I love it! We are doomed! Words are our main way of communicating, words are concepts, hence we are always in an illusion! I like your reinforcing loop better, illusion leads to illusion
PS: I have one big problem, how do I get teenagers ready for the World they will be facing when they graduate from high school. Silence won't do it, and living in the Bible Belt (Tennessee), Tao Te Ching won't do it either! I can get the concept of being in NOW with some them.
I'm looking at this more with my daughter. How can I get her to ______ (fill in the blank.) What I'm more and more reminded of is that I can't get her to do anything.
I think the best I can do as a parent is be as self-honest as I can. Paying attention to reality, which sometimes is having natural or logical consequences happen to Allie. For example, if she can't get up in the morning, to get started on whatever we need to do, then she needs to get to bed earlier.
I'm letting go of trying to "instill healthy sleeping patterns" for when she grows up. Who knows what influence my rules and consequences will have for her in the long-term. But sticking to "basics", and not trying to get around the "suffering" inherent in life, (have our cake and eat it too) I think is the best I can focus on as a parent. More attention to short-term pain, long-term gain.
I don't have children so take this with a grain of salt if you wish. I remember being a teenager, though.
I think you are right, Joe: you can't get her to do anything. Wisdom comes with age and experience and so the best you can do is support her through life's experiences, whatever they are for her, and let her live her own journey.
I remember: the more I was told to go to bed early, the later I wanted to stay up. Till I was living on my own, could stay up as long as I wanted, and went to bed because I needed the sleep.
This reminds me of something that might be effective (ha ha). When you leave the gate open the cow does not want to leave the pasture (ha ha) Hence, leave the gate open.
In all serious try to get kids to like math and science. I am volunteer math and science tutor. You think you have problems (Haha).
[cite] Allandnone:[/cite]The bottom line is "just be"!
But, isn't it somewhat difficult to "just be" given we often fail to [chref=70]understand [/chref] what it means to "just be", practically speaking.
[chref=43]Understanding[/chref] plays a key role in "just being". And when understanding wanes, what then? Ignorance waxes - waxing and waning, waning and waxing. Round and round we go, with understanding and ignorance [chref=2]following, off-setting, complementing, producing... each other[/chref].
My, it is a [chref=32]small[/chref] world isn't it? Now to consolidate the view even further, I'd say that ignorance = instinct, or does understanding = instinct. Usually, I see it as the former, and yet are they not [chref=56]mysteriously the same[/chref]? Feel that connection and one can not help but [chref=2]practice the teaching that uses no words[/chref]. Failing that, one can not help but "just be", and perhaps that is part of our problem! Calling this ironic would probably be an understatement. It is just weird.
[cite] Allandnone:[/cite]...Words are our main way of communicating,
... I can get the concept of being in NOW with some them.
... We aren't usually, or truly, communicating in the way we [chref=71]think[/chref]. It's a social dynamic; We use words just as dogs use smell to 'communicate'... and thankfully so, eh?
... I find that I can only "get the concept" of something across to another if they already [chref=47]know[/chref] the core that underlies "the concept". Or in dog terms, they feel the 'odor' of my words. Kids would probably know the core of "being in the NOW" in terms of basketball, skateboard,... (i.e., playing activity); eating ice cream, listening to music,... (i.e. feeling pleasure); stubbing a toe, sunburn,... (i.e. feeling pain). "Being in the NOW" as in [chref=16]doing one's utmost to attain emptiness, and holding firmly to stillness[/chref] depends mostly upon one's depth of [chref=51]maturity[/chref] I suppose.
Now, due to [chref=9]wealth and position[/chref], our whole culture is immature - quick fixes, clamoring for immediate gratification, credit card debt, gluttony, whiney carping. Kids reared under such circumstances are at a disadvantage initially, though it may all evens out eventually, i.e., [chref=36]if you would have a thing laid aside, you must first set it up[/chref]. Isn't it wonderful how Nature balance everything out. It is just often hard for us to perceive this because we are blinding by our own [chref=19]desires[/chref].
I suspect that the only real 'tool' an adult has is patience and remembering [chref=43]the benefit of resorting to no action[/chref]. This allows everyone to suffer the consequence of their own desires, and from that suffering comes an opportunity (not a guarantee) to [chref=33]know himself[/chref] more deeply.
[cite] Allandnone:[/cite]... try to get kids to like math and science.
