Beatrice

media type="youtube" key="dWwZ50-ssJY&hl=en&fs=1" height="344"

--

Filial Piety

In the Korean society, influenced by Confucianist ideas, I grew up reading about stories praising filial piety. The Chinese stories are quite familiar to me. I've often heard of the story of the man who tried to sacrifice his son for his mother's sake since he can have a new kid but not a new mother. I also read about different versions of the story of the bamboo sprout - one about a devoting son finding a carp for his sick mother during the winter, and another about a son finding wild berries for his father during the winter.

A famous Korean myth about Baridegi Princess is about a seventh princess who was abandoned by the upset king who was expecting a son. When the king got extremely ill, it was none other than Baridegi who went to the world beyond and brought the three magical flowers that brought the king back to life. There is also the story of Shimchung, who was a girl who volunteered to become a sacrificial offering for the god of the ocean in exchange for rice, which her blind father needed to offer to the Buddhist temple in order to open his eyes. She was later rewarded by her marriage with the king.

Filial piety has been emphasized in the Chosun dynasty; I heard of the customs of the eldest son building a small hut next to his parent's tombs and spending three years mourning. Even nowadays the custom of eldest sons taking care of his parents exists in the Korean society. That is why women try to avoid marrying the eldest son, since they would have to cook and clean the house during holidays such as New Year, and take care of the parents-in-law after they retire.

The society changed since the old days, and I think that the emphasis on filial piety became weaker. Some Chinese stories of filial piety can be considered outrageous in the modern society. For example, I cannot understand the son who had to wear cattail clothes and the seventy-year-old son who acted like a baby. If parents these days made their children go to the mountains on a cold december day to find some bamboo sprouts, it would be considered child abuse. No t a lot of people would do that these days for the society.

The emphasis may have weakened, yet it is true that devotion for one's parents is still considered great- A few years ago a old Chinese man who took his mother for a trip around China on a rickshaw became a hot issue. The old man and his very old mother came out in Chinese TV shows and he also published a book about his trip; this was translated into Korean and my mom showed it to me.

-


 * "My words are very easy to understand and very easy to put in practice," but "Straightforward words seem paradoxical..."

What does this mean? How does it come into play in THE TAO OF POOH with regard to scholars?**

Taoism is based on the concept of the Tao, which cannot be explained by words. The Taoist teachings are simple and easy. Yet people, such as scholars, try to "analyze," "label," and "find the hidden meanings" of the teachings and often end up misinterpreting the teachings. The Tao is something that transcends words, and the knowledge and language of our world fails to convey what the Tao is.

**Read the poem on page 30. What does Pooh seem to think about scholars? How does that relate to the Taoist view of knowledge?** Pooh portrays scholars as people who wonder and wander all their lives. They cannot appreciate the beauty of nature "when the sky is blue" and when "hoar-frost twinkles on the trees." They try to label and state everything, while they do not know how to "enjoy" what they study. On the contrary, Taoists view this "analyzing" no use, and try to appreciate the natural state of everything.


 * What are the messages behind Cottlestone Pie 38~40 and 56? Think about inner nature.**

The poem of the Cottleston Pie conveys several messages. " A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly" tells us that THINGS ARE AS THEY ARE. "A fish can't whistle and neither can I" tells us that we must know our limitations. "Why does a chicken, I don't know why" tells us that there are things that we do not know, and THINGS THAT WE DON'T NEED TO KNOW. For every riddle the reply is "Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie." Cottleston Pie stands for inner nature. It replies to the quizzical riddles that we must follow our inner nature to get the answers for life.