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Posted by rat on 4/7/2011, 5:11 pm
108.28.65.x
(I wrote this on Facebook)
There is an excellent section in the Zhuangzi on this topic. Jo of the North Sea says that you can't do any net material good, for every time you help one, you take away from another, rob Peter to pay Paul.
What Jo says here upsets the Lord of the River Way, and he exclaims,
Then what is the dao good for !!!?
然貴於道邪？ Rán guì yú dào xié
The text that follows is difficult to translate, but it looks like Jo is saying that the dao can free you from your existential angst, worries about the unfairness of life, etc. But it cannot tell you how to do “good” or avoid “bad.”
If this is valid, as I think it is, it is a great relief to know that you have no reason to worry about doing net good. You can help others or not, with a little or a lot, doing whichever you enjoy.
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"The Tao is basically utterly open. Utter openeness has no substance. It ends in endlessness, begins in beginninglessnes".
-Li Daoqun
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