Alan Watts on the Tao

[Sheila]

Enjoyable, short talk. Some highlights –

“The Tao is not a manufacturer and it’s not a governor. It doesn’t rule, as it were, in the position of a king….Tao is not really equivalent with any Western or Hindu idea of God, because God is always associated with being the Lord…..”

“’Mutual arising’ is the key idea to the whole thing, and if you want to understand Chinese and Oriental thought in general, it is the most important thing to grasp, because you see, we think so much in terms of cause and effect. We think of the universe today in Aristotelian and Newtonian ways. And in that philosophy the world is all separated. It’s like a huge amalgamation of billiard balls. And they don’t move until struck by another or by a cue. And so everything is going tock-tock-tock-tock-tock all over the place, one thing starting off another in a mechanical way.

“But, of course, from the standpoint of 20th c. science, we know perfectly well now that that’s not the way it works. We know enough about relationships to see that that mechanical model that Newton devised was alright for certain purposes, but it breaks down now, because we understand relativity and we see how things go together in a kind of connected net, rather than in a chain of billiard balls banging each other around. So then, the whole conception of nature is as a self-regulating, self-governing, indeed, democratic organism.”

Note how this relates to synchronicity.

The phrase for “nature” in Chinese translates literally as “self so.”

“The Tao’s method is to be so of itself.”

“Things are allowed, not controlled.”

“The idea of the Tao is the ruler who abdicates and allows all the people, trusts all the people, to conduct their own affairs, to let it all happen. So, this doesn’t mean, you see that there isn’t a unified organism, that everything is in chaos. It means, the more liberty you give, the more love you give, the more you allow things in yourself and in your surroundings to take place, the more order you will have.”

[Sheila]

Mutual arising -- hsiang sheng

“In the Taoist view, everything or event is what it is only in relation to all others. The earth, and every tiniest thing upon it, inevitably ‘goes with’ the sun, moon and stars. It needs them as much as it needs its own elements. Conversely, the sun would not be light without eyes, nor would the universe ‘exist’ without consciousness----and vice versa. This is the principle of “mutual arising” (hsiang sheng).

“Individuality is inseparable from community. In other words, the order of nature is not a forced order; it is not the result of laws and commandments which beings are compelled to obey by external violence, for in the Taoist view there really is no obdurately external world. My inside arises mutually with my outside, and though the two may differ they cannot be separated. Because of the mutual interdependence of all beings, they will harmonize if left alone and not forced into conformity with some arbitrary, artificial, and abstract notion of order, and this harmony will emerge naturally (tzu-jan) of itself, without external compulsion.”


From Dr. Tan Kheng Khoo

http://www.kktanhp.com/taoism_1.htm

[Sheila]

Another good, short piece by Alan Watts on Taoism –

A few highlights –

“The more you relinquish power, trust others, the more powerful you become. But in such a way that instead of having to lie awake nights controlling everything, you do it beautifully by trusting the job to everyone else….

“The principle of unity, of coming to a sense of oneness with the whole of the rest of the universe is not to try to obtain power over the rest of the universe. That will only disturb it, and antagonize it, and make it seem less one with you than ever.

“The way to become one with the universe is to trust it as another, as you would another. And say, ‘Let’s see what you’re going to do’. But in doing that, you see, in saying that to everything else, that you have been taught to think is not you, you are also saying it to yourself….”

[Barbara]

Yes, trust and allow. Many times easier said than done. But that option is always right there for us to choose.

[Luc]

[Luc]

[Sheila]

Nice find! Perfectly supports the part of our IAWP mission statement that avers that identifying and pursuing your truest passions is one of the best ways to promote healing from w/d….And that, possibly, not being on the track of your truest passions is part of the teleological reason that this illness is happening….if you believe that sort of thing (which I do). ;)

[Luc]

He speaks of freedom perfectly - offered the choice between what they're doing right now (or they have no other choice but to do b/c of life circumstances) and hopping up a step or two on the Maslow's Piramid, most would go for the latter no doubt. Just some years to go and more people will be able to go this way - the entire world is getting so decentralised today it's unbelievable.

[Luc]