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This is the start of "de," or virtue, which is what the second half of the book is called. Sometimes its the first half - but usually the second.
My subconscious planned on reading this before letting me know, and it gave me thoughts about Virtue this morning, which I recorded in this note :
Is the Virtuous necessarily Harmonious?
Or does the Harmonious flow from the Virtuous?
No... The Harmonious gives rise to Virtue.
The harmonious is neither Yes nor No ;
Neither Taking nor Giving ;
Its flow.
Virtue, then, must be when Flow gives rise to Excess.
Thus, Virtue is fecund, excessive, trim and fat.
It cannot be moderate.
It cannot be measured.
It cannot be lukewarm.
It cannot be bland.
Nothing could be less stable than the thing which tries to be.
Throughput, bandwidth, transmission, and mobility are the Virtue that can be measured.
But the Thing Itself?
Virtue that's only Virtue?
The immaterial gives rise to the material.
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Not too bad, if I say so myself... and I do...
I posited Virtue resting upon Harmony - Laozi puts the Dao in the place I put Harmony. Maybe they're the same. I don't see them as the same... but maybe. As I see it, the Dao is equivalent to the Christian "holy spirit," and if the Dao felt capricious one day, it could cause the fundamental physical laws to change, causing the universe to dissolve and immediately reappear... Who knows, maybe this happens, maybe there's a shutter rate to existence. But I digress... Harmony is a step above Dao because Harmony is the moving equilibrium between phenomena.
So... Another thought... Maybe Harmony and Virtue are a Gemini. They're not physical laws, so they need not be polarities... Perhaps I can find more by digging into the two pillars of Solomon's temple, or the two Johns, or the two Marys... There are lots of conspicuous twins out there. Just a thought - no assertions.
I like how Laozi builds levels up from the Dao.
Dao -> Virtue -> Benevolence -> Righteousness -> Ritual
Each level loses something of the previous level, ending in empty meaningless ritual. Ritual certainly can be meaningful, if done in accordance with every level before it. But I think most ritual is meaningless.
If you lose the Dao, you may still continue on, like a spinning top in motion, in Virtue. But lacking Dao, your virtue can't sustain itself, and degrades into benevolence, which certainly isn't bad, but it can't be called virtuous without proper accordance. And benevolence without virtue corrupts into righteousness, or correctness in law but not in spirit. Righteousness for its own sake, putting benevolence in second place to itself, then becomes cruelty. Then, all that's left, if anything, is ritual - and you're doing the ritual without understanding, so its "idolatry" in the original Christian sense.
Look at the Christian Orthodox "church," for example. Its really a perfect example of how an organization can lose its way. The real church, the spiritual church, the body of Christ, existed for 300 years before that church was founded. From the start, it (the EO) pursued righteousness - correctness in the law - and quickly sacrificed benevolence, as their persecution of sects attests. It rapidly fell into cruelty, while aggressively pursuing righteousness. Now what's left? Empty rituals. They'll say the ritual of the Eucharist is what makes you a Christian, while in the same breath calling people derogatory names. They have exactly zero understanding. Test them - say something you know they'll disagree with and see how they respond. Their hearts come through their mouths. It is pure vile wickedness. Well... My point was how you can see Laozi's words in action.
Consider these Gospel verses and see how they compare with Laozi's words :
#Philosophy #daoism #taoism
#god #spirituality #meditation (s)