Still listening to the lecture on 道德經 (Tao Teh Ching). It really is the Classical Liberal’s manual. There is very little I would disagree with. Except for the following passage:
不出戶知天下；不闚牖見天道。其出彌遠，其知彌少。是以聖人不行而知，不見而明，不為而成。
“Don’t step out your door, one knows everything under heaven; without opening one’s window, one can see he Way of heaven. The further one goes, the let’s one knows. The sage doesn’t obtain knowledge by traveling, they understand without having seen, and accomplish ends without sending out to do so.”
OK, I get that this is a hyperbolic way of saying that you need to internalize information alone, so that you can figure out who you are as a person, but I think travel can help clear your mind as well, especially if your immediate surrounding isn’t peaceful, or shall I say, “Full of Tao”.
But then of course, the next line goes…
為學日益，為道日損 (“He who devotes himself to learning (seeks) from day to day to increase his knowledge; he who devotes himself to the Dao (seeks) from day to day to diminish his doing.”)
So learning something, I guess I can get from travel. However, when it comes to being enlightened and knowing the Tao, I have to really internalize information, and decrease the things that I do, to keep my mind sharp. Hm…
But then some people interpret “為學日益” to be a bad thing, in that you’re looking for a pragmatic approach towards learning to achieve a certain goal, rather than learning to improve yourself as a person （絕學無類）. Hm… DAMNIT!
Screw it, I’m gonna’ go for the positive interpretation of 為學日益, in that learning to learn, a bit every day, helps with getting to the Tao, while to help with 為道日損, I should reduce my other activities to facilitate my learning.
After all, 當其無，有器之用 (When it is empty, it is full of use), then if 其出彌遠，其知彌少(the more one travels, the less one knows), then 知者不博，博者不知 (Those who know [the Tao] are not extensively learned; the extensively learned do not know it). Then by traveling, I don’t learn much, thus am not extensively learned, I think I can reach the Tao pretty quickly. =P