Tao Te Ching, 25 + [Kierkegaard, Socrates, Jesus]

[Cory Duchesne]

Passage 25, Tao Te Ching

The Tao Te Ching is a great text for demonstrating analytic poles.

In mundane everyday life we create North pole and South pole to orient the human mind in relation to the globe. These poles are not objectively real, but for global orientation these are necessary distinctions.

In a similar way, the analytic poles of spirituality are there to establish orientation between man and the whole of existence. The four main analytic poles of the Tao Te Ching are put in relation to each other in passage 25:

Man follows Earth.
Earth follows heaven.
Heaven follows the Tao.
Tao follows what is natural.

The concept of earth is not limited merely to the minerals, plants, voluptuous women, clouds, trees and animals. Earth is something man must always follow, and so earth includes the totality of all mundane experience. If the mind is familiar with the phenomena, or conditioned by it, then that is earth. Earth is a state of mind, and it includes all the mundane ebbs, flows and cycles we all yield to. To be a man is to be a follower of the earth, and this includes the energetic impulse to cast aside mundane phenomena and ponder life’s mysteries through wonder.

It was Socrates who said that wisdom begins in wonder, and this is because it is the psychological act of wonder that causes new mental connections. Man sees the mundane world, but he also gets a glimpse into new possibility.

It was Kierkegaard who wrote:

“Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility!“

Kierkegaard is making a clear distinction between Earth and Heaven. Earth offers the pleasures we are familiar with. Heaven, not so familiar. Heