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The Teaching That Uses No Words
"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding." Albert Einstein
The irony I see is that understanding can only be achieved through ignorance. Nuts! Well, I've got the first part down anyway. :? All I need to is wait for the understanding.
Here is another way to see the idea of peace... [chref=2]Thus War and Peace produce, complement, off-set, harmonize and follow each other;
[/chref]
Geez, that doesn't make for a very uplifting Christmas message does it? :roll:
The irony I see is that understanding can only be achieved through ignorance. Nuts! Well, I've got the first part down anyway. :? All I need to is wait for the understanding.
Here is another way to see the idea of peace... [chref=2]Thus War and Peace produce, complement, off-set, harmonize and follow each other;
[/chref]
Geez, that doesn't make for a very uplifting Christmas message does it? :roll:
Comments
How do we describe [chref=2]the teaching that uses no words[/chref], with words? The simplest reason it uses no words is that the 'teaching' can't be 'taught' through words. Consider these examples: eating too much, not exercising enough, spending too much and saving too little, putting foot in mouth. Simply put, we don't [chref=64]deal with things while they are still nothing[/chref]. Such presence of mind hinges on our desire to [chref=33]persevere[/chref]. And perseverance has little to do with cognition - word and thought. Motivation is the name of this game, and [chref=64]desires not to desire[/chref] is how we play it.
How do we practice it?
Why is [chref=43]the teaching that uses no words is beyond the understanding of all but a very few in the world[/chref]? Because we innately pay more attention to the teaching that uses words! Thus, one of the most effective ways to practice the 'teaching that uses no words' is to listen for what has not been said. Needless to say, it also helps to watch, feel, taste and think what we have not yet seen, felt, tasted and thought. In effect, this is 'reading between the lines' at all levels of perception. We instinctively feel reality lies in 'something', and generally ignore 'nothing'. [chref=11]Yet it is by virtue of Nothing that we gain is Something[/chref]. It is by way of the empty space, the silence, the void that life becomes [chref=70]very easy to understand[/chref].
As a simple example, consider how advertising works. Not simply business ads, but political and religious ones as well. In fact any and all promotion of one's cultural paradigm. We tend to focus on what the ads say, not what they don't say, and down the primrose [chref=53]by-paths[/chref] we go. By 'focusing' on what the ads are not telling us (the 'trade offs'), our understanding and advertising resistance deepens.
What stands in our way?
Naturally, we can imagine 'just doing it'; we can desire to 'just do it'; hence our illusion that we can 'just do it' - the illusion of 'free will' vis-a-vis what ever 'it' may be for us personally. Just flip the switch; just 'say no'... or 'yes'. In truth it's just the opposite, as I see it anyway... [chref=61]In the union of the world, the female always gets the better of the male by stillness. Being still, she takes the lower position.[/chref] The lower position holds the secret to [chref=33]overcoming[/chref] our 'self'. Oh, but, shhhh... don't tell anyone; just imagine how weird it would be if that 'secret' got out.
Results are universal and noticeable!
It is almost uncanny how [chref=66]taking the lower position[/chref] applies to all relationships: parent and child, husband and wife, teacher and student, boss and employee, leader and follower. Even the relationship with our 'selves' (i.e., wild, real self and civilized idealized self). Age old disciplines, like meditation and yoga, don't really teach you anything. However, they are particularly well suited for helping you notice how well you are 'learning' the teaching that uses no words. But, even here, you must 'look' to see. Or, as that old Taoist saying puts it, 'you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink'.
Avoid being [chref=65]hoodwinked[/chref]
Practicing the teaching that uses no words is the surest way to avoid being hoodwinked by people or circumstances. Although, in the end, this just boils down to being hoodwinked by our 'master' - our biology. The teaching that uses no word dwells in the space 'between the lines'. The only way to see it and thus [chref=64]deal with things while they are still nothing[/chref], is to be vigilant each moment. How can we be truly vigilant each moment? Being [chref=15]tentative and hesitant[/chref] each moment forces us to be vigilant. Only when we [chref=71]think that we know[/chref], do we cease being tentative and vigilant... perhaps.
A Taoist Spokesman?
