Reflection on the Daojing

University of Phoenix Material

Reflections on the Daodejing (Tao Te Ching) Worksheet

Read and reflect on the following passages. In the Comments column, comment on what the passage meant to you. Use your own experiences as examples to explain the passages.

|Passage |Comments |
| |Guarding your thoughts is better than letting everyone know what |
| |you are thinking. |
|Keep your mouth shut, |This leaves you vulnerable. |
|Guard the senses, | |
|And life is full. | |
|Open your mouth, | |
|Always be busy, | |
|And life is beyond hope. | |
| | |
|(Chapter 52) | |
| |Do not overindulge. |
|Better stop short than fill to the brim. |This will backfire in a negative way. |
|Oversharpen the blade, and the edge will soon blunt. |Too much of a good thing is not necessarily a good thing. |
|Amass a store of gold and jade, and no one can protect it. |Showiness may lead to being a target of ill will. Enjoy the |
|Claim wealth and titles, and disaster will follow. |labors of a job well done and let it go. |
|Retire when the work is done. |This will bring happiness. |
|This is the way of heaven. | |
| | |
|(Chapter 9) | |
| |There is always something to learn from others. |
| |Inner reflection leads to knowledge. |
|Knowing others is wisdom; |Leadership requires power. |
|Knowing the self is enlightenment. |Directing ones behavior requires self control. |
|Mastering others requires force; | |
|Mastering the self needs strength. | |
| | |
|(Chapter 33) | |

From Feng, G. & English, J. (Trans.). (1972). Lao Tsu: Tao Te Ching. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.

Write a 1- to 2-paragraph response to each of the following:

1. How does the Daodejing characterize early Daoist teachers? • First, I will address the very first Daoist teacher. The Daodejing characterizes Laozi as the earliest Daoist teacher, although his existence is really unknown. He is believed to be born of virginal conception, strangely enough; this dates before Christianity and the birth of Jesus (I find myself now curious as to how many religions entail virgin births – especially before Christianity). He was also believed to be born ‘old’. I suppose this means a child with an ‘old soul’;not sure about this one. It did remind me of The Mayfair Witches series written by Anne Rice many years ago, but I digress. A characteristic of an early Daoist teacher is the shared belief that life is lived with a focus on happiness, but still lived with balance and virtue. I did not find any readings on what had to be a competition to gain followers in the presence of Confucism, but I am sure there was a sort of approved salesmanship characteristic of ‘selling’ the religion to followers. The fact that suffering was not the concentration of study must have been helpful in this endeavor.

2. How would you characterize Daoist teachings in their entirety? • I would characterize Daoist teachings in its entirety as a belief system for a people that either truly believe the teachings and choose this path or a belief system followed by people that feel that is simply what they must do; that is what they were taught to do. In my readings I have not learned anything that is particularly strange, offensive, or makes me either partial or impartial to this religion more than any other. • I see Daoism as a religion of mysterious origin and its teachings began by a man that no one is sure actually existed. I find it more optimistic than Buddhism, but disagree with the desire to have uneducated followers. I am still unsure why that was a held belief unless it was an over the top attempt to have the ‘blind faith’ in religious leaders that is still expected in some religions today.