Abstract
There are no rules about leisure in Dao philosophy. In fact, the word leisure rarely appears in any English translation of Dao texts, but the Dao itself embodies a leisure philosophy. Live in the present, mirror nature, find the Way by leaving the path, and “When the work is done, stop.” Leisure as time spent in nature serves to restore or renew physical and psychological equilibrium. It is a Daoist staple that the common approach to work actively distorts human potential—it carves people up, limits them, and takes them away from what is natural. Conversely, leisure leads to a transformative state that leads to (1) questions of how we define work and leisure and (2) eventually nurtures a relationship between leisure and work that is not dichotomous.
There are several ways to Romanize Chinese characters. The original methods (Legge, Wade-Giles) spell 道 as Tao. Pinyin spells it as Dao. Other than when Tao is used in a direct quote, we will use Dao. One is as good as the other, but the current trend is toward Dao.
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- 1.
The Dao often suggests that a person may become humble by behaving humbly. An analogy may be that a person may develop an attitude of leisureliness by participating in leisure experiences.
- 2.
We won’t go into much detail defining yin (feminine, intuitive, non-hierarchical) and yang (masculine, logical, assertive), except to point out that (1) the yin yang spectrum itself is consistent with Dao thinking and (2) various Dao concepts (e.g., yielding, humility, one with nature) tend toward the yin side of yin yang continuum.
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Simpson, S., Cocks, S. (2017). Leisure and the Dao. In: Spracklen, K., Lashua, B., Sharpe, E., Swain, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Leisure Theory. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56479-5_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56479-5_11
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