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The Dao of Flow: A Journey to Discover the Ancient Wisdom of Water
Jin Young Lim was studying ancient philosophy when he delved into a philosophical investigation of his life to date – from his humanitarian work in Fukushima to studying in Tokyo, becoming a yoga teacher and Taijiquan instructor, and co-founding a non-profit in the Himalayas before moving to Beijing as a Schwarzman Scholar. Along the way, Jin Young met scholars, teachers, artists, philosophers, farmers, social workers, and spiritual leaders. In this book, he weaves classical texts into his experiences with Taijiquan, Daoism and Zen, tea, agriculture, conservation, art, history, geography, politics, and social economics. He captures his physical, intellectual, and spiritual journey in a series of incisive reflections, vignettes, and anecdotes that make it accessible in simple terms. Through these stories, Jin Young constructs a philosophical framework of Daoist principles that he calls ‘The Dao of Flow’ — a way of continuous transformation based on embodying, flowing, and regulating water. These same three principles recurred as patterns in the lives of his role models or ‘walking flowers’ – those who ‘walk the flow’ and do so beautifully and naturally like flowers. This book is an invitation to discover the wisdom of water and provides readers with a novel spiritual map to deeper harmony with oneself and the world.
240 pages, Paperback
Published May 14, 2024
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May 2, 2025
I highly encourage anyone interested in the concepts of "journey" or "flow" to read this. I appreciate that Lim builds on the reader’s nonexistent or basic foundations of Daoism (this book is accessible to all) to connect Daoism to various aspects of his and his mentors’ lives and journeys.
Furthermore, you don’t need to be interested in religion for this book to be interesting to you! Just reading about his descriptions of various lives, decisions, and perspectives was fascinating. I especially enjoyed the chapter on Lü Zhi, founder of Shan Shui and one of my “heroes.”
This book is also remarkably useful in leading an introspective and intentional life. Lim introduces many concepts that provide new lenses through which to regard and consider my own choices. There were multiple times while reading that I reflected on an action or emotion I had in the weeks before, and understood myself as being too resisting / attached, certainly not in a state of flow, and stuck in a position of not having found the right “势 shi”
*Spoilers below -- some of my favorite quotes:
“Upon mastery, the means and results are often felt and described as ‘flow.’ What was once difficult and challenging can now be achieved with ease and grace, like practicing taijiquan. At this point, everything seems to happen on its own, like moving clouds and flowing water （行云流水）. Daoists call this state wuwei 无为 ‘non-action’, ‘non-exertion’, or ‘effortless action’.”
Thus, the crux of every situation is to figure out its unique shi 势 — the right skillful means, propensity, or strategic advantage — that will lead to an effortless flow.
Meditation is the way to turn our outward-seeking attention inward. This is not easy, for we have been trained since childhood to look further and further away, run faster, think deeper, work harder, and possess more things even if we don’t nee them. This is how we’ve been conditioned and educated. And now, meditation is the reverse of this. It is the reconditioning of your habits.
Yu the Great
Some say that he happened to pas by his houses doorstep three times, but chose not to enter despite hearing the wailing of his newborn son.
What he set was an ideal example of a wise and virtuous ruler who rose beyond one’s personal interest in favor of the nation.
One could argue that he was probably not a good husband or father due to his prolonged absence
— this made me chuckle
The Yijing (Book of Changes) says:
When exhausted, adapt to change 变
change in order to remain unobstructed 通
and by remaining unobstructed, one endures.
I call this wisdom the Dao o fFlow. When faced with struggles, our instinctive ego reaction is to fight of flight — to want and control, exploit, and force our will on others This habitual patter is often ineffective. But according to the ancient sages, it is transcendable through self-cultivation.
Observing the Pattern
The jigsaw parable: a frustrated child is solving a complicated jigsaw; his good friend shows him the end result, and he is reassured and inspired, and his friend guides him through starting with the edge pieces first.
“We all need meaning, a compass, and sometimes a little help from a wise friend in life. Waking up to this cosmic perspective isn’t what’s most difficult It is how our lives will change from now on, after having such an awakening, and what we will do for the rest of our lives.”
Jin’s journey
After the introductory chapters Jin talks about his own journey to Japan, and his transformative visit to Fukushima
“People outside of Fukushima benefitted most from the power plants, yet those within suffered the most”
Ursula K Le Guin - Omelas
“do you know what’s the most beautiful thing on this planet?” Sanghasena asked.
