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Chapter of the Week: #18 [Archive]
[cite] Lynn Cornish:[/cite]
"Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice" sounds interesting. Maybe I'll look into that one.
It is like one of my most favorite and a really quick read. You should not be diappointed. It is so cool and amazing. Glad you are interested. It is about Ethnobotany, looking for medicinal plants among "primitive" cultures. But the cultures are not so "primitive" after all!
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Note: The Tao Te Ching can be obscure, especially if you think you're supposed to understand what it's saying! We find it easier and more instructive to simply contemplate how the chapter resonates with your personal experience. Becoming more aware at this fundamental level simplifies life. This approach conforms to the view that true knowing lies within ourselves. Thus, when a passage in the scripture resonates, you've found your inner truth. The same applies for when it evokes a question; questions are the grist for self realization.
Chapter 18
When the great way falls into disuse
There is benevolence and rectitude;
When cleverness emerges
There is great hypocrisy;
When the six relations are at variance
There are filial children;
When the state is benighted
There are loyal ministers.
When I feel the great way falls into disuse in my moment, I get knocked off balance and grasp at benevolence and rectitude, among other things, to set life right. Of course, like fighting fire with fire, this simply doesn't work in the long run. It just makes the 'problem' more tangible, giving me something to 'chew on', while [chref=35]the way in its passage through the mouth is without flavor[/chref]... MMmmm... I'll take the way any day - I'm tired of chewing!
The 'biggest dog', whether canine or human*, gets the choicest meat. This instinctive greed is counterbalanced by intimate social dynamics in the group. Alas, civilization loses much of this moderating influence, but not that 'big dog' greed. Civilizations attempt to compensate for this imbalance through [chref=38]benevolence, rectitude, rites[/chref] and the various moral proscriptions those entail. Does it work? Probably to the extent that order is maintained, i.e., [chref=8]In government it is order that matters[/chref]. But, the 'big dog' still gets the choicest meat. That's where cleverness comes in handy for that 'big dog' within each of us...
We are able to [chref=65]cleverly[/chref] rationalize what we [chref=3]desire[/chref], i.e., "it's okay for me to get __(name it)__, because __('justify' it)__, but not him to...". Sure, the great hypocrisy of our double standards allows us to coddle and pursue our [chref=37]desire[/chref] in the short term, but are we truly [chref=7]able to accomplish our private ends[/chref] in the long run? Doubtful, and we lack the self honest to realize our duplicity, so [chref=52]following the constant[/chref] remains rather impossible to [chref=70]understand or put into practice.[/chref]
Social relations are at variance when each of us 'dogs' vies for the choicest __(name it)__. As noted above, civilization exacerbates this through its loss of primal tribal intimacy. So, what do we see? The 'small dog' children follow some 'big dog' [chref=19]sage[/chref] in filial obedience. This occurs at all levels, from families to nations. Inevitably, I suppose, the state is benighted because of our [chref=16]ignorance of the constant[/chref]. The blind 'big dog' leading the blind loyal ministers and filial children.
Do I sound grumpy? Probably, but, I'm not... really. I actually love the natural balance of it all, i.e., nature makes us pay for what we get. Civilization affords us comfort and security, and we pay a price for this. That we want to have it both ways reflects our 'credit card' approach to life. Oddly, this evokes two emotions in me, pity and humor. Hey, is that what irony is?
* For humans, 'big' often translates more into political and informational [chref=65]cleverness[/chref] than body size. Of course, the 'spirit' (greedy instinct) aspect of this is the same regardless of species.
I am currently studying to become a doctor and find difficulty in applying Taoism to the daily grind. I want to use the great way, but do I veer from it by playing the role of healer.
I do not wish to become a doctor in order to feel good about myself for helping others. I simply aim to be altruistic.
Please help. :?
I have come to the conclusion that the answer to every question is mindfulness and the way to mindfulness is meditation. Through mindfulness, it's ironic, you realize that you have no mind, that mind is nothing, has no substance. So from the place of no mind, I believe you can perform a self-less act.
Of course, if you are studying to be a doctor, and you lose your mind, where will you be?
You may be placing a lot of trust in words. That is a no-win situation. That is why 'we' return to [chref=2]practice the teaching that uses no words[/chref]. That may sound a bit obtuse if you are trying "to apply Taoism to the daily grind".
First, think of the Tao as a small 't' tao. Here is the translation of tao ; road, way, path; channel, course; way, path. It isn't anything special, just as walking down a road isn't anything special. Taoism as a 'practice' can be thought of this way: when you are walking down the road, just walk down the road. It is simpler than you can think, literally! So, as Lynn said, mindfulness is the key. Thus, if you are walking down the road, deeply pay attention (100%) to walking down the road!... with none of this multi tasking nonsense. And if you end up becoming a surgeon and are operating on me, you can make that 110%.
If you read everything on this site, you may get so confused :? that you just give up thinking about it... and :shock: , 'it' will be right where you left 'it'. :oops:
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Thank You both for your help. Every little bit helps me along the way.
For me it's a difficult task to find ways of expressing experience with Tao in words. Recently I've been trying to do so and I came across this website while looking into various translations of this particular passage.
I think society attempts to teach us that we are naturally "selfish" and we should act in artificial ways to restrain our greed according to morality, ethics, law, etc. so that we can get along together.... but I think we can shrug these notions off as being contrary to experience.
