Taoism

1. Taoism and the life behind Lao Tzu "The Tao surrounds everyone and therefore everyone must listen to find enlightenment."

2. Brief History The essential Daoist philosophical and mystical beliefs can be found in the Daodejing (Tao-te Ching, Classic of the Way and Its Power) attributed to the historical figure Laozi. To be in accord with Dao, one has to “do nothing” like water: (wu wei)—that is, nothing strained, artificial, or unnatural. Through spontaneous compliance with the impulses of one's own essential nature and by emptying oneself of all doctrines and knowledge, one achieves unity with the Dao and derives from it a mystical power. This power enables one to transcend all mundane distinctions, even the distinction of life and death. At the sociopolitical level, the Daoists called for a return to primitive agrarian life.

3. Lao Tzu Laozi or Lao-tzu, Chinese philosopher and reputed founder of Daoism. He was born in the province of Henan (Ho-nan) and was a court librarian. According to tradition, he is the author of the Daodejing (Tao-te Ching) (Classic of the Way and Its Virgue), a philosophical treatise. It teaches that “the way” (Dao, or Tao) is realized through recognition and acceptance of nothingness; that is wisdom is understanding that weakness truly equals strength, that happiness depends on disaster, and that passivity is the greatest action.

4. What’s THIS? Write your guess.

5. The Yin and the Yang • Balancing acid and base, • Male and female, • Good and evil, (though not coextensively with male/female or other “oppositions”) • Reminds us to BALANCE our lives • And live in moderation, without one-sided obsessions or extremes, in diet, exercise, and all aspects of our spiritual/bodily lives.

6. Meaning of Yin/Yang • Yin Yang as Seasonal Balance

7. An Egg, Circled, from Above…makes these patterns!: • Hindus used the “swastika” long before Hitler appropriated it! It’s ancient. (See the website http://www.csc.tcd.ie/~falundafa/The%20Falun%20Emblem.htm) • Used by Falun Gong today conjointly with the yin/yang, it is a sacred Earth symbol in Sanskrit (“svastika” and counterclockwise, “sauvastika”, in Hinduism, Buddhism, Native American, Jainist, and Runic (Druid) faiths. • Pagans (pre-Easter) saw eggs as “fertility!” Survival of the group, through fertility of land and women, was an “ultimate concern.”

8. Where ELSE do we find: • Oppositions in Nature • Light Dark • Sweet Sour • Acid Base • Male Female? • PYTHAGOREANS, pre-Socratic healers, • Of whom HIPPOCRATES was one, author of huge “corpus” of work with others, viz.,

9. Pythagorean/Hippocratic Med. • Hippocratic Oath -- Classical VersionI swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygeia and Panacea and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant:…to preserve purity & balance…

10. CONFIDENTIALITY principle • Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about. • CONFIDENTIALITY (protect PRIVACY of patient, and instill TRUST in the physician, since ancient times.)

11. The Tao (Yin-Yang) diagram • The Yin-Yang symbol is perhaps the most well-known metaphysical diagram of all.  It describes the fundamental polarity and inseparability of the polar opposites; the binary pattern of Reality, and its cyclic metamorphes.  The black represents yin, matter, earth, receptivity, ending, etc, the white yang, spirit, heaven, creativity, beginning, etc.  • Note that the white half contains a black dot, the black half a white dot.  This is because yang contains the seed of yin, and yin the seed of yang.  Hence yang becomes yin and yin becomes yang; the basic principle of metamorphosis, and fundamental to the Book of Changes (I Ching). 

12. Yin and Yang: Not Mere Superstition, but:… • The pair yin and yang are also equated with female and male, but this is simplistic: both male and female contain both yin and yang.  It is also interesting to consider that the Japanese macrobiotic system uses yin and yang in the opposite way to the Chinese Taoists’ system; e.g. the macrobiotic yin is equivalent in many ways to the Chinese yang, and vice-versa.  • .

13. How Do We Know God/ Reality? • Despite the fundamental cosmic reality of yin and yang, human interpretations differ, according to the line of approach, … • As in the “Divine Command Theory,” –not all priests (or Greek “gods!”) agree re: what to do. • Human understanding is IMPERFECT and FALLIBLE, and under construction, -not absolute, but tentative, growing, improving….

14. How is REALITY Structured? • From the basic binary unit of reality comes the four (2 x 2) which takes us to the mandala, the tetrakys and the quibit.  Times two again and we have the eight trigrams, an important element in Chinese cosmology.  • 4 x 4 x 4 (or 2 to the power of 6) gives 64, the number of hexagramic symbols that make up the I Ching oracle, and also:…WHAT? !!!

15. What is 64? In Taoism and Science? • the number of possible DNA codons.  The way DNA, which is a sort of organic computer (there is even talk of building nano-computers using the DNA molocule), transmits information is through combining any of the four fundamental nucleotide bases (four again) in sets of three, hence 64 possible amino acid sequences.

