Professor S
02-17-2009, 11:34 AM
I wrote this a little while ago for a leadership newsletter in my work, and I was thinking of using it to create an adult education course under a education company I'm planning on creating. Keep in mind this document as it is only addresses worklife, and I would expand it to other life aspects. Does anyone think there is a market for it?
Introduction
Many of you may have heard the term Taoism, or the Western translation: Eastern Philosophy, or more specifically, Chinese Philosophy. There are other forms of Eastern Philosophy, from Confucianism, to Legalism, to Sun-Tzu’s infamous Art of War, but Taoism has always been the most widely accepted, and considered to be the most applicable philosophy to come from Asia. More importantly, its teachings apply to our experience with TREND.
Taoism comes from study of the Tao Te Ch’ing, or roughly translated: The Book of The Way. Various elements of the Tao date back over 2,000 years, and others there is no record past a few hundred. The author, aptly named, was Lao-Tsu; roughly translated: Old Master. Therefore it is widely believed that the Tao has many authors who have added to the whole over thousands of years. Also, you’ll see a few other selections of Eastern Philosophy included as well, to help round out our subject matter.
Also please keep in mind that the Tao Te Ch’ing, Hagakure and other quoted texts included in this document are NOT religious, but purely philosophical. They were and are intended as a series of lessons to help you live your life. Notice, my use of the word “life”, and not simply “work”. Work is an aspect of your life, and to separate the two is to be miserable in both.
“It is bad when one thing becomes two. One should not look for anything else in the Way of the Samurai. It is the same for anything that is called a Way. If one understands things in this manner, he should be able to hear about all ways and be more and more in accord with his own.”
- The Hakagure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo –
And so it begins…
Chapter 2 of the Tao Te Ching
When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.
Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.
Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn't possess,
acts but doesn't expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.
The first thing you will notice about the Tao is its poetic nature, and you’ll find that common through many Eastern Philosophies. Beauty is found in life, and life is not a statement of fact, but rather an art to be explored. Just as poetry is an art that must be studied to be understood, the same can be said for one’s life. Since the Tao is meant as a study of a poetic life, let’s analyze it as such.
When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.
Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.
Expect and accept differences and opposites in every aspect of the world, because it is the differences that define us. If every member we talked with was "nice", we would simply redefine nice until we have created multiple levels, the lowest being the new "difficult". We not only must accept differences in people, we need those differences to define the world around us. That is why we say that our members are not difficult or easy, just different, and we need to treat them accordingly.
Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Leading by example is to teach without lecturing or intent. Show someone a better way each day through your works, and they will follow you.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn't possess,
acts but doesn't expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.
Let go and accept events as they come. There are so many facets to the world around us that we only cause ourselves undo grief by trying to control them. Let’s break this portion into its parts and address each one separately.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
Throughout life events and people come and go, and there is nothing we can do to prevent those things from happening. Accepting this helps us move on and continue.
She has but doesn't possess,
Your ideas are yours, but they can be improved on, therefore you have them, but do not have possession of them. To own your ideas is to close your mind to other ones, even if the better ideas are yours.
acts but doesn't expect.
You can only control your actions, and to expect to control the results of those actions is to be disappointed by them. In the end, if you are satisfied by your actions, you have attained your only expected result and one that is always repeatable.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.
Are you satisfied with past accomplishments? Do they entitle you to achieve less today or tomorrow? Don't let what you did yesterday replace your work today. The workplace is not based on "what have you done for me lately"... the world is. If you fed your dog yesterday, will he still be hungry today? The same can be said for everything in life.
Also, forgetting your work once accomplished keeps you from defining yourself by it. "Remember, if you are what you do, once you don't, you aren't." (Wayne Dyer) You are not one accomplishment or one failure, you are the sum of a lifetime of works in all things, so don't let any one event define you.
"Success is not final; failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts" (Winston Churchill)
In the end, Taoism is letting go of things you cannot control, namely the actions of others and their perception of you. All you can control is what you produce, and if you are truly content with your production all other things will fall into place. Once it leaves your hands, it is gone, and it is time to move on to the next chapter with the same optimism and enthusiasm you had for the first.
The Tao is not the only philosophy that deals with the elevation of man. Let’s compare this philosophy with that of another, popular (if less constructive) philosophy: Friedrich Nietzsche’s Also Sprach Zarathustra. This philosophy, or philosophical work, deals directly with the nature of man and his dealing’s with others.
"I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him?
"All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man? What is the ape to man? A laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. And man shall be just that for the overman: a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. You have made your way from worm to man, and much in you is still worm. Once you were apes, and even now, too, man is more ape than any ape.
"Whoever is the wisest among you is also a mere conflict and cross between plant and ghost. But do I bid you become ghosts or plants?
"Behold, I teach you the overman! The overman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the overman shall be the meaning of the earth! I beseech you, my brothers, remain faithful to the earth, and do not believe those who speak to you of otherworldly hopes! Poison-mixers are they, whether they know it or not. Despisers of life are they, decaying and poisoned themselves, of whom the earth is weary: so let them go!"
– Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Prologue, §3, trans. Walter Kaufmann
Like The Tao, Nietzsche asks that man strives to become more than he is, but there is one significant and fatal difference: Nietzsche spends his efforts describing what he wants to overcome, rather than how to overcome it. Nietzsche is the emotional bully, deriding and putting down others rather than attempting to uplift others and himself. He supports ignoring the opinions of those that disagree with him, instead of allowing those opinions to help shape and reinforce his own. His is the philosophy of destruction, and not construction. The goal of philosophy should be to climb the mountain, not tear it down until there is nothing left to climb. Many believe that the seeds of National Socialism (German Nazi Party) first sprout in Nietzsche’s opus.
