May 23rd

Intuition

Hawk doesn't think during the hunt.
It does not care for theory or ethics.
All that it does is natural.

Animals live simple lives close to Tao. They do not need to think or reason : They never doubt themselves. When they are hungry, they eat. When they are tired, they sleep. They respond to the cycles of the day according to their intuition. They mate at the proper season, and they nurture their young according to their own understanding. When they die, they fall under the teeth of predators or the dispassionate turning of the seasons.By contrast, we as human beings depart from the natural norm, and worry about ethical action. Extremes of behavior have become more varied running the gamut from the sadistic to the moralistic. Tao considers all this artificial and unnatural. Why divorce ourselves from nature?
The follower of Tao prefers to live completely in concert with Tao, avoiding the interference of theory and excessive thought. Though one must first learn skill and ethics thoroughly, one must come to embody them so completely that they become subconscious. Reacting to a situation by asking what is right and wrong is already too slow. One must intuitively do what is correct. There should be no foreshadowing of an act, nor doubt about oneself.

Personal Interpretation


Animals live close to Tao. They do not question. They do not doubt themselves. They address their needs as they arise and act in accordance with nature. We have many characteristics in common with our more Tao-aligned brethren. We need to eat and sleep. We reproduce and look after our young according to what we know. And yet, happiness eludes us. It is as if we suspect that joy lies in our ability to understand our world. But perhaps it is the opposite. Perhaps it is understanding that breeds contempt and sorrow.

We should not cave to the will of others, and we must live our lives for their own sake, but we must also submit to the natural order of things. Let us question and reason until the best behaviors are so ingrained in us that we no longer have to reflect on whether a particular action is right or wrong. If we knew what the rest of nature seems to, there might be no need for learning. The more complicated things seem, the simpler they often are. Why not accept that what is is? Why not embrace the life we were given and make the most of today? We isolate ourselves by thinking of ourselves as "Other." The moment we do away with these distinctions is the moment that we begin our journey back to Tao.