Daoism 101 (Part 2)
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of Heaven and Earth.
The named is the other of ten thousand things.
Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.
Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations.
These two spring from the same source but differ in name; this appears as darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gate to all mystery.
So begins the Dao De Jing, the foundational text of Daoism.
Enigmatic, highly nuanced, and rich in profound meaning - when we fully comprehend the meaning of these lines they will have an enormous impact on our lives.
These lines also possess radical implications for all forms of medicine and healing.
We’re cautioned against trying to describe the Dao in concrete terms. Words merely point us towards the experience of the Dao, they cannot capture its essence.
So from the outset, we should watch out for our default tendency to become fixated upon a mere intellectual understanding of the Dao’s meaning.
To move towards the Dao as an actual experience we can consider as follows. There is a beautiful and mysterious dimension of life that is ever present, yet one that few notice. The modern rendering of this mysterious dimension is the state of Being.
The words Dao or Being do not explain or capture anything about the inexpressible quality behind these words. But they are also general enough to avoid becoming reductive - in that they do not reduce that which is beyond intellectual comprehension into something limited and without mystery or beauty. As such I shall use them interchangeably.
Being is the very essence of who we are, and indeed, of all things. It is the immediacy of our experience right now - prior to any name, label, or limited interpretation imposed upon it. When we tune into Being itself, we shall discover a sense of being at one with all things, rather than fundamentally separate and cut off.
What we really need therefore is a shift in the worldview - one that would facilitate new means of delivering and practicing medicine, incorporating the findings of quantum mechanics to better the health of humanity.
From a Daoist perspective, relating to an separate, independent world that exists ‘out there’ is futile and exhausting, whereas arriving at a direct understanding of our own nature and our experiences by looking within is called wisdom.
It is the latter that Daoist practices emphasize, and remarkably, their findings are uncannily similar to the quantum picture of reality - which, through observing ever deeper levels of matter, finds no objective ground but only waves of probability and uncertainty.
To get a sense of the astonishing potential of a new synthesis of the Newtownian and Quantum worldviews, let’s explore for a moment how we know what we know.
At any given time, the ‘sense’ we make of the perceptual field depends on the level of consciousness we perceive it with. The human eye for example can only detect a narrow bandwidth of the electromagnetic spectrum. Similarly the ears detect a narrow range of the acoustical spectrum.
Consciousness itself also exists on a spectrum - from our gross waking states to the very subtle levels that manifest only during deep sleep and the death process.
These levels have been discovered, documented and directly experienced by many meditation traditions hailing from the Far East and Indo-Tibetan traditions. When we integrate this into a new world paradigm it will bring tremendous benefits to all.
The profound implication here is that if we’re forever tuned into a very narrow bandwidth of consciousness there must be many other levels we’re currently missing out on. And further, that our fixed and solid sense of ‘reality’ arises from the most superficial level of consciousness - from levels that cannot produce a true representation of the way things really are.
If you sit quietly and allow your mind to settle you’ll arrive, in time, at a natural experience of stillness. A sense of inner peace will arise, and along with it, a feeling of warmth in your body - at the region of your heart in the center of your chest.
You’ll notice this experience as a priori - before and behind any other thoughts, images, memories and so forth. This is the open and clear nature of consciousness itself. It is a pure unmediated experience and the doorway into Being itself.
What this reveals is that Being or the Dao is not some far away place that’s distant from our experience. And implicitly, I believe that many of us already know this is the case.
Why? Because if you check, you’ll discover that there are actually many times when we naturally feel a sense of wholeness - when our ‘thinky’ head gives way to an inner stillness, to a peace that feels like an eternity, or to a feeling that everything is ‘just right'.
A sense of beauty naturally can also arise at such times - not the fake, superficial kind we’re all familiar with, but a beauty that is profound, eternal, and numinous.
These seemingly random experiences can also bring with them a sense of grace or blessing - to a feeling of having been touched by something greater than ourselves - something divine.
This aspect of grace is of particular interest to Daoism, which, like all philosophies or religions, poses fundamental questions about the nature of our existence. Is there something that is divine? Is there something that is far greater than us and yet intrinsically and inextricably linked to our life?
To answer this question let us consider the traditional character called Shen神 which is often translated as spirit, deity, heart-mind.
For the early Daoists Shen神 meant an immortal god. However, rather than being objects of worship, each of the many gods represents a particular concept - such as love.
Shen 神 is composed of two characters. On the left is the character, Zong 礻which means ancestors, and on the right is shēn 申 which means to extend or connect.
This helpfully captures how, in contrast to Western philosophy which emphasizes individuality, Daoist philosophy emphasizes profound interconnectedness. And the implication here is that whether we’re aware of it or not, we’re always already in a relationship with all things and all beings.
For the early Daoists, a traditional understanding of this related to the importance of honoring one’s ancestry - of reconnecting back to our ancestors or history.
This became associated with ancestor ‘worship’, but a modern understanding might merely point instead to how all of us today are living out the history of our ancestors through our genetics.
What Daoism was trying to convey with Shen 神, is that our life is a precious gift that was bestowed upon us by our ancestors. As such we can learn to honor and evolve from their history and choose to live an authentic life.
But on a deeper level, it is the experience of Being itself which is our true - and shared - ancestor, in the sense that Being is the authentic, primordial nature from which all of our thoughts and feelings arise.
So these enigmatic lines at the start of the Dao De Jing, are inviting us to reconnect with that deeper shared heritage, that deeper shared reality - and to nurture connection with the divine, with Being, with the Dao.
So why not take a moment now to dialogue with the divine, and to reconnect with your heritage?
And if you’d like to uncover the deeper meaning and purpose of your life, spend some time in contemplation considering the following questions:
Can I tune into the existence of divinity?
What exactly is that divinity - before I make it into something that controls my life?
What is it that reconnects me back to life?
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~ Chapter 1 Tao Te Ching 道德經 (Translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English)