Core tenet of Taoismheld by most
Simplicity is strength.
The uncarved block: return to what you were before ambition. Empires fall; valleys endure.
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held
The word is pu — the uncarved block — a piece of wood before anyone made it into anything. Taoism treats accumulated knowledge, refinement, and status as additions that obscure rather than improve, and its recommended movement is subtractive: know less, want less, be less impressive. The Tao Te Ching says that in pursuit of learning something is added daily, and in pursuit of the Way something is dropped. It is the philosophical basis for the tradition's enduring suspicion of Confucian polish.
The same ground, other faiths
claims that share this one's ideas
S
Shiva — destroyer and regenerator.
Hinduism · figure
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Ordination.
Buddhism · rite
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The soul is liberated by its own effort.
Jainism
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Lent — the forty days.
Christianity · rite
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The greater struggle.
Islam · precept
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Haumai is the disease; the five thieves are the symptoms.
Sikhism
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