The Perspectives of Daoism

The Daoism was a really boring read for me mostly because I am not a huge fan of philosophical and ethical ideas and I don’t like when a story makes me think (and I definitely had to think after I was done with Daoism).  Thinking about life, values and principles of nature is sometimes what we need in order to understand how and why we are living the way we are, but reading about that for about 30 pages almost put me to sleep because there was too much going on. The Daoism was kind of interesting because it’s amazing to realize that these people actually think in a “ go with the flow” way and they simply take things in life as they are. The most interesting read to me was the Dao De Jing, just because it was written in a rhythmic language which made it very easy to follow and understand. One of my favorite lines was “Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful” (Dao De Jing, 1019). In other words, truth hurts because it can get ugly and hurtful sometimes, and beautiful words may not be truthful always. Although he stated the obvious, I still like this line because it was one of the few that I actually understood and could relate to.

Although the Dao De Jing perspective wasn’t as bad to read and understand, I really fell into a confusion state once I began reading Zhuangzi. The intro was great and so were the stories shared that eventually reflected a lesson learned or a certain principle of life. However, the topics and questions were thrown all over the place and I could not keep up with the questions or the answers.  One line left me so puzzled that I ended up laughing because I have never read anything as confusing as that. “There is a not yet beginning to be a not yet beginning to be a beginning” (Zhuangzi, 1028). WHAT? I tried to think outside the box and tried to get the message behind this saying, but in the end I ended up being even more confused. I liked the story about Lady Li becoming Duke Hsien’s consort, because it reminded me of a number of questions I have about death as well. I like this part because he explained that Lady Li was so sad for being held captive and taken to the state of Chin, however, when she saw what a good life she lived she wondered why she was ever depressed in a first place. So then he questions himself about the dead people and whether or not they wonder why they have longed for life. In other words how does he know if the dead are really miserable and missing the life they had while they were alive, or are they happy as dead and now wondering why they were ever scared of dying in a first place (the same way Lady Li was scared and sad about being taken to the state of Chin). This caught my attention because I ask myself random questions like that all the time and unfortunately I never get an answer, because asking about something so unknown and mysterious such as death is impossible to get an answer for unless you believe in spirits or you can talk to them (which would be a whole different blog entry).

Overall, I understand the significance of the Daoism perspectives because these stories might not have much meaning to someone who does not follow these philosophies. However, they are significant to many people out there who follow Daoism.