TAOISM

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TAOISM

• Maybe 225 million followers
• Yin/Yang far older in Chinese thought than
  Taoist/Confucian schools.
• "We believe in the formless and eternal Tao,
  and we recognize all personified deities as being
  mere human constructs. We reject hatred,
  intolerance, and unnecessary violence, and
  embrace harmony, love and learning, as we are
  taught by Nature. We place our trust and our
  lives in the Tao, that we may live in peace and
  balance with the Universe, both in this mortal
  life and beyond.--Creed of the Western Reform
  Taoist Congregation

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• Lao Tzu (Tze) are both figures of the axial age
  (800-200 BCE), along with Confucius, Buddha, and
  Greek progenitors of philosophy.
• Laozi is held to be the author of the Tao de Ching

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Laozi (Lao Tze) the Old Master on his water
buffalo

• Whether he existed or whether the Tao te Ching is
  a composite work is contested.
• But approximately a contemporary of Confucius and
  of Greek pre-Socratic philosophers.

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Yin Yang

• Taoist symbol. "It represents the balance of
  opposites in the universe. When they are equally
  present, all is calm. When one is outweighed by
  the other, there is confusion and disarray."

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The Taoist Sage the Wild Horses story

1. Grandson traps a wild and corals it.
2. Loses fine horse, we are destitute, ruined. You
   never know
3. It returns with 10 others
4. One throws off his son and breaks his hip
5. Army comes through to round up young men and boys
   to serve in the rulers new war.

• Hes gleeful Ill have a dowry and can get
  married now the horse can be worked to make the
  fields wonderfully productive. Sagely
  grandfather In times of success, disappointment
  is sure to follow Life itself does not endure.
  How can prosperity be counted on?
• Adversity like prosperity dont last where are
  the strong and weak of old flowers cover the
  fields of ancient battles.
• 3. A moments glory is nothing more than a dream
  in springtime. If we cant understand this well
  be shackled by ambition. Dont let success lead
  to complacency, for that will lead to grief
  later, and perhaps sooner than you think. So
  dont let yourself be dragged down by desire.
  The pang of disappointment come in times of
  fulfillment.
• 4. Its a hardship, but well get through it In
  the midst of hardship, a taste of delight is
  often found. When things look worst, where is

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lessons

• The story fits the teaching of Lao Tze, and leads
  to prescribing a kind of attitude of inner calm
  in the face of whatever outer changes and
  happenings are occurring in ones life
• Change is natures way, and we should affirm the
  process itself rather than just identifying with
  our immediate point in it
• Luck and knowing what you can control and what
  you cant-as Sophocles also said, luck and fate
  dangle by a thread count no one lucky until
  hes dead.
• So take disappointment in stride and as an
  incentive to do better Dont let momentary
  success make you forget to guard against the
  future. the Taoist (and Chinese) say, when living
  in prosperity, think about adversity and peril
  when young and strong, dont be only carefree,
  but think about your senior years, or you may
  become complacent in working towards your future.
  Without distant worries, trouble will be near at
  hand.

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Eastern Wisdom by C. Chuh
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• Compare with
• Chi Lu asked about serving the spirits. Confucius
  said, "If you can't yet serve men, how can you
  serve the spirits?"  Lu said, "May I ask about
  death?" Confucius said, "If you don't understand
  what life is, how will you understand death?"
• Confucius said "If you govern the people
  legalistically and control them by punishment,
  they will avoid crime, but have no personal sense
  of shame. If you govern them by means of virtue
  and control them with propriety (li), they will
  gain their own sense of shame, and thus correct
  themselves."
• --Analects 1111 23

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• Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty only
  because there is ugliness. All can know good as
  good only because there is evil. Therefore having
  and having not arise together. Difficult and easy
  complement each other. TTC, 2

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Popular and Philosophical Taoism

• Search in popular Taoism for the pill of
  immortality.
• Popular Taoism also brings in divination, and
  "acupuncture, herbalism, holistic medicine,
  meditation and martial arts..."

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The Tao Te Ching(Book of the Way and of Virtue)

• The Tao What is it?
• 1. The way of ultimate reality way of the
  universe way of human life. The root source or
  first-cause of the universe "that which makes
  things what they are.
• Metaphors of the Tao The uncarved block, the
  baby, the watercourse way.
• 2. The path one should take or follow natures
  way adopted as a normative guide to ones
  conduct.

