Procrastination and Essays that are due soon.

[Thai-Samurai]

my bad... just paste the whole thing? it's 4 pages and has paragrpah indnetations. anyway i really am leavng. but ill bb.

[Thai-Samurai]

Not an Essay
Taoism is different from Confucianism in part because it is not simply the advice of a respectable man. It is more in fact its own, self governed system of operation. When the Chinese philosophers talked about Taoism, they were not trying to get people to behave in a certain way, but to understand how things behaved. Much like Ralph Nader said, “If you don’t want to do politics, politics will do you.” Taoism is looking into nature, into man, and into the ways of Heaven and Earth. On this journey, as more Chinese minds contemplate these concepts certain themes and important questions rise to the surface. Though an ancient practice, Taoism and the concept of Sageliness can be applied to modern society and average folk like me.
First of all, what is Tao? Can Taoists tell me what Tao is? Will a Taoist please stand up? Lao Tzu, in the first paragraph of his Tao Te Ching, says, “The Tao that can be told of is not the eternal Tao;/The name that can be named is not the eternal name.” Using inductive reasoning and reading that sentence I can make my first judgment of what Tao is. If anybody says anything about Tao, he’s not saying anything about the Tao that I want him to be talking about. We also know from that sentence, that the real Tao is eternal. The word eternal meaning ever lasting, or somehow supreme was probably used because of its “ultimate” undertones.
The second significant part of number one says, “The nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth;/ The named is the mother of all things.” The nameless which I think is the eternal is the origin of Heaven and Earth. While the named, or Tao that can be spoken of is the mother of all things. Being the origin of Heaven and Earth is quite a big deal, yet the not so great named Tao is the mother of all things. “Mother” is nearly a powerful word as origin is, and being the mother of all things makes the named non-eternal Tao seem to have as good a foothold in the entire scheme of things as the origin of Heaven and Earth does. But this can make sense. If we think of it chronologically, we can say, out of the nameless Tao came Heaven and Earth. Then Heaven and Earth being the named, becomes the mother of all things. Earth is often seen as a mother in some traditions; the fertility of the land referred to as mother earth.
The next part of number one says, “Therefore let there always be non-being so we may see their subtlety,/ And let there always be being so we may see their outcome” (p. 139). I’m not sure how we can see the subtlety of non-being of eternal Tao. But in being, the non-eternal Tao is the outcome. So I understand that all things I see, think, and talk about are the outcome and the non-eternal existence, of the subtle non-being of the nameless Tao.
But where does the Sage fit in? A Sage should be able to take advantage of this knowledge, and be best at putting it into use. A Sage is mentioned by both Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu as an ideal man. Sageliness can work in two ways. One when a person desires to better himself, the way of the Sage is the only way to accomplish this. And second, a Sage is the end result of this goal. It is both a way to reach the goal, and the goal itself. The trick is now to see how the Taoists say one should reach this goal.
In Lao Tzu’s number eight he says. “The best (man) is like water./ Water is good; it benefits all things and does not compete with them./ It dwells in lowly places that all disdain./ This is why it is so near Tao.” The first part is easy to understand. The analogy is that the best man is like water, and water is good. Water does benefit a lot of things, especially farmers and plants, animals and people, but I don’t think it does not necessarily not compete with them. The Grand Canyon and Yosemite Valley were both carved by glaciers. If that could be considered water competing against rock, it seems that water won, so it may not be so good. Then he says it dwells in lowly places that all disdain. Yosemite valley is a lowly place compared to it’s edges which are mountains, and there is a river running through the middle. But that is not disdainful, animals go to the stream and drink from it, people kayak and fish in it. I agree that the best man is good. But he does not necessarily need to be like water, especially if it needs such a confusing explanation of how the best man is like water.
Lao Tzu’s number 49 says, “The sage has no fixed (personal) ideas./ He regards the people’s ideas as his own.” I interpret this as that the sage doesn’t necessarily dream for himself. Instead, he dreams in the place of the people. The great inventor Da Vinci had many ideas; parachutes, airplanes, and water shoes. I’m sure he did not think of those things for himself. He thought of them as something that could contribute to the well- being of everyone. Now as I feel I am onto something, that I am getting closer to starting my path towards sageliness I read Lao Tzu’s number 19. “Abandon sageliness and discard wisdom; Then the people will benefit a hundredfold.” Unless this is some kind of Taoist slang, I have a dilemma on my hands. Suppose I did abandon sageliness and discarded wisdom, what would that get me? If I still think in the context that doing that will still make me a Sage I have a vague notion of what Lao Tzu could mean. Sageliness in this respect isn’t being a Sage, it’s just that being a Sage or not being a Sage isn‘t really an issue.
The last step on my journey to Sageliness is Lao Tzu’s number 70. “My doctrines are very easy to understand and very easy to practice,/ But none in the world can understand or practice them.” Ok then, I give up.
As a student in a Chinese philosophy class, I’m just a step in the academic schedule. The Taoists were obviously taking their work seriously, however I simply being a teenager in this modern culture could easily discard the material once I’m out of the class. But is that really possible? Tao is still around, and still in effect. “Tao is eternal and has no name” (Lao Tzu p. 156 #41). I do believe Taoism does influence my life and affects my choices. One clear way it does for me, as a student, is in the essays I write. As a typical teenager I’m afflicted with a choice, or a non-choice in a sense, known as procrastination. I tend to procrastinate something until I have enough time to do it only once. If I didn’t procrastinate, and wrote this essay a week or two in advance of the deadline I would have enough time to write more essays. Here’s how I thought Taoism could come into play.
My first point is, if I don’t procrastinate, is it wrong not to write as many essays as I can until the due date? People who don’t procrastinate say it is very liberating to finish an assignment as soon as possible, and forget about it until the due date, or turn it in early. If an essay is due in a week, and it takes only one day to write. Should I not write another essay everyday and turn the best one in on the day it’s due? Well how is that possible, to write so many essays on the same topic? In our class there are approximately ten to fifteen people, each writing something on the Taoist tradition. None of those essays will be the same. Meaning that if I really thought about it, I could write another essay that’s not the same as this one. But at the same time that sounds absurd, why should I write so many essays if I only need to write one? Here is how I believe the Tao of Procrastination works. My other choice becomes not writing the essay until I can only write it once. That way that essay, or this essay will be the “best,” or the only possible essay. To some this could be just more Hsun Tzu style trickery, using only the words that get the reader to understand what I want them to understand . So every time a person procrastinates, they are practicing Taoism.
After writing this essay I realized that even procrastinating hasn’t made me a Sage. Understanding Taoism and achieving Sageliness is an in depth journey and a serious task, which involves one’s whole lifetime. The witty arrangement of quotes and planned responses will only get a person so far. Now I must trust Tao, attempt to achieve a vacuous mind, and look forward to my next essay.

