This short essay shows us the essentials of an excellent essay. Explain.

Sincerity

by Deng Ming Dao        (revised)

Don’t use words carelessly. Don’t make promises casually. A word, once spoken, cannot be retracted. However, people love to waste words. Perhaps that is why what we say often lacks moral force.

Take this as an exercise: mean everything you say. When you give your word, always keep it. When you make a promise, fulfill it.

Keeping your word may be a difficult proposition. But only by developing this responsibility can you develop sincerity. All too often the ideas of commitment and honesty receive little consideration, and few of us would want to be thought of as insincere.

Sincerity is not something you can pretend to have. It comes from the integrity of standing by your wor

In the past, a vow meant something. Traditionally, no one entered into the study of Tao without making a vow. Just words, just said once. But it determined the entire course of one’s life. That is true commitment. One will never fully know Tao by casual reading and intellectual discussion. Unless you make a commitment to know it and that commitment lasts for years and years, Tao will never reveal itself fully.

If you sincerely want Tao, then vow to know it, and never waver from your commitment.

 

Questions:

  1. This short essay shows us the essentials of an excellent essay. Explain.
  2. Explain what it tells you about your relationship to anyone reading what you write.
  3. Explain what it tells you about writing. .
  4. Explain why it brings in philosophy or Taoism into an essay about sincerity.
  5. Explain two things you found most interesting about Dao’s essay.
 
"Order a similar paper and get 100% plagiarism free, professional written paper now!"