"Under heaven nothing is more soft and yielding than water.
Yet for attacking the solid and strong, nothing is better;
It has no equal.
The weak can overcome the strong;
The supple can overcome the stiff.
Under heaven everyone knows this,
Yet no one puts it into practice..."
Yet for attacking the solid and strong, nothing is better;
It has no equal.
The weak can overcome the strong;
The supple can overcome the stiff.
Under heaven everyone knows this,
Yet no one puts it into practice..."
(Tao Te Ching, 78)
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Water: yes indeed, is a soft and malleable matter. But then again, such softness of the water is undervalued by the common people; they have missed out the fact that water, in it's gentleness, is the best for it can actually break even the hardest of the solid things.
How is that supposed to be? And why solid is not considered to outdo the water which is just liquid itself? Water is great, it resettle bodies of land (i.e. a part of a mountain) and form a landslide. Even, boats or ships, the water, with the proper measurements and method, can perforate such given hardness of the said solids. The point is, even if it's just soft and flowing, it can split up concrete things.
Now, how about water is better than other solids. Well, it is because, once you attack a solid through solid, it will just end up both of them breaking, at large or not. For example, a baseball bat hit a baseball, you might its fine, but deep down the bat and the ball they say: "Ou! That hurts". But if it is just water, water will not be hurt, so do the one which is hit by it. If you are to be splashed off by water, it will never end up for you to feel broken or striked.
And that is the Tao. Like the water, it is indeed soft, but it strikes strongly as if it is really hard and solid, without even breaking down into pieces. Unlike the solid, which is, yes, hard and firm, but still breaks once confronted by another solid. Well, such breaks may not be visible, but still there is a break.
Anyway, the point is without having the form, or shape, or whatever that makes up a solid, one will become water. Without having definitions, or stand, or procedures, and whatever that makes up a firm stand in life, one will be able to follow the Tao. Again, it may appear soft, but it could even be the reason why 'mountains will be moved'; -Tao smashes, yet is yielding!
Water: yes indeed, is a soft and malleable matter. But then again, such softness of the water is undervalued by the common people; they have missed out the fact that water, in it's gentleness, is the best for it can actually break even the hardest of the solid things.
How is that supposed to be? And why solid is not considered to outdo the water which is just liquid itself? Water is great, it resettle bodies of land (i.e. a part of a mountain) and form a landslide. Even, boats or ships, the water, with the proper measurements and method, can perforate such given hardness of the said solids. The point is, even if it's just soft and flowing, it can split up concrete things.
Now, how about water is better than other solids. Well, it is because, once you attack a solid through solid, it will just end up both of them breaking, at large or not. For example, a baseball bat hit a baseball, you might its fine, but deep down the bat and the ball they say: "Ou! That hurts". But if it is just water, water will not be hurt, so do the one which is hit by it. If you are to be splashed off by water, it will never end up for you to feel broken or striked.
And that is the Tao. Like the water, it is indeed soft, but it strikes strongly as if it is really hard and solid, without even breaking down into pieces. Unlike the solid, which is, yes, hard and firm, but still breaks once confronted by another solid. Well, such breaks may not be visible, but still there is a break.
Anyway, the point is without having the form, or shape, or whatever that makes up a solid, one will become water. Without having definitions, or stand, or procedures, and whatever that makes up a firm stand in life, one will be able to follow the Tao. Again, it may appear soft, but it could even be the reason why 'mountains will be moved'; -Tao smashes, yet is yielding!
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