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Embodying the Tao

7/19/2016

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PictureChinese bone oracle script for "de" or virtue. From the 2nd millennium BCE.
A companion piece to Finding the Tao Within

People who embody the Tao are called by different names in different translations of the Tao Te Ching - sages, masters, holy men, wise men (though the original text doesn't distinguish gender). And these are the people we are called on to emulate. Throughout the text, their virtues are listed and praised.

What follows is my attempt to create a complete and yet succinct list of the characteristics of those who embody the Tao. I suppose I do so in hopes that in remembering to practice these virtues I too might come to embody the Tao, even if only for small moments here and there.

Contentment

Those who embody the Tao
  • Practice contentment; they are free from desire and unaffected by temptations and distraction. They accept what arises and are content and accepting of themselves
  • Do not strive and do not seek success
  • Let go of plans and concepts; they do not set goals
  • Do not chase after what is difficult to obtain
  • Do not wish to stand out but prefer to blend in
  • And they are accepting of death​​

Wu-wei (non-doing)

Those who embody the Tao
  • Practice not-doing; they are unmoving and do not seek
  • Act without action; work without effort; teach without words
  • Let actions come spontaneously
  • Have learned to stop thinking and stop learning; they do not look to others to tell them what to value
  • Practice non-interference and do not meddle; they stay uninvolved

Detachment

Those who embody the Tao
  • Are detached from their actions
  • Don’t try to control things or impose their will on others
  • Have no expectations; they act without agenda
  • Do not cling to the outcome of their work
  • Don’t shy away from something because they may have to give up comfort, because they are not attached to comfort.

Simplicity

Those who embody the Tao
  • Practice simplicity; they conserve time and energy
  • Practice moderation; they eliminate extremes and avoid complexity
  • Focus on basic needs and live simply
  • Stay composed; they don’t become restless; they don’t rush or scurry
  • Do only what needs to be done, and they ask for nothing in return

Non-competitiveness

Those who embody the Tao
  • Manage the ego
  • Are humble and selfless
  • Are unconcerned about ego-gratification; they don’t seek approval or become arrogant or self-satisfied
  • Are not greedy
  • Do not try to put themselves ahead or above anyone
  • Do not seek faults in others
  • Don’t compare or compete; they do not rejoice or gloat in defeating an enemy

Silence, solitude, peace

Those who embody the Tao
  • Practice quietude; they do not talk more than is necessary
  • Practice serenity and tranquility
  • Value peace
  • Embrace solitude

Impartiality & Compassion

Those who embody the Tao
  • Are kind
  • Are impartial they treat everyone and everything as equally valuable; they don’t close their minds with judgments
  • Practice compassion, even toward the ignorant, the bad, or an enemy; they care for all things and people; they are available to all people
  • Are tolerant and amused

Integrity

Those who embody the Tao
  • Are forthright; they do not use cunning or contrivance
  • Have integrity; they are genuine and incorruptible
  • Are dignified and courteous; they respect themselves and others
  • Don’t practice superficial virtues to look good to others
  • Abide in the depth of substance, in what is real
  • Are aware when things are out of balance; they assess situations without becoming part of them
  • Maintain awareness of what is essential, the heart of each matter; they are able to read situations and respond appropriately without ever leaving their calm center
  • Are circumspect and serious when it is called for
  • Do not forget their humanness
  • Understand the whole and view the parts with compassion
  • Admit to faults and to not knowing; they know that they do not know
  • Are careful and alert; they are as careful at the end as at the beginning
  • Fulfill obligations and correct their mistakes

Patience and acceptance

Those who embody the Tao
  • Are patient; they allow things to unfold, to take their natural course, to come and go; they have faith in the way things are
  • Keep their hearts open
  • Trust their inner vision; they remain open so they can listen to their intuition
  • Are loose and fluid; they are receptive, supple, yielding, weak, bending, flexible
  • Do not become defensive
  • Embrace paradox; they understand they must let go to receive; be weak to find strength; be soft to endure; They recognize that the Tao/true virtue may appear otherwise from outside: great integrity can appear like disgrace; perfection can seem flawed; fullness can seem empty
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Finding the Tao Within

7/18/2016

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PictureDetail from Celtic Horse Gear, Santon, Norfolk. Mid-first Century AD. Photo by Gun Powder Ma. CC BY-SA 3.0
Like the philosophy it espouses, the Tao Te Ching is a fluid text. It meanders this way and that, whirls in gentle circles, and burbles along contentedly. Reading it is like sitting by a quietly flowing stream.

After working with various versions of the Tao these past few weeks, I found myself seeking straightforward answers. What exactly should I be doing? How can I turn this babbling brook into a directed stream?

The irony! I get it. Studying the Tao Te Ching is a practice in itself. In its roundabout way, it plants the seeds of patience and contentment and then nourishes them. Wanting to streamline the Tao is like wanting to hurry along the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly. It will take its time.

