Thinking Beyond

“Look, it cannot be seen-it is beyond form. Listen, it cannot be heard-it is beyond sound. Grasp, it cannot be held-it is intangible. These three are indefinable.” 14. The Tao Te Ching has a very wise point of view on everything it talks about. It is very convincing and you almost start thinking it is correct. For me it was very persuasive in many of its points. It tries to explain to you how things should be and it says it in a way it can actually convince you of many things. For example in the quote I stated above, it says something that took my attention. Three things which we experience every day but had never thought about them in the way the Tao Te Ching does. This fact convinced me into looking at simple things I witness every day deeper. Asking how and why they happen. It makes you think on how complex things we think are simple can be.

Good..Evil?

As in the Analects, the Tao Te Ching says very wise things. It seems these Chinese people were very intelligent and knew a lot of things that are very interesting. As you read you think about everything they say and in my case, I agree with the most of what they say. It’s rather impressive to see how the Chinese say things which are completely relevant to everyone and not only to their culture. My image of the Chinese was that they were very close minded but after traveling then last year and reading the Tao Te Ching and the Analects I found out they are not close minded at all.

“All can know good as good only because there is evil” Two. This thing about good and evil I believe I heard about before. Ishmael, The Bible, Gilgamesh, and the Analects all talk about good and evil and the difference between the two and so many theories about them. Once again we find it in the Tao Te Ching. What they say here is true, with no evil, there would be no good. If everything was good then it wouldn’t be good, it would simply be the same.

Baneficial.

Beneficial. A word used by Confucius that made an impact on me. Beneficial: conferring benefit; advantageous; helpful. I found that beneficial is the thing that everyone looks for, that everything benefits them. That is why the world has taken this path; everyone is ambitious and looks for their benefit. This is a point which I remember from reading Ishmael. We have all become Takers and after reading Confucius I wander if he would have lives in the 21st century, would he also be a Taker or would he be one of the only Leavers.

Is it "worth pursuing"

“If wealth were something worth pursuing, then I would pursue it, even if that meant serving as an officer holding a whip at the entrance of a marketplace. Since it is not worth pursuing, however. I prefer following that which I love.” 7.12. This is one of that many things that Confucius says that made an impact on me. It explains what Confucius would do in one of the very big questions everyone gets after graduating from school. Should I study something that gets me a lot of money, or should I study what I love to do and see if I am able of succeeding through that. Confucius would go for what he loves and what he enjoys doing. I would say that through time, this thought has changed, for example in the present it is very hard to succeed sometimes, I would go for something that will make me have a good future, not taking chances.

Chinese Role Model

Confucius doesn’t get tiered of saying incredibly wise things in the Analects. He says things that make you agree completely with his thoughts and his way of seeing life. He uses words that emphasize on what he is saying and give power to his writing. He uses words like “Goodness”, “gentlemen”, and “Master”. Confucius’ writings consist in the same thing almost all the time. “The Master said” is the most used phrase in starting a new sentence. Each time after repeating this phrase, Confucius says another intelligent and interesting this which makes you think about and later probably agree with him.

I would say Confucius is a great role model for everyone. He is one of those Wiseman from the past that influence the present. Thinking on what a great role model Confucius was, I remembered the beginning of 9th grade where in PDR class we studied about role models. At that time I thought about people like Abraham Lincoln, Alexander the Great, or Mahatma Gandhi. Now when I think about a role model to society I think about Confucius, Moses, Gilgamesh, or David. As I get to know more historical characters, each time I find more role models to life and to the world.

Obamas Acceptance Speech

As Obama speaks he never reads anything which adds a lot of credibility since you get the perception that he is confident on what he is saying. He increases his tone of voice at times to emphasize more on what he is saying and giving more strength to it. Another thing that stands out is the hand gestures that go with the speech perfectly, they don’t distract the audience.

Job.. Holocaust?

The Holocaust is one of the worst massacres in the story of human kind. The Night as other books I have read talk about this horrid part of history. For example the book The Cage which also talks about a family during the Holocaust. Even when I traveled to Berlin in 2006, you can visit the concentration camps in Germany there is something that gets to your heart, you actually feel the war, and it’s a horrible feeling indeed. It gets you thinking about all the people who suffered during that war. The museums and everything in Berlin related to the war is impacting, even the soccer stadium which has Nazi architecture.

The Bible relates to this since all of the people in Europe like Africans, Asians and mainly Jewish people suffered a lot even though they did not do anything. The same as Job, Satan wanted to test Job and ended up losing everything. The difference is that God gave everything back to Job while the people affected by the Nazis in the World War II didn’t get everything back. They lost people close to them and there was no one to pay that back. They last uncountable things and in difference to Job they didn’t get those back.