TAOISM: Three Approaches to Power and the Taoisms That Follow

Reference: Taoism

[NOTE: In color are Vinaire’s comments.]

We have seen that the first of these substantive terms, the Way, can be taken in three senses. Now we must add that this is also true of the second substantive term, power. 

Tao Te Ching, the title of Taoism’s basic text, has been translated The Way and Its Power. We have seen that the first of these substantive terms, the Way, can be taken in three senses. Now we must add that this is also true of the second substantive term, power. 

Corresponding to the three ways te or power can be approached, there have arisen in China three species of Taoism so dissimilar that initially they seem to have no more in common than homonyms, like blew/blue or sun/son, that sound alike but have different meanings. We shall find that this is not the case, but first the three species must be distinguished. 

Two have standard designations, Philosophical Taoism and Religious Taoism respectively; and because many more people were involved with Religious Taoism it is often called Popular Taoism as well. 

The third school (which will come second in our order of presentation) is too heterogeneous to have acquired a single title. Its population constitutes an identifiable cluster, however, by virtue of sharing a common objective. All were engaged in vitalizing programs that were intended to facilitate Tao’s power, its te, as it flows through human beings.

.

April 3, 2023 – 7:01 AM Categories: Religion | Post a comment

TAOISM: The Three Meanings of Tao

Reference: Taoism

[NOTE: In color are Vinaire’s comments.]

This ineffable and transcendent Tao is the ground of all that follows. It pervades everything, yet itself it cannot be described. It is the way to human life, the universe, and ultimate reality.

On opening Taoism’s bible, the Tao Te Ching, we sense at once that everything revolves around the pivotal concept of Tao itself. Literally, this word means path, or way. There are three senses, however, in which this “way” can be understood. 

The pivotal concept is Tao, which means path, or way.

First, Tao is the way of ultimate reality. This Tao cannot be perceived or even clearly conceived, for it is too vast for human rationality to fathom. The Tao Te Ching announces in its opening line that words are not equal to it: “The Tao that can be spoken is not the true Tao.” Nevertheless, this ineffable and transcendent Tao is the ground of all that follows. Above all, behind all, beneath all is the Womb from which all life springs and to which it returns. Awed by the thought of it, the author/editor of the Tao Te Ching bursts recurrently into praise, for this primal Tao confronts him with life’s basic mystery, the mystery of all mysteries. “How clear it is! How quiet it is! It must be something eternally existing!” “Of all great things, surely Tao is the greatest.” But its ineffability cannot be denied, so we are taunted, time and again, by Taoism’s teasing epigram: “Those who know don’t say. Those who say don’t know.”

First, Tao is the way of ultimate reality. This Tao cannot be perceived or even clearly conceived, for it is too vast for human rationality to fathom. 

Though Tao is ultimately transcendent, it is also immanent. In this secondary sense it is the way of the universe, the norm, the rhythm, the driving power in all nature, the ordering principle behind all life. Behind, but also in the midst of all life, for when Tao enters this second mode it “assumes flesh” and informs all things. It “adapts its vivid essence, clarifies its manifold fullness, subdues its resplendent luster, and assumes the likeness of dust.” Basically spirit rather than matter, it cannot be exhausted; the more it is drawn upon, the more it flows, for it is “that fountain ever on,” as Plotinus said of his counterpart to the Tao, his One. There are about it marks of inevitability, for when autumn comes “no leaf is spared because of its beauty, no flower because of its fragrance.” Yet, ultimately, it is benign. Graceful instead of abrupt, flowing rather than hesitant, it is infinitely generous. Giving life to all things, it may be called “the Mother of the World.” As nature’s agent Tao in this second form resembles Bergson’s elan vital; as nature’s orderer, it resembles the lex aeterna of the Classical West, the eternal law that structures the world. Charles Darwin’s colleague, George Romanes, could have been speaking of it when he referred to “the integrating principle of the whole—the Spirit, as it were, of the universe—instinct without contrivance, which flows with purpose.” 

In this secondary sense it is the way of the universe, the norm, the rhythm, the driving power in all nature, the ordering principle behind all life.

In its third sense Tao refers to the way of human life when it meshes with the Tao of the universe as just described. Most of what follows in this chapter will detail what the Taoists propose that this way of life should be. First, however, it is necessary to point out that there have been in China not one but three Taoisms.

In its third sense Tao refers to the way of human life when it meshes with the Tao of the universe as just described. 

.

April 2, 2023 – 7:44 PM Categories: Religion | Post a comment

TAOISM: The Old Master

Reference: Taoism

[NOTE: In color are Vinaire’s comments.]

The Old Boy didn’t preach. He didn’t organize or promote. He wrote a few pages on request, rode off on a water buffalo, and that was it as far as he was concerned. And yet, whether the story of his life is fact or fiction, it is so true to Taoist attitudes that it will remain a part of Taoism forever.

No civilization is monochrome. In China the classical tones of Confucianism have been balanced not only by the spiritual shades of Buddhism but also by the romantic hues of Taoism.

