Friday, January 11, 2013

Tao Te Ching verse 13: does it apply to sexual encounters involving humiliation & degradation?

Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu - chapter 13

Accept disgrace willingly.
Accept misfortune as the human condition.

What do you mean by "Accept disgrace willingly"?
Accept being unimportant.
Do not be concerned with loss and gain.
This is called "accepting disgrace willingly."

What do you mean by "Accept misfortune as the human condition"?
Misfortune comes from having a body.
Without a body, how could there be misfortune?

Surrender yourself humbly; then you can be trusted to care for all things.
Love the world as your own self; then you can truly care for all things.


(translation by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English)
Of course, there are other translations. See Derek Lin's translation at Taoism.net.

It seems like a sexual encounter based on humiliation and degradation can be the fulfillment of
Accept being unimportant.
Do not be concerned with loss and gain.
When one accepts a sexual encounter with its raw sensory experiences and its more abstract ideas about identity, human relations and intimacy--when one accepts these things without worrying about the outcome, one is experiencing life and reality quite differently than one experiences life and reality when going to work and experiencing the more mundane aspects of life.

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