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Chapter of the Week: #40 [Archive]
I interpret going with the flow as not resisting what's going on. I have found that the more threatening a situation is, the more difficult it is to let it go. Impossible, really.
So what you are saying, Carl, is that if one can recognize that threat produces its opposite, safety, security, contentment, I would be able to be okay or at least have some wisdom regarding threat.
I'm not holding my breath!
(In very subjective terms, I'm starting to see how threat can produce its opposite. If I weren't so attached to the little secure world I've created, I wouldn't be threatened. If I didn't feel threatened to begin with, I wouldn't need all the stuff I need to feel secure. Am I getting it?)
So what you are saying, Carl, is that if one can recognize that threat produces its opposite, safety, security, contentment, I would be able to be okay or at least have some wisdom regarding threat.
I'm not holding my breath!
(In very subjective terms, I'm starting to see how threat can produce its opposite. If I weren't so attached to the little secure world I've created, I wouldn't be threatened. If I didn't feel threatened to begin with, I wouldn't need all the stuff I need to feel secure. Am I getting it?)
Comments
Chapter 40
Turning back is how the way moves;
Weakness is the means the way employs.
The myriad creatures in the world are born from
Something, and Something from Nothing.
Read commentary previously posted for this chapter.
I link often to this chapter because I feel it sums up, in the succinct way, a Taoist way to approach life. Our main problem lies in jumping ahead of ourselves. Our mind is the culprit. The only way to mitigate our tendency to leap into tomorrow's fantasy land is by turning back as best we can. This is the way the way moves. If we wish to [chref=23]conform to the way[/chref], this is the way we need to 'move', moment to moment. In effect, this 'reverses' awareness and pulls desire away from what we desire in the future to right now.
Thus, desire, focused in the moment [chref=1]allows us to observe its manifestations.[/chref] Ridding ourselves of desires focused in the future enables us [chref=1]to observes its secrets[/chref].
Clearly, instinct prods us into 'going forward' into the future, not turning back. This 'going forward' instinct spurs us into looking for the 'greener grass'. This biological bias insured that our hunter gather ancestors would keep moving and finding what they needed to survive (food!). With the advent of civilization, that instinct is the source of more than a little human suffering.
Simply put, civilization enables us to chase after [chref=46]too many desires[/chref]. We really need to turn back and [chref=16]do [our] utmost to attain emptiness; [and] hold firmly to stillness[/chref], if we wish to recover the natural balance we lose living our civilized tool using life style.
Weakness is the means the way employs brings to my mind the saying, 'nature abhors a vacuum'. I find it very helpful to see all phenomenon as being symptomatic (effects) of this weakness. Knowing that (weakness) is the connection we ALL (living and nonliving alike) have in common helps pull my awareness into [chref=56]mysterious sameness[/chref].
The sense of weakness we feel within ourselves, the 'vacuum', drives all that we do in life. It is not we who are choosing what we do, it is that subconscious sense of weakness that is moving us through life. When we see the objects of our awareness - the external world - in this light, it become much easier to [chref=27]abandon no one[/chref].
Today, my son Kyle said he thought Something from Nothing answers the 'which came first, the chicken or the egg question'. "Correlations" agrees with this view and delves into it further... See, See, Speaking of chickens and eggs: down toward the end of that essay (if you really want to be confused
Ok, weakness is how the way moves. Then you say that weakness is what drives us. When we sense this weakness, we are driven to fill the vacuum. Isn't this the same as being driven my our needs and fears?
So is being driven by needs and fears The Way?
I have a question, but I'm not sure I can articulate it.
Ok, weakness is how the way moves. Then you say that weakness is what drives us. When we sense this weakness, we are driven to fill the vacuum. Isn't this the same as being driven my our needs and fears?
So is being driven by needs and fears The Way?
I think I understand that weakness is how the way moves....the analogy of water seeking the lowest level comes to mind.
For me the turning back comes in as a reminder to me. If I'm lucky, during strong desire I may be able to take a step back to note that desire has a hold of me. Then I may be able to turn away from the desire, from Something, to Nothing.
(Or, I may get caught up in a suspenseful movie, and end up staying up an hour past my bedtime, like last night!)
Thanks, Joe. That reminded me of entropy, how the universe moves towards chaos, or as Paul Simon says, everything put together sooner or later falls apart.
Basically yes, but correlations may help clarify it
Yin=fear=weak, vacuum, nothing, death,...
Yang=need=strong, full, something, life,...
Yin is at the lowest position; Yin 'causes' Yang. Thus, fear 'causes' need, nothing 'causes' something,... and so on. Of course this is a circular process as in [chref=2]Something and Nothing produce each other[/chref]. However, to 'see' this without being overwhelmed by [chref=56]mysterious sameness[/chref], it helps to see this process as all things [chref=40]are born from Something, and Something from Nothing[/chref].
The biology of living things uses [chref=11]Nothing[/chref], a.k.a. 'weakenss, fear, death', to motivate us all (bacteria to humanity) to scurry about - one of Nature's best [chref=65]hoodwinks[/chref] to be sure. 8)
I was thinkingabout how I read only Zen books for 6 years. I never intellectualized, talked about it (which drove Rick crazy!) or tried to hold on to it. I just experienced how I felt reading it and let it sink in. Finally, it did. The same will happen with "Something and nothing produce each other" if I don't die first, and if I do, I guess I'll experience it firsthand. :shock: