Chapter 13
Thoughts and Applications on the Tao-Te-Jing through the lens of Master Zhu's Teachings.
Grace is as debilitating as fright
Honor is a great evil, like the ego
What does this mean? “Grace is as debilitating as fright?”
Grace is something inferior.
One attains it, just as one is frightened.
This is what is meant by “Grace is as debilitating as fright”.
What does this mean “Honor is a great evil, like the ego.”?
The reason I experience great evil is that I have an ego.
If I have no ego, what evil could I experience?
Therefore, whoever honors the world selflessly
To him one may entrust the world
Whoever loves the world selflessly
To him one may hand over the world.
What is at the root of Taoist understanding? I think it’s the idea of Wu-ji, of formlessness. Our world, and our lives are in constant flux, an endless cycle of the relationship between formlessness and form. If we define formlessness as the spirit and form as the mind, it’s the senses witnessing the world and the forms of the mind that create our world views, philosophies and understandings.
I grew up and came of age in pool halls and coffeehouses. It fostered a deep curiosity and a whole range of personalities to interact with. These was a pool player I knew when I was sixteen years old, the owner called him the best $5 player on the planet. The pool hall was full of gamblers, stake horses, and hustlers. He was a player that had a high skill level but lacked what they called heart; he was unable to steady his nerves and missed shots when betting above $5. He was a player I looked up to when I was young, he was always upbeat and friendly.
Within the Taoist understanding of health our emotions play a large stake in our energetic balance and our health. Our energy base (Qi) is formless, and our hormones (Jing) give Qi its form. The idea is over time our emotional lives effect our energy base, as well as the form of our energy. Our endocrine system is related to our hormones (Jing) and our emotions. As our lives unfold, our emotional lives become deeper, richer, and the emotional patterns become more entrenched. Our internal organs are related to our endocrine system and this is the root of our emotional constitution, this is in the section the voice of our bodies in the essay Human Metaphors.
Anyway, that pool player passed away a few years ago from pancreatic cancer. In these views pancreatic cancer can be seen as related to the spleen. The emotion attributed to the spleen is worry. The spleen is considered a Yin organ, which is solid, and manifests worry. Its Yang counterpart is the stomach, which is hollow and moves worry. This is why when people are nervous, they get “butterflies”, too much worry and you can end up with stomach ulcers.
I was at his memorial and everyone was talking, telling stories about him, about what a great guy he was. As I watched everyone and listened to their stories I wondered if this could be the root of his illness, a deep worry that filled his life, that he had to be a great guy. That he was stuck in a reality of obligation and identity. It was an idea that made sense to me as I knew him and how he interacted with others at the pool room.
Can being a great guy be evil? Can it cause illness? What about Grace or Honor? I see this passage as an understanding of how we develop throughout our lives. As the modern world continues to develop, it becomes more and more defined. The modern world is the pattern of forms, the separating aspects of our minds on a societal level. It is how our identities (self) develop, this development is fostered and trained within the framework of the forms of the modern world. How we understand ourselves can become fogged and blurred through the lenses the modern world. Our lives have been dissected, examined, and categorized. We have our work lives, our personal lives, our economic lived, sexual lives, our spiritual lived… our identities and lives are built from these fractured forms if we allow it.
When I was young my life and identity was made of everything I thought I should be or what I should do, be a good student, be a good son. This changed into different activities, being a good chess player, being well read, being reasonable. I don’t think of these things as being “bad” things, but they are forms and we become stuck and lost in the shapes and shadows of our forms. For me the Taoist practice is about understanding form and formlessness, the practice for me is removing the forms of beliefs from my body and being. I strive to have human experiences as I also strive to be as formless and selfless as possible.