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/lit/ - Literature

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9706352 No.9706352 [Reply] [Original]

I've long suspected that words can do no service to the ineffable. Feelings, insight, and spiritual notions are better left to be experienced, rather than being targeted by the gross inefficiency and loose interpretations of words. However, the Tao Te Ching quite eloquently pins down the ephemeral nature of our collective spirituality in its collection of terse, paradoxical verses. By taking multiple stabs at describing the same experiences (yet through multiple lenses), a hazy vision of the central content begins to appear.

By employing paradox, (e.g. reminders that words cannot describe what I'm currently writing), Lao Tzu highlights the complexity and beauty of a situation where one must simply trust in one's own faculty to come to grips with existence. Thankfully texts like the Tao Te Ching exist (and have for many years); they serve as reminders that there is a shared kernel amongst humankind that has and always will be there. We are together in being alone.

Several times while reading the 'scripture' I gasped at how perfectly it described experiences and sentiments that I've shared in experience. It serves as a perfect guide for accepting to live in the moment, and to be centered in one's disconnected flow of life. Given its brief profundity, yet complexity (one can always explore the depths of its paradox), this will be a text that I shall revisit at regular intervals throughout my life.

>> No.9706383

lit is really into this lately. Or its just one dude

>> No.9706445

>>9706383
I added a guy from /lit/ on Goodreads and he won't shut up about the book there either. Probably the same bloke.

>> No.9706470

>>9706352
>I've long suspected that words can do no service to the ineffable
Damn, it's a rare treat to find a tautology so pure.

>> No.9706680

>>9706352
So, I should just be a pushover and lay down and do nothing? At least Lao Cucktzu thinks I'm a good person!

>> No.9706685
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9706685

>>9706470
Rekt

>> No.9706714
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9706714

>>9706352
>Knowing ignorance is strength.
>Ignoring knowledge is sickness.
>If one is sick of sickness, then one is not sick.
>The sage is not sick because he is sick of sickness.
>Therefore he is not sick.

>> No.9706761

>However, the Tao Te Ching quite eloquently pins down the ephemeral nature of our collective spirituality in its collection of terse, paradoxical verses.
Actually it's a historically determinate text with no fixed meaning whose interpretation has not been consistent over time and whose content is most sensible to people who understand classical Chinese. Taoism has more than one sacred text and roots in Chinese folk religions that have origins independent of Laozi.
Why do people make wordy posts about how deep the Tao Te Ching is?

>> No.9706813

>>9706714
To understand yet not understand is transcendence
not to understand yet understand
is affliction
the reason the sage is not afflicted is because he treats affliction as affliction
hence he is not afflicted

>> No.9706908

>>9706383
It's not just one dude. I posted a thread about it maybe a week or so ago. All the other Tao Te Ching threads might be the same guy though.

>> No.9706919

>>9706352
>one million year old pills lmao

>> No.9707042

>>9706352

hah just thought of something


Tao The Chink

>> No.9707500

>>9706352
The Manchus turned the Dao De Jing and Zhuangzi into a meme, which most newcomers still stuggle to distance themselfes from.
Nevermind that Daoism is a complex tradition of meditative mysticism and religious ritual with a clear defined cosmology, just be a docile vegetable and contemplate these obscure tales.