In my bookcase I have an entire shelf devoted to Taoism. Or Daoism. Take your pick.
There’s quite a few translations of the Tao Te Ching. There’s many books about Taoist philosophy. Modern takes on Taoism. And my favorite book of all, Raymond Smullyan’s The Tao is Silent.
The back cover says “Raymond M. Smullyan is an internationally known mathematical logician.” Indeed, there’s a lot of books by him on Amazon. Most are heavily mathematical. The Tao is Silent is the only one I’d have a chance of understanding.
But I can’t understand it either. Which is why I like it so much.
Here’s some passages from a book I’ve been re-reading as a Father’s Day present to myself. I read a lot of difficult to understand books that bother me when I can’t grasp what they’re saying. With The Tao is Silent, I can relax, since Smullyan’s book isn’t meant to be understood in the usual sense of that word.
Since the Taoists make no claim that the Tao exists, it saves them a world of trouble in trying to prove that the Tao exists. This is really Chinese common sense at its highest!
***********************
Meanwhile, the Taoist Sage sits quietly by the stream, perhaps with a book of poems, a cup of wine, and some painting materials, enjoying the Tao to his hearts content, without ever worrying whether or not the Tao exists. The Sage has no need to affirm the Tao; he is far too busy enjoying it!
***********************
The Tao itself is supposed to be vague, so is it not appropriate that our notion of it should be correspondingly vague?
***********************
There’s another reason I like the Tao so much; it doesn’t talk! I hate people who talk too much. When I’m in company, I like to be the one to talk; others should just respectfully listen! Is it not marvelous that I can talk to the Tao to my heart’s content, and the Tao never contradicts me or answers back? The Tao never criticizes me for being egocentric or talking too much.
***********************
Now, is it not strange that the Taoist Sage abides in the Tao, not because he is “commanded” to nor because it is his “duty,” but simply because he loves to! He is not seeking anything from the Tao; he is not striving to “save his soul,” nor does he seek any “future reward”; he has no purpose in abiding in the Tao; he is in the Tao simply because it is delightful to be there.
***********************
How on earth can I not let things go their own way, when the way I go is part of the way things go?
***********************
The point I am trying to make is that it is impossible for things not to go their own way, for whichever way things go, they go that way and no other. And whichever the way they do go, might be appropriately called “their way.”
***********************
I would roughly divide philosophies into two categories, “crazy” and “sensible.” Of the two, I definitely prefer the former.
***********************
Crazy philosophies are characterized by their madness, spontaneity, sense of humor, total freedom from the most basic conventions of thought, amorality, beauty, divinity, naturalness, poesy, absolute honesty, freedom from inhibitions, contrariness, paradoxicalness, lack of discipline and general yum-yumminess. Their most important advantage over the sensible philosophies is that they come far closer to the truth!
***********************
If one goes crazy enough, even sanity — normally so gruesome — becomes bearable after a while. At a still higher stage of craziness, the entire duality between craziness and sanity becomes transcended, and the two are seen to be really the same thing.
***********************
The Tao is your everyday mind.
Discover more from Church of the Churchless
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Taoists are illogical people. And I would like you to become illogical because only illogical people are fortunate enough to be happy. The logicians are never happy, they cannot be: they have taken a wrong route from the very beginning. They think that as everything else is caused, happiness has to be caused too – that is their wrong standpoint. Happiness needs only understanding, no other cause. And understanding is also not a cause of it, understanding simply unveils it; it is inside you. It simply removes the veil and suddenly it is there – your beloved is inside you; it has to be unveiled, that’s all. Unveiling is not a cause. Cause means it has to be created; unveiling simply means it was already there, but you were foolish enough not to unveil it.
This Confucian approach towards life has to be understood because many of you are bound to be in Confucian company. The whole West is Confucian, logical, intellectual. The Confucian approach is based on the idea that truth has to be learned, that it is only a question of learning: if you learn well you will know what truth is. No, the Taoists say truth has to be LIVED, not learned. Truth has to be experienced: just by becoming more knowledgeable you will not know it. In fact, to have truth you will have to go through unlearning, you will have to wash your mind clean. Whatsoever you have learned is functioning like a block. You will again have to become ignorant, you will have to become innocent, and you will have to drop all this nonsense that you are carrying in the name of knowledge.
