and the Tao
There are fewer legends of Lao Tzu than most which may account for the question of his existence as one person and whether the concept of Taoism was just an idea whose time had come. The story of the gatekeeper and the tale of the meeting of Lao Tzu and Confucius are the only two that have made their way to me. (After meeting Lao Tzu, Confucius was asked to describe the meeting. Confucius' only response was, "Lao Tzu is a dragon!")
Tao te Ching translates loosely as The Path of Life. It consists of eighty-one poems in which the idea is expressed that there is a life-force, chi, to which we must surrender ourselves in order to live a fulfilled life and attain true peace. The problems we suffer arise when we do not follow this Path.
An important point which is brought up in poem Number Eleven, my favorite, deals with what is and what is not.
Thirty spokes make up the wheel
But it is the empty space in the hub which gives the wheel its use.
The bowl is made of solid clay
But it is the hollow emptiness of the bowl which gives the clay its use.
The house has solid walls
But it is the empty doorway and the empty room which allows the use of the walls.
Thus what we have is substantial and we derive satisfaction from its use
But nothingness allows the use of the substantial and gives it meaning.
This is an extremely important point and it is the point for which the symbol of Taoism was created, i.e. the tai chi or yin yang symbol at the top of this page. The symbol represents sets of opposites, the duality of which is the foundation of Western thought. We ever see things in terms of Male or Female, Good or Evil, Love or Hate, etc and as opposites mutually exclusive of each other. In Eastern thought these exist but not to the exclusion of the other. Inside the female black half of the circle is a male white dot and in the male white half of the circle is a female black dot. There is not anything that is one-hundred percent one or the other and the fact that the two opposites make a whole determines that one does not exist without the other. If there is no concept of warm then there can be no concept of cold.
We who are so involved in materialism fail to see that the accumulation of goods must be balanced by their loss. Our greed makes another suffer poverty. Our pursuit of the material means our loss of the spiritual. Our pride in intellect means our shame in another aspect of our lives. Our striving for machismo means a loss of our humanity. Our desire for the new can never be satisfied for once we possess it, it is old.
We must bring our lives into balance wherein we live with the complete circle in mind. We must abandon our intellectualized and justified view of life and feel the rightness of what we think, do, say, and feel. There is a Path and we know when we are on this Path and when we are not. When we are not, we are in conflict with Nature and with our Being and as a result, we pay a dear dear price.
All things in moderation.
Feel the Force, Luke.
Lao Tzu was last seen riding into the sunset on the back of an ox (representing the subjugation of his lower nature)and facing it's tail (the wise fool). Even the ancient Chinese had a sense of melodrama.
* * * * *
Chuang Tzu, the other patriarch of Taoism probably didn't exist either. If so, it was around 369 to 286 BCE. He's barely mentioned in Chinese history. So little is known that his writings are referred to as the Chuang Tzu. Of the two, Lao Tzu laid out the philosophy of Taoism, but Chuang Tzu set the tone of Taoism. There is a playfulness to ChuangTzu that was passed on down to Zen. For example:
I awoke from a dream. I was a man dreaming that he was a butterfly. Now that I am awake, am I not a butterfly who is dreaming that he is a man?
You can take this and run with it for a thousand miles without stopping.
Here's another one:
I'm going to tell you something. I don't know what label to put on it or even if it's relevant here, but it must be relevant at some point. It's not new but I would like to say it anyway.
There is a beginning. There is no beginning to that beginning. There is no beginning to that no beginning to the beginning. There is something. There is nothing. There is something before the beginning of something and nothing, and something before that beginning to something and nothing. Suddenly there is something and nothing. However, between something and nothing I'm really not sure which is something and which is nothing. Now I've said the something, but I'm not sure if I've said something or if I've said nothing.
Zen? Looks Like Zen. Walks like Zen. Smells like Zen. Sounds like Zen. Tastes like Zen. It must be a duck.
There is a collection of his writings called The Inner Chapters which is more literature than the Tao Te Ching. There is more but it has been so rewritten and polluted over the years that the Inner Chapters are all that can be considered original.
Chuang Tzu is to be considered equally as important to Taoism as Lao Tzu. The two of them might very well be considered more important to Zen than the Buddha. There can be much Buddhism found in the trappings of Zen but mostly it is the influence of Taoism that one finds in the philosophy.
A parable illustrating the philosophies runs this way: Confucius, Buddha and Lao Tse stood before an urn of new vinegar. Confucius tasted it and declared it sour. Buddha tasted it and declared it bitter. Lao Tse tasted it and declared it sweet.
I am just delving into Chuang Tzu but looks like I'm in for a good time.
Party hearty, Garth.
Yin Yang Symbol (c) Corbis