What is the Valuing Softnessin Taoism? 什么是贵柔
Paul PengWhat is the Valuing Softnessin Taoism?
"Softness" means weakness and tenderness. It is a fundamental principle of Taoism for cultivation, immortality, and dealing with the world.
It originates from Laozi’s philosophy. Laozi valued softness: "The hard and strong are inferior; the soft and weak are superior."
What is the Valuing Softnessin Taoism?
What is the Valuing Softnessin Taoism?
Dao De Jing, Chapter 76:
"Man at his birth is soft and weak; at his death, hard and stiff.
Plants and trees in their growth are tender and fragile; at their death, withered and dry.
Thus the hard and strong belong to death; the soft and weak belong to life."
Softness overcomes strength. Valuing softness and abiding in softness became Laozi’s basic rules for living.
The Dao integrates Laozi’s thought into its doctrines as the theoretical foundation for cultivation.
Cheng Xuanying regarded "seeing the small and abiding in softness" as the method of cultivating the Dao.
Those who study the Dao, by seeing the small, gain increasing wisdom; by being humble and soft, their virtue and practice grow stronger daily.
Seeing the small is the way to know the Dao through wisdom; abiding in softness is the method to unify the mind through cultivation. Both are paths to realizing the Dao.
Abiding in softness not only stabilizes the mind through practice but is also the essential condition for awakening to the formless true Dao through the transformation of all tangible things.
Chen Jingyuan held that the essence of nurturing life lies in abiding in softness.
A person evolves independently, endowed with the natural, harmonious subtle qi. When qi descends, the body forms, pure and untainted.
Practitioners should focus on this harmonious subtle qi, abandon intellectual calculations, and let qi return to purity and the body to softness, thus avoiding harm from worldly evils.
