/lit/ - Literature

>>13776948

Hahaha fucking retards

You know the way

>>10333668
dumb gweilo

>being inflexible is being a man
Not that is being autistic

>think

But, in all seriousness. It's excellent. I've naturally gotten to reread the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi over and over again because they always finds a way help with the mental hurdles I'm habituated to getting into. It's amazingly helpful if you can get into it.

It (as does Ruism too, to an extent) also possesses a materialism which is sorely lacking in most other schools of thought, even the highest ones. It's the only one that is concerned with *how* we manage to do things, and not simply the correct way to do them. It's the only one (aside from Animism or Shinto) that doesn't consider humans to be something alien to animals or other nonhuman things; so it feels like the other side of the coin from the Judeo-Christian, Indo-Iranian and Graeco-Roman traditions, retaining features of precivilized humanity that those didn't retain (though this is the case all around East Asia). Its way of being above life by not being above life, of not having problems by being open to problems, is fantastic.

Making yourself hard to understand isn't difficult
Making yourself simple to understand isn't easy
Those with something to tell say nothing
Those with nothing to tell say something

>>9903512
bitch ass nigga

>>9841398
Force and counter-force are one phenomenon, therefore the way to order is not to use force and to strive to be flexible; Nature's way is one of non-striving. But that's just the very basics, and it really won't give you a sense of the implications. The Zhuangzi is more prosaic and is full on parables on various themes. The Laozi is poetic and expository. It's also necessary to understand it in its context among other Chinese schools of thought, such as the school of names (exemplified by Huizi in the Zhuangzi) or ruism (Conficius et al), since many of the arguments put forth are answers or compliments to these schools. Lastly, the texts themselves aren't the work of single authors so one should take them with a grain of salt (although that isn't against daoism exactly).

>>9718935
>mfw all this problem is already solved but the solution implies there being no imperative to the solution
Say Anon, do you want to live an ideal life? It's up to you, really, you just need this one easy trick.

>>9704249
That's how you know you've reached the apex.

>>9683957
>he thinks he understands tao

>>9031371
it's like pottery

>>9024907
>Why do anything if you're satisfied?
Is the sea hungry? Are the clouds afraid?

>Now I have come to a conclusion: action as identity always entails sacrifice and idol worship.
Practice non-action.
Work without doing.
Taste the tasteless.
Magnify the small, increase the few.
Reward the bitterness with care.

See simplicity in the complicated.
Achieve greatness in little things.

In the universe the difficult things are done as if they are easy.
In the universe great acts are made up of small deeds.
The sage does not attempt anything very big,
And thus achieves greatness.

Easy promises make for little trust.
Taking things lightly results in great difficulty.
Because the sage always confronts difficulties,
He never experiences them.

>>8728352
Great wisdom is like silence: One can listen to it a lot, yet take no heed... wouldn't you say?

If you speak you don't get It.

>>8421388

>Sure thing. Suck me off, cunt.

You are having a sperg aneurysm right now and this new angry wall of text is only further proof.

Literally stop posting any time.

>looking for the definite in the infinite
>looking for the limitless in the limited
>looking for the uncoditional in the conditioned

>>8250759
>He doesn't understand that greatest depth is non-depth.
People taking Taoism literally is what's wrong with Modern Taoism™. If you wanna be a stiff book licker and hang up on words go read King Kong.

>Implying you can develop, dissolve or destroy nothing.

>>8142318

You're never too old to start, m8.

The important thing is that you're reading.

A man is born gentle and weak
At his death he is hard and stiff
Green plants are tender and filled with sap
At their death they are withered and dry

Therefore the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death
The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life

Thus an army without flexibility never wins a battle
A tree that is unbending is easily broken

The hard and strong will fall
The soft and weak will overcome

Shouldn't we ask who are our "bottom" three philosophers, given they would be the foundation, the basis of our ways of life?