‘Flowers. Flower are the most beautiful because they naturally shine and bring happiness and beauty to their surroundings. Right? But flowers cannot speak, they cannot walk. Human beings, when our heart is purified and filled with compassion, we become walking flower sand talking flowers.”
His correspondence and discussions with David Holley:
A symbolism David subscribed to and expressed in his journalistic work and teaching is the Dance of Shiva Nataraja he Hindu sculpture representing everything good and bad in the universe dancing in an eternal loop, much like the yin and yang totem in Chinese cosmology.
I think if we want to deal successfully with problems of the future, we have to look honestly at both the beauty and ugliness of the part. Suffering is going to happen and it’s not always clear who's the good guy and who's the bad guy. I's not really a clash between good and evil. It's kind of the universe unfolding, human history unfolding.
In another class, Russian history, David talked about the horrible things Stalin did, but also tried to explain how they happened and why Stalin did them, which sometimes creates its own kind of moral ambiguity.
You can't understand Stalin without understanding that Winston Churchill was an imperialist who thought that the British people should hold the Indian people in subjection and occupation for centuries into the future. Almost nobody talks about Winston Churchill that way. But that's what he was. If we don't look honestly at these other issues, then you can't understand why things happened. Because you're missing the tidal waves that are making things happen. And you can't talk about the world if you miss the tidal waves.
Evolutionary psychology emerged as a recurring theme in David's outlook of the world. He talked about societal evolution from small bands of hunter-gatherers into nation-states and how humans developed a strong ability for love and cooperation with the in-group and a sense of fear and hatred towards the out-group. This 'in-group versus out-group' mentality is found across all aspects of human life and, in many cases, is perceived in the writings of journalists. All we have to do is compare The New York Times or CNN to The Washington Times or Fox News, or read up how news agencies from two different countries report about an international affair or conflict, and one would discover subtle biases embedded in some of the articles.
In my opinion, we're hardwired for that. But what we aren't hardwired for is who is "us" and who is the "other", David strongly believes that in today's world, we ought to include all people, including those alive now and future generations, within the 'in-group', and a lead-in to that direction is to help those who see themselves as cohesive groups in tension or conflict with other groups recognize the importance of understanding why others think or act the way they do.
In fact, his entire journalistic career was an attempt to do that-to explain to Americans others' perspectives, whether it's the Chinese, Russian, Japanese, etc.; and vice versa. This vocation extends into his teaching career. David once told us:
It would help a great deal for people of goodwill to try their best to make people on both sides understand the complexity of arguments that are unfolding, because in most conflicts, there's a human nature, a tendency to view the facts that fit your own side, your own benefits, and your own preconceived ideas. The media reports that way, the school textbooks are written that way, and everybody thinks that my side is right and the other side is so disgusting. But if people somehow could be encouraged to deal with complexity, it would reduce the level of self-righteousness and reduce the likelihood of stumbling into wars that people don't really want.
Getting through the (in-group-out-group) wall to the other side of the mirror... to be somebody who is part of a different society and functioning to some degree within it-that kind of experience is one of the motivating forces in my life,' David told me.
As Steve Jobs beautifully put it, You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something-your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever?
Scott Rozelle
Here's the good news for experimental economists: geography makes experimentation within China really easy! Scott exclaimed Because China is huge, and each city or village especially in the south is isolated from one another, you can basically experiment with one place without affecting another.
—> Very interesting point on experimentation. Tough Rozelle may have an outdated way of thinking about geography’s impacts on humans, that geography defines civilization
tea
Capitalism on tea:
As always, capitalism has its invisible hand of incentivizing adaptation and change based on greed and maximizing profit.
Some local farmers began mixing terrace tea with forest tea leaves and selling them at a higher price; some applied chemical fertilizers to natural tea forests to increase their production; oothers over-picked natural tea forests to maximize their profit.
The result was continuous ecological degradation. Worse still, many local farmers decided to switch over to rubber plantations in Yunnan, which offers a more stable and profitable income at the expense of biodiversity. As the Gao family in Yiwu relates to the author Jinghong Zhang in her book Puer Tea: Ancien Caravans and Urban Chic: Tea can coexist with other plants peacefully. But rubber is like a pump. It's hard to find any other plants in the rubber forest.
