Martin Buber on OS and the Tao

douglas germann 76066.515 at compuserve.com
Sun Mar 23 10:29:31 PDT 2008


Hi--

Just ran across this piece from 1910, predating I and Thou, which you
might enjoy finding correspondences to OS, among other things. Do you
see the man in the hat in this? <grin>

        The kingdom, the community of beings, is not something
        artificial and arbitrary, but something inborn and
        self-determining. 'The kingdom is a spiritual instrument and
        cannot be made. He who makes it destroys it' (L[ao-tzu]).
        
        Therefore what is called ruling by man is no ruling but a
        destroying. He who interferes with the natural life of the
        kingdom, he who wants to lead, master, and determine it from the
        outside, he annihilates it, he loses it. He who guards and
        unfolds the natural life of the kingdom, he who does not impose
        upon it command and compulsion, but submerges himself in it,
        listens to its secret message, and brings it to light and to
        work, he rules it in truth. He performs the non-action; he does
        not interfere, but guards and unfolds what wills to become. In
        the need and drive of the kingdom the will of the Tao reveals
        itself to him. He joins his own will to it so that he may become
        an instrument of the Tao, and all things change themselves. He
        knows no violence, and yet all beings follow the gesture of his
        hand. He uses neither reward nor punishment, and yet what he
        wants to happen happens. 'I am without action,' speaks the
        perfected man, 'and the people change of themselves; I love
        rest, and the people become righteous of themselves; I am
        without industry, and the people become rich of themselves; I am
        without desires, and the people become simple of
        themselves' (L[ao-tzu]). Martin Buber, Pointing the Way, pp
        55-56

-- 
                        :- Doug.
                             People are possible: 
                             right here, right now,
                             we can make this better

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