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Chapter of the Week: #39 [Archive]
I experience irony more as each day passes. I've been wondering what causes this. I suspect that feelings of irony are born at the 'border' between how things actually are, and how my biology along with cultural experience 'believes' they are, or wants them to be. As the years pass, the cultural and biological [chref=65]hoodwink[/chref] wears off a bit, exposing awareness to how things actually are. At those times we become simultaneously aware of two 'paradigms', or rather one paradigm and [chref=19]the uncarved block [/chref] of reality. This induces those funny, ironic, and even spooky feelings. Some example pop to mind...
Kids and the 'Teaching'
From birth, until children gain a solid command of language, they rely on another path to learning. For them, [chref=2]practicing the teaching that uses no words[/chref] is the only teaching that makes sense. However, once our consciousness becomes infused with language things change. From then onward, words become a potent filter of life experience. We then begin living in a 'make believe' world of 'the future' and 'the past'. The irony is that we always think of children as being into 'make believe'. Actually adults are much more susceptible than children to this [chref=53]by-path[/chref].
The fantasy of adulthood
Adults push back on a child's fantasy as noted above. This helps kids know they are just pretending so they don't get ahead of themselves. But we adults have no one to push back on our own fantasies. We don't know that we are just pretending, even though old Shakespear said "the whole world is a stage and we are all actors". We have no Adult adults to bring us down to reality, so we have made up various 'Super Adult' myths (God, Jesus, Buddha...) to serve as role models and to help keep us grounded. It's not that effective, though, because these Super Adults only exist our mind, and thus can only be as effective as our own maturity permits. These role models don't lift us to their level of maturity; rather, we bring them down to our level.
Practicing vs. Playing
What is the difference? Practicing, in practice, often turns out to be nothing more than going through the motions. The mind tells us we 'should' do this or that to become more proficient and so we practice for that 'future'. Simply 'playing', on the other hand is intensely immediate and honest. It is what the other animals do. There is no future, there is no past - only now! There's 'no tomorrow'. Such total 'playing' is done as though we are going to die in the next moment. Thus, without a future moment to look forward to, we can give everything to this '[chref=39]One[/chref]'. The irony is that we often practice for a future that never comes, and squander away a present that is always here.
How do we know we know what we think we know?
We tend to repeat what we 'know' often enough to 'brain wash' ourselves into believing (thinking) that we know - that's education! Education promises to enlighten; instead it narrows the mind to the current culture's paradigm. That is why [chref=48]in the pursuit of learning one knows more every day; in the pursuit of the way one does less every day.[/chref] Do we do one, the other, or both? In the end we must [chref=64]learn to be without learning[/chref], if we ever wish to [chref=47]identify without having to see[/chref].
And last but not least, one of my favorites: [chref=71]To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.[/chref] I've certainly proved that to be true in my own life!
Kids and the 'Teaching'
From birth, until children gain a solid command of language, they rely on another path to learning. For them, [chref=2]practicing the teaching that uses no words[/chref] is the only teaching that makes sense. However, once our consciousness becomes infused with language things change. From then onward, words become a potent filter of life experience. We then begin living in a 'make believe' world of 'the future' and 'the past'. The irony is that we always think of children as being into 'make believe'. Actually adults are much more susceptible than children to this [chref=53]by-path[/chref].
The fantasy of adulthood
Adults push back on a child's fantasy as noted above. This helps kids know they are just pretending so they don't get ahead of themselves. But we adults have no one to push back on our own fantasies. We don't know that we are just pretending, even though old Shakespear said "the whole world is a stage and we are all actors". We have no Adult adults to bring us down to reality, so we have made up various 'Super Adult' myths (God, Jesus, Buddha...) to serve as role models and to help keep us grounded. It's not that effective, though, because these Super Adults only exist our mind, and thus can only be as effective as our own maturity permits. These role models don't lift us to their level of maturity; rather, we bring them down to our level.
