice of wuwei. There can actually be examples of all three, humility, compassion and frugality found with in some of them. A lot of these concepts can come across as deep and cryptic, but when you get down to it and begin to understand them and break them down, they can be summed up to the three basic teachings stated above. Chapter two of the Tao Te Ching is among the chapters that stood out to me the most. I found it challenging to work out in my mind but once I did, the outcome was satisfying to me. “As soon as beauty is known to the world as beautiful, it becomes ugly.” This open line speaks volumes about human nature. It is basically stating that once a price …show more content…
By following the Integral way, even the most barbaric can seek the truth of the universe. Chapter one’s simple yet philosophical message is one of compassion. He says those who wish to seek the truth take joy in doing the work and service that comes to them. If you do your humanitarian duties and take care of the needs of those less fortunate than yourself first, you will then find more joy in caring for yourself after. You will good about yourself and more deserving of cleansing and feeding yourself because you shared the same compassion to someone else first. After they have cleansed others and themselves, they will then return to their master for further instruction because they feel good and wish to do more good to hold onto the feeling. This is a simple path that he says will lead to peace, virtue and abundance and all by being …show more content…
This teaching calls for the practice of undiscriminating virtue. Human beings have discriminated against one another since the beginning of time. It is in our nature to look down in judgment upon those who are different. This practice says to not only take care of others before yourself, but also to take care of those who are “undeserving” before yourself. This means to take care of all people, even if they have wronged you and to turn your cheek and put aside any negative feelings if someone were to need help. This teaching would be considered a tough one to follow because of the human ability to hold grudges and harbor feeling such as hate. In order to truly be virtuous and have our feet planted on the path to the Tao, we must drop these discriminations and show compassion toward all. Of course it would take a certain amount of humility to accomplish this, one would have to let go of ego and pride. In chapter 10, the ego is compared to a monkey catapulting through the jungle, completely infatuated with all of its surroundings. The ego swings from one desire to the next and if you continue to feed it, it wants more and more. It is very true that once an ego is threatened, it fears for its life because it is prideful and easily offended. This teaching says to let go of the monkey that is the ego completely. Let it go, remain humble and replace

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