I have always been put off a little by labels like priest, minister, sage, guru, even teacher (hmm, what's that about, symptomatically speaking?) Anyway, in pondering what label to apply for my role at 'Center for Taoist Thought and Fellowship', I ended up with minister, and 'held my nose'. Finally, I think, I've found the shoe that fits my feet. I'm 'a' taoist spokesman. If you're reading this, I may even be 'your' taoist spokesman, but never 'The Taoist Spokesman'. Seeing my role as being a 'spokesman' puts me in the [chref=61]lower position[/chref], given all the negative Tao Te Ching comments concerning words and [chref=56]speaking[/chref]. That should keep the 'spokesman' down to earth.
In the interest of full disclosure...
Although some think of me as a teacher, I see it otherwise. Over the years of teaching this and that, I have noticed that people only learned a particular part of what I taught. I came to realize that '[chref=41]students[/chref]' are the only reality. When I 'teach' what they already know intuitively, 'teaching' happens. When they don't, it doesn't. Naturally, this has also been my experience as a student. Thus, in my view, a teacher is actually more of a leader and ruler in a social hierarchical sense than anything else. So, at best I'm merely a spokesman listening for, and speaking to, that teaching that uses no words. Are you not as well?
I don't know how I missed this aspect as it has been one of my core observations in life. Indeed, I covered it at the bottom of the Buddha page, but never really linked it with 'the teaching that uses no words'. It is pretty obvious, but then alas, how easily the obvious slips by unnoticed. :roll: Anyway...
[chref=2]The teaching that uses no words[/chref] works best simply because we always know better than we ever do. Thus, balance lies in the direction of [chref=2]keeping to the deed that consists in taking no action[/chref], and waiting for what we intuitively [chref=78]know[/chref] to catch up. Innately we [chref=32]know[/chref], but emotion often drives us in the other direction. Simply following yet another 'teaching' that uses words, is a distraction that obstructs self honesty, and the knowing of that which we already [chref=47]know[/chref]. It keeps us looking outward, even if the teaching is about looking inward. We always [chref=71]think that[/chref] we will 'bite the bullet' tomorrow, don't we? Seize the moment. It is all we need do!
Consider this, count from 1 - 10 using fingers. On the 11th you have to consider there is 10 before then you count 1 more to become 11.
Although the idea of Emptiness or Zero comes from India, the conceptual binding into the actualization that we can think beyond the complexity of consistant balancing act we call life (Zhong Yong calls it the middle) comes from confucian theories.
Zero = Empty, very simple logic. However in the same notion is 1+1 really 2? How about 0+0? Simple test and essence of confucian theory comes from adding of tear drops. If you have 1 tear drop and then you add 1 more, you should have 2 tear drops. Mathmatically it is true. However if you droped 2nd tear drop on top of 1st one, you only have 1 seemingly larger (** very important) tear drop. Where did one other actual tear drop go? This isn't some metaphor science, this is an actual response to the ideas that rules our lives. The reader reading this text has 1 idea, then reads 1 such as this one then it becomes the part of the first idea (hopefully seemingly larger but it could have negative effect and bring it to zero). This is just a dust off of Emptiness and its creation in our minds.
No matter who is writing and who is explaining regarding the vast definition and movements of the Eastern Philosophy, emptiness is the core of which all people strive toward and base its ideas from. Many people may consider themselves to be wise and diplomatic and be able to descipher the Republic and consider themselves to have the Truth. Yet at the same time, they fail to commit that people (in real life) have to interact with other people (not just person but starting with family, neighbor, group, city etc etc). Not only do we need to interact but we have to interact sufficiently otherwise we become outcasts. This is the real problem we face and why this emptiness is the most delicate and most difficult translation of its kind.
The same reason is based for western philosophy to literally ridicule and trash the concept and mock the entire thing as the reason that eastern countries have failed. (personally, I would love to see entire Europe in constant battle for 4,000 years and see what kind of theory comes out of it)
0+0 in real life create love, faith, devotion, family, neighborhood, cities, counties, states, countries. Nothing bares nothing thus nothing is everything is written in sanscript but you have to have the knowledge in Chinese emptiness to have such idea. This concept is very dense so I don't expect everyone to get it the first time through it, however I believe what confucious said is true (that man must become age of 30 in order to understand his chi) and believe some of you with enough responsibility will adept to emptiness idea sooner than those without.