Practicing vs. Playing
What is the difference? Practicing, in practice, often turns out to be nothing more than going through the motions. The mind tells us we 'should' do this or that to become more proficient and so we practice for that 'future'. Simply 'playing', on the other hand is intensely immediate and honest. It is what the other animals do. There is no future, there is no past - only now! There's 'no tomorrow'. Such total 'playing' is done as though we are going to die in the next moment. Thus, without a future moment to look forward to, we can give everything to this '[chref=39]One[/chref]'. The irony is that we often practice for a future that never comes, and squander away a present that is always here.
How do we know we know what we think we know?
We tend to repeat what we 'know' often enough to 'brain wash' ourselves into believing (thinking) that we know - that's education! Education promises to enlighten; instead it narrows the mind to the current culture's paradigm. That is why [chref=48]in the pursuit of learning one knows more every day; in the pursuit of the way one does less every day.[/chref] Do we do one, the other, or both? In the end we must [chref=64]learn to be without learning[/chref], if we ever wish to [chref=47]identify without having to see[/chref].
And last but not least, one of my favorites: [chref=71]To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.[/chref] I've certainly proved that to be true in my own life!
Comments
Chapter 39
Of old, these came to be in the possession of the One:
Heaven in virute of the One is limpid;
Earth in virtue of the One is settled;
Gods in virtue of the One have their potencies;
The valley in virtue of the One is full;
The myriad creatures in virtue of the One are alive;
Lords and princes in virtue of the One become leaders in the empire.
It is the One that makes these what they are.
Without what makes it limpid heaven might split;
Without what makes it settled earth might sink;
Without what gives them their potencies gods might spend themselves;
Without what makes it full the valley might run dry;
Without what keeps them alive the myriad creatures might perish;
Without what makes them leaders lords and princes might fall.
Hence the superior must have the inferior as root; the high must have the low as a base.
Thus lords and princes refer to themselves as 'solitary', 'desolate', and
'hapless'. This is taking the inferior as root, is it not?
Hence the highest renown is without renown,
Not wishing to be one among many like jade
Nor to be aloof like stone.
Read commentary previously posted for this chapter.
Of old, these came to be in the possession of the One parallels the Judeo Christian Islamic idea of [chref=4]God[/chref]. It would be [chref=70]very easy[/chref] for the people of the world to 'agree' that [chref=4]God[/chref] is [chref=4]God[/chref], the same for everyone, yet tribal instinct rules, doesn't it. But, that is okay! Once I began seeing us as tribal animals, like every other social animal on the planet, I quit desiring the ideal, e.g., "can't we all just get along". This has made it much easier [chref=16]returning to [the] roots[/chref] of reality.
Speaking of reality, the superior must have the inferior as root is one tough cookie to swallow isn't it? We are instinctively driven to reach for the superior and reject the inferior. We divide the One, seeking to keep the '[chref=2]the beautiful and the good[/chref]' part and toss the 'ugly and the bad'. This is not only futile, but a waste of half of the whole - the One. Oh Nature, you old [chref=65]hoodwinker[/chref] you. Fortunately, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, which means we see what we want to see. Oh yes, it is a bit ironic. The "Dao De Jing" (Tao Te Ching) could be subtitled the "Dao Fan Hua Jing", the "Way of Irony Classic".
Not wishing to be one among many like jade, Nor to be aloof like stone, seems odd at first. Jade is a semiprecious stone, and stone is as common as, well, stones. Today, I interpret this as saying that each of us, though one among the many, still feel ourselves as 'special' like jade (our pesky ego :roll: ). On the other hand, once we pop some of that fantasy, we realize we are as common as stone. Just another animal on the planet. Ironically, that awareness sets us apart, aloof, from [chref=20]the multitude[/chref]. Going from one extreme to the other, only tosses us back and forth. In the end, somewhere in between works better and feels best, like...
[chref=65]Mysterious virtue is profound and far-reaching,
But when things turn back it turns back with them.
Only then is complete conformity realized.[/chref]