The earth used for rubber may become dry and eventually useless... The history of rubber in Xishuangbanna is less than one hundred years old. We still don't know what its impact will be, just as we still lack knowledge on aged Pu'er tea.
Mother Nature is like a mirror that acts in accordance with the Dao of Flow. In order to receive, we must first learn to give—to allow tea forests themselves to receive, grow, connect, and create before they can provide us with the blessings of nature, and this needs to be carried out according to the harmonious pace and rhythm of nature as exemplified by the Bulang indigenes' relationship with their tea forests. The more society progresses, the more we fall into the trap of placing too much trust on human intelligence, science, and technology. We think that we can outsmart Nature by tweaking it to suit our needs and wants, but we often end up missing the forest for the trees (literally, and metaphorically) and end up hurting ourselves in the long run. Climate change and the disappearance of chayun is Mother Nature's cry to mankind that we've strayed away from the harmony of Dao. If we continue to use brute force to make Nature grow, if we use brute force to control, expropriate, extract, and exploit her, then humans are doomed to backfire. On the contrary, ancient wisdom suggests that we should use song fA—non-violent and non-forcing 'skilful means'— to actualize our human potential without destroying our personal and ecological harmony.
The goal here is not to romanticize indigenous culture.
The slash-and-burn practices, for example, which are found in many indigenous cultures are no longer a sustainable practice in certain landscapes'; and many indigenous communities have also benefitted from the introduction of modern medicine, infrastructure, and education. Nevertheless, there is something ' we can certainly learn from the indigenous world view of seeing spirituality in everything, of treating nature as sacred, and of keeping in mind the interconnectedness of all aspects of life— something that is lost in our current society. By illuminating the intimate connection between the artistic value of tea and nature, I hope that we can perceive the Dao of Flow within the story of Puer tea and the Bulang indigenes' spiritual milieu, and distill for ourselves a new perspective, a new-found wisdom or framework that is worth embodying, flowing, and harmonizing in our life.
One framework is the idea of 'circularity' or 'circular economy —a nature-based model of production and consumption that is restorative and regenerative by value and design. While most indigenes have inherited such a mode of thinking and practice for millennia, there have also been inspiring case studies in recent times to reintroduce circularity into our modern way of living.
Sustainable farming
Modern industrial farming basically kills everything and replaces them with artificial inputs that we think we can control_ but in reality enslave farmers—all the while shattering ecological systems both above ground and below. This is the paradox of maximizing efficiency' without taking into account the bigger picture of harmony. Even though the productivity of agricultural yield seemed to increase in the short run, the true efficiency of the system as a whole has declined over time.
Lu Zhi chapter
Lv Zhi: “To me, the idea of 松 song is to have the flexibility and freedom to act with ease, as well as the ability to she 舍(let go), to reduce human greed and disregard negative constraints”
—> I reflected that I often say 舍不得 but maybe sometimes I should think about what times I should 舍得。。。
On several occasions, Professor Lv Zhi brought up the subject of 度 du. ‘We have to figure out the range of du in each context - How much can we develop; how much should we persevere? And how do we find a balance between the two? Once we know the du, we have to practice self-restraint‘
—> Reading this chapter I become more convinced that modern consumerism / capitalism / economic structures make conservation quite difficult, and getting people to do things to the “right” degree (if there even is one) islike trying to use tape to correct a leaking bucket under high water pressure
Story of forestry laborers who reacted badly to Lv Zhi and her team in Qinling after they wrote to higher ups in gov’t and got funding from the World Bank for conservation; they used to be friendly to the researchers but after their livelihoods were taken away they had signs “forbidding scientific field research” and were protesting against them in a subtle way.
Finding the right du of ecotourism — tourism may bring about infrastructure development, so have to find the right degree. Ultimately ecotourism should be about conservation, not economics; and all benefits should go towards local community, not foreign investors
Contrary to the Environmental Kuznets Curve, low-income society can do a better job at conservation than high income societies (e.g. Tibetan Buddhists and sacred mountains).
Shan Shui founded to fill two gaps:
- guide community based conservation outside government protected areas, providing a medium to engage those who care about the environment
- use and empower data information they collected to push for science based conservation and policy change
Guanba honey: help villager sconvert from illegal logging and poaching towards sustainable beekeeping and fishing, But the honey casuists 300RMB per bottle, way too expensive for the normal consumer. Who would be willing to pay for it and is it truly a sustainable livelihood?
