Monday, October 1, 2007

Gather the Weak to Conquer the Strong

TAO 78,

"Nothing in the world is soft and weak as water
But when attacking the hard and strong
Nothing can conquer so easily."

This piece of wisdom seemed especially vague and sort of hard to understand for me. I interpret it as if thinking of a waterfall or flood (to continue the metaphor). Just a few drops of water is pretty harmless, either it evaporates or easily flows away. But a waterfall, a collection of countless drops of water, carries an unmatchable force. Look at a flood. The water reaches every crevice, drowns everything in its path, washing away anything including homes, cars and even people. It is when these soft, weak streams of water band together to create something huge like a flood, that the damage is done, and the strong is conquered.

In life, even one person, seemingly weak against the crowd, can make a huge difference, beat the stronger force, by influencing others, by spreading word, by gathering together.

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