Shameless, Episode 217

It's hard to be of genuine service to others from the part of us that worries about being liked. But there is something deeper in all of us that is not at all concerned about favour and is at once fiercely committed, gentle, loving and true enough to serve in an authentic, generous way.

This week's Turning Towards Life is a conversation about how we might cultivate the shameless leadership that's called for right now. It's hosted as always by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace.

Here’s our source for this week:

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Shameless

To be in favour or disgrace
is to live in fear.
To take the body seriously
is to admit one can suffer.

What does that mean,
to be in favour or disgrace
is to live in fear?
Favour debases:
we fear to lose it,
fear to win it.
So to be in favour or disgrace
is to live in fear.

What does that mean,
to take the body seriously
is to admit one can suffer?
I suffer because I’m a body;
if I weren’t a body,
how could I suffer?

So people who set their bodily good
before the public good could be entrusted with the commonwealth,
and people who treated the body politic
as gently as their own body
would be worthy to govern the commonwealth.

Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching, Ch13, Translated by Ursula Le Guin

Photo by Victória Kubiaki on Unsplash

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