Academia confuses knowledge with knowing.
Most everyone applauds the memorization
of the 10,000 trivia.
Beware! These schooled addictions
are not just myths --
They are a form of mental illness.
Any fragment of the mind,
divorced from heart, spirit, human community,
and from the primal reality of the universe,
is an abomination of the Great Integrity.
Let us prepare for the Great Integrity
by cleansing ourselves of all these cobwebs
of cluttered fragments
that paralyze the mind.
in this way we will function
as our own holistic physicians.
Commentary
Although the main intent of this verse is kept intact, some liberties have been taken in the translation to clarify why Lao Tzu identifies the memorization of "facts", not only as violations of the Great Integrity, but as a form of mental illness. We need to be our own holistic physicians to heal our fragmented minds so they can join our hearts, spirits, human communities and primal reality in the Great Integrity.
--from Tao Te Ching: A New Translation & Commentary
by Ralph Alan Dale, 2004 Barnes & Noble Books
No comments:
Post a Comment