Han Meilin and art
Folk art is usually colourful, straightforward, and free of rigid rules or affectedness. It is grown organically out of grassroots communities and is used to depict the ordinary life of peasants with their shared values, cultures, and ways of living. However, for a long period of China's history, folk art was often scorned in justaposition to literati art, namely poetry, calligraphy, and paintings that were pioneered by the educated class of the Tang and Song dynasties. Contrary to folk art, literati paintings were drawn using minimal colours, focused primarily on the dexterous play of black ink brushwork and white space to achieve balance and harmony—an aesthetic ideal and method influenced by the philosophy of Confucianism, Chan Buddhism (Zen), and especially Daoism. Art, according to the literati, should exemplify the Daoist-Chan qualities of simplicity, tranquility, non-attachment, and effortless flow in expressing self-cultivation, embodying an othervorldly yun, 'spiritual essence. Therefore, their paintings were often centered around unadulterated themes of nature such as mountain and river landscapes or flowers, birds, plums, orchids, bamboo, and chrysanthemums-pure elements that symbolize freedom and a transcendence of self and society.
Furthermore, you don’t need to be interested in religion for this book to be interesting to you! Just reading about his descriptions of various lives, decisions, and perspectives was fascinating. I especially enjoyed the chapter on Lü Zhi, founder of Shan Shui and one of my “heroes.”
This book is also remarkably useful in leading an introspective and intentional life. Lim introduces many concepts that provide new lenses through which to regard and consider my own choices. There were multiple times while reading that I reflected on an action or emotion I had in the weeks before, and understood myself as being too resisting / attached, certainly not in a state of flow, and stuck in a position of not having found the right “势 shi”
*Spoilers below -- some of my favorite quotes:
“Upon mastery, the means and results are often felt and described as ‘flow.’ What was once difficult and challenging can now be achieved with ease and grace, like practicing taijiquan. At this point, everything seems to happen on its own, like moving clouds and flowing water （行云流水）. Daoists call this state wuwei 无为 ‘non-action’, ‘non-exertion’, or ‘effortless action’.”
Thus, the crux of every situation is to figure out its unique shi 势 — the right skillful means, propensity, or strategic advantage — that will lead to an effortless flow.
Meditation is the way to turn our outward-seeking attention inward. This is not easy, for we have been trained since childhood to look further and further away, run faster, think deeper, work harder, and possess more things even if we don’t nee them. This is how we’ve been conditioned and educated. And now, meditation is the reverse of this. It is the reconditioning of your habits.
Yu the Great
Some say that he happened to pas by his houses doorstep three times, but chose not to enter despite hearing the wailing of his newborn son.
What he set was an ideal example of a wise and virtuous ruler who rose beyond one’s personal interest in favor of the nation.
One could argue that he was probably not a good husband or father due to his prolonged absence
— this made me chuckle
The Yijing (Book of Changes) says:
When exhausted, adapt to change 变
change in order to remain unobstructed 通
and by remaining unobstructed, one endures.
I call this wisdom the Dao o fFlow. When faced with struggles, our instinctive ego reaction is to fight of flight — to want and control, exploit, and force our will on others This habitual patter is often ineffective. But according to the ancient sages, it is transcendable through self-cultivation.
Observing the Pattern
The jigsaw parable: a frustrated child is solving a complicated jigsaw; his good friend shows him the end result, and he is reassured and inspired, and his friend guides him through starting with the edge pieces first.
“We all need meaning, a compass, and sometimes a little help from a wise friend in life. Waking up to this cosmic perspective isn’t what’s most difficult It is how our lives will change from now on, after having such an awakening, and what we will do for the rest of our lives.”
Jin’s journey
After the introductory chapters Jin talks about his own journey to Japan, and his transformative visit to Fukushima
“People outside of Fukushima benefitted most from the power plants, yet those within suffered the most”
Ursula K Le Guin - Omelas
“do you know what’s the most beautiful thing on this planet?” Sanghasena asked.
‘Flowers. Flower are the most beautiful because they naturally shine and bring happiness and beauty to their surroundings. Right? But flowers cannot speak, they cannot walk. Human beings, when our heart is purified and filled with compassion, we become walking flower sand talking flowers.”
