Chapter 4

Thoughts and Applications on the Tao Te Jing through the lens of Master Zhu's Teachings.

Tao is empty yet ever flowing

Never overflows in its effectiveness

It is an abyss… the ancestor of all things

It mellows sharpness

It untangles confusion

It softens brightness

It unites itself with their essence

It is deep and clear as if real

I do not know whose child it is

It seems to be older than Heaven and Earth.

This chapter is showing us a broad description of an understanding of the Tao. In our experiences we have the natural world and our perceptions and thoughts that come from our interactions with it. Is this a summation of the Taoist view? I think of this chapter as an observation and description of the generative force that moves through our lives and the natural world. Before there were any human thoughts or names given to the world what was the nature of the Universe? I imagine it to be an energetic fluctuation of matter and energy expanding and contracting, there was no understanding, just a flow. Every understanding we have comes from perceptions of our spirit and the categorizing and naming aspect from our minds.

When we understand that our relationship to the world: our spirits perceiving the world, connecting us to the flow. Our minds separating and categorizing these perceptions. It is this process that gives rise to our understanding of the Universe, this flow creates the world of man within the natural world.

Tao is empty yet ever flowing

Never overflows in its effectiveness

We have a name for where we reside, the Universe. Is the Universe a noun? A thing? What about the actions of this place where we live? What is the verb that describes and animates this process? Some may say God. I think these first two sentences are describing is the natural way of the Universe. Right now I’m thinking “Tao” represents the name of the entirety of the Universe and the animating aspects that flow through it tied together in one understanding.

The emptiness in the first line is hard to pin down in the modern world. Everything we understand and experience is full of mind (form) and overwhelms our experience. The emptiness (formlessness), for modern man, is like an echo chamber we fill with the smoke and mirrors of our minds (forms).

This idea of “empty yet ever flowing” we also see in Chan (Zen) Buddhism, this statement may be the origin of the ideas within Chan meditation practice. The idea and understanding of an empty (formless) mind as an empty garden filled and ready to flow with potential is the root of their practice as I understand it.

It is an abyss… the ancestor of all things

Here I see again the idea and relationship between the formless and form. The ideas in Taoism for me are about understanding balance, harmony, and patterns of pairs at the root. The formless and the form are a Yin-Yang pair. I see this pair in the creative process. I am at my most creative when I’m walking or riding my bike. Its the formlessness (Wuji) of my mind blending with my perceptions that generate the creative thought. For me its like watching the shapes of the reflections in waves of water or the patterns I see in softly drifting clouds in a blue sky. I see creativity as a relationship between the formless and the form. The ideas bubble up and I pluck them from the pool to examine, the ones I find interesting of beautiful I hold onto.

When I look into the world of man everything that has ever been created comes from this same place. In our world its the depth and emptiness of the formless abyss that is the ancestor of every thought, poem, painting, or invention. When we understand ourselves as part of the natural world that has the same motif and characteristics. We can look at the creative process of human beings and apply it to the natural world as a way of understanding the generating animating forces of the Universe. I wonder if this holding onto ideas and concepts from this creative space is what differentiates us as Human Beings.

It mellows sharpness

It untangles confusion

It softens brightness

Here we see specifics on how it operates. In the modern world these ideas are represented somewhat in the second law of thermodynamics:

• Second law of thermodynamics - In a closed system, entropy always increases over time, meaning heat naturally flows from hot to cold and processes naturally move towards a more disordered state.

When we look at these as Yin/Yang pairs seeking balance: A hot cup of coffee cools to the ambient temperature is the classic example. Sharpness and dullness, confusion and clarity, brightness and murky are all Yin/Yang pairs becoming balanced.

It unites itself with their essence

What is the essence of everything? What is the essence of every thought? Of every idea? From the Taoist view I would say Wuji, the absence of form. I think everything that has form every word, concept, or idea has been formed and molded from the essence of the Universe. The presence of every thought is a Yin/Yang pair with it’s absence. When something forms, it is differentiated from its surroundings, becoming what it is.

It is deep and clear as if real

I do not know whose child it is

It seems to be older than Heaven and Earth.

The last three lines I think are about awareness. Awareness about who we are and how we understand the Universe. As I work my way through the Tao te jing it has changed what I am aware of. It is deep and clear as if real, for me this is an awareness of what the Tao is. Can I perceive it working in the world? In my life? Can I see the harmonizing effects unfold around me in the layers of change that surround me? It has become more real in my experience, and with my awareness it has become more clear?

As I watch the changes and think about the world I see three types of knowledge. The known, the unknown, and the unknowable. What can we actually know? The idea of a nameless being on a nameless planet is the core of the idea. What would a fox or an otter be called if we weren’t here to name them? What would we call ourselves if there was only one of us? Everything we know, every opinion, piece of knowledge, or creative act is dependent on something we already understand, it is all tied together in memory, the mind, and perception. The first thought was an act of creation, a solidification of some perception.

We are part of the unknown, we are part of the mystery…