Taoism

Taoism | Remaining in Tune, Dancing

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Philosophically, what stands out to me from the Taoist tradition is the idea that circumstances are always changing, always in flux. What is impossible today becomes possible tomorrow. The right action to perform today may be the wrong action tomorrow and the wrong action today might be the right action tomorrow.

Maybe the right thing for me to do today is to help counsel a friend on a problem they are facing, but tomorrow continuing to offer that help becomes “too much” – they need to handle it on their own from here. Maybe the right thing to do today is to be part of a cultural movement which helps correct an imbalance. Tomorrow that movement might morph into something which is no longer positive for society. Maybe a plant needs some water today. Tomorrow it doesn’t. Maybe tomorrow watering the plant harms it. Engaging in psychotherapy might allow one to resolve deep-seated problems or experience a needed catharsis today; tomorrow it becomes unproductive navel-gazing. Symbols can change meaning in a society. The commitments of a political party might change into something almost unrecognizable from the original platform, in even a year’s time. The time of day you ask somebody a question can change their response. In personal and communal life, all is continually in evolution.

The Taoist solution for how to act in the world is to “rest in direct intuition.” “Open yourself to Tao, then trust your natural responses.” “The right action will arise of its own” in the moment. The master sits in the center of a circle, experiencing the changing circumstances, seeing that specific conditions are always evolving and at at play with each other. Intuition/The Tao will show him how to act in the moment, if he remains in tune.

This continual remaining in tune results in wu-wei – not-doing. The master doesn’t act, the Tao acts through him.

The world’s contemplative traditions often have concepts or metaphors for what perfect living looks like. Attaining Purity of Heart, acting with Charity – unbiased good will toward all, accessing the Buddha-Nature, attaining the Pure Self, living without the “taint of self-will”, being “empty.”

The emphasis in the Taoist tradition is on how natural this way of being is, if you can attain it. It’s easy. Just let the Tao live you.

This allows the Taoist master to be playful and to act spontaneously, un-selfconsciously, and artfully. It allows the master to dance in the world.

Being free from yourself allows you to flow and dance in the world.

Taoism | T'ai Chi as the Physical Embodiment of Wu-Wei

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“Suddenly Alan jumped to his feet and joyously danced a t’ai chi improvisation, shouting, ‘Ah-ha, t’ai chi is the Tao, wu-wei, tzu-jan, like water, like wind, sailing, surfing, dancing with your hands, your head, your spine, your hips, your knees…with your brush, your voice…Ha Ha ha Ha…La La Lala ah ah Ah…”

– Al Chung-liang Huang, Tao: The Watercourse Way



I sometimes practice T’ai Chi. T’ai Chi is about allowing, flowing, letting your body move of its own, which naturally keeps one in balance.

I think of it as physically embodying wu-wei. You’re not-doing, you’re allowing something to be done.

The physical practice of T’ai Chi helps me live wu-wei in the world.

As I study the traditions, some of the philosophies resonate with me more than others. Each tradition seems to contain the “meditative experience of the absolute”, and then the philosophical systems and concepts in which that experience is embedded. I resonate with the Theravada Buddhist ethical path, but not with the extreme emphasis on the world as dukkha. Or perhaps I resonate with the philosophies at different times and in different ways as I find myself experiencing different parts of life.

Wu-wei – not-doing – is one of those concepts that sticks. When we are living rightly, we aren’t thinking about it. We’re natural. In the philosophy of Taoism, We are letting the Tao, the creative ground, live through us.

Taoism | Living Artfully

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The Tao Te Ching is, at least in part, about living artfully.

Perhaps, after one does the hard work of moral and spiritual discipline, and has emptied themselves of their self-concern, part of the reward is to live artfully.




Taoism | The Pivot of the Tao

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“Tao is obscured when men understand only one of a pair of opposites, or concentrate only on a partial aspect of being. Then clear expression also becomes muddled by mere wordplay, affirming this one aspect and denying all the rest. Hence the wrangling of Confucians and Mohists; each denies what the other affirms, and affirms what the other denies. What use is this struggle to set up ‘No’ against ‘Yes,’ and ‘Yes’ against ‘No’? Better to abandon this hopeless effort and seek true light!

There is nothing that cannot be seen from the standpoint of the ‘Not-I.’ And there is nothing which cannot be seen from the standpoint of the ‘I.’ If I begin by looking at anything from the viewpoint of the ‘Not-I,’ then I do not really see it, since it is ‘not I’ that sees it. If I begin from where I am and see it as I see it, then it may also become possible for me to see it as another sees it. Hence the theory of reversal that opposites produce each other, depend on each other, and complement each other.

… Life is followed by death; death is followed by life. The possible becomes impossible; the impossible becomes possible. Right turns into wrong and wrong into right – the flow of life alters circumstances and thus things themselves are altered in their turn. But disputants continue to affirm and to deny the same things they have always affirmed and denied, ignoring the new aspects of reality presented by the change in conditions.

The wise man therefore, instead of trying to prove this or that point by logical disputation, sees all things in the light of direct intuition. He is not imprisoned by the limitations of the ‘I,’ for the viewpoint of direct intuition is that of both ‘I’ and ‘Not-I.’ …

When the wise man grasps this pivot, he is in the center of the circle, and there he stands while ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ pursue each other around the circumference. The pivot of Tao passes through the center where all affirmations and denials converge. He who grasps the pivot is at the still-point from which all movements and oppositions can be seen in their right relationship. Hence he sees the limitless possibilities of both ‘Yes’ and ‘No.’

Abandoning all thought of imposing a limit or taking sides, he rests in direct intuition.”


– Thomas Merton, The Way of Chuang Tzu

Taoism | The Man of Tao

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“The secret of the way proposed by Chuang Tzu is therefore not the accumulation of virtue and merit taught by Ju, but wu wei, the non-doing, or non-action, which is not intent upon results and is not concerned with consciously laid plans or deliberately organized endeavors… If one is in harmony with Tao – the cosmic Tao, ‘Great Tao’ – the answer will make itself clear when the time comes to act, for then one will act not according to the human and self-conscious mode of deliberation, but according to the divine and spontaneous mode of wu wei, which is the mode of action of Tao itself, and is therefore the source of all good… For Chuang Tzu, the truly great man is therefore not the man who has by a lifetime of study and practice accumulated a great fund of virtue and merit, but the man in whom ‘Tao acts without impediment,’ the ‘man of Tao.’”

– Thomas Merton, The Way of Chuang Tzu