Daoism (Taoism), Daodejing (Tao Te Ching), Lecture Outline

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 prediction
  this 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