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MrLoony

Greed for knowledge?

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I seem to recall reading a translation of a Taoist text that said something to the effect that greed for knowledge is as bad as greed for other things (Edit: Certain translations I've found of the Tao Te Ching say similar things, but the quote can be considered vague). For the life of me, though, I cannot seem to find it. Does anyone know what translation and what text this is from?

Edited by MrLoony

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I seem to recall reading a translation of a Taoist text that said something to the effect that greed for knowledge is as bad as greed for other things (Edit: Certain translations I've found of the Tao Te Ching say similar things, but the quote can be considered vague). For the life of me, though, I cannot seem to find it. Does anyone know what translation and what text this is from?

 

Was that pursue knowledge daily gain , pursue tao daily loss?

 

If so, more often than not letting go of knowledge achieves more gain in the way of mystery.

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Hi MrLoony,

 

The chapter Penny mentioned is chapter 48.

 

I could not find a translation that said specifically what you mentioned but as a general statement I would agree that greed for anything, even knowledge, is not a good thing.

 

However, I must point out that knowledge itself is not a bad thing. We need to know how to live in our environment. The only way we can 'know' is through the accumilation of 'knowledge'.

 

It is my (biased) opinion that Lao Tzu, when speaking against knowledge, spoke against the knowledge that is used to manipulate and control other people. I believe he also spoke of using our inspirations and intuitions more and using the knowledge of rites and rituals less.

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