•Why do most rivers and seas never run dry?

•Why do plants live on?

•Why do the sun, the moon, the stars, and the breezes keep on endlessly?

•Why is the universe everlasting?

LAO-TZU/LAO-TZE

• Lao Tzu means “Old Sage”

• author of the Taoist classic Tao Te Ching and the founder of Taoism

• Tao- the path or the way

• Ching- law or power “The Way and Law of

• Te- virtue or goodness Natural Goodness”

• When he was eighty years old, he became sad and disillusioned at the unwillingness of people to follow his path to natural goodness.

PRINCIPLES OF TAOISM

• First, we ought to take more time for stillness. “To the mind that is still,” Lao Tzu said, “the whole universe surrenders.”

• Lao Tzu reminds us “nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”

• When we are still and patient we also need to be open. We need to be reminded to empty ourselves of frivolous thoughts so that we will observe what is really important. “The usefulness of a pot comes from its emptiness.”

• “When I let go of what I am,” Lao Tzu wrote, “I become what I might be.”

• “The best people are like water, which benefits all things and does not compete with them. It stays in lowly places that others reject.

Verses from the Book of TaoLao-Tse translated by Lin Yutang

The universe is everlasting.

The reason the universe is everlasting

Is that it does not live for Self.

Therefore it can long endure.

Therefore the Sage puts himself last,

And finds himself in the foremost place;

Regards his body as accidental,

And his body is thereby preserved.

Is it not because he does not live for Self

That his Self achieves perfection?

SHARING INSIGHTS

1. According to the verse, why does the universe live forever? Do you agree? Explain.

2. What does a wise person do, so he or she can become first in rank? So his or her body can be preserved? So he or she can attain perfection?

3. Do you agree with the ideas stated in the last stanza? Support your answer by giving examples from your experiences and observations.

INTERPRETING EPIGRAMS• A thought-provoking saying is called an epigram.

• Most epigrams are short, witty, and static.

1. When knowledge and cleverness appeared,

great hypocrisy followed in its wake.

2. He who stands on tiptoe does not stand firmly;

He who strains his stride does not walk well;

He who reveals himself is not luminous;

He who justifies himself is not far-famed;

He who boasts of himself is not given credit;

He who prides himself is not chief among men;

These are the drugs and tumor of virtue

They are things of disgust

Therefore, the man of Tao spurs them.

GROUP ACTIVITY1. Rule a big country as you would fry a small fish.

Leave it alone; otherwise, the fish will become paste by constant turning about.2. Beautiful sayings can be sold at the market,

Noble conduct can be presented as a gift.

3. He who lightly makes a promise

Will often find it hard to keep his faith.

4. He who makes light of many things

Will encounter many difficulties.

5. The reason it is difficult for the people to live in peace

Is because of too much knowledge.

QUIZExplain the following epigram. (5 points each)

1. To be chief among the people,

One must speak like their inferior.

To be foremost among the people,

One must walk behind them.

2. He who knows that he does not know is the highest;

He who pretends to know what he does not know is sick-minded

And he who recognizes sick-mindedness as sick-mindedness is not sick-minded