Sunday, 22 April 2007

The highest goodness is like water


“The supreme goodness is like water” is a sentence in Laozi’s book-Dao De Jing. Which means: the highest goodness is like water. Water is beneficent to all things but does not contend. It stays in places which others despise. Therefore it is near Taoism.

Water is really amazing, it can be gentle, can be soft, can be strong and can be powerful! I cann’t totally agree with original sentence philosophy, as I think that is one of the reason why China was invaded in the past two hundreds years, but it do give me an idea of how good water is!

The gentlest thing in the world is water, but it running on the hardest thing - stone.
Dropping water can erode stone
Water is the source for life

For the gentle rivers where you are boating, it is really gentle and soft with cheerful ducks swimming on it. But he flood make you realize what the water also can be-awful and powerful. I often visit the Victoria harbour in Hongkong, it is beautiful, and I can feel how strong the sea water is, between two sides of channel by the waves and ships cross there, it bring thriving and prosperous to the cities as well as it is in your every day life- you open the tape to show in the morning, you flush your toilet with water, you prepare you breakfast with water, you possible go to work by waterway, you drink water during day…
Human being gather around rivers and sea side to build our civilizations as the same time suffer disasters from the flood and tsunami. How deep we love it as well as how deep we hate it, there is an answer in your mind. Anyway all is about water, remember to be respect to water!

No comments: