Made my recent journal entry about the story of Liezi into a medium post because why not. Still feels weird to share something that unpolished, but since unpolished jade and unhewn blocks are daoist metaphors after all it's probably fine.
@nathanlovestrees the thing I get stuck on is “cease to increase your knowledge.” That’s not how my mind works! I can observe the world like an empty pool and still have flashes of insight as my knowledge increases. Just watching nature teaches me so much, you know?
@donkeyherder I certainly fail to decrease my attempts at knowledge!
I tend to think (ha!) of it as suggesting a couple things at once: first, that the course is not walked or followed intellectually but somatically; it isn't anti-rational per se, but something outside of that realm. Second, increasing knowledge about or of is different than knowledge with or as; knowing about things is different than knowing with them, so something more relational and participatory if that makes sense (ha!)
@donkeyherder another way I think about it is the way Tyson Yunkaporta describes indigenous knowledge, which isn't about the content of knowledge ("increasing knowledge") but about relationships and the processes knowledge between and among participants in a system, or something like that
@nathanlovestrees oh, hmm, indigenous knowledge, that makes me remember how incredibly rigid Confucianism was. Is it possible that the sage meant “cease memorizing ancient texts”?
@donkeyherder probably! Something I have on my list of things to research (not me trying to increase my knowledge haha!) is what the Lao-Zhuang position specifically on Confucian rituals was; was it a throw the baby out with the bathwater situation? Or did they want to save some of the bathwater and sell it online? (Sorry, lol I'm in a weird mood)
Add comment