Well, you give them the opportunity, but they must feel the thirst. How do you get someone to 'feel thirst'? Like the old saying says, 'you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink'.
The words "just be" make me want append "present." Just be present. And like you say: "Being in the NOW" as in doing one's utmost to attain emptiness", leads me to "just be nothing."
Didn't someone ask Buddha who he was and he responded "I am awake."
Tao Ching and Te Ching 1990s excavation for the bamboo scriptures show line 38 to be presented in front so it reads Te Tao Ching. Lol.
Te itself has so much painful lessens I bet most of you will drool in weep in tears if anything
Tao is so mythical yet so simple most of you won't even recognize it by writing what I have on my notes from the lecture series
why?
someone said experience?
hmm... no...
this has something to do wtih inateness in human mind. I bet some of you have never heard something like this since most of the translation is written in something like hyoku meets rhetoric est 1922 when Russel wrote problems with china. Does anyone remembers the rationalization? How our minds rationalize information as it presents itself with our lives?
This is bunch of BS. I don't need to rationalize that crying baby wants his/her mom for nurchering. I don't need to hear large noise to describe that it is a thunder (金剛經). There is no rationalization needed to feed my children. Once again this is just a tip of a dust that assembles the inatenes s in human mind. I would wish everyone had a chance to read more of the better translated books in reverence of original context and meaning rather than some simple terms and hier-gyphic-jibberish they present as knowledgiable individuals.
Hi Joe,
Perhaps the following may be helpful. This is what I try to do when working with teenagers on a one to one basis: 1. Treating them as an equal is very important, 2. Show respect, patience and above all believe in them, and 3. Do not just point your finger and do the "what I say approach".
Hopefully this is helpful. I am sharing this with you because one of my past students recently emailed me and said this is what worked with her. I did not even know that this was what I was doing.
Cheers,
Allandnone
Yes, yes, yes, Allandnone. The ironic thing is that we are really no different than the kids, except perhaps a bit less 'energetic'. I suppose the "point your finger" approach comes more from trying to convince ourselves we are 'right' in the hope of shoring up our own insecurity.
I am seriously considering teaching meditation to my teenage students, with parent permission, of course. Has anyone successfully taught teenagers how to meditate, if so, how?
First, I must ask what you mean by meditation. I suspect that the more clearly you can answer that, the more clearly you will see how to approach this project. A few things stand out for me as I answer that question for myself:
1) a sense of giving, 2) a sense of taking great care, 3) a sense of great nothingness (which probably connected to the giving, in that when you are giving all, you are 'empty without being exhausted', as the Tao Te Ching would say.)
Once I know what I mean by the word meditation, I can observe the student's reality and see what elements of these qualities are in decline.
The problem is, as with 'getting a horse to drink water', how to spark another person's interest in doing something - anything - in a meditative approach,( i.e., incorporating those definitions I gave above) before one has experienced the benefit of approaching life that way. Most people probably get really serious about approaching their life differently after have a crisis of consciousness. Kids are more in the stage of "setting it up" which paves the way for later "laying it aside"... If you would have a thing laid aside, You must first set it up.
Also, for kids, sitting forms of meditation may not be that inspiring. So what is?
If you know what inspires someone, you can use that as a vehicle for them to apply the essence of meditation. Anything done with a meditative quality will give back to the giver many time over what they 'gave'. Again, the trick is to get someone to believe that before they have experience it.
But, in truth everyone has experience that, though many don't see the principle involved or how it applies to their life in general.
Well, I've managed to talk all around the question. If it were me, I guess I would experiment, keeping in mind some of these basic issues of what meditation actually is.
I'd try some basic yoga before meditation. It seems more practical for kids to move around and be active than to sit still and do "nothing." You might want to consistently reiterate to relax and be aware of your breath during the poses. Maybe tell them to close their eyes and just become aware of their breath and body. After all, this seems to be the "gateway," at least in my experience, and it doesn't need much explaining.
Get some of that mediation fluff music on iTunes and play it for them. Kids minds are malleable and the soft music will likely go a long way.
Yes, meditation through action is what appeals to most kids. Archery, Zen style, comes to mind. Anything 'zen style' would work. The task is to plant the connection in their minds. The 'coolness' of perfection in everything you do. Actions that have appeal would be easier to start the ball rolling: karate, judo, shodo.
