Danielle Hawkins- Homelessness pt2

 I was deeply moved by the part of the paper that described the man who was introduced to a more efficient way of doing his job:

A passage from the Chuang Tzu illustrates this dampening wherein the constituents of the community become a means to maximum yield and become voided of their virtue. Tzu-kung while traveling sees an old man preparing a rice field, “lugging a pitcher, which he carried out to water the fields. Grunting a puffing, he used up a great deal of energy and produced very little result. “ Tzu-kung tells the man, “There is a machine for this sort of thing. In one day it can water a hundred fields, demanding very little effort and producing excellent results. Wouldn’t you like one?” The old man then asks how the machine works. Tzu-kun proceeds to describe a well sweep. The old man then replies, “where there are machines, there are bound to be machine worries; where there are machine worries, there are bound to be machine hearts. With a machine heart in your breast, you’ve spoiled what was pure and simple; and without the pure and simple, the life of the spirit knows no rest. Where the life of the spirit knows no rest, the Way will cease to buoy you up. It’s not that I don’t know about your machine—I would be ashamed to use it!” (1968, 134). 

How often do I try and find the most efficient and fastest way to do something? Let me answer that, all the time. This passage challenges me in my everyday walk. I typically enter into what I call work mode Dan and I become a not nice person to lose who try to interrupt me. My "spirit knows no rest" therefore, "the Way will cease to buoy" me up. Although I don't follow the Tao, I do follow a close relationship with the Hebrew God. I want to be kept in check and not allow the temptation of fast and easy to lull me into becoming a human robot who is a jerk.