Distant
ridges, far away clouds
All events come from a distance.
With a high vantage point,
Foretelling the future is
elementary.
It
is often superstitiously said that one who follows Tao knows magic.
This is nonsense. Wisdom* is simply a matter of using the best of one’s
abilities and being in the right position. for example, a wise person
who lives high in the mountains and who is not blinded by wine,
sensuality, intellectuality, poor health, or greed will be better able
to see events in the distance than one who loves in a closed room, eyes
on some obscure project.
A storm does not happen abruptly;
it takes hours, sometimes days, to
develop. Travelers do not arrive suddenly; they can be seen from a
distance. Knowing things in advance is possible with a high vantage
point. For this reason, the followers of Tao appear to know magic.
vantage
365
Tao
daily
meditations
Deng
Ming-Dao (author)
ISBN
0-06-250223-9
* I have changed the text
"superiority"
to "wisdom" here.
dao
vantage
blog
site
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Mythical
animal
Excavated in Xujialing, Xichuan county, Henan Province, in 1990
Chu State, Eastern Zhou, Spring and Autumn period,
770 — 476 BCE
Bronze inlaid with malachite
height 48 cm
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This fantastical animal, which is one of
a pair, may have served as a drum stand. It is composed of a tiger's
body and a dragon's head, on which six small dragons writhe. On its
back stands another animal, a dragon emerging from its mouth. The body
is inlaid with malachite in the form of dragons, phoenixes, and
spirals, which add to the feeling of frenzied movement.
Institute of
Archeology and Cultural Relics, Henan Province
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T
A O t e C H I N
G
f i v e
Nature
is not kind;
It treats all things impartially.
The Sage is not kind,
And treats all people impartially.
Nature is like a bellows,
Empty, yet never ceasing its supply.
The more it moves, the more it yields;
So the sage draws upon experience
And cannot be exhausted.
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