The aspect I most appreciated about Japan was how the spiritual ideal (zen and such) was integrated into every activity mundane or other wise. Of course, the individual must step up to the plate to bring the ideal into the real, but at least having this cultural paradigm sets the stage for one. No other culture that I know of has such a thorough wedding of the spiritual idea and action. Certainly not Western cultures.
How to get kids to see that 'watchful action' (i.e., meditation) will give them what they truly want in life? In raising my sons I've had years to instill that sense. Still, if there is pain and loneliness, there is bound to be a receptiveness. Find the cracks in the shield people erect exposes a point of entry.
Of action, any action can be the vehicle. So, perhaps use actions that are already part of their life. I guess what I'm getting at here is that you will have better luck if you use what is important to them as a vehicle to teach the 'meditation'. This parallels how Christians used the pagan solstice to make Christmas. Building upon what is already there is the way, I reckon. :-)
Enriched by the above thoughts about The Way, I cannot help a somewhat provocative comment. Is the fact that we are communicating, using words, not counter too the very essence of the teaching?
Of course, we cannot sit together under the stars, looking into the fire in silence for hours, while the stars slowly traverse the night sky overhead. But that seems to me to bring one so much closer to Tao than a mere exchange of words.
I know what you mean. Although it seems contradictory, it isn't really - in my view. Here goes….
Words for human animals serves the same purpose as grooming rituals do for monkeys. Social species have their various means of connecting and communicating with one another. Examples abound like the things dogs, ants, bees, ducks, and the other social species do to connect and communicate. We use words, not only to connect and communicate with each other, but to connect and communicate with ourselves via thoughts. The later (i.e., inner conversation) is the odd part, and probably not shared by other animals because they have no 'out of body mind' to speak of.
I see the "teaching's" main point is really this: Don't trust words, names and thought to accurately represent reality and truth. Most, if not all, of our difficulties arise from trusting language, words, names - thinking. Chapter 71 speaks to this:
"To know yet to think that one does not know" acknowledges the fact that we think, i.e., use words to speak to ourselves. "Think that one knows will lead to difficulty" points to the fact that trusting our thinking causes us difficulty.
In short, our problem is not "communicating, using words". Our problem is thinking that words convey reality and truth. "To know yet to think that one does not know" is another way to say, don't trust thinking, speaking, word and names. And yes, as chapter 78 puts it, Straightforward words seem paradoxical.
Why do we trust words so? In a word, emotion! Take the emotion out of word meaning and meaning is lost. Emotion is the same visceral energy that drives a dog to trust scents or a bee to trust the 'bee dance'.
Another reason we rely on words so much is that they are so cheap and easy to use. If I had to do a push up for each word I typed, this reply would be much much shorter! ;-)
I basically agree with you. And since the tao sees nothing as bad, I am not denouncing the use of words. They are, after all, so readily available (let me be a little provocative again: Like monoculture produce, television, coca cola and chips).
I have tried to convey my reflections in a combination of imagery and quotes here (Many images, may take a little while too load):
Feel free to be a provocative as you like! I don't hold anything back either as you can see. Now if I could just be more brief.
That set of pictures sure conveys things easier than words can! Like they say "a picture is worth a thousand words".
It is not surprising, then, that images also convey personal biases a thousand times more powerfully than words do (except for the image; shadowy and indistinct, of course).
So, I imagine images covey the teaching that uses no words, the benefit of resorting to no action, even worse than words do, being as how powerful images convey personal bias. Now, this doesn't apply to ambient images, i.e., those sights and sound 'out there' which we sense constantly. Bias occurs when we are either attracted or repulsed by what we see. This attraction or repulsion just mirrors our own inner needs and fears, i.e., meaning is in the eye of the beholder.
This is not to say having biases, desires and thoughts of self are wrong, bad, and to be avoided. After all, If you would have a thing laid aside, You must first set it up;, and so on. Youth is chock full with many thoughts of self and desires. Maturity is the process of gradually leaving much of that behind. Not because we 'try to' mind you. It happens naturally.
I see the 'teaching' as just giving us clues about where the true source of our difficulties lie; after all, it is by being alive to difficulty that one can avoid it. Knowing that thoughts of self and desire make life more difficult can at least tell us who to 'blame' for our difficulties.
