Daoism(Taosim)
- earliest writing associated with Daoism: Daodejing
- 'The Classic of the Way and its Power' – by Laozi (Lau-Tzu) & Zhuangzi (Chuang-Tzu)
- Laozi – supposed to have been a contemporary of Kongzi
- may just be a legend, not a real person
- the Daodejing possibly came into existence over many centuries
- when was Daodejing written? No one really knows...
- the Dao – 'the way' – can be 'the road/path'
- 'the way things go'
- the Dao is social
- a moral principle
- in Daoism, the Dao is more a metaphysical notion, suggesting the ultimate principle of nature/universe
- 'the ultimate principle of the universe'
- can be understood in terms of origin
- secret: follow the Dao
- as a Daoist, emulate nature (Confucians follow rites)
- go with the flow, go with the harmony
- not resisting nature
- Daoism is not about rules
- Daoism is quite opposed to Confucianism – Confucians want social convention, Daoist want to be natural
- be natural – follow your own nature; emulate nature – the 'flow' of the natural world
- give up artificiality
- forget scripted, rule governed behavior
- reject ritual
- quit thinking about what you are 'supposed to be doing' – and be a part of the harmony which is around you
- Philosophical Daoism vs. Religious Daoism
- religious Daoism – did adopt some rituals
- Confucian: How do I fit into society? What is my role?
- Daoist: How do I fit into nature? What is my role in the natural order?
- The Ultimate Reality – The Dao
- that which is natural, eternal, spontaneous and ineffable (not-describable)
- one translation: “The Dao which can be spoken of is not the true Dao”
- this is common in mysticism – the view that there is some ultimate reality that goes beyond bodily sense perception
- transcendent
- this is connected with its ineffability
- perhaps if one can use language in a somewhat artistic way to convey that which is beyond language
- perhaps language is best suited for communication about ordinary objects – tables, chairs, saber-tooth tigers
- not suited to discussion of the Transcendent Reality
- The Dao is not God! Not a personal deity; you can't pray to the Dao – it's not listening; it has no will, no plan, doesn't particularly care what you do
- Daoism is non-theistic
- God – omnipotent, omniscient, benevolent/loving, personal – will, conscious, plan; the creator of the universe, remains active in the world
- god – ex. Zeus
- if you want to be like nature,
- you must be spontaneous, natural, and free, and that people are not
- you will be a lot happier if you can be like the Dao
- natural – a human quality, free from rigidness or
- importance of water to the Dao: the flow
- How does one become spontaneous, natural and free?
- A 'flow' experience – the zone
- getting in the zone when running, getting in the zone when playing music – the running or music just takes over and you aren't aware of exerting any effort anymore
- also...takes a lot of energy to swim upstream, going against the flow
- learn to intuit the flow of the Dao
- the Daoist sage emulates this
- this is the paradigm of morality
- Daoism wants to say the fundamental nature of the universe is associated with spontaneity
- not that is impossible to predict
- but mostly
- bk 1 ch1
- “A way that can be followed is not a constant Way”
- spontaneity/constant change
- you can't set out to follow it
- though don't you want to be following the Dao?
- “following the Dao” – in some sense naming it
- if you can't name it you can't think about it...right?
- naming – intellectualizing, rationalizing; labeling, defining
- “eliminate desires in order to observe its mysteries”
- how does this relate to 'following the Dao'
- we are being alerted to putting labels – rationality – onto the Dao, that is ever-changing
- to understand in this way is to avoid spontaneity – to control what is
- this comes from attempting to control nature into our desires
- the usual way we operate:
- I want X, if possible I will manipulate nature to bring it about
- must understand to manipulate
- ceasing to intellectualize will result in being with the Dao
- following is intentional, from a desire
- ((Buddhism))
- wrong desire is responsible for suffering
- wrong desire is grasping, craving, attachment
- in wanting to eliminate desire, it sounds like buddhism
- the Dao in its essence is the source of all things
- “Always have desires in order to observe its manifestations”
- an intuitive grasp of the Dao: (like point zero, from which all sprang when the void contemplated itself)
- “these two come forth in unity but diverge in name”
- in order to label something, it must be distinguished from other objects
- a distinction in thought only
- the reason you can't see the Dao is because you are too busy intellectualizing it
- “their unity is known as an enigma”
- enigma – something that baffles understanding but cannot be explained
- a kind of order that doesn't entail predictionthis sort of order is present in art, music
- an aesthetic order (concerned with beauty)
- b. 1ch. 2
- “when beautiful strives to be beautiful, it is repulsive”
- (water is a feminine element)
- Daoist government: don't intervene with force, find a way to bring it into harmony
- wu-wei – actionless action, minimal action
- “to have and to lack generate each other. Difficult and easy give form to each other. Long and short off-set each other. High and low incline into each other. Note and rhythm harmonize with each other.”