His correspondence and discussions with David Holley:
A symbolism David subscribed to and expressed in his journalistic work and teaching is the Dance of Shiva Nataraja he Hindu sculpture representing everything good and bad in the universe dancing in an eternal loop, much like the yin and yang totem in Chinese cosmology.
I think if we want to deal successfully with problems of the future, we have to look honestly at both the beauty and ugliness of the part. Suffering is going to happen and it’s not always clear who's the good guy and who's the bad guy. I's not really a clash between good and evil. It's kind of the universe unfolding, human history unfolding.
In another class, Russian history, David talked about the horrible things Stalin did, but also tried to explain how they happened and why Stalin did them, which sometimes creates its own kind of moral ambiguity.
You can't understand Stalin without understanding that Winston Churchill was an imperialist who thought that the British people should hold the Indian people in subjection and occupation for centuries into the future. Almost nobody talks about Winston Churchill that way. But that's what he was. If we don't look honestly at these other issues, then you can't understand why things happened. Because you're missing the tidal waves that are making things happen. And you can't talk about the world if you miss the tidal waves.
Evolutionary psychology emerged as a recurring theme in David's outlook of the world. He talked about societal evolution from small bands of hunter-gatherers into nation-states and how humans developed a strong ability for love and cooperation with the in-group and a sense of fear and hatred towards the out-group. This 'in-group versus out-group' mentality is found across all aspects of human life and, in many cases, is perceived in the writings of journalists. All we have to do is compare The New York Times or CNN to The Washington Times or Fox News, or read up how news agencies from two different countries report about an international affair or conflict, and one would discover subtle biases embedded in some of the articles.
In my opinion, we're hardwired for that. But what we aren't hardwired for is who is "us" and who is the "other", David strongly believes that in today's world, we ought to include all people, including those alive now and future generations, within the 'in-group', and a lead-in to that direction is to help those who see themselves as cohesive groups in tension or conflict with other groups recognize the importance of understanding why others think or act the way they do.
In fact, his entire journalistic career was an attempt to do that-to explain to Americans others' perspectives, whether it's the Chinese, Russian, Japanese, etc.; and vice versa. This vocation extends into his teaching career. David once told us:
It would help a great deal for people of goodwill to try their best to make people on both sides understand the complexity of arguments that are unfolding, because in most conflicts, there's a human nature, a tendency to view the facts that fit your own side, your own benefits, and your own preconceived ideas. The media reports that way, the school textbooks are written that way, and everybody thinks that my side is right and the other side is so disgusting. But if people somehow could be encouraged to deal with complexity, it would reduce the level of self-righteousness and reduce the likelihood of stumbling into wars that people don't really want.
Getting through the (in-group-out-group) wall to the other side of the mirror... to be somebody who is part of a different society and functioning to some degree within it-that kind of experience is one of the motivating forces in my life,' David told me.
As Steve Jobs beautifully put it, You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something-your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever?
Scott Rozelle
Here's the good news for experimental economists: geography makes experimentation within China really easy! Scott exclaimed Because China is huge, and each city or village especially in the south is isolated from one another, you can basically experiment with one place without affecting another.
—> Very interesting point on experimentation. Tough Rozelle may have an outdated way of thinking about geography’s impacts on humans, that geography defines civilization
tea
Capitalism on tea:
As always, capitalism has its invisible hand of incentivizing adaptation and change based on greed and maximizing profit.
Some local farmers began mixing terrace tea with forest tea leaves and selling them at a higher price; some applied chemical fertilizers to natural tea forests to increase their production; oothers over-picked natural tea forests to maximize their profit.
The result was continuous ecological degradation. Worse still, many local farmers decided to switch over to rubber plantations in Yunnan, which offers a more stable and profitable income at the expense of biodiversity. As the Gao family in Yiwu relates to the author Jinghong Zhang in her book Puer Tea: Ancien Caravans and Urban Chic: Tea can coexist with other plants peacefully. But rubber is like a pump. It's hard to find any other plants in the rubber forest.
The earth used for rubber may become dry and eventually useless... The history of rubber in Xishuangbanna is less than one hundred years old. We still don't know what its impact will be, just as we still lack knowledge on aged Pu'er tea.
