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If God, Allah, Tao, Spirits, or Biology Will It So...

CarlCarl
edited June 2008 in 'One Who Knows Does Not Think, Speak Or Write...'
These days I usually settle for saying that essentially it is no different than Buddhism; it is to cultivate and follow one's true nature

And Buddhism, at least as far as his 4 truths are concerned, is easily explained. Although, I'm always awed by the difficulty many have in understanding its simple obvious truth. I expect it is simply that it says what they don't wish to hear. Also, I find we can't really understand what we don't already know intuitively. That's probably another way to say the same thing.

As far as explaining the taoist view: Now I usually say at its core, the taoist view sees words, names, language, and thinking as utterly unreliable ways of knowing. There are more references to this angle than most any other as these chapters (among others) show 1,2,3,4, 5,10,14,15,16,19,20,23,32,56,71,81.

I usually point out the disclaimer with which the Tao Te Ching begins "the tao that can me spoken of is not the constant tao". Saying how this is what truly sets the taoist view apart from all others (as far as I know) is also pretty straight forward.

Comments

  • CarlCarl
    edited December 1969
    From ancient times to the present, people have referred to ‘the grace of God’, ‘the will of Allah’, ‘the Way’, or miscellaneous spirits, as the ultimate governing entity in their lives. How about appointing biology as the intermediary between all of us and the ‘higher power’ of our choosing? Doing so would bring a touch of pseudo ecumenical unity to the brotherhood of man, by leaving one’s favorite [chref=1]name[/chref] for the mystery out of the picture.

    The unity in this is derived from the fact that biology leaves a trail of observable and testable evidence regarding its all encompassing influence on life. Biology controls the nuts and bolts of life completely. Many now accept the evidence for this; another few hundred years, give or take, should see most everyone on board. We are currently at the place where folks like Galileo were five hundred years ago vis-à-vis the physical sciences... and sure, there will always be a few ‘flat earthers’ no matter what.

    Of course, accepting the ultimate primal hold biology (nature) has on us is a bigger blow to the human ego than accepting that the earth rotated around the sun. Still, I reckon the acceptance is inevitable, though I won’t hold my breath. :wink:
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