And on a side note, is anyone surprised that Nietzsche was committed to a sanatorium before his death?
Thoughts?
Introduction
Many of you may have heard the term Taoism, or the Western translation: Eastern Philosophy, or more specifically, Chinese Philosophy. There are other forms of Eastern Philosophy, from Confucianism, to Legalism, to Sun-Tzu’s infamous Art of War, but Taoism has always been the most widely accepted, and considered to be the most applicable philosophy to come from Asia. More importantly, its teachings apply to our experience with TREND.
Taoism comes from study of the Tao Te Ch’ing, or roughly translated: The Book of The Way. Various elements of the Tao date back over 2,000 years, and others there is no record past a few hundred. The author, aptly named, was Lao-Tsu; roughly translated: Old Master. Therefore it is widely believed that the Tao has many authors who have added to the whole over thousands of years. Also, you’ll see a few other selections of Eastern Philosophy included as well, to help round out our subject matter.
Also please keep in mind that the Tao Te Ch’ing, Hagakure and other quoted texts included in this document are NOT religious, but purely philosophical. They were and are intended as a series of lessons to help you live your life. Notice, my use of the word “life”, and not simply “work”. Work is an aspect of your life, and to separate the two is to be miserable in both.
“It is bad when one thing becomes two. One should not look for anything else in the Way of the Samurai. It is the same for anything that is called a Way. If one understands things in this manner, he should be able to hear about all ways and be more and more in accord with his own.”
- The Hakagure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo –
And so it begins…
Chapter 2 of the Tao Te Ching
When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.
Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.
Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn't possess,
acts but doesn't expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.
The first thing you will notice about the Tao is its poetic nature, and you’ll find that common through many Eastern Philosophies. Beauty is found in life, and life is not a statement of fact, but rather an art to be explored. Just as poetry is an art that must be studied to be understood, the same can be said for one’s life. Since the Tao is meant as a study of a poetic life, let’s analyze it as such.
When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.
Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.
Expect and accept differences and opposites in every aspect of the world, because it is the differences that define us. If every member we talked with was "nice", we would simply redefine nice until we have created multiple levels, the lowest being the new "difficult". We not only must accept differences in people, we need those differences to define the world around us. That is why we say that our members are not difficult or easy, just different, and we need to treat them accordingly.
Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Leading by example is to teach without lecturing or intent. Show someone a better way each day through your works, and they will follow you.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn't possess,
acts but doesn't expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.
Let go and accept events as they come. There are so many facets to the world around us that we only cause ourselves undo grief by trying to control them. Let’s break this portion into its parts and address each one separately.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
Throughout life events and people come and go, and there is nothing we can do to prevent those things from happening. Accepting this helps us move on and continue.
She has but doesn't possess,
Your ideas are yours, but they can be improved on, therefore you have them, but do not have possession of them. To own your ideas is to close your mind to other ones, even if the better ideas are yours.
acts but doesn't expect.
You can only control your actions, and to expect to control the results of those actions is to be disappointed by them. In the end, if you are satisfied by your actions, you have attained your only expected result and one that is always repeatable.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.
Are you satisfied with past accomplishments? Do they entitle you to achieve less today or tomorrow? Don't let what you did yesterday replace your work today. The workplace is not based on "what have you done for me lately"... the world is. If you fed your dog yesterday, will he still be hungry today? The same can be said for everything in life.
Also, forgetting your work once accomplished keeps you from defining yourself by it. "Remember, if you are what you do, once you don't, you aren't." (Wayne Dyer) You are not one accomplishment or one failure, you are the sum of a lifetime of works in all things, so don't let any one event define you.
"Success is not final; failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts" (Winston Churchill)
In the end, Taoism is letting go of things you cannot control, namely the actions of others and their perception of you. All you can control is what you produce, and if you are truly content with your production all other things will fall into place. Once it leaves your hands, it is gone, and it is time to move on to the next chapter with the same optimism and enthusiasm you had for the first.
The Tao is not the only philosophy that deals with the elevation of man. Let’s compare this philosophy with that of another, popular (if less constructive) philosophy: Friedrich Nietzsche’s Also Sprach Zarathustra. This philosophy, or philosophical work, deals directly with the nature of man and his dealing’s with others.
"I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him?
"All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man? What is the ape to man? A laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. And man shall be just that for the overman: a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. You have made your way from worm to man, and much in you is still worm. Once you were apes, and even now, too, man is more ape than any ape.
"Whoever is the wisest among you is also a mere conflict and cross between plant and ghost. But do I bid you become ghosts or plants?
"Behold, I teach you the overman! The overman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the overman shall be the meaning of the earth! I beseech you, my brothers, remain faithful to the earth, and do not believe those who speak to you of otherworldly hopes! Poison-mixers are they, whether they know it or not. Despisers of life are they, decaying and poisoned themselves, of whom the earth is weary: so let them go!"
– Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Prologue, §3, trans. Walter Kaufmann
Like The Tao, Nietzsche asks that man strives to become more than he is, but there is one significant and fatal difference: Nietzsche spends his efforts describing what he wants to overcome, rather than how to overcome it. Nietzsche is the emotional bully, deriding and putting down others rather than attempting to uplift others and himself. He supports ignoring the opinions of those that disagree with him, instead of allowing those opinions to help shape and reinforce his own. His is the philosophy of destruction, and not construction. The goal of philosophy should be to climb the mountain, not tear it down until there is nothing left to climb. Many believe that the seeds of National Socialism (German Nazi Party) first sprout in Nietzsche’s opus.
And on a side note, is anyone surprised that Nietzsche was committed to a sanatorium before his death?
Thoughts?