Last week we read about daoism and tried to explain what daoism, or "taoism" is. When i first read about taoism in the book, i was really confused. The first few pages were these weird sayings like "running a government is like boiling a small fish" or "woman is like river on the bottom of a mountain". It was like the kung fu philosophy instruction manual. Then it started to go on with these different stories like the man who played his lute to mimic his surroundings. Wasn't really sure what that meant.
Another story was about a man cutting ox meat with the same knife for many years. It wasn't until we talked about it in class that I understood. When it comes to doing something for so long, it becomes natural to you. I think that's what the story meant. Another story was about a man who was fishing and two of the emperor's men asked him for governing advice. The man said that he was like a prized tortoise and he should be left alone. Again I'm not sure if that's what the story meant but I think that's what we said in class.
It wasn't until the professor gave us an example of describing salt to someone who has never tasted salt. That really blew my mind. It was really hard to describe it, and I guess that's how Taoism is. It's something you can't explain in words, but something we have to discover. A "way of life teachings" we must follow. I think they have basic rules like don't fight the waves, go with the flow. It made me reflect on myself and how I live. Sometimes I try to fight things and make them work the way I want them to. But what if I just relaxed and worked my way with it? I believe its a good way to live life.
Its like a way to control emotions and to be at peace. If someone is furious, it doesn't mean you have to be furious as well. Just accept the person's angry and calmly try to solve the problem. As Americans, we could learn a thing or two about daoism. If we were to incorporate these teachings, I believe we can live more peaceful lives.
Then we watched the Matrix last class and that movie was supposed to relate to daoism. During the movie, I was more amazed about the cinematography since I haven't seen the movie in over 10 years. But I continued to watch the movie and came to a conclusion. The people who have woken up in the real world like Morpheus and Trinity understand the matrix. When Morpheus fought Neo, Morpheus told Neo "do you think that's air you are breathing? The laws of physics don't apply in the matrix. Stop trying to hit me and hit me". I feel that Morpheus' outlook on the matrix is a great example of daoism.
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Right. Morpheus and the way he presents the reality he percieves is very daoist. Nearly every philosophy takes some work to understand and daoism is probably one of the more difficult I've come across.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. I was lost in all of the hypothetical lines and philosophical phrases. But, what i pulled out of it all was that Daosim is as much a lifestyle as it is a religion as it is a mindset. Its a way of life; no strange coincidence it is called "the way". Like we said in class, Daosim is much like water. If you are around water for long enough, you learn to swim instead of struggle. The longer you spend in water the more graceful you are. I feel that the longer an individual follows "the way" the better they will become at going with the flow
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