Discussion Facilitator: Jocelyn Furbush. January 18, 2020.

“It is the most lovable of all the great religious texts, funny, keen, kind, modest, indestructibly outrageous, and inexhaustibly refreshing. Of all the deep springs, this is the purest water. To me, it is also the deepest spring”.–Ursula K. Le Guin

Excerpts from Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about The Way and the Power of the Way by Ursula K. Le Guin

19

Raw silk and uncut wood

Stop being holy, forget being prudent,
it’ll be a hundred times better for everyone.
Stop being altruistic, forget being righteous,
people will remember what family feeling is.
Stop planning, forget making a profit,
there won’t be any thieves and robbers.
But even these three rules needn’t be followed;
what works reliably is to know the raw silk, hold the
uncut wood.
Need little,
want less.
Forget the rules.
Be untroubled.

46
Wanting less
When the world's on the way,
they use horses to haul manure.
When the world gets off the way,
they breed warhorses on the common.

The greatest evil: wanting more.
The worst luck: discontent.
Greed's the curse of life.
To know enough's enough
is enough to know.

47
Looking far
You don’t have to go out the door
to know what goes on in the world.
You don’t have to look out the window
to see the way of heaven.
The farther you go,
the less you know.

So the wise soul
doesn’t go, but knows;
doesn’t look, but sees;
doesn’t do, but gets it done.

80.
Freedom
Let there be a little country without many people.
Let them have tools that do the work of ten or a hundred,
and never use them.
Let them be mindful of death and disinclined to long journeys.
They’d have ships and carriages,
but no place to go.
They’d have armor and weapons,
but no parades.
Instead of writing,
they might go back to using knotted cords.
They’d enjoy eating,
take pleasure in clothes,
be happy with their houses,
devoted to their customs.[1]

{1} Guin, Ursula K. Le. Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching (p. 94). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.