I understand your passion against "monoculture produce, television, coca cola and chips". I find that the world we think we see 'out there' is actually only a reflection of our own desires and fears. Nevertheless, we instinctively see the world 'out there' as somehow real and 'objective' in its own right. All animals do this. We are unique in that we use words and names to nail down a conceptual sense of objective reality.
Of course, nature has set us (and all living things) up to respond and react to the stimuli as though it were reality, not as some projection of our own needs and fears. Basically, biology does not use it to enlighten the people [and all living things] but to hoodwink them. Humans increase their difficulties by thinking. Having words and names allows us to dwell on issues for years. Other animals can drop most of hoodwink as soon as the stimuli fades.
The beauty of taoist thought is that it attempts to help us peel away some of that hoodwink, not that it succeeds mind you. But, no matter, after all Great perfection seems chipped.
Comments
If we're playing the 'sum it up game' then here's my roll..
Its an illusion that its an illusion.
or is that just a constant that can be named? :P round.. and round.. i'm dizzy.
:roll: Well, that levels out any of the value I inev[chref=5]i[/chref]tably enjoy giving to 'my conclusions'
... oh the irony, oh the mixed bag.
PS: I have one big problem, how do I get teenagers ready for the World they will be facing when they graduate from high school. Silence won't do it, and living in the Bible Belt (Tennessee), Tao Te Ching won't do it either! I can get the concept of being in NOW with some them.
I think the best I can do as a parent is be as self-honest as I can. Paying attention to reality, which sometimes is having natural or logical consequences happen to Allie. For example, if she can't get up in the morning, to get started on whatever we need to do, then she needs to get to bed earlier.
I'm letting go of trying to "instill healthy sleeping patterns" for when she grows up. Who knows what influence my rules and consequences will have for her in the long-term. But sticking to "basics", and not trying to get around the "suffering" inherent in life, (have our cake and eat it too) I think is the best I can focus on as a parent. More attention to short-term pain, long-term gain.
I think you are right, Joe: you can't get her to do anything. Wisdom comes with age and experience and so the best you can do is support her through life's experiences, whatever they are for her, and let her live her own journey.
I remember: the more I was told to go to bed early, the later I wanted to stay up. Till I was living on my own, could stay up as long as I wanted, and went to bed because I needed the sleep.
In all serious try to get kids to like math and science. I am volunteer math and science tutor. You think you have problems (Haha).
[chref=43]Understanding[/chref] plays a key role in "just being". And when understanding wanes, what then? Ignorance waxes - waxing and waning, waning and waxing. Round and round we go, with understanding and ignorance [chref=2]following, off-setting, complementing, producing... each other[/chref].
My, it is a [chref=32]small[/chref] world isn't it? Now to consolidate the view even further, I'd say that ignorance = instinct, or does understanding = instinct. Usually, I see it as the former, and yet are they not [chref=56]mysteriously the same[/chref]? Feel that connection and one can not help but [chref=2]practice the teaching that uses no words[/chref]. Failing that, one can not help but "just be", and perhaps that is part of our problem! Calling this ironic would probably be an understatement. It is just weird.
... We aren't usually, or truly, communicating in the way we [chref=71]think[/chref]. It's a social dynamic; We use words just as dogs use smell to 'communicate'... and thankfully so, eh?
... I find that I can only "get the concept" of something across to another if they already [chref=47]know[/chref] the core that underlies "the concept". Or in dog terms, they feel the 'odor' of my words. Kids would probably know the core of "being in the NOW" in terms of basketball, skateboard,... (i.e., playing activity); eating ice cream, listening to music,... (i.e. feeling pleasure); stubbing a toe, sunburn,... (i.e. feeling pain). "Being in the NOW" as in [chref=16]doing one's utmost to attain emptiness, and holding firmly to stillness[/chref] depends mostly upon one's depth of [chref=51]maturity[/chref] I suppose.
Now, due to [chref=9]wealth and position[/chref], our whole culture is immature - quick fixes, clamoring for immediate gratification, credit card debt, gluttony, whiney carping. Kids reared under such circumstances are at a disadvantage initially, though it may all evens out eventually, i.e., [chref=36]if you would have a thing laid aside, you must first set it up[/chref]. Isn't it wonderful how Nature balance everything out. It is just often hard for us to perceive this because we are blinding by our own [chref=19]desires[/chref].