Be that as it may, I did find the following exercise useful in digging deep into the text and to settling my mind. What I did was this, I sat with two versions, Derek Lin's and Stephen Mitchell's, and went through chapter by chapter writing out every piece of advice, every line that gave a command (do this/be this), and every example of what sages and masters do or are. Then I organized them by theme, while putting them in my own much less formal language. 

These ideas, it turned out, could be separated into two categories: (1) finding the Tao within and (2) virtues of the person who is at one with the Tao. Here I'll post the former, with the latter to follow soon.

How to Find the Tao

The Practices
  • The Tao is within. There is no reason to seek it outside of yourself.
  • In order to tune in to the Tao, practice
    • Relaxation
    • Observation
    • Quiet introspection
    • Concentration
  • Work at understanding yourself.
  • Step back from your own mind. Do not cling to ideas. Know that names and institutions are provisional, not the Tao. Empty your mind of what you think you know about the world.
  • Realize all things change and don’t hold on to them.
  • Cultivate the Tao quietly.

About the Practices
  • Through these practices, develop emptiness, non-being, space within.
  • Keep to the discipline and don’t be lured by shortcuts.
  • The process is gradual and steady.
  • When you identify with the Tao
    • You will stay centered in oneness and let things take their course.
    • You will see the world as yourself.
    • You will be at ease.
    • There will be no need to practice individual virtues; virtue arises spontaneously.
Next time, the spontaneously arising virtues . . . 
Picture
Laozi. Photo by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra. CC BY 2.0
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Brahman, the Tao, and the Ground of Being

7/9/2016

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​Before they reach it, words turn back
together with the mind;
One who knows that bliss of brahman,
he is never afraid.
Taittiriya Upanishad, 2.9.1

The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao
The name than can be named is not the eternal name
Tao Te Ching, 1
​The crux of the issue in talking about mystical experiences is that they are beyond words. Luckily, this hasn’t kept mystics from attempting to describe their experiences, mostly at the request of others. But their descriptions are littered with paradox and negatives; for example, ultimate reality, it is said, is both immanent and transcendent, and yet neither of these nor both together adequately captures it.

And yet we must persist for several reasons:
  • to keep the highest goal ever present in our awareness
  • to filter into our lives what truths we can
  • to make space for those pauses while reading or writing, contemplating or meditating, when we settle into stillness and the ultimate manifests within
  • to remind ourselves to listen closely so that we might hear the gentle or cataclysmic guidance it offers
  • and to let it quietly color our perspective, transforming how we experience and interact with the world.

​Brahman and the Tao

PictureNaturally Grown Wood by Ewig Lernender, CC BY-SA 3.0
Brahman and the Tao are both mystical ontological concepts that attempt to convey what cannot be conveyed in words or even completely comprehended by the rational mind. They may, and I like to think they do, symbolize the same subject, which is whatever we are experiencing when we have that feeling, that numinous sense, that we’ve tapped into the very structure of existence.

Brahman, in Upanishadic and Vedantic philosophy, is the all-encompassing whole. It is being and consciousness. It is all matter and energy. Brahman is everything and everything is Brahman. Many of its descriptors make it sound like something static, but Brahman is also process. It is the living breath of the universe.

The Tao, the ancient Chinese philosophical concept on which Taoism is based, is described in much more fluid terms. It is the principle by which all of nature unfolds. The Tao is the balance of opposites. It is the deep, immovable way of the world that, if we can reconnect to it and live in accord with it, produces harmony in our lives.

These words, the Tao and Brahman, are meant to express the all-embracing principle, process, and spirit of both what is and what is always becoming. Neither seeks to posit something separate from us. We are always part of the whole that is Being. We just fail to remember it.

Sages in both traditions recommend similar practices to help us tune in to this ultimate essence: observation and awareness of self, other, and nature, exemplary ethics, compassion, silence, meditation—all methods of loosening the grip of the ego personality and overcoming our perceived separateness.
​
And eventually they say, with enough dedication and practice, we can become living representations of the Tao, of Brahman. We can relax, having no fear, because there is nothing separate from Being and therefore nothing to fear. We don’t have to act, because it is the process that acts, not us. Wisdom arises spontaneously.

Ground of Being

PictureGod Blessing the Seventh Day by William Blake c. 1805
To me, the idea behind Brahman and the Tao isn’t really conveyed in the word “God.” As for many others, God for me is too anthropomorphized. It is reified into a separate thing. Maybe this is because God is a He. Both the Tao and Brahman are genderless. And while you may seek union with Brahman and the Tao, as you would with God, you would never pray to them. They are perfectly impersonal and cannot be supplicated to.

This is not to say that all three aren’t pointing toward the same idea, just that our (okay, my) personal experience with the God symbol has too much baggage. I get it that it’s this bigger (biggest) concept being referred to throughout much of the Western monotheisms. This is what Paul Tillich was trying to pull into language when he suggested using “ground of being” to expand the God-concept out of our culturally conditioned notions.

