The mentality in Cologne is very close to the philosophy in Far Eastern countries. Photo: Eppinger
Cologne Can you imagine the people of Cologne as Daoist philosophers? The answer from here seems obvious: “I don’t know anything, I don’t break anything, I don’t know anything”. However, this would mean depriving yourself of the pleasure of encountering some of the life maxims that have now become famous as Cologne’s basic law in a Far Eastern wisdom teaching that is well over 2000 years old.
In his essay, Michael Wittschier, valued as an author of imaginative introductions to philosophy as well as a renowned philosophy didactician, explains what Laotse’s “doing without doing” known as Wu Wei has to do with successfully postponed bicycle repairs and dilapidated Rhine bridges, which Chinese thinkers like Dschuang Dsi or Menzius connects with the Kalk school principal Heinrich Welsch or with Joseph Cardinal Frings. Sounds weird? Who knows what it’s for?
The cover of the book. Photo: Greven-Verlag
Konrad Beikircher, a native of South Tyrol, has gotten to know the people of Cologne and the Cologne mentality very well over the many years in his adopted home on the Rhine. “Since I have been living in the Rhenish universe, I have become increasingly suspicious that I am not dealing with Europeans here. The kinship with the Buddhist and Daoist world struck me when I realized how much the people of Cologne live in the present,” he writes in his foreword to the book published by Greven Verlag.
There, Michael Wittschier compares the most important principles of Cologne with the findings of the great Far Eastern teachers and philosophers such as Laotse, Chuang Dsi, Mencius and Confucius. These include “Et es, wie et es. “What do you do best?” just like “Et kütt, wie et kütt. Nothing bliev like et wor” or “Et would still have joot jejange. Watt is fat, is fat”.
The parallels between the Asian and Cologne cosmos are striking. The people on the Rhine live in just as much harmony with the cosmos as the great scholars in Far Eastern countries. Here and there, they master their lives with plenty of calm and composure – this also applies when dealing with unnecessary suggestions for improvement.
And you show a lot of tolerance towards others and like to live in harmony with everyone (“Everyone is different. But everyone is always different”). Sharing with others and respect from other people can also be found in both worlds (“Drink a met! Mer must och jünne künne”). And in the end, “Mainly, it’s fun” applies to all situations in life.
Michael Wittschier: Dao De Colonia – The Cologne Basic Law and its Daoist Secret, Greven-Verlag, 104 pages, 15 euros
2023-12-17 17:18:50
#Book #tip #Cologne #Basic #Law #Daoist #secret #ReportK