Mother Nature is like a mirror that acts in accordance with the Dao of Flow. In order to receive, we must first learn to give—to allow tea forests themselves to receive, grow, connect, and create before they can provide us with the blessings of nature, and this needs to be carried out according to the harmonious pace and rhythm of nature as exemplified by the Bulang indigenes' relationship with their tea forests. The more society progresses, the more we fall into the trap of placing too much trust on human intelligence, science, and technology. We think that we can outsmart Nature by tweaking it to suit our needs and wants, but we often end up missing the forest for the trees (literally, and metaphorically) and end up hurting ourselves in the long run. Climate change and the disappearance of chayun is Mother Nature's cry to mankind that we've strayed away from the harmony of Dao. If we continue to use brute force to make Nature grow, if we use brute force to control, expropriate, extract, and exploit her, then humans are doomed to backfire. On the contrary, ancient wisdom suggests that we should use song fA—non-violent and non-forcing 'skilful means'— to actualize our human potential without destroying our personal and ecological harmony.
The goal here is not to romanticize indigenous culture.
The slash-and-burn practices, for example, which are found in many indigenous cultures are no longer a sustainable practice in certain landscapes'; and many indigenous communities have also benefitted from the introduction of modern medicine, infrastructure, and education. Nevertheless, there is something ' we can certainly learn from the indigenous world view of seeing spirituality in everything, of treating nature as sacred, and of keeping in mind the interconnectedness of all aspects of life— something that is lost in our current society. By illuminating the intimate connection between the artistic value of tea and nature, I hope that we can perceive the Dao of Flow within the story of Puer tea and the Bulang indigenes' spiritual milieu, and distill for ourselves a new perspective, a new-found wisdom or framework that is worth embodying, flowing, and harmonizing in our life.
One framework is the idea of 'circularity' or 'circular economy —a nature-based model of production and consumption that is restorative and regenerative by value and design. While most indigenes have inherited such a mode of thinking and practice for millennia, there have also been inspiring case studies in recent times to reintroduce circularity into our modern way of living.
Sustainable farming
Modern industrial farming basically kills everything and replaces them with artificial inputs that we think we can control_ but in reality enslave farmers—all the while shattering ecological systems both above ground and below. This is the paradox of maximizing efficiency' without taking into account the bigger picture of harmony. Even though the productivity of agricultural yield seemed to increase in the short run, the true efficiency of the system as a whole has declined over time.
Lu Zhi chapter
Lv Zhi: “To me, the idea of 松 song is to have the flexibility and freedom to act with ease, as well as the ability to she 舍(let go), to reduce human greed and disregard negative constraints”
—> I reflected that I often say 舍不得 but maybe sometimes I should think about what times I should 舍得。。。
On several occasions, Professor Lv Zhi brought up the subject of 度 du. ‘We have to figure out the range of du in each context - How much can we develop; how much should we persevere? And how do we find a balance between the two? Once we know the du, we have to practice self-restraint‘
—> Reading this chapter I become more convinced that modern consumerism / capitalism / economic structures make conservation quite difficult, and getting people to do things to the “right” degree (if there even is one) islike trying to use tape to correct a leaking bucket under high water pressure
Story of forestry laborers who reacted badly to Lv Zhi and her team in Qinling after they wrote to higher ups in gov’t and got funding from the World Bank for conservation; they used to be friendly to the researchers but after their livelihoods were taken away they had signs “forbidding scientific field research” and were protesting against them in a subtle way.
Finding the right du of ecotourism — tourism may bring about infrastructure development, so have to find the right degree. Ultimately ecotourism should be about conservation, not economics; and all benefits should go towards local community, not foreign investors
Contrary to the Environmental Kuznets Curve, low-income society can do a better job at conservation than high income societies (e.g. Tibetan Buddhists and sacred mountains).
Shan Shui founded to fill two gaps:
- guide community based conservation outside government protected areas, providing a medium to engage those who care about the environment
- use and empower data information they collected to push for science based conservation and policy change
Guanba honey: help villager sconvert from illegal logging and poaching towards sustainable beekeeping and fishing, But the honey casuists 300RMB per bottle, way too expensive for the normal consumer. Who would be willing to pay for it and is it truly a sustainable livelihood?