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• Tao can be roughly translated into English as
  path, or the way. Still, it is basically
  indefinable. It has to be experienced. It refers
  to a power which envelops, surrounds and flows
  through all things, living and non-living. The
  Tao regulates natural processes and nourishes
  balance in the Universe.
• It embodies the harmony of opposites (i.e. there
  would be no love without hate, no light without
  dark, no male without female.)
• Put up table of opposites. Polarity and analogy
  two modes of conceptual thinking in ancient
  eastern and western thought. Why? a) simplicity
  b) comprehensiveness, c) definitive of
  "dimensions of experience.
• Substance vs. perspective ontology?

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Mysticism and the Limits of Language and
Discursive Understanding

• The Tao as indescribable mysterious The way
  that can be spoken of is not the everlasting way
• ---TTC, 1.
• We look at it and do not see it
• Its name is The Invisible.
• We listen to it and do not hear it
• Its Name is The Inaudible.
• We touch it and do not find it
• Its name is The Subtle (or Formless).
• These three cannot be inquired further into,
• and hence merge into one.
• Infinite and boundless, it cannot be given name
• It reverts to nothingnessIt is the Vague and
  Eluding.
• TTC, 14.

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• A bait is used to catch fish. When you have
  gotten the fish, you can forget about the bait. A
  rabbit trap is used to catch rabbits. When the
  rabbits are caught, you can forget about the
  trap. Words are used to express meaning. When you
  understand the meaning, you can forget about the
  words.
• Where can I find a man who forgets about words
  in order that I may talk with him?
• --Zhuangzi

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Mysticism in the coincidence of opposites

• We find aspects of one in the other (being
  nonbeing yin yang the dots on the yin/yang
  symbol)
• Western thought more a conflict dualism,
  Eastern more complementary contraries. Change
  in Taoism seen as cyclical reversal between Yin
  and Yang poles.
• The Tao as both the higher synthesis of
  complementary opposites, and as the unitary
  source out of which they are differentiated.

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Cosmogony in the Tao Te Ching

• Something undifferentiated was born before
  heaven and earth still and silent, standing
  alone and unchanging, going through cycles
  unending, able to be mother to the world. I do
  not know its name I label it the Way. Imposing
  on it a name, I call it GreatTTC, 25
• Tao produced the One. The One produced the two.
  The two produced the three. And the three
  produced the ten thousand thingsTTC, 42

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• Cultures very often take a decided stand with
  respect to the question of the chicken and
  egg.the Western monotheistic tradition has
  opted for a kind of heroic and divine chicken
  which bravely and mysteriously produced and
  brooded over a fallen omelet of the world. As a
  counterpointChinese thought asserts with equal
  justification that in the beginning there was no
  avian spirit hovering willfully over the chaotic
  watersThe Chinese imagination has tended to find
  cosmic eggsmore metaphysically nourishing than
  divine chickensthe Chinese perspective leads
  back not to a Prime Mover but to a Prime Movement
  and its continuing Primary Resonance among all
  things. --N. Girardot, Behaving Cosmogonically
  in Early Taoism

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• Human nature viewed positively
• Note short Chinese business contracts. That we
  need more may show more pessimist, or more
  realism, or both.
• Time is cyclical, not linear as in Western
  thinking
• All traditional Chinese schools of thought share
  some form of a trinity of Heaven, Earth and Man
  as the forces of the universe.

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• Archetypes 2. Perspectivism (a Buddhist/Taoist
  idea) objectivity isnt defined by finding the
  one right view in contrast to all of the other
  wrong views all perspectives are partial
  (biases), and present only partial truth. If you
  want to really appreciate a stone statue, you may
  attempt to view it from all angles, in all
  different shades of light and dark you may try
  to touch it, smell it, etc, to expand our ways of
  contacting it or experiencing it. Its the same
  with WISDOM The greatest objectivity we can
  achieve is by cycling ourselves through all the
  various perspectives on a subject, in order to
  preserve and appreciate their partial truths.
  This does not mean all perspectives are created
  equal, or are equally valid, but that no
  perspective should be ignored before it is
  closely considered. You have to have a full
  range of perspectives before youre in a position
  to responsibly pass judgment.

