If the Great Way perishes there will morality and duty. When cleverness and knowledge arise great lies will flourish. When relatives fall out with one another there will be filial duty and love. When states are in confusion there will be faithful servants.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that moral values and duties arise in response to the loss of a harmonious way of life.
Laozi's quote reflects on the state of human relationships and moral obligations within society. It implies that when harmony and the 'Great Way' are lost, people tend to cling to morality and duty as a response to chaos and clever deceit. The mention of familial love and loyalty in the face of conflict highlights the importance of maintaining strong bonds in difficult times, suggesting that true virtue emerges from necessity rather than a natural state of being.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion on ethics and human behavior in chaotic times.
If you understand others you are smart._x000D_ If you understand yourself you are illuminated._x000D_ If you overcome others you are powerful._x000D_ If you overcome yourself you have strength._x000D_ If you know how to be satisfied you are rich._x000D_ If you can act with vigor, you have a will._x000D_ If you don't lose your objectives you can be long-lasting._x000D_ If you die without loss, you are eternal.
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone.
A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.
In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.
Rule your mind with serenity rather than with force and manipulation.
In most of mankind gratitude is merely a secret hope of further favors.
The way you live your days is the way you live your life.
I think that cancer is a life form that exists out there, and it exists in us. I think even the concept of healing is a spiritual principle that we have to really look at. I think the word itself is something we ought to get rid of, because it implies that there is illness - that there is something wrong.
It's all real in Outside, everything there is, because I saw an airplane in the blue between the clouds. Ma and me can't go there because we don't know the secret code, but it's real all the same. Before I didn't know to be mad that we can't open Door, my head was too small to have Outside in it.
Perhaps it is time to debate culture. The common story is that in 'real' African culture, before it was tainted by the West, gender roles were rigid and women were contentedly oppressed.
Wars are just to those to whom they are necessary.
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