Nov. 3 Tao Te Ching

The Tao Te Ching in a way reminds me of the analects but at the same time differs a lot from it. For example they both give very wise and important ways of viewing life and they teach you ways in which to reflect to lead a good life. Still they have very different writing styles and while Confucius respects learning a lot, the Tao Te Ching focuses on a different way of learning and considers study as one of the lowest of his priorities. I also think that the Tao Te Ching is a lot more complicated to read that what the Analects was and one has to put a lot more thought into it if you are willing to understand. It happened many times that I had to reread the text over and over again while Confucius I would understand right away and if I got confused or mixed up I would reread it once and understand what it was that I that was trying to be said. Even though the passages are very short, they are very rich in content and one has a lot of material on which to reflect. Reading this kind of texts will open my mind to different ways of thinking and I can actually learn a much about them.