Han Meilin and art
Folk art is usually colourful, straightforward, and free of rigid rules or affectedness. It is grown organically out of grassroots communities and is used to depict the ordinary life of peasants with their shared values, cultures, and ways of living. However, for a long period of China's history, folk art was often scorned in justaposition to literati art, namely poetry, calligraphy, and paintings that were pioneered by the educated class of the Tang and Song dynasties. Contrary to folk art, literati paintings were drawn using minimal colours, focused primarily on the dexterous play of black ink brushwork and white space to achieve balance and harmony—an aesthetic ideal and method influenced by the philosophy of Confucianism, Chan Buddhism (Zen), and especially Daoism. Art, according to the literati, should exemplify the Daoist-Chan qualities of simplicity, tranquility, non-attachment, and effortless flow in expressing self-cultivation, embodying an othervorldly yun, 'spiritual essence. Therefore, their paintings were often centered around unadulterated themes of nature such as mountain and river landscapes or flowers, birds, plums, orchids, bamboo, and chrysanthemums-pure elements that symbolize freedom and a transcendence of self and society.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 27, 2024
The Dao of Flow is truly a most captivating read, interwoven with world views and sentiments that are not only attributed to the author's unique experiences but shareable with anyone who reveres the beauty and essence that defines our natural world. Lim's odyssey interspersed within oceans of wisdom emanating from the individuals, ancient philosophies, or bodies of work he has connected with radiates a deep admiration for the journey of learning—one he continuously invites us to join.
Just as the book dives further into stories that reflect humans' interconnectedness with one another and nature, so too does it strengthen its meditation on the Dao of Flow and the act of self-reflecting as Lim's artwork and personal photos can be found appended within various chapters, illustrating the intimacy present in communal and solitary affairs.
I am enamored not only with the Eastern philosophies, parables, knowledge, and ruminations imparted within each chapter but also with the humility enveloping the author's words throughout each account of his life experiences. If ever there was a book that emphasized the values and ways of living that have always touched my heart, this would be one of them. That said, I welcome anyone to experience the joy and grace I felt while reading this author's journey and his focus on the Dao of Flow.
Just as the book dives further into stories that reflect humans' interconnectedness with one another and nature, so too does it strengthen its meditation on the Dao of Flow and the act of self-reflecting as Lim's artwork and personal photos can be found appended within various chapters, illustrating the intimacy present in communal and solitary affairs.
I am enamored not only with the Eastern philosophies, parables, knowledge, and ruminations imparted within each chapter but also with the humility enveloping the author's words throughout each account of his life experiences. If ever there was a book that emphasized the values and ways of living that have always touched my heart, this would be one of them. That said, I welcome anyone to experience the joy and grace I felt while reading this author's journey and his focus on the Dao of Flow.
March 31, 2024
As a colleague and friend of Jin's, I can attest that he authentically invests himself in this book. His profound observations are not showmanship or self-aggrandizement. This book is an honest reflection on many years of study and worldly experience, captured by a genuinly humble person who wholly embodies all of the principles he is laying out. I've read very few books that feel as honest and personally inquisitive as this one. I think anyone can benefit from joining Jin on this journey.
April 29, 2024
Jin Young is an original thinker whose experiences and perspectives transcend cultural and national boundaries, are easily digestible, and are bound to find resonance with the reader no matter who they may be. His masterful blend of philosophical insight and vulnerability makes it a compelling read for anyone interested in personal growth and the wisdom of Eastern traditions.
I truly couldn't recommend it more!
I truly couldn't recommend it more!
October 1, 2024
This is a bit heavy for me, but there's a lot of life lessons in here, heavily influenced by the eastern culture. Supported by the photos from author, i feel like author is really invested into the development of the book, dont get me wrong, i love the photos which add more depth into the book. Nonetheless, this is a good philosophy book if you're looking for one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 8, 2024
Interesting read. Combines personal memoir, Eastern philosophy, and narratives of influential individuals, exploring how the wisdom of water can guide us in leading a life of continuous transformation and harmony.
You will like this book if you are into contemplative practices, Daoist philosophy, or seeking deeper connections between ancient wisdom and modern life.
You will like this book if you are into contemplative practices, Daoist philosophy, or seeking deeper connections between ancient wisdom and modern life.
January 19, 2025
This book takes me on a journey to not only look inside myself and re-examine my purpose in life -- and how I can integrate it to the world, but also widen my knowledge and wisdom from those who has already found their purpose and have impacts on others and nature.
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