Remember one thing: that is the difference between scientific knowledge and religious knowledge. Once somebody has discovered the law of gravitation, everybody has not to discover it again and again – that would be foolish. You cannot go to the world and declare ’What Newton discovered, I have discovered again. Yes, the law of gravitation… I have seen an apple falling, and I have again discovered the law of gravitation.’ People will laugh. They will say ’There is nothing now to discover. Discover something else which has not been discovered before.’
Science is information. If one man has discovered, then it can be transferred to everybody. The knowledge that science seeks is of the outside, so it can be learned from the outside. But religion has to be discovered again and again.
~ Beloved O.s.h.o.
Tao: The Pathless Path, Vol 1
Talks on extracts from “The Lieh Tzu”
Chapter_5: There can be no regret
This is quite beautiful, Tej.
However, every scientist must replicate the experiments in their chosen field. Even with Gravity, as students, we test the rate at which it falls in a high school physics lab, just to confirm for ourselves that 32 feet per second per second is an immutable truth. Scientist must verify. They must become one with that experience. Users of science, like consumers of philosophy, don’t verify, don’t test. They are feeding off the experience of others. They are happy to be consumers of science, not scientists. But when it comes to religion, as Dr. Martin Marty of the University of Chicago once wrote, ‘people don’t want to read about a spiritual experience someone had long ago. They want to have a spiritual experience.’
And so there will always be true scientists who want to see it, touch it, feel it, hear it for themselves directly.
The consumer thinks of science as a commodity, information, just as Osho wrote.
But the scientists experience science directly, as the fruit of practice, journey, experimentation.
What is the difference between people in one group or another? They are different, we can accept that. And while they might agree about spirituality in theory, in practice they live different lives.
“Where Zen and Buddhism will say the truth, enlightenment, and so on can be reached through dedicated meditation and practice, a Tao master may sip some wine, fart, and go to sleep.” From The Daily Cup of Tao.
These extracts from ‘The Tao is Silent’ are delightful. I’ve just picked one out which says it all: – “Meanwhile, the Taoist Sage sits quietly by the stream, perhaps with a book of poems, a cup of wine, and some painting materials, enjoying the Tao to his heart’s content, without ever worrying whether or not the Tao exists. The Sage has no need to affirm the Tao; he is far too busy enjoying it!”
Excellent, just being, nothing special, abiding in just this – whatever thoughts are arising, whatever one is doing or not doing. Always here.
4. Tao looks like a void and might be mistaken as being nothing. Yet, appearing to be nothing, It is omnipotent!
It is in the Depths.*
It is the Origin of everything.
It controls everything.
It pervades everything.
It manifests Itself as shining Light.
It is the Subtlest!
It is the Main Essence of everything!
One cannot describe Its origin, for It is Primordial.
7. The sky and the earth are lasting. They last long because they exist not by themselves and not for the sake of themselves; they are created by Tao and exist for It.
The wise put themselves behind others; thus, they do not hinder other people and can lead them. The wise do not treasure the lives of their bodies; nevertheless, their lives are guarded by Tao.
This happens because the wise, too, exist here not for the sake of themselves. This is why their personal needs get realized for them.
The wise exist for Tao and serve It.
12. The one who sees only five colors in the world is like the blind.
The one who hears only the sounds of the material world is similar to the deaf.
The one who partakes of only material food and feels only its taste is deluded.
The one who, in pursuit of prey, races at full speed is insane.
By accumulating jewelry and adornments, people act to the detriment of themselves.
The efforts of the wise are directed at having enough food, not at accumulating many objects. They, being satisfied with having little in the world of matter, choose the Primordial.
Decades ago, I bought Arthur Waley’s book on the Tao. It is pretty academic. The first 140 pages consist of the preface and introduction. The Tao Te Ching takes up the next 100 pages, much of which is commentary. Later, I read The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. Made much more sense – in a nonsensical way.
The manner of indirect writing of Taoism and Zen and the presenting of Zen and Taoism with its refusal (or impossibleness) to speak directly of such, appeals to me. For instance:
A student approaches another. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing he replies.
“Then you are just sitting there?”
“If I were just sitting here, I’d be doing something.”
“What is this nothing you are not doing?”
“Even the Buddhas do not know.”
Where the usual approach to ‘searching for truth’ consists of practices to get somewhere; to arrive at truth, etc., such utterances would appear annoying, misguided or just plain nonsense. But what if it all boils down to seeing that there is nothing to search for, only just this, right now; life as it is; just being this aliveness – which we obviously are at this moment.