无为 ~ 老子

无为而治。

I recently has a discussion with a good old friend about this. Where is our direction? What are we destined to do?

Frankly, if you study Science, you know in the end your "fate, destiny" is to "K.O." - Dead.

So why worry something about what is our end state? Why dont we look at what can we do for tomorrow?

Where is our direction? I often ask myself about this, relate to my short term end state in mind ~ get to certain position in the career ladder and what i would like provide to my son "the environment" so he can freely develop into what he can be (not what he should be).

Wu Wei - 无为 , was a direct competitor to Confucious (孔子）. During my days in Canada, i pick up two subjects - Confucious and Chinese Religion. The later talkes about Buddhism, Lao Tzi, Meng Tzi, Mo Tzi, and influence of Hindduism and ancient chinse culture into shapping these ideology.... they call Buddhism an ideology... :P

Wu Wei, is always a heated topic among the class that has 50% of Asian students. Should we just wait for what we are destine to do/to be? Should we "not" try to do anything "violates" the nature? (Example: Drive a car, build a house, buy your Armani shirt....etc)

It is an intersting ideology from 老子, when he proposed it back in those days, we do not have big cities, fancy clothes, but we have war, we have very very rich people that take in poor people as slaves.... we presume he is very distrub to see this as a scholar, therefore he believe the Earth born everythings to have its place to do what it suppose to do (equiilibrium) and everything live peacefully.

But human is destorying all this "harmony". So he propose human to back to nature.... "道可道，非常道。名可名，非常名。無名，天地之始。有名，萬物之母。故常無欲以觀其妙。常有欲以觀其徼" explained where his ideology came from....

Imagine if we are staying in a very remote village deep inside Africa, our food is semi-raw animal meat, drink from rain and river, dress in animal skin and tree's skin. We are at most a prediator to other animal, we still do pretty much everyting like other animal did - eat, sleep, work like other animal. We are just part of the ecology system.

Now, back to reality, here we are. Here, in this City. Doing what we are doing since we born till now. What are we doing? Some say, we are trying to create an "ecology system", an environment for ourselves, instead of adapt to what the environment "give" us (the earlier example). '

The first example is showing what 老子 wants us to be. Can this happen?

If not, less just live in our world :) and find ways to improve it rather then 无为. Because we are no longer living in those "environments". Whatever you do, eat, live, drink is all in the human environment, an environment that made by Human :)

All and all, it will be great not try to vision what is in future if you do not have a goal in mind. Its not going to help anything.

Welcome to the World, and lets make it better now. "Peace"