literature

chapter 63: wei wu wei

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Literature Text

do that which consists in taking no action;
pursue that which is not meddlesome;
savor that which has no flavor.

make the small big and the few many;
do good to him who has done you an injury.

lay plans for the accomplishment of the difficult before it becomes difficult;
make something big by starting with it when small.

difficult things in the word must needs have their beginnings in the easy;
big things must needs have their beginnings in the small.

therefore it is because the sage never attempts to be great that he succeeds in becoming great.

one who makes promises rashly rarely keeps good faith;
one who is in the habit of considering things easy meets with frequent difficulties.

therefore even the sage treats some things as difficult.
that is why in the end no difficulties can get the better of him.


                           the tao te ching d.c. lau translation

this, in theory, sounds divine. in practice it is sometimes hellishly difficult;
not only in its doing, but in kenning what the appropriate action is and
when is best to take it. life does not come at you in an orderly fashion,
nor does it often present itself when it is small, simple or flavorless. where
is the fulcrum of this concept that balances agitation and fear?

wait. listen in prayer;
seek wisdom and patience.
find there the accord.
29.12.11

a haibun

11.7.13 the newly added preview image is by my friend ~magbhitu! give him his props!
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Comments7
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moyanII's avatar
:star::star::star::star-empty: Overall
:star::star::star::star-half::star-empty: Vision
:star::star::star::star::star-empty: Originality
:star::star::star-empty::star-empty::star-empty: Technique
:star::star::star::star-empty::star-empty: Impact

it is first off, a joy to see something insightful written about the classical chinese writings.
there are three aspects i would like to comment about this haibun: format, subject matter and interpretation.

format
it started with a quote from chapter 63 of daodejing. a quote is fine but this appears too top-heavy when the haibun main body of commentary is so short in comparison. it is probably better to select the few stanza that exactly tell the point of your haibun. maybe just the first four or even only the first, then include a summary of the rest of the stanzas in your commentary. that will give your work more substance, in my opinion.

subject matter
haibun is traditionally nature-related. it is not wrong to make it spiritual or scholastic, but that is just out of the norm. if you do it consistently and do it real well, you might be able to start your own school.
for instance the 'hai' in 'haiku' or 'haibun' essentially means humor. issa's work is the very representation of that genre. when bashou came along he brought it to another branch that emphasizes the 'sabi', the solemn feeling that nature brings with its grandeur coupled with human feelings. due to the genius of bashou, his haiku method gathered large number of followers despite the fact that there is not much 'hai' element in it.
while i am not used to commentary being classed as haibun, it is something new that you can continue to strive on.

interpretation
the very foundation of laozi's teaching in 'wei wu wei' is the opposite of what you interpret in your commentary. in saying wu wei, he advocated the way of nature, that is, the way of acting as normal in face of great difficulty. so, basically it shouldn't be so tense in making judgement as you mentioned. to be very plain and colloquial, laozi promoted the 'take it easy' motto and he believed that by taking it easy you can still achieve great height.
it doesn't mean that i totally agree with his philosophy and disagree with yours. your interpretation is just different from what the chinese scholars understood.

that's all. <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/s/s…" width="15" height="15" alt=":)" title=":) (Smile)"/>