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Taoism and ethics

1. Wu Wei (actionless action i.e. let nature take
   its course)
2. Virtue (te) in Taoist perspective
3. Intellectual humility as an ethical virtue

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1. Wu Wei Actionless Action

• The Way of heaven helps and does not harm. The
  Way for humans is to act without
  contention.TTC, 81
• Tao invariably takes no action, and yet there is
  nothing left undone. "The tao of heaven does not
  strive, and yet it overcomes. It does not speak,
  and yet it is answered....The world is ruled by
  non-action, not by action.TTC, 37
• The sage never strives for the great, and
  thereby the great is achieved.---TTC, 34
• Do non-doing, strive for non-striving, savor the
  flavorless, regard the small as important, make
  much of little, repay enmity with virtue.TTC,
  63

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• Wu wei is one of the most difficult and leat
  understood doctrines of Lao Tze. First, the
  ontological Tao is said to be wu sei-natures
  course is effortless. Sounds paradoxical and
  meaningless. How should we interpret it?
• Taoists respond to situations passively and yet
  appropriately, by following the art of letting
  nature take its course.
• The holistic thinking the Taoist promotes can be
  seen to support proper respect for other living
  things it promotes seeing the natural world as a
  holistic system so that what affects one thing
  affects all. Balance and things like the scenario
  of weather in the movie The Day After Tomorrow
• Taoists believe that "people are compassionate by
  nature...left to their own devices they will
  show this compassion without expecting a reward."
  
• On third quote, from Zhuangzi, relate 1)
  effortless b/c habitual (and so automatic or
  natural to act so), 2) uncontrived rather than
  forced or deliberative) responding to every
  interest. James on satisfying every relevant
  interest (what fills himhis moral perception
  he relies on something like wu wei may be
  necessary for that Jamesian ideal to occur.
• READ FROM ZHUNAGZI Emptiness and stillness,
  calm and indifference, quiescence, Doing Nothing,
  are the even level of heaven and earth, the
  utmost reach of the Way and the Power
  thereforethe sage finds rest in them. At rest he
  empties, emptying he is filled, and what fills
  him sorts itself out. Emptying he is still, in
  stillness he is moved, and when he moves he
  succeeds.The Zhuangzi
• So emptying the mind isnt just ignore principles
  and to do whatever comes handy it means
  increaing ones moral sensitivity Diminish the
  role of knowledge and precedent, of deliberation
  and custom, of thinking and planning, and the
  mind of the virtuous person will better reflect
  the morally relevant aspects of the situation and
  the interests that need to be responded-to. A
  CARE ETHIC?

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Be water, my friend!Bruce Lee

• Stiffness is thus a companion of death,
  flexibility a companion of life (TTC,76).
• Nothing in the world is more flexible and
  yielding than water. Yet when it attacks the firm
  and the strong, none can withstand it, because
  they have no way to change it (TTC, 78).
• It is because they do not contend that no one can
  contend with them---TTC, 22. The best person is
  like water...It is because he does not compete
  that he is without reproachTTC, 8
• The way of the intercepting fist of attacking
  but turning the opponents energy against him .
• Using no way as way having no limitations as
  limitation This Bruce Lee wore as an insignia
  medallion for the rest of his short life, his own
  unique appropriation of the Taoist ideal of
  actionless action.
• http//www.metacafe.com/watch/23744/bruce_lee_lost
  _interview/

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Notes

• Martial artist extrordinaire Bruce Lee was
  highly affected by Eastern philosophy. When he
  was recovering from his critical spine injury, he
  used his idle time to read the Tao te Ching and
  other eastern works, and apply them to his
  martial arts. The experience dramatically
  transformed his conception of method. He had
  always been asked if he subscribed to the
  Chinese, Japanese, or some other style. After
  his recovery to competition, he chose to reject
  all such labels, and to develop his own unique
  style that developed into a new style of karate
  the motto of this new martial art form became
  Using no way as way having no limitations as
  limitation.
• This he wore as an insignia medallion for the
  rest of his short life. It was his own unique
  instantiation of the Taoist ideal of actionless
  action. His approach would not reflect a
  specific, established style, because that would
  expose limitations to contrasting styles. He
  strove for nonstriving (63) because The Way
  is always uncontrived (37). Instead, he would
  act without contention (81), allowing his
  movements to be dictated by his opponents style.
  He would focus himself only on taking the thrust
  of the other and using it against them their own
  commitment to acting in a specific style would be
  their downfall.

