The Daodejing of Laozi or The Bhagavad-Gita

The Daodejing of Laozi or The Bhagavad-Gita

  1. The Way is described variously in the Daodejing. Consider, for example, chapters one, four, eighteen, twenty-one, twenty-three, forty and forty-six. Chapter one informs the reader that “A Way that can be followed is not a constant way” (1). According to a simile in chapter four, “The Way is like an empty vessel” (4), and according to chapter twenty-one, “it is vague and elusive” (21). How would you characterize “The Way” according to the Daodejing? How does it manifest itself in the world?
  2. What is the right way to live according to the Daodejing? How does it relate to the concept of wu wei (“nonaction” or “effortless action”)? How does the book describe the sages? How do sages act? See chapters such as two, three, seven, and fifteen.
  3. What is a good government according to the Daodejing? What is the virtue of rulers? See for example chapters eight, ten, sixteen, and seventeen.
  4. Discuss one of the images in the Daodejing such as water (see chapters eight, ten); wheel (eleven), vessel (nine, eleven); unhewn wood (translated sometime as simplicity, see fifteen, nineteen). What is the meaning of this image? What does it stand for? How does it relate to the dao?
  5. What is the dilemma in The Bhagavad-Gita? How does this dilemma involve duty and class?
  6. Krishna tells Arjuna, “If you fail to wage this war / of sacred duty, / you will abandon your own duty / and fame only to gain evil” (2:33). How can one do wrong by refusing to fight?
  7. Krishna advises Arjuna, “Be intent on action, / not on the fruits of action; / avoid attraction to the fruits / and attachment to inaction” (2:47). Later, Krishna adds, “Always perform with detachment / any action you must do; / performing action with detachment, one achieves supreme good” (3:19). In what way, in short, should Arjuna act? What does it mean to act “with detachment”? What, in other words, should be detached from what? Indeed, Krishna states, “Perform necessary action” (3:8). What constitutes “necessary action”?
  8. Explain how Krishna’s advice will help solve the dilemma mentioned above: “Arjuna, when you have realized this, / you will not descend into delusion again; / knowledge will let you see creatures / within yourself and so in me” (4:35). In what sense has Arjuna been deluded?
  9. Explain one of the disciplines in the teachings of Krishna (yoga of action, knowledge, or devotion) or how they relate to each other.

 

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