jump to navigation

Personal growth: Developing the spirit of generosity May 11, 2014

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal development, Tao Te Ching.
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
add a comment

One of the precepts that we soon come across in a serious study of personal growth and development is what we might call an attitudinal + action version of the Law of Reciprocation.

In the case of bringing the concept of generosity into our self-improvement program, the law is straightforward: give and you will receive.

As we increase our self-awareness, and our knowledge of the principles of personal growth as it applies to our attitudes, emotions, and behaviour patterns, we discover how generosity can benefit us in many ways; in addition to helping the recipients of our generosity.

Although the true spirit of generosity requires that our actions be done without expectation of reward, nevertheless we gain as much, and possibly more, than those we are generous towards.

We can be generous with our time, our resources, our knowledge and skills, our understanding, our acceptance, and more.

The ancient Chinese wisdom writer Lao Tzu stated the concept concisely in this excerpt from chapter 81 of the Tao Te Ching:

A sage never hoards:
the more you do for others,
the more plenty is yours,
and the more you give to others,
the more abundance is yours. (1)

(1) Lao Tzu, the Tao Te Ching, as translated by David Hinton in his book, The Four Chinese Classics

Personal growth and the need for flexibility April 15, 2014

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Concept of personal development, Tao Te Ching.
Tags: , , , , , , ,
add a comment

People seriously working on a program of personal growth realize that having the intellectual and emotional capacity to be flexible is a key requirement for success.

Without having the ability to be flexible, or the willingness to accept or at least consider new ideas, progress in self-improvement will be small or non-existent.

Intellectual and emotional flexibility also contains elements of the state of tranquility, or acceptance, a major ingredient in building peace of mind. And for many studying personal growth, acceptance, or tranquility is and end-goal.

The need for developing an attitude of flexibility is a common thread through wisdom-writing from the texts of the ancients to those of today.

Flexibility or the ability to bend is a quality present in living things – dead entities are not pliable.

The Tao Te Ching (1), for example, alludes to this. Section 76 discusses how dead things are usually stiff, brittle, hard, and dry, and goes on to say:

Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible
is a disciple of death.
Whoever is soft and yielding
is a disciple of life.

The hard and stiff will be broken,
The soft and supple will prevail.

(1) Tao Te Ching: A New English Version, as interpreted by Stephen Mitchell, HarperPerennial, A Division of HarperCollins Publishers, 1991, New York