The Old Master

According to tradition Taoism (pronounced Dowism) originated with a man named Lao Tzu, said to have been born about 604 B.C. He is a shadowy figure. We know nothing for certain about him and scholars wonder if there ever was such a man. We do not even know his name, for Lao Tzu—which can be translated “the Old Boy,” “the Old Fellow,” or “the Grand Old Master”—is obviously a title of endearment and respect. All we really have is a mosaic of legends. Some of these are fantastic: that he was conceived by a shooting star, carried in his mother’s womb for eighty-two years, and born already a wise old man with white hair. Other parts of the story do not tax our credulity: that he kept the archives in his native western state, and that around this occupation he wove a simple and unassertive life. Inferences concerning his personality derive almost entirely from a single slim volume that is attributed to him. From this some conclude that he was probably a solitary recluse who was absorbed in occult meditations; others picture him as down to earth—a genial neighbor with a lively sense of humor. 

Nothing is known about originator of Taoism, except for the slim volume he wrote and the title “Lao Tzu”—which can be translated as “the Old Fellow.” 

The only purportedly contemporary portrait, reported by China’s first historian, Ssu-ma Ch’ien, speaks only of the enigmatic impression he left—the sense that he possessed depths of understanding that defied ready comprehension. According to this account Confucius, intrigued by what he had heard of Lao Tzu, once visited him. His description suggests that the strange man baffled him while leaving him respectful. “I know a bird can fly; I know a fish can swim; I know animals can run. Creatures that run can be caught in nets; those that swim can be caught in wicker traps; those that fly can be hit by arrows. But the dragon is beyond my knowledge; it ascends into heaven on the clouds and the wind. Today I have seen Lao Tzu, and he is like the dragon!” 

The only account available of Lao Tzu leaves an enigmatic impression that he possessed depths of understanding that defied ready comprehension. 

The traditional portrait concludes with the report that Lao Tzu, saddened by his people’s disinclination to cultivate the natural goodness he advocated and seeking greater personal solitude for his closing years, climbed on a water buffalo and rode westward toward what is now Tibet. At the Hankao Pass a gatekeeper, sensing the unusual character of the truant, tried to persuade him to turn back. Failing this, he asked if the “Old Boy” would not at least leave a record of his beliefs to the civilization he was abandoning. This Lao Tzu consented to do. He retired for three days and returned with a slim volume of five thousand characters titled Tao Te Ching, or The Way and Its Power. A testament to humanity’s at-home-ness in the universe, it can be read in half an hour or a lifetime, and remains to this day the basic text of Taoist thought. 

As he was leaving to seek greater personal solitude for his closing years, at the request of the gate keeper, he wrote  a slim volume of five thousand characters titled Tao Te Ching, or The Way and Its Power.

What a curious portrait this is for the supposed founder of a religion. The Old Boy didn’t preach. He didn’t organize or promote. He wrote a few pages on request, rode off on a water buffalo, and that was it as far as he was concerned. How unlike the Buddha, who trudged the dusty roads of India for forty-five years to make his point. How unlike Confucius, who pestered dukes and princes, trying to gain an administrative foothold (or at least a hearing) for his ideas. Here was a man so little concerned with the success of his surmises, to say nothing of fame and fortune, that he didn’t even stay around to answer questions. And yet, whether the story of his life is fact or fiction, it is so true to Taoist attitudes that it will remain a part of Taoism forever. Emperors would claim this shadowy figure as their ancestor, and even scholars—though they do not see the Tao Te Ching as having been written by a single hand and do not think it attained the form in which we have it until the second half of the third century B.C.—concede that its ideas cohere to the point where we must posit the existence of someone under whose influence the book took shape, and have no objection to our calling him Lao Tzu.

The Old Boy didn’t preach. He didn’t organize or promote. He wrote a few pages on request, rode off on a water buffalo, and that was it as far as he was concerned. And yet, whether the story of his life is fact or fiction, it is so true to Taoist attitudes that it will remain a part of Taoism forever.

.

April 2, 2023 – 6:30 PM Categories: Religion | Post a comment

Happiness: Epilogue

Reference: The Happiness Rundown

EPILOGUE

Happiness lies in engaging in worthwhile activities. But there is only one person who for certain can tell what will make one happy—oneself. 

The precepts given in this book are really the edges of the road: violating them, one is like the motorist who plunges onto the verge—the result can be wreckage of the moment, the relationship, a life. 

Only you can say where the road goes for one sets his goals for the hour, for the relationship, for the phase of life. 

One can feel at times like a spinning leaf blown along a dirty street, one can feel like a grain of sand stuck in one place. But nobody has said that life was a calm and orderly thing; it isn’t. One isn’t a tattered leaf nor a grain of sand: one can, to a greater or lesser degree, draw his road map and follow it. 

One can feel that things are such now that it is much too late to do anything, that one’s past road is so messed up that there is no chance of drawing a future road that will be any different: there is always a point on the road when one can map a new one. And try to follow it. There is no person alive who cannot make a new beginning. 

It can be said without the slightest fear of contradiction that others may mock one and seek by various means to push one onto the verge, to tempt one in various ways to lead an immoral life: all such persons do so to accomplish private ends of their own and one will wind up, if one heeds them, in tragedy and sorrow. 

