| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Tao Teh King by Lao-tze: Would selfish ends and many lusts eschew.
20. 1. When we renounce learning we have no troubles.
The (ready) 'yes,' and (flattering) 'yea;'--
Small is the difference they display.
But mark their issues, good and ill;--
What space the gulf between shall fill?
What all men fear is indeed to be feared; but how wide and without end
is the range of questions (asking to be discussed)!
2. The multitude of men look satisfied and pleased; as if enjoying a
full banquet, as if mounted on a tower in spring. I alone seem
listless and still, my desires having as yet given no indication of
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tao Teh King by Lao-tze: 57. 1. A state may be ruled by (measures of) correction; weapons of
war may be used with crafty dexterity; (but) the kingdom is made one's
own (only) by freedom from action and purpose.
2. How do I know that it is so? By these facts:--In the kingdom the
multiplication of prohibitive enactments increases the poverty of the
people; the more implements to add to their profit that the people
have, the greater disorder is there in the state and clan; the more
acts of crafty dexterity that men possess, the more do strange
contrivances appear; the more display there is of legislation, the
more thieves and robbers there are.
3. Therefore a sage has said, 'I will do nothing (of purpose), and the
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from O Pioneers! by Willa Cather: ever."
"Yes, now more than ever. You remember
what you once said about the graveyard, and
the old story writing itself over? Only it is we
who write it, with the best we have."
They paused on the last ridge of the pasture,
overlooking the house and the windmill and the
stables that marked the site of John Bergson's
homestead. On every side the brown waves of
O Pioneers! |
