2. Discuss the concepts of non-action and spontaneity (tzu-ran) in the Tao-Te-Ching and Chuang-Tzu
The main tenants of Taoism were put forth by Lao Tzu and Chuang-Tzu in their writings. The principles of non-action and spontaneity were the most important principles that the Taoists preached, and were central to their understanding of true knowledge. Paradoxically, they believed that knowledge is not to be attained by accumulation of information, but actually by diminishing the quantity of information:
Without stirring abroad / One can know the whole world; / Without looking out the window / One can see the way of heaven. / the further one goes / the less one knows."(Tzu)
From this, the Taoists derived the principle of non-action or stillness, which implied that the way or the "tao" is to be seen by looking deeper into things, rather than by pursuing learning. Non-action was preferred to action because it was believed that meditation and insight were superior to learning:
In the pursuit of learning one knows more every day;
In the pursuit of the way one does less every day.
One does less and less until one does nothing at all, and when one does nothing at all there is nothing that is undone."(48)
Instead, spontaneity and individual freedom were praised as forms of manifestation of the instinctual over the assertive form of...
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