Chapter 7

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

Heaven is eternal Earth lasting

They are lasting and eternal

Because they do not live for themselves

Therefore they live forever

From here lives the Sage

He disregards himself

And his essence is increased

He gives himself away

And his essence is preserved

If you never let go of yourself

Will you ever become yourself?

Within the Taoist understanding there are any number of perspectives and views in which to understand these texts. In essence I see this chapter as a reflection of the shape of the Tao. It’s an understanding of different facets, possibilities, trajectories, and roots. When I first started looking at this chapter I was thinking about social structures and how we understand ourselves within these matrixes of laws, rules, religions, and values…

How do we refer to ourselves? How do we understand anything? I use a concept of a nameless being on a nameless planet as a thought exercise to understand the origin and roots of ideas or concepts. The concept comes from the shape of the Yin/Yang pattern from Figure 1 as it changes from absence (Wuji) into presence (Taiji-Yin/Yang).

Figure 1

I imagine the nameless being on a nameless planet as a human being in a relative state of Wuji, as a newborn infant entering the world. From this perspective I imagine the first word, the first dream, or the first thought as an attempt to understand the change and flow of potential possibilities within a sea of chaos. I use this analogy as a starting place to look at anything within our human experience; how we develop psychologically, spiritually, the origins of diseases, as well as science, language, and philosophy. This space is similar to the Garden of Eden; a place that exists before the Yin/Yang pair of Good/Evil (or any Yin/Yang pair) emerges.

If we imagine a being in this place, with their senses and a mind free from barriers and restrictions, what would their first thought be? Every understanding is dependent on some other thought, dream, or idea. The first thought would emerge, like magic, from a state of epiphany. Like the first shaft of morning light piercing through the darkness, ending the night. It is from this space I see that all knowledge is contextual.

I’ve asked myself “What does it mean to live a spiritual life?”, from the Taoist perspective I think of this question as a relationship between the Yin/Yang pair of the Mind/Spirit. Our spirit is our senses experiencing the world around us, our mind separates and categorizes and arranges our experiences, accessing and integrating our memories. It is from here where our individual and personal world views develop. This is the space I seek, the space from where my understanding flows. This is the space where the senses (spirit) and our primordial mind forges the understanding of our existence.

Our mind and the physiological responses linked to our memories and experiences limits the spectrum of our perception.

This is the separating aspect of our minds (Figure 2). Our minds limit our experiences, at the same time increasing our sense of understanding. This is a tricky situation when talking about concepts around the origin of ideas and how we interact with the world on an existential level because:

Every definition limits our understanding of what we are attempting to describe.

Figure 2

When I imagine this Nameless Being on a Nameless planet what would they witness? The rising and setting sun, large expanses of oceans and the dark depths of deep forests. They would see the skies as a fluctuating canvass of bright lights, dark winds and light clouds. Cycled with unrecognized constellations in an infinite starscape of the night sky, coupled with the mysteries of the cycles of the moon. This I imagine to be the world our ancestors’ experienced. From this space our first understandings of who we are and who we would become were forged. They would witness the changes of the seasons, the solstices and equinoxes, they realized their lives ebbed and flowed in these same patterns. For me when we follow these cycles and realize we are a part and are connected to these cycles of the universe; this is how I understand what it means to live a spiritual life. A life tied to our understanding of who we are and the natural world, a connection to our senses (spirit).

At some time humanity developed a sense of self, the individual became an important structure of our collective understanding. I see the hallmark of the modern world as a submission to the idea of individuality. We’re constantly shifting back and forth between how we view ourselves, either we see ourselves as an individual or as part of a group. I describe this as “The One and the Many” dichotomy. I wonder how prevalent this was to ancient humans. I think this Yin/Yang pair has always been there but has been developed in modernity into what we would recognize as the modern self. A side note: I think this development of the Western idea of the modern self originated in the philosophies of the Protestant Reformation.

Where does that leave us with this chapter?

Heaven is eternal Earth lasting

They are lasting and eternal

Because they do not live for themselves

Therefore they live forever

These are observations of the same natural world we see today. Heaven in the I-ching is the formless, the word eternal is used to capture this formlessness. Earth in the I-Ching is the receptive (formed), the word lasting is used to capture the endless form of the Earth. Because they don’t live for themselves is interesting to me. I read this as a quality of what they are, they are Heaven and Earth, they know we they are in someway. They never deviate in their purpose, as in a constant state of Wuji. When we live our lives as spiritual beings, as Human Beings, on the planet we live our lives as if we are as Heaven and Earth. When we live our lives without the mind, as spiritual beings do we live forever? This is an understanding in the Taoist immortals practice.

From what I know about the immortals practice is it is a conservation and cultivation of the energy that flows through us. Reducing tensions that block the circulation in our physical bodies. A returning to the spiritual understanding of who we are as the nameless beings on a nameless planet. In the Christian understanding I think this is the idea that “sin” is a separation from God. The Taoist view would be the mind (form) separates us from spirit (formless).

From here lives the Sage

He disregards himself

And his essence is increased

He gives himself away

And his essence is preserved

A sage seeks the Wuji of where he comes from (Figure 2), he turns towards the origin of spirit away from the infinite intoxicating possibilities of the mind. The mind separates and the spirit connects is his mantra. When he disappears into the folds of the universe, not in death but in life, is where you will find him.

The photo at the top is my Grandfather Peter John. I write these essays with him in mind. I imagine him as the embodiment of this passage. Offering and being.

If you never let go of yourself

Will you ever become yourself?

How do you understand who you are? What has defined your life? What has the modern world convinced you of? What are the ideas and beliefs you hold true that form your understanding? Are these deviations from some starting point that weaves a world view that is comforting?

It is the form of who we are that separates us from who we are.