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2. Virtue

• The Way is always uncontrived, yet theres
  nothing it doesnt do. If lords and monarchs
  could keep to it, all beings would evolve
  spontaneouslyBy not wanting there is calm, and
  the world will straighten itself. TTC, 37
• The Sage wants to have no wantsThe sage
  embraces unity as a model for the world. TTC,
  22.
• Cultivate it in yourself, and the virtue is
  real cultivate it at home, and that virtue is
  abundant cultivate it in the nation, and that
  virtue is rich cultivate it in the world, and
  that virtue is universal TTC, 54
• Habituation restores natural virtue When there
  is a motive to be virtuous, there is no virtue
  TTC

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Stoic temperament in the face of fate

• Laozi states, All that happens without us
  knowing why is destinyFor one who trusts
  destiny, and his mind, there is nothing agreeable
  or offensive. (232).
• The Taoist and the Stoic Life is serene if we
  accept things as they come accept changes as
  natural. Sorrow is merely a state of mind and
  may not be warranted by the circumstances. Hence
  whether or not you feel sad is all in the
  mind. (237).

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3. Intellectual humility

• Those who know do not say those who say do not
  know. Close the senses, shut the doors blunt the
  sharpness, resolve the complications harmonize
  the light, assimilate to the worldTTC, 56

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The limits of knowledge

• Knowing is not like mirroring an objective
  reality (i.e., what Heaven or nature makes). It
  is always inevitably relational and situational.
  But often in the West we take knowing as
  mirroring, and the human contribution as merely
  tarnishing or clouding the mirror.
• Just as Taoist ethics rejects altruistic rules
  and expectations, making place for greater
  individuality, the Taoist approach to knowledge
  is too psychologically acute to accept knowledge
  as a mere mirroring of nature. As with the
  philosopher William James, The trail of the
  human serpent over what we take as truth and
  knowledge is too apparent.

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The Three Sages from a Taoist Perspective

• 1) K'ung Fu-tse (mispronounced "Confucius") -
  considered life to be sour. He felt that the
  world was a disorderly place, which had to be
  controlled. 2) Buddha - considered life to be
  bitter. He saw the world as full of pain and
  illusion, full of attachments and traps. He felt
  that we must work spiritually to rise above these
  things. 3) Lao-tse - considered life to be
  perfect wonderful as is. He saw a natural
  harmony that could be experienced by anyone at
  anytime. He believed the world to be a teacher of
  valuable lessons, and that we should embrace the
  wonder of every moment.

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Chinese Multiple Religious Participation

• A history fairly harmonious interplay
  (sporadically upset) between the three major
  religions of China. Example of sharing the
  community temple, rather than jealously
  guarding it excluding one others.
• The co-existence of Confucianism, Taoism, and
  Buddhism is not merely an existence side by side
  in the same land, they also coexist in the same
  mind. That is, the same individual may subscribe
  to all three value systems at the same
  timePeople of MRP practice more than one
  religion with a recognition that these are
  different religions. They do it without making an
  effort to integrate them into one single religion
  on the basis of some common tenets.C. Li

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Science and/or Mysticism?

• Mystics understand the roots of the Tao but not
  its branches scientists understand its branches
  but not its roots. Science does not need
  mysticism and mysticism does not need science
  but man needs both. Taoist saying/ F. Capra,
  The Tao of Physics
• Sometimes people ask if religion and science are
  not opposed to one another. They are in the sense
  that the thumb and fingers of my hand are opposed
  to one another. It is an opposition by means of
  which anything can be grasped W. Gragg in God
  for the 21st Century
• The most beautiful and most profound emotion we
  can experience is the sensation of the
  mysticalIt is the source of all art and
  scienceThe religious geniuses of all ages have
  been distinguished by this kind of religious
  feeling, which knows no dogma and no God
  conceived in mans image.Science without
  religion is lame, religion without science is
  blind.--Albert Einstein, The World as I See It
  (1934)

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• "I see science and mysticism as two
  complementary manifestations of the human mind
  of its rational and intuitive faculties. The
  modern physicist experiences the world through an
  extreme specialization of the rational mind the
  mystic through an extreme specialization of the
  intuitive mind. The two approaches are entirely
  different and involve far more than a certain
  view of the physical world. However, they are
  complementary, as we have learned to say in
  physics. Neither is comprehended in the other,
  nor can either of them be reduced to the other,
  but both of them are necessary, supplementing one
  another for a fuller understanding of the world.
  To paraphrase an old Chinese saying, mystics
  understand the roots of the Tao but not its
  branches scientists understand its branches but
  not its roots. Science does not need mysticism
  and mysticism does not need science but man
  needs both. Mystical experience is necessary to
  understand the deepest nature of things, and
  science is essential for modern life. What we
  need, therefore, is not a synthesis but a dynamic
  interplay between mystical intuition and
  scientific analysis." Fritjof Capra, The Tao of
  Physics
• Add Heisenberg here. And the Bohrs quote on
  when you think you know.

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Western science and Eastern mysticism?

