Knowing

In my world literature class we have been learning about Taoism and what it means. Tao means or equals the way. Taoism is about keeping the balance, being like the flow of a river and using one extreme to balance another. Examples would be male/female, dark/light, good/evil and death/rebirth. Our class had to analyze the poem called The Knowing, and these are my thoughts that I have analyzed.

Knowing

Without taking a step outdoors

You know the whole world;

Without taking a peep out the window

You know the color of the sky

The more you experience, 

The less you know.

The sage wanders without knowing,

Sees without looking,

Accomplishes without acting.

Taoism is about having no boundaries. So the knowledge that one accumulates makes them wise. As a child grows up they accumulate knowledge from the people around them, gaining knowledge of things they have not yet experienced. Therefore, even if they have never looked out a window they would know that the sky is blue. Although, once someone experiences something that's how it is perceived to them and that person might not get the full knowledge of something. This is what I perceived of the lines the more you experience, the less you know. An example of this could be nature. When someone looks at it once that's all that they see, they don't see the changes it goes through although they have knowledge of it. Towards the end of the poem is shows an example of using one extreme to contrast another extreme. The lines seeing without looking and accomplishes without acting are both opposite.