[XxgoeyxX]

I have one question you mentioned "Sageliness can work in two ways. One when a person desires to better himself, the way of the Sage is the only way to accomplish this. And second, a Sage is the end result of this goal. It is both a way to reach the goal, and the goal itself." But isnt the goal to reach the Way. Or am I totally off on what you were saying.

Second I like how you talked about procrastination, writting essays and how that might have reached you to Sage-Hood. That made me smile a little. Other then that I would say, if there was no limit to how many pages you needed to write, I think this would be so good. But you give out so many good point, but ran right through them. It would have been so interested to read what you would have said De Vinci and the Tao. Or maybe that would be another paper, with another topic.

Other then that great job. BTW what year are you in? And whats your Major.

[Thai-Samurai]

im a psych major w/ third year w/ aboxxxxely no progress made on my major. I've been taking upper division courses in philosophy and history for no good reason. And I failed some of the really retarded G.E. classes. So honestly, I'm screwed.

[XxgoeyxX]

im a psych major w/ third year w/ aboxxxxely no progress made on my major. I've been taking upper division courses in philosophy and history for no good reason. And I failed some of the really retarded G.E. classes. So honestly, I'm screwed.

O no worries...I am sure you will do fine. If you havnt made progress in your major, why dont you major in philosophy and history? I mean all those courses you have taken could give you units for that. Plus it seems you are more interested in those subject then Psych itself. And I know G.E are sometimes a pain in the butt. I wish I could just take art classes for ever and ever. But I must finish G.E.

[Thai-Samurai]

Now I have a 15page History essay due

I have a 15 page Medieval history essay due in about 2 weeks
I was going to do it on Medieval warfare. Knights, armor, arms, castles, etc.
Seriously though I got all the books the information is in front of me. I doubt that teacher really cares about my essay, it's just another friggin 15 pgs of crap he's gonna have to read. I don't want to do it. I don't feel like sitting down and reading about armor and writing practically the same thing, for 15 pages. (Atleast I'm not one of those kids who's gonna do it on the Crusades even though the teacher says everyone does it on the Crusades). It's so useless, I already learned everything I'm gonna learn. Now I have to write 15 pages about some crap I don't care about. I'm thinking of just not doing it and failing the class, I don't need it for my major anyway. What do you guys think?

[XxgoeyxX]

I have a 15 page Medieval history essay due in about 2 weeks
I was going to do it on Medieval warfare. Knights, armor, arms, castles, etc.
Seriously though I got all the books the information is in front of me. I doubt that teacher really cares about my essay, it's just another friggin 15 pgs of crap he's gonna have to read. I don't want to do it. I don't feel like sitting down and reading about armor and writing practically the same thing, for 15 pages. (Atleast I'm not one of those kids who's gonna do it on the Crusades even though the teacher says everyone does it on the Crusades). It's so useless, I already learned everything I'm gonna learn. Now I have to write 15 pages about some crap I don't care about. I'm thinking of just not doing it and failing the class, I don't need it for my major anyway. What do you guys think?

"And I failed some of the really retarded G.E. classes. So honestly, I'm screwed." with that attitude I cannot help you my dear. It must come from within.

However, if I were your mother I would spank you until you wrote the paper. But then again...you might actually like it.

[Thai-Samurai]

Spanking won't help. I'm a rebel.

[Thai-Samurai]

Oh my bad, when I said "retarded" G.E. classes. "retarded" wasn't a description of how easy the class is, It's my opinion of the class. For example for English 1, I had this horrible teacher. When the class was talking too much she would always smile and say ,"I'm in my happy teacher bubble." And by 3 weeks into the class we ran out of material to work on, so she asked us to write down essay ideas. So I wrote, "The difference between an essay for a philosophy class, and an English class." The point i was trying to make was philosophy papers are necessary to get the point across, english papers are just pointless. She said if I had a problem w/ the class I could leave, so I did.
For intro to psychology I A'CED both the lecture and the lab w/out studying or buying the stupid 90 dollar book. But woops I only went to 3 out of the 5 required experiments. Where you sit in front of a computer, memorize words, do math and then type the words back into the computer. They failed me outright for not being part of an experiment. I'm paying for the friggin class and they fail me for not participating in their experiments.