Of course one will have occasional losses trying to apply this book and get it applied. One should just learn from these and carry on. Who said the road doesn’t have bumps? It can still be traveled. So people can fall down: it doesn’t mean they can’t get up again and keep going. 

If one keeps the edges on the road, one can’t go far wrong. True excitement, happiness and joy come from other things, not from broken lives. 

If you can get others to follow the road, you yourself will be free enough to give yourself a chance to discover what real happiness is. 

The way to happiness is a high-speed road to those who know where the edges are. 

You’re the driver. Fare well.

.

Exercise

0. Make sure you have completed the exercise section at Happiness: Precept 21. Study the precept above.

.

1. Contemplate on the following questions and resolve any anomalies that come up by looking at them very closely. 

“Is there anything in the Epilogue that you disagree with?”

“Do you anticipate any difficulty in applying what you read in the epilogue?”

“Do you have any reservations about applying any of the material covered during the Happiness Rundown?”

“Do you have any reservations about getting another or others to apply the material covered during the Happiness Rundown?”

“How do your life and future seem to you now, compared with how they were before the Happiness Rundown?”

.

April 1, 2023 – 8:19 PM Categories: Subject Clearing | Post a comment

Happiness: Precept 21

Reference: The Happiness Rundown

21. FLOURISH AND PROSPER

Sometimes others seek to crush one down, to make nothing out of one’s hopes and dreams, one’s future and one, himself. 

By ridicule and many other means, another who is evil-intentioned toward one can try to bring about one’s decline. 

For whatever reason, efforts to improve oneself, to become happier in life, can become the subject of attacks. 

It is sometimes necessary to handle such directly. But there is a long-range handling that seldom fails. 

What, exactly, are such people trying to do to one? They are trying to reduce one downward. They must conceive that one is dangerous to them in some way: that if one got up in the world, one could be a menace to them. So, in various ways, such seek to depress one’s talents and capabilities. 

Some madmen even have a general plan that goes like this: “If A becomes more successful, A could be a menace to me; therefore I must do all I can to make A less successful.” It never seems to occur to such that their actions might make an enemy out of A even though he was no enemy before. It can be classed as an almost certain way for such madmen to get into trouble. Some do it just from prejudice or because they “don’t like someone.” 

But however it is attempted, the real object of such is to make their target grow less and fail in life. 

The real handling of such a situation and such people, the real way to defeat them, is to flourish and prosper. 

Oh, yes, it is true that such people, seeing one improve his lot, can become frantic and attack all the harder. The thing to do is handle them if one must but don’t give up flourishing and prospering for that is what such people want you to do. 

If you flourish and prosper more and more, such people go into apathy about it; they can give it up completely. 

If one’s aims in life are worthwhile, if one carries them out with some attention to the precepts in this book, if one flourishes and prospers, one certainly will wind up the victor. And, hopefully, without harming a single hair on their heads. 

And that is my wish for you: flourish and prosper!

.

Exercise

0. Make sure you have completed the exercise section at Happiness: Precept 20. Study the precept above.

1. Check the responses to the following questions for false data (see false data steps at Happiness: Prologue).

(a) “Have you been told or taught not to flourish and prosper?”
(b) “Do you have any rules or ideas contrary to flourishing and prospering?”
(c) “Have you been led to believe that you shouldn’t flourish and prosper?”
(d) “Do you know of anything that conflicts with flourishing and prospering?”
(e) “Do you have any false data about flourishing and prospering?”

.

2. Go over each of the following questions repetitively, until there are no more answers: 

(a) “How have others transgressed against the precept: ‘Flourish and prosper’?”
(b) “How have you transgressed against the precept: ‘Flourish and prosper?”

Do a quick review to see if you did not miss any answers on this step. You should be feeling good about this step.

.

3. See if the following question definitely brings up some name you know of:

“Is there any specific person in your past who really transgressed against the precept: ‘Flourish and prosper’?”

If no name comes up then go to step 4. if a name has come up, then continue with step 3 as follows:

“Can you recall an exact moment when you observed ___(name)___ transgressing this precept?”

If there is a realization, go to step 4. Otherwise, continue contemplating as follows, until there is some realization.

“Is there any time when you wanted to be like ___(name)___ ?” 
“Is there any time when you decided that not flourishing and prospering was a good thing?”
“Did you ever do anything bad to ___(name)___ ? (Get all possible answers)
“Are there any differences between ___(name)___ and yourself?”
“Are there any similarities between ___(name)___  and yourself?”

.

4. Handle any anomalies that come up on the following question by looking at the anomaly more closely. 

”Do you have any reservations about flourishing and prospering?”

If the anomaly does not resolve then review the precept as well as all the exercise steps above to see if anything was missed. Then do step 4 again. When there is no anomaly go to step 5.

.

5. Contemplate on the following question.

“Do you have any reservations about getting someone else to flourish and prosper?” 

If any reservation comes up, then consider the following: 

“How would that be a problem?” 

Get answers to this question until there are no reservations.

.

April 1, 2023 – 8:08 PM Categories: Subject Clearing | Post a comment