The Watercourse Way as a Model for Taoist ConductThe watercourse-way
is, without any doubt, the expression which perfectly alludes to the appropriate behavior of a Taoist sage (I am not talking here about the Taoist priests because I am not dealing with religious Taoism).
| The water, which takes the form of the objects it touches in its course, provides a valuable model for Taoist conduct: the adaptation to the external conditions. |
This "way" is wonderfully described in the Book of Change
, where from we have excerpted a short commentary of Richard Wilhelm on the hexagram no. 19 - Lin / Approach:
The water endlessly flows and fills, up to a certain limit, the corners it is flowing through; the water is not "afraid" of any dangerous place, of any "falling" and there is nothing
making it lose its essence. Under all circumstances, it remains equal to its nature.
This way, being attentive to the characteristics of water, the Taoist adept has created a similar model of human behavior which may be formulated as follows:
... under all circumstances, one should behave like the water, one should adjust to the requirements of the outer reality, keeping safe his/her unchangeable essence in the meantime
(that represents, of course, his/her inner self, his/her true nature).
In his daily life, the Taoist adept follows the model of water in that he/she adapts himself/herself to all life circumstances. |
