Marblehead

Mair 4:9

Recommended Posts

The mountain trees plunder themselves, the grease over a fire fries itself.  Cinnamon can be eaten, therefore the trees that yield it are chopped down.  Varnish can be used, therefore the trees that produce it are hacked.  Everybody knows the utility of usefulness, but nobody knows the utility of uselessness.

  • Like 3

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, he did have to make his concluding statement.

 

Repetition is often boring but then sometimes it is a great teacher.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, he did have to make his concluding statement.

 

Repetition is often boring but then sometimes it is a great teacher.

True, ,I was beginning to think it was posted as an ironic lesson , which is to say, in concluding everything really needing to be said about the subject, we would proceed to leaving it alone, demonstrating the virtue.

 But me ,occasionally being a friendly sort, energetic and communicative ,, would prefer to hang around whether the thread had functional utility to me or not.

Thus exemplifying another use for uselessness,, that it could serve as a backdrop highlighting whether folks just wanted to hang out with you , or if they really were looking for some other kind of gain. 

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, he did have to make his concluding statement.

 

Repetition is often boring but then sometimes it is a great teacher.

I might as well carry on here from my Mair 5:4 post as I just so happened to stumble upon this next!

 

Yes, there's a lot of repetition in this book and I realise that it is a great way to inject the philosophy into people - I guess just like holy books and preachers do.

 

You could go to church every Sunday and receive a bunch of the same information week in and week out, just worded slightly differently - but with the repetition and belief, the religion's Way would become embedded in you.

 

I'm using "you" generally. I obviously don't mean you MH ;)

 

I've noticed that for me - to maintain Taoist practice, I should keep reading TTC and ZZ regularly. And when I've finished my current reading of ZZ, go back to TTC and just repeat the cycle. Even if I just manage to read a page in a day, that's a page-worth of a repeated point going back into my brain.

Edited by Rara
  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Sorry, just went to edit my post and ended up quoting it instead. Ignore this!

Edited by Rara

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites