It seems rather odd, somehow, that Taoism, the way of the Whole Man, the True Man, the Spirit Man (to use a few Taoist terms), is for the most part interpreted here in the West by the Scholarly Owl - by the Brain, the Academician, the dry-as-dust Absentminded Professor. Far from reflecting the Taoist ideal of wholeness and independence, this incomplete and unbalanced creature divides all kinds of abstract things into little categories and compartments, while remaining rather helpless and disorganized in his daily life. Rather than learn from Taoist teachers and from direct experience, he learns intellectually and indirectly, from books. And since he doesn't usually put Taoist principles into practice in an everyday sort of way, his explanations of them tend to leave out some rather important details, such as how they work and where you can apply them.
On top of that, it is very hard to find any of the spirit of Taoism in the lifeless writings of the humorless Academic Mortician, whose bleached-out Scholarly Dissertations contain no more of the character of Taoist wisdom than does the typical wax museum.
But that is the sort of thing we can expect from the Abstract Owl, the dried-up Western descendant of the Confucianist Dedicated Scholar, who, unlike his Noble but rather Unimaginative ancestor, thinks he has some sort of monopoly on---
- Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh
3 kommentarer:
Man skulle kunna säga:
Visdom nås via erfarenhet. Det man inte har upplevt går inte att förstå om man inte har liknande erfarenheter.
Fast Benjamin Hoff går ett steg längre i sin bok om Taoismen. Han menar att studier och intelligens verkar som ett direkt hinder till förståelse.
Det ligger nog något i det. I ett samhälle där man hyllar intellektet är risken stor att de med hög intelligens ges så hög status att deras mognad hämmas eller uteblir.
Resultatet blir väl dock ofta det samma när man ensidigt hyllar en egenskap och därmed missar helheten.
Det är inte nyttigt att bli satt på en piedestal någon längre tid.
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