Personal growth: The pain and futility of resisting change February 9, 2018
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Tao Te Ching.Tags: inspiration, Lao-tzu, life, personal growth program, philosophy, psychology, self-actualization, self-awareness, Tao Te Ching, writing
add a comment
In our work at implementing our personal development programs and self-actualization plans we may need to be careful not to seek too much control over circumstances outside of ourselves, as trying to influence the outside world may be counter-productive.
We will accomplish more, become more self-aware, and be more effective by embracing the inevitability of change instead of resisting it. The Universe will unfold in its own way at its own pace.
By refusing to recognize that change is inevitable, we will try to hold on to things and situations, and suffer the inescapable pain of loss.
These are some of the implications in number 74 of Lao-tzu’s ancient Chinese classic, the Tao Te Ching, as translated/interpreted by Stephen Mitchell. (1)
Consider the second verse in this selection:
“Trying to control the future
is like trying to take the master carpenter’s place.
When you handle the master carpenter’s tools,
chances are that you’ll cut your hand.”
… A perceptive insight to consider.
(1) Tao Te Ching, as translated/interpreted by Stephen Mitchell, A New English Version, Harper/Perennial, New York, 1991
— Dennis Mellersh
Tao Te Ching: Making mistakes, growing, not blaming May 9, 2017
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Tao Te Ching.Tags: blaming, failure, Lao-tzu, life, opportunity, personal development, personal growth, philosophy, Tao Te Ching, writing
add a comment
The ancient wisdom of Lao-tzu, as expressed in the 81 chapters or verses of the Tao Te Ching, is able to express and make understandable highly complex principles within the confines of just a few words.
The same concepts the Tao Te Ching so concisely elucidates may take up hundreds of words of commentary in contemporary personal growth and self-improvement media.
Consider the power of these 40 words in Stephen Mitchell’s translation of Chapter 79:
Failure is an opportunity.
If you blame someone else
there is no end to the blame.
Therefore the Master
fulfills her* own obligations
and corrects her own mistakes.
She does what she needs to do
and demands nothing of others (1)
* Because the personal pronoun in the Tao is not gender specific, Mitchell alternates between male and female versions of the Master
(1) Tao Te Ching: A New English Version, as translated/interpreted by Stephen Mitchell, HarperPerennial, A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers, New York, 1991
— Dennis Mellersh
Personal Development Ideas 