• Niels Bohrs self-designed coat of arms,
  featuring Yin/Yang and contraries in
  complementarity.
• It is wrong to think that the task of physics is
  to find out how Nature is. Physics concerns what
  we can say about Nature.
• The opposite of a correct statement is a false
  statement. But the opposite of a profound truth
  may well be another profound truth.
• At the micro-level, quantum physics tells us
  theres no ultimate substance-brick of the
  universe. It is no more particulars than
  energy-packets nor more energy packets than
  particlesBoth this and that are different
  ways for the same entity to be (C. Li)

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• The Story of Cook Ding We always look at things
  from a certain point of view. But Zhuangzi
  recognizes no essence or primary being,
  exclusively determining the entitys being. The
  entitys being an aggregate of parts is no less
  real than its being an ox. Only when we see it
  not merely as an ox, but also as an entity that
  is both a this and a that, can we get to the
  pivot of the Tao (C. Li) Staying at the pivot of
  the potters wheel of Heaven is called letting
  both alternatives proceed.
• To adhere dogmatically to thats it of an
  entity is to discriminate against alternatives.
  But in doing so one is obstructed from seeing the
  reality of the Tao. To know the Tao is not to
  discriminate against alternatives, but to be open
  to them (C. Li).

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Stayin in the pivot of the Tao

• When there is no more separation of this and
  that, it is called the pivot of the Tao. At the
  pivot in the center of the circle one can see the
  infinite in all things.Zhuangzi
• To know the Tao is not to discriminate against
  alternatives, but to be open to them (C. Li).
  Staying at the pivot of the potters wheel of
  Heaven is called letting both alternatives
  proceed.
• Everything is a that, and everything is a
  this. You cannot see it as a this if you are
  from the viewpoint of that you see it as a
  this when you are from the viewpoint of this
  Thus the sage does not bother with these
  distinctions but sees all things the way they
  are. The Way is the pivot of all thingsTTC
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Zhuangzi and the Butterfly

• The transformation of things takes place when
  the boundary between this and that is
  dissolved and the oneness of the world is
  revealed.
• Heraclitus You cant step into the same river
  twice.
• Living in harmony with nature means to accept all
  of its transformations.
• As with the Stoics of old, accepting
  transformationsnot trying to change what we
  cannot change--serves to insulate us somewhat
  from adverse luck.
• Example calmness as to disaster and good fortune
  in story of the wild horses.

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The usefulness of the useless

• Doors and windows are cut out to make a room,
  But it is on its non-being that the utility of
  the room depends.Tao te Ching, 11
• Relate Zhuangzis story of the old oak tree
• Also his story of Chu Shih and the gourds

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Chi Energy

• Each person must nurture the Ch'i (air, breath)
  that has been given to them. Taoists strongly
  promote health and vitality.
• Tai chi as an art of the balance of forces
• Tai chi works on all parts of the body, to
  "stimulate the central nervous system, lowers
  blood pressure, relieves stress and gently tones
  muscles without strain. It also enhances
  digestion, elimination of wastes and the
  circulation of blood. Moreover, tai chi's
  rhythmic movements massage the internal organs
  and improve their functionality." Traditional
  Chinese medicine teaches that illness is caused
  by blockages or lack of balance in the body's
  "chi" (intrinsic energy). Tai Chi is believed to
  balance this energy flow.

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Acupuncture Meridians
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Y/Y and the Five Elements
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Chinese acupuncture

• Cultural incommensurability (no common
  measure) between Western and Eastern
  explanations of pain.
• Chi energy travels throughout the body along
  channels, or meridians.
• The method of selecting points along for
  acupuncture anesthesiology "where a meridian
  traverses, there is a place amenable to
  treatment.
• This doesnt jibe with Western explanations from
  the Western perspective, its success is an
  anomaly.

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CTM Western Medicine

• Different attitudes to acupuncture highlight
  contrasting views of the the physician. The
  gardener and the mechanic.
• Mechanic structure determines function, and
  structure is purely physical. Focus on parts to
  be fixed.
• Gardener Patient is viewed as a complete
  integration of body and mind.
• Theory-dominant vs. practice-dominant
  orientations. The Chinese generally more
  concerned about efficacy than about explanation.
• CTM is holistic in directing itself to the
  person as a physiological and psychological
  unity. Analyze not the sickness but rather
  understand the sick person to restore balance and
  health.
• Eastern medicines traditional view of the body
  takes the bodys mode in the opposite direction
  from modern medicines procedure of anatomy
  first, then physiology, and only finally
  psychology.--Yuasa

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