I suspect that the only real 'tool' an adult has is patience and remembering [chref=43]the benefit of resorting to no action[/chref]. This allows everyone to suffer the consequence of their own desires, and from that suffering comes an opportunity (not a guarantee) to [chref=33]know himself[/chref] more deeply.
Well, you give them the opportunity, but they must feel the thirst. How do you get someone to 'feel thirst'? Like the old saying says, 'you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink'.
The words "just be" make me want append "present." Just be present. And like you say: "Being in the NOW" as in doing one's utmost to attain emptiness", leads me to "just be nothing."
Didn't someone ask Buddha who he was and he responded "I am awake."
but let me start off by stating this...
Tao Te Ching is 2 books
Tao Ching and Te Ching 1990s excavation for the bamboo scriptures show line 38 to be presented in front so it reads Te Tao Ching. Lol.
Te itself has so much painful lessens I bet most of you will drool in weep in tears if anything
Tao is so mythical yet so simple most of you won't even recognize it by writing what I have on my notes from the lecture series
why?
someone said experience?
hmm... no...
this has something to do wtih inateness in human mind. I bet some of you have never heard something like this since most of the translation is written in something like hyoku meets rhetoric est 1922 when Russel wrote problems with china. Does anyone remembers the rationalization? How our minds rationalize information as it presents itself with our lives?
This is bunch of BS. I don't need to rationalize that crying baby wants his/her mom for nurchering. I don't need to hear large noise to describe that it is a thunder (金剛經). There is no rationalization needed to feed my children. Once again this is just a tip of a dust that assembles the inatenes s in human mind. I would wish everyone had a chance to read more of the better translated books in reverence of original context and meaning rather than some simple terms and hier-gyphic-jibberish they present as knowledgiable individuals.
Goodluck to you all~
Perhaps the following may be helpful. This is what I try to do when working with teenagers on a one to one basis: 1. Treating them as an equal is very important, 2. Show respect, patience and above all believe in them, and 3. Do not just point your finger and do the "what I say approach".
Hopefully this is helpful. I am sharing this with you because one of my past students recently emailed me and said this is what worked with her. I did not even know that this was what I was doing.
Cheers,
Allandnone
1) a sense of giving, 2) a sense of taking great care, 3) a sense of great nothingness (which probably connected to the giving, in that when you are giving all, you are 'empty without being exhausted', as the Tao Te Ching would say.)
Once I know what I mean by the word meditation, I can observe the student's reality and see what elements of these qualities are in decline.
The problem is, as with 'getting a horse to drink water', how to spark another person's interest in doing something - anything - in a meditative approach,( i.e., incorporating those definitions I gave above) before one has experienced the benefit of approaching life that way. Most people probably get really serious about approaching their life differently after have a crisis of consciousness. Kids are more in the stage of "setting it up" which paves the way for later "laying it aside"... If you would have a thing laid aside, You must first set it up.
Also, for kids, sitting forms of meditation may not be that inspiring. So what is?
If you know what inspires someone, you can use that as a vehicle for them to apply the essence of meditation. Anything done with a meditative quality will give back to the giver many time over what they 'gave'. Again, the trick is to get someone to believe that before they have experience it.
But, in truth everyone has experience that, though many don't see the principle involved or how it applies to their life in general.
Well, I've managed to talk all around the question. If it were me, I guess I would experiment, keeping in mind some of these basic issues of what meditation actually is.
Perhaps someone else has a more practical answer?
Get some of that mediation fluff music on iTunes and play it for them. Kids minds are malleable and the soft music will likely go a long way.
The aspect I most appreciated about Japan was how the spiritual ideal (zen and such) was integrated into every activity mundane or other wise. Of course, the individual must step up to the plate to bring the ideal into the real, but at least having this cultural paradigm sets the stage for one. No other culture that I know of has such a thorough wedding of the spiritual idea and action. Certainly not Western cultures.
How to get kids to see that 'watchful action' (i.e., meditation) will give them what they truly want in life? In raising my sons I've had years to instill that sense. Still, if there is pain and loneliness, there is bound to be a receptiveness. Find the cracks in the shield people erect exposes a point of entry.
Of action, any action can be the vehicle. So, perhaps use actions that are already part of their life. I guess what I'm getting at here is that you will have better luck if you use what is important to them as a vehicle to teach the 'meditation'. This parallels how Christians used the pagan solstice to make Christmas. Building upon what is already there is the way, I reckon. :-)
Of course, we cannot sit together under the stars, looking into the fire in silence for hours, while the stars slowly traverse the night sky overhead. But that seems to me to bring one so much closer to Tao than a mere exchange of words.
