Lazy Philosophy

To begin our series on Asian Philosophy, we naturally go to Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu. Here are a few of the best extracts from the Tao Te Ching, a fundamental text to both religious and philosophical Taoism, as well as Confucianism, legalism, Chinese Buddhism.

Knowing others is wisdom;

Knowing the self is enlightenment.

Mastering others requires force;

Mastering the self requires strength;

He who knows he has enough is rich.

Perseverance is a sign of will power.

He who stays where he is endures.

To die but not to perish is to be eternally present.

The Tao Te Ching praises self-gained knowledge with emphasis on that knowledge being gained with humility. Interestingly, Lao Tzu imagined a State of Nature i.e. a golden age just as Rousseau did many centuries later, which helps understand the perspective on the development of society behind those statements:

It was when intelligence and knowledge appeared that the Great Artifice began. (chap 18)

The pursuit of learning is to increase day after day. The pursuit of Tao is to decrease day after day. (chap 48) 

It also explains the importance put on eternal return:

In Tao the only motion is returning;

The only useful quality, weakness.

For though all creatures under heaven are the products of Being,

Being itself is the product of Not-being.

As of Political philosophy, a certain kind of laissez-faire approach is put forward:

I practice inaction, and the people look after themselves.

“But from the Sage it is so hard at any price to get a single word.

That when his task is accomplished, his work done,

Throughout the country every one says: “It happened of its own accord”.

A few one-sentence quotes, which is the most usual form we are used to encounter the Tao:

The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth. 

A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live.

Give evil nothing to oppose and it will disappear by itself.

A beautiful poem from the Tao Te Ching. 

Stop thinking, and end your problems.

What difference between yes and no?

What difference between success and failure?

Must you value what others value,

avoid what others avoid?

How ridiculous!

Other people are excited,

as though they were at a parade.

I alone don’t care,

I alone am expressionless,

like an infant before it can smile.

Other people have what they need;

I alone possess nothing.

I alone drift about,

like someone without a home.

I am like an idiot, my mind is so empty.

Other people are bright;

I alone am dark.

Other people are sharp;

I alone am dull.

Other people have purpose;

I alone don’t know.

I drift like a wave on the ocean,

I blow as aimless as the wind.

I am different from ordinary people.

I drink from the Great Mother’s breasts.

Lao Tzu