16. Source on Yin/Yang • Kheper Authors • .Alan Kazlev - obsessive encyclopaedist, new age cynic, techno-spiritual futurist, and grand view visionary (senior author) Arvan Harvat - take no prisoners critiquer of esoteric psychobabble and theory-of-everything fiascos (assorted essays) Steven Guth - spiritual canberran, land use reformer, and advocate of a new way of understanding (Ecognosis)

17. The Fractal • The Fractal is the most fundamental pattern underlying form in the physical world.  All objects around us - clouds, rivers, trees, the lines on a person's face - can be described in terms of a fractal algorithm.  But more than that, even processes and events can - the pattern of the heartbeat, the fluctuation of the stock-exchange - can be likewise.  So the fractal not only maps out space, but time a well. • The principle of the fractal - which is that the part repeats the whole on a smaller scale - is also an important element in a number of esoteric or occult metaphysical systems; Kabbalah and Theosophy come to mind for example.

18. The Involution-Evolution Arc • The yin-yang diagram shows reality as a circle.  The Involution-Evolution Arc in contrast is linear (although it can also form a circle (left).  Spirit descends or falls into Matter, then ascends back to Spirit.  This basic cosmological principle is found in Samkhya and Kashmir Shaivism among the Indian philosophies, and Christianity,Gnosticism, Manichaeism, Neoplatonism, Sufism and Kabbalah in the Middle Eastern and Western systems of thought.  In the 19th and early 20th centuries it was represented by the Theosophy of Blavatsky, the Anthroposphy of Steiner, the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo, and the teachings of Meher Baba.  These are all metaphysical systems of thought.  However the inventor and philosophy Arthur Young proposed a scientific version which illustrates stages in terms of increasing degrees of restriction or freedom (very much like Gurdjieff's cosmology in this regard)

19. How It Began • The origins of Taoism, which is the 2nd, of the Great Chinese traditions, are obscure and the dates of Laozi are uncertain. He is sometimes placed in the 6th and sometimes the 4th century. The only hard evidence we have that he lived is the book attributed to him, the Dao De Ding or “Tao Te Ching, ” (=The Way and Its Power). • Most people have found that Taoism balances Confucianism, rather than merely opposing it. But Confucian and Taoists disagree fundamentally: Taoists do not think humans really can ever “improve” Nature. • The metaphysics of Taoism became the basis of the splendid “flowering” of Chinese Science.

20. Taoism Teachings • Later, in China, Taoism becomes one of the “three teachings”, along with Buddhism and Confucianism. • Confucianism urged the individual to conform to the standards of an ideal social system, Daoism maintained that the individual should ignore the dictates of society and seek only to conform with the underlying pattern of the universe, the Dao (or Tao, meaning “way”), which can neither be described in words nor conceived in thought. • As Livia Kohn says, “Taoism has bever been a unified religion, and has constantly consisted of a combination of teachings based on a variety of original revelations.”

21. Basic Beliefs • Lao Tzu and Socrates agreed that even the wisest of humans are still ignorant. To act on the pretense that ignorance is knowledge will only have the opposite effect. • According Lao Tzu, what was really needed was the true understanding of Tao: understanding that humans can’t force “change” on the world without injuring themselves. • The sage he maintained is “one who knows enough to do nothing; instead of intervening.” Simply said, order and substance are found in all things by following the patterns of the universe. HUMANS cannot improve NATURE.

22. Yin-Yang is the symbol of Taoism. It is believed that Yang gives rise to the expansive forces of the universe, while Yin gives rise to the contractive forces. The Tao resembles an empty bowl that holds and yields the vital energy of all things, which come to be, take shape and reach fulfillment in the way of the Tao. Like water, the Tao seeks balance and the least resistance. Be empty! 

23. This Daoist temple in the city-state of Singapore illustrates the considerable influence of Chinese culture on the island. The Daoist philosophy and religion originated in China during the 4th century BC and expanded as the Chinese populated other areas. About three-fourths of Singapore’s people are descended from the Chinese.

24. Lao Tzu's Behavior • According to Lao Tzu, the wise ones are those who cultivate tranquility and equilibrium into his life only to fully recognize Tao. • The behavior of the sage is natural and free if you follow the Tao, for he harbors no unfit desires and no unnatural expectations. • Since he is one to be selfless, he would seek to care for all things and to benefit them rather than to use them for his own needs. • The behavior of the sage is natural and free, like water, he is soft and supple rather than hard and rugged. Lao Tzu maintained the sage’s way, which is modest, slow and cautious.

25. Taoism in Politics • Lao Tzu extended his philosophical views of non striving to the political world. • He recognized the use of force brought retaliation and mutual hostility quickly escalated to the detriment of both sides. Because of this he stated that weapons should be regarded as instruments of destruction and that war should only be fought when absolutely necessary, and then only with regret. • To achieve peace and stability the sage ruler had no wish to dominate but encourage openness and broad-mindedness. He remains faithful even to the unfaithful.

26. Conclusion • For Lao Tzu, the recommended way to live life was to live in the way of the Tao, to keep life full of simplicity, tranquility, weakness, unselfishness, patience and above all non-striving or non-action - - only to allow the world to follow its natural course. This way of life, in Lao Tzu’s view, was its own reward.

27. See the Empty Bowl Project for acting against world hunger • What's New • Empty Bowls Project •  • Imagine / RENDER • Hunger Links • Support Empty Bowls • Contact Us •  • Empty Bowls Events • http://www.emptybowls.net/ • This sort of project is typically Taoist, and Buddhist (compassionate), Christian, and existentialist (creates meaning and love)

28. Further References • http://www.jadedragon.com/archives/june98/tao.html