But do keep on posting, it is inspiring
Words for human animals serves the same purpose as grooming rituals do for monkeys. Social species have their various means of connecting and communicating with one another. Examples abound like the things dogs, ants, bees, ducks, and the other social species do to connect and communicate. We use words, not only to connect and communicate with each other, but to connect and communicate with ourselves via thoughts. The later (i.e., inner conversation) is the odd part, and probably not shared by other animals because they have no 'out of body mind' to speak of.
I see the "teaching's" main point is really this: Don't trust words, names and thought to accurately represent reality and truth. Most, if not all, of our difficulties arise from trusting language, words, names - thinking. Chapter 71 speaks to this:
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.
It is by being alive to difficulty that one can avoid it. The sage meets with
no difficulty. It is because he is alive to it that he meets with no difficulty.
"To know yet to think that one does not know" acknowledges the fact that we think, i.e., use words to speak to ourselves. "Think that one knows will lead to difficulty" points to the fact that trusting our thinking causes us difficulty.
In short, our problem is not "communicating, using words". Our problem is thinking that words convey reality and truth. "To know yet to think that one does not know" is another way to say, don't trust thinking, speaking, word and names. And yes, as chapter 78 puts it, Straightforward words seem paradoxical.
Why do we trust words so? In a word, emotion! Take the emotion out of word meaning and meaning is lost. Emotion is the same visceral energy that drives a dog to trust scents or a bee to trust the 'bee dance'.
Another reason we rely on words so much is that they are so cheap and easy to use. If I had to do a push up for each word I typed, this reply would be much much shorter! ;-)
I basically agree with you. And since the tao sees nothing as bad, I am not denouncing the use of words. They are, after all, so readily available (let me be a little provocative again: Like monoculture produce, television, coca cola and chips).
I have tried to convey my reflections in a combination of imagery and quotes here (Many images, may take a little while too load):
http://www.123hjemmeside.dk/filosofus/35401818
Feel free to be a provocative as you like! I don't hold anything back either as you can see. Now if I could just be more brief.
That set of pictures sure conveys things easier than words can! Like they say "a picture is worth a thousand words".
It is not surprising, then, that images also convey personal biases a thousand times more powerfully than words do (except for the image; shadowy and indistinct, of course).
So, I imagine images covey the teaching that uses no words, the benefit of resorting to no action, even worse than words do, being as how powerful images convey personal bias. Now, this doesn't apply to ambient images, i.e., those sights and sound 'out there' which we sense constantly. Bias occurs when we are either attracted or repulsed by what we see. This attraction or repulsion just mirrors our own inner needs and fears, i.e., meaning is in the eye of the beholder.
One of the main themes in the Tao Te Ching is impartiality. Put another: Exhibit the unadorned and embrace the uncarved block, have little thought of self and as few desires as possible.
This is not to say having biases, desires and thoughts of self are wrong, bad, and to be avoided. After all, If you would have a thing laid aside, You must first set it up;, and so on. Youth is chock full with many thoughts of self and desires. Maturity is the process of gradually leaving much of that behind. Not because we 'try to' mind you. It happens naturally.
I see the 'teaching' as just giving us clues about where the true source of our difficulties lie; after all, it is by being alive to difficulty that one can avoid it. Knowing that thoughts of self and desire make life more difficult can at least tell us who to 'blame' for our difficulties.
I understand your passion against "monoculture produce, television, coca cola and chips". I find that the world we think we see 'out there' is actually only a reflection of our own desires and fears. Nevertheless, we instinctively see the world 'out there' as somehow real and 'objective' in its own right. All animals do this. We are unique in that we use words and names to nail down a conceptual sense of objective reality.
Of course, nature has set us (and all living things) up to respond and react to the stimuli as though it were reality, not as some projection of our own needs and fears. Basically, biology does not use it to enlighten the people [and all living things] but to hoodwink them. Humans increase their difficulties by thinking. Having words and names allows us to dwell on issues for years. Other animals can drop most of hoodwink as soon as the stimuli fades.
The beauty of taoist thought is that it attempts to help us peel away some of that hoodwink, not that it succeeds mind you. But, no matter, after all Great perfection seems chipped.
Well, time to go pick weeds!