Chapter 27.2: Sowing Enlightenment

For this reason, sages always excel at rescuing people. 

Therefore, they don’t throw people away;

They always excel at rescuing things, so they don’t throw things away. 

This is called: sowing enlightenment.

Wise and sagely people excel at rescuing and saving people.  Sages are constantly seeking to empower people – to provide people the needed tools to work on and create better lives.  Sages understand that people do not need a single handout and as much as they need a hand up.  People need better tools and better access to resources.  People need better education and know-how to utilize available resources better.  Sages place empowering tools peoples’ hands and empowering ideas in peoples’ hearts and allow them the dignity of work whenever possible.

There Are No Lost Causes by DCB

In our throwaway society and cancel culture, no one should be thrown away, discarded, or abandoned.  Sages do not reject, forsake, or cast off people.  Even when there are problems, they don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.  There are no hopeless souls, there are no lost causes.  We are more than just a bunch of cattle waiting for the butcher’s knife.  There is ALWAYS hope.  As American poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) wrote: "Hope is the thing with feathers  – that perches in the soul – and sings the tune without the words – and never stops – at all." The song of hope NEVER stops.  As long as we still draw breath, there is hope for us.

Hope by Emily Dickinson

As with people, so it is with human endeavors.  Some things are difficult.  There are unforeseen challenges.  Times are tough for a lot of people.  Relationships are strained.  Finances are tight.  Inflation is soaring.  Political intrigue abounds.  But don’t give up.  Don’t give in.  Don’t quit.  Don’t settle.  Don’t resign yourself to a lesser fate.  Keep working!  Keep trying!  Keep fighting!  There is ALWAYS a Way to get from where we are right now in our lives to where we want to be!  There is ALWAYS a Way forward, a Way through, a Way around, a Way upward!  When we embrace this truth, we sow the seeds of enlightenment, empowerment, and betterment for all those around us for generations to come. ~ DCB

Etymology Notes:
The character 救 (jiù), meaning 'to save' or 'to rescue,' is comprised of a 求, meaning 'to seek' and which also serves as the phonetic, beside a 攵, which is a hand working holding or working with a tool.  Taken together they convey the idea that rescuing or saving others is seeking to give them the tools they need to work to better themselves.

The character 棄 (qì; simplified: 弃), meaning to discard, forsake, abandon, or throw away, literally and quite disturbingly depicts throwing out a child while shaking out a blanket, an idiom equivalent to "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" in English.  

I have followed the Mawangdui manuscripts reading of the last line, which replaces the character 袭 with the character 曳 (yè), originally written 𦥙, which means to reach down with both hands 𦥑 and drag a plow in preparation for sowing seeds.

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