- “and by not lingering, merit never deserts them”
- nameless ~ formless – when things acquire names, they acquire forms
- early Daoists did not call themselves Daoists
- name-language-convention-form
- all the stress in our lives is from resisting the Dao
- The Dao often compared with water
- ex. ch. 32
- what does water do?
- water flows downhill effortlessly
- If you let it out of a hose, it goes the easiest way
- if there is an obstacle, you go around it
- even a stone is gradually eroded by water, which always takes the easy way and goes around confrontation
- no confrontation – often we perceive a conflict – we beg for confrontation especially with people
- Daoism: if you think life is too hard, you are having a hard time, there is something you cannot see
- wu-wei is not passivity – it is economy of action; the water is not inactive, it just goes the natural way
- minimal effort, maximum results
- perhaps because there is no conflict
- desire – in Daoism – (connection to effort)
- if I have a desire that X occur:“I desire X”
I desire cold beer
I do not have cold beer,
As I pursue the cold beer I initiate change- the opposite of understanding the changes that are already taking place and cooperating with these
- is it against the Dao to make this change come about?
- Desire involves intervention, as in things are going a certain way and you are trying to control it
- wu-wei: listening: paying attention
- rather than jumping in and trying to change things before we understand what's happening
- opposites generate each other – complement/need each other
- 'night begets the day begets the night'
- in nature – cycles; transitions between opposites
- female-male
- dark-light
- yin-yang
- soft-hard
- emptiness (nonpresence – is capacity, has potential [to be filled])
- emptiness becomes a potential for power
- to have and to lack generate each other – opposites
- self-conscious: trying to create yourself for other people
- cannot be what you are
- Spontaneity vs. Self-Consciousness
- ch. 7 “is it not because they have no thought of themselves that they are able to perfect themselves”
- Feng Shui – creating something – house, garden, etc. - as to maximize energy flow
- important: wind chimes, flowing water
- the Dao itself does not change; nature is in flux, the Dao is somehow behind it, what makes change possible
- Ch. 11 – Dao is the hub of the wheel, nature flows in a circle around it; if the hub moved, the wheel would be unstable
- the emptiness is a useful emptiness
- normally we think of emptiness as inert; in this case emptiness is potential
- an active emptiness (maybe) (?)
- the spokes of the wheel are carrying all the weight, there is no stress in the center, it is empty
- *in the west, especially talking in spiritual/religious terms, there is a distinction:
material vs. non-materialist
physical vs. spiritual/mental - in the Daoism:
presence vs. nonpresence (emptiness) - problem in the west: mind-body dichotomy
- the center of the wheel is non-material, yet still part of the wheel in such a way that it makes it function possible
- passive hub still contains the potential of the wheel to function
- the hub expends no energy
- center of the wheel is balanced, harmonized
- The Dao is self-so (Chinese ziran)
- How can I 'be the hub'?
- Be the empty center of your own environment
- our heart/mind should be empty
- listening is still active but not interventionary
- Daoist ideal/sage: listen, be attentive; not active but not intervening
- Daoist meditative practice: “forgetting”
- do nothing and allow yourself to be what you are
- to be self so is to be what you really are
- being in harmony with your own nature
- the sage is like a child/baby
- unspoiled by convention
- *Fiscal conservatives – don't interfere with economic activity (libertarian)
- *Legislative conservatives – legislate as little as possible (libertarian)
- *Social conservatives – actively anti-gay marriage, anti-abortion
- Daoist – Jefferson – that government that governs best governs least
- Qi (Chi) – vital energies – mentioned several times in the Daodejing
- ch. 42, p. 183
- something significant about 'vital energies'
- identified with the yin and yang
female & male
- these energies are around us
- there is a natural flow of these energies, when we resist them, we get sick and eventually
- yin – light, yang – dark
- symbol suggests constant motion, transformation between the two
- continuous cycling of opposites, in which each opposite possesses the seed of its opposite (that's what the opposite colored circle is)
- sage is as a child – spontaneous, free, they play all the time, children are empty of all this
- that is why the Daoist meditation is forgetting
- forgetting all the junk that builds up
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