Walking the Wall

A couple of years ago I wrote a post about The Tao of Pooh,
and it is a book I have returned to more than once when I needed
reminding of the lessons it has to offer. I have also admitted in the
past that I am rather woefully lacking in deep knowledge about Taoism–and
for the sake of my rambling, when I say Taoism, I am speaking of the
philosophical form, not the religious form.  Belief.net sums the
two forms up in this way:

Philosophical Taoism is rational, contemplative, and
nonsectarian, and it accepts death as a natural returning to the Tao.
Religious Taoism is magical, cultic, esoteric, and sectarian, and it
emphasizes health and healing as ways to gain long life or even
immortality.

I
think in its philosophical form, Taoism doesn’t challenge any
particular belief system as it is more of a way of living than a way of
believing. Benjamin Hoff, in his translation of the Tao te Ching
entitled At the Heart of the Tao Te Ching translated this passage:

As the rivers run,
Those of the Tao concern themselves
With what is useful and efficient.
Their thoughts are strong and deep,
Their relations flexible,
Their words reflect the truth.
Their power is balanced and beneficial,
Their skills acquired through experience,
Their actions well timed.
Wherever they are,
They are at home.

Rocks are hard and unyielding;
The rivers flow around them and forget.

I think this is a beautiful rendering and I need to try
and get ahold of his translation–and I also need to pull out my Tao of
Pooh for yet another reading. Balance is the key to everything in life,
for me–its when we swing too far in one direction or the other that we
tend to get in trouble–when we try to force life to “be” in whatever
way we think it should.

“When you work with Wu Wei [which means, without doing,
causing, or making] you put the round peg in the round hold and the
square peg in the square hole. No stress, no struggle. Egotistical
Desire tries to force the round peg into the square hold and the square
peg into the round hole. Cloverness tries to devise craftier ways of
making pegs fit where they don’t belong. Knowlege tries to figure out
why round pegs fit round holes, but not square holes. Wu Wei doesn’t
try. It doesn’t think about it. It just does it. And when it does, it
doesn’t appeare to do much of anything. But Things Get Done” (Tao of
Pooh, p. 75).