I am reminded here of one of the earliest findings in the scientific study of the efficacy of prayer. It turns out that prayer is most effective when we pray for “God’s will” to be done, that is to say, for the best overall outcome rather than our preferred outcome. In a way, this ties together the traditions. When we let go of the enculturated wants of the ego personality, let go of our separateness from the Whole, and step into the flow of the Tao, the consciousness of Brahman, and/or the hand of God, life moves harmoniously.
​
In the end, all of these ideas point toward the experience of stepping into union with Being. The Ultimate, the Universe, the Really Real, the Sacred, God, Brahman, the Tao, the ground of being—all are signs we put up along the road and tack to trees along the path. All are signs to point the way home.
Picture
Babia Gora National Park by Andrzej Otrebski CC BY-SA 3.0
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What is Mysticism?

7/2/2016

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PictureHildegard von Bingen, 14th cent. manuscript illustration. Public domain.
With the beginning of the Modern Mystic Book Club, I’ve been thinking a lot about this question, What is mysticism? Since I was young—middle school young, maybe even before—I’ve been fascinated by mysticism. To me, mystics were the people who won at life. That was who I wanted to be.
 
So, what is mysticism? That’s a tough one to take straight on. Allow me to come at it from the side: Who is a mystic? Ah, much easier. A mystic is someone who seeks union with the Ultimate . . . .  At least, that is how it is currently defined.
 
In every religion, every spiritual path, there are people who seek firsthand experience of the Absolute, the Sacred, God, Goddess, the Tao, perfect Being, nonbeing, Brahman, nirvana—the Ultimate however their path defines it. These are the mystics, variously called ecstatics, seers, prophets, yogis, fakirs, saints, and more.
 
Mysticism, then, covers everything about their journey. It’s the methods they follow: ethical purity, study, silence, dance, fasting, prayer, meditation, and so on, many of which serve to hollow us out, to empty us of the ego personality.
 
It’s all the results of those practices: the psychological maturity; the compassion and wisdom; the altered states of consciousness, the visions, trances, intuitions; and the union they experience.
 
It’s the descriptions of the Ultimate the mystics return with, as they attempt to put into words what is patently beyond words, relying on paradox to describe the hard won truths they have gathered. And it’s their resignation and admonitions that we must put in the work and see for ourselves.
 
All of this is mysticism, and more.
PictureDervish, 1870s Persia. Public domain.
When I studied comparative mysticism in college, as an undergrad and grad student, the raging debate was between the essentialists and constructivists. (The constructivists also called themselves contextualists and empiricists).

The essentialists claimed some substance to the perennial philosophy, to the idea that all mystics are touching the same Source, even if that similarity was based in the biology of the human brain.
 
The constructivists stood firm in the perspective that all experience is mediated through enculturation and language-based expectations, even mystical experience. And to claim that all mystics are having the same experience is at best wishful thinking. At worst it’s the product of cultural hegemony, erasing difference and replacing it with our own constructs of what we think the mystical experience should be.
 
Twenty-plus years later, the academic study of mysticism appears to have gone full tilt for the latter.
 
I believe both sides have merit. And honestly, I don’t really care if one side is more right than the other. I’m after my own experience. I want to live this life as deeply and as well as I can. I want to know for myself that peace, joy, and assuredness of the mystics. So it occurs to me to return to the sources to find the Source; to seek the advice of others who sought to experience the Ultimate, who touched the godhead and let it transform them. And to let them be my models for how to live.
 
At least very few of them were dicks. ​
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The Tao Te Ching (Modern Mystic Book Club #1)

7/1/2016

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PictureDrawing of Laozi, 1920s. (Public domain)
The Tao Te Ching, or Daodejing in pinyin, is such a fantastic book to begin with! It’s at least 2500 years old, is a foundational text of Taoism, and has been influential in every major religious school in China, including Confucianism and the various incarnations of Chinese Buddhism.

Any verifiable facts about its author Lao Tzu (Loazi) have been lost to history.

The title refers to the fact that there are really two books here: The Tao Ching, which is the first half of the text (chapters 1-37) and the Te Ching (chapters 38-81). If this is your first experience with the Tao Te Ching, don’t worry. The 81 chapters are brief collections of verses.
Picture
Many of us are familiar with the translation of “Tao” as “the Way,” and this is usable if we keep in mind that we are referring to much more than just a path but the all-encompassing, mysterious process of the universe. “Te” means virtue. Ching means something like “important book.” So Classic Texts of the Way and Virtue might be a passable translation of the title.
​
I recommend that we read Derek Lin’s translation. It’s a nice balance of accuracy and fluidity. You can find it free here: http://www.taoism.net/ttc/complete.htm. If you are moved to go deeper, his annotated book is available for around $11 online.
Picture
​A close second recommendation would be Stephen Mitchell’s version, which is not a translation but an interpretation. It is truly beautiful and has been a great comfort to me over the last two dozen years. Comparing translations can be helpful in understanding a text. I also find I learn a lot about myself through my reactions to different versions. Mitchell’s Tao Te Ching has been posted online in a few different places. Only Lin’s translation will be “required reading.” You can find Mitchell’s here:
 http://www.with.org/tao_te_ching_en.pdf.
​
I look forward to the ongoing discussion on the Facebook group page and to our eventual meeting on August 1st.
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