Unlike Christianity and Judaism, Taoism does not have any commandments.\u00a0 However, Chuang-Tse, the foremost disciple of Lao-Tse and a leading exponent of Taoist philosophy, some 2400 years ago enumerated the ten attributes of the gentleman sage.\u00a0 These remain rather pertinent today for martial artists, Buddhists and Taoists alike who are trying to maintain peace and calm in our daily lives amidst the hectic frenzy and ambitiousness of this modern technological age.<\/p>\n
Chuang-Tse begins by attributing these ten traits to his master, Lao-Tse:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Master says, \u201cGreat is Tao.\u00a0 It canopies and sustains all creation. \u00a0The gentleman cannot but purge his mind (of personal gain and desires).\u00a0 To act by not acting is called heaven. \u00a0To express without expression is called character.\u00a0 To love one\u2019s fellowmen and benefit all is called humanity.\u00a0 To regard different things as belonging in common is called great.\u00a0 Not to distinguish oneself by conspicuous behavior is called width of character.\u00a0 To possess diversity is called wealth.\u00a0 Therefore to preserve one\u2019s character is called self-discipline.\u00a0 To have one\u2019s character developed is to have power. To follow the Tao is called being complete.\u00a0 Not to allow external events to injure one\u2019s mind is called whole.\u00a0 When a gentleman understands these ten (attributes) then he achieves greatness of mind and all things converge toward him like a flowing stream\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Chuang-Tse then poses collaries to these ten traits of the sage.\u00a0 \u201cIn this case, he leaves the gold in the mountains and leaves the pearls in the sea.\u00a0 He does not place value upon material goods, and he keeps away from honor and wealth.\u00a0 He does not rejoice over long life, nor is he sorry to die young.\u00a0 He does not regard a high position as honor, nor is he ashamed of poverty and failure.\u00a0 He does not set his mind on the wealth of the world and appropriate it for his own benefit.\u00a0 He does not consider ruling the world as his personal glory. And when he is in a p;osition of eminence, he regards the world as one common family.\u00a0 To him life and death are different aspects of the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Unlike Christianity and Judaism, Taoism does not have any commandments.\u00a0 However, Chuang-Tse, the foremost disciple of Lao-Tse and a leading exponent of Taoist philosophy, some 2400 years ago enumerated the ten attributes of the gentleman sage.\u00a0 These remain rather pertinent today for martial artists, Buddhists and Taoists alike who are trying to maintain peace and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/socaltaichi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/socaltaichi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/socaltaichi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socaltaichi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socaltaichi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=238"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/socaltaichi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239,"href":"https:\/\/socaltaichi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238\/revisions\/239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/socaltaichi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socaltaichi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socaltaichi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}