Why not do just exactly what creates genuine happiness? The people I've met who have managed to get ahold of considerable wealth and power didn't impress me as being happy or fulfilled or even secure. No matter how much control one achieves over the outside world it seems there's always something more to be controlled. The happy people I know are relaxed and loving, not interested in getting a lot nor in trying to be "good".
When living the Tao, I feel so deeply contented and peaceful that I have no urge to contend for "meat' with other dogs. I'd be inclined to feed the skinny ones. The distinction between what is "myself" and what is "other" becomes blurred. In healing another person I would be healing another version of myself. It's actually selfish behavior in that it indulges and expresses the authentic self. No benevolence, no rectitude, no altruism, just being who you naturally are is enough to bring the world into harmony.
That must be like finding a needle in a haystack! Welcome :-D How long have you lived in Thailand? I settled down there in the 60's and had a little bakery in Yasotorn (spelling?) in Eastern Thailand near Laos boarder. Restlessness got the better of me, however. Here is a short post I wrote on my experiences first landing in S.E. Asia: Into the Jungle (It is part of a series my kids want me to do before I forget everything :-? )
Especially if we see that these restrains are 'hoodwinks' set in place to enable mega large societies to exist. The two go hand in hand, just like politics and bureaucracy naturally do. You just can have one without the other. Boo hoo.
The quest for power, as I see it, is a symptom of the lack of 'happiness'. If your content, you are still. Although, too much contentment would interfere with survival. That's never a problem for inner security (a visceral sense of the void) drives all animals to act (from bacteria to humans). The more an individual senses that, and is anxious about that feeling, the more driven to succeed it becomes. This is as true of elk competing for mates as it is of tycoons competing for business, and everything in between (and beyond).
Yes indeed. There is nothing more effective than that. To try to be other than yourself is one of the most ironic aspects of cultures which are always cajoling us to be 'better' than we are. Ha!
I'm still trying to find my way around your website but I see you did a lot of traveling in your younger days.
I left home on my eighteenth birthday and hitched around for a couple of years including India, Thailand, Japan. My big mistake was that I then went "home" to Canada. Spent the next few decades trying to deal with culture shock.
I like the way you talk about the sense of discontent which is the survival drive we so often mistake for the "self". Biologists say that genes drive each organism to consume, compete, reproduce and all that but we humans are too clever to just go on behaving as organisms. Our success (in biological terms) is actually endangering our survival!
Seems to me there is a valuable lifeline in Taoist thought which, when we find it and follow it, can lead us out of the purely biological perspective to a much higher quality of consciousness and more comprehensive sense of identity.
I'm honored that you try
Do I remember right that you gave your age as 61? If so then I was in S.E. Asia, Japan, India etc., during those years when you left. We might have bumped into one another for all I know.
I came back for a brief visit in 71. I found "[chref=22]It is because he does not contend that no one in the empire is in a position to contend with him[/chref]" very helpful in dealing with the culture shock.
I'm not so sure we are all that different from any other animal, other that perhaps thinking we are. Joke is on us. I image it is the thinking that creates the discontent. Thinking turns instinctive needs into desires (which exist in an imagine future and back to an imagined past). As to our survival, I don't think it matters much one way or the other. Deeper down we are all one. For example, the dinosaurs are still around, only in the form of birds; homoeretus is still around as us; neanderthal as well.
Yes, I think so. Although, as they say, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. All other ways of consciousness must be exhausted, worn out, dead ended, failed, etc., before one is thirsty enough to drink from 'taoist waters'. It's a straightforward process: [chref=36] If you would have a thing laid aside,
You must first set it up[/chref]. And each generation must start over, none of this is teachable or learnable. It can only be realized through experience, and experience happens as we live through [chref=51]Circumstances[/chref].
Oh dear,:roll: it's bed time. How the computer sucks away the minutes!!!
"It is because he does not contend that no one in the empire is in a position to contend with him". Yes, at the time I'm sure I would have said that I was just trying to fit in, not contending with anyone, but in a subtle way I was contending with the whole North American culture. Traveling had changed me and, foolishly, I hoped people would respond with interest to my new ideas (age 20, you can imagine). Ha! My experience was irrelevant to my friends who were just getting on with their lives, of course.
"the dinosaurs are still around"... good point. The value of distinguishing between species, groups, even life and non-life is provisional at best. Existence is one continuum we can experience fully if we don't chop it up.
Existence/non-existence? Don't chop!
So, it sounds like we were both in Thailand at the same time, beginning of 68. I just passed through Thailand that time... my sights were on Japan. I met a girl in Malaya which slowed my down for awhile. That was really my life for many years... wander on until I ran out of money and had to settle down to work, or met a girl (or other pleasant situation) which held me still for a time.
Contending is odd really, and can be very subtle as you indicate. I've always been 'outside the loop' socially, but realized not long ago that, in fact, every thing I've ever done has had some core connection with society. And so in one way or another contended in subtle ways. I notice that the more I see my animal reality, the less I contend. So, I think contending has something to do with our view of 'self', or rather our 'social self'. Seeing myself as animal first seems to dissolve the images that would otherwise cause contention.
Like you say "don't chop". I guess seeing myself as just another animal, and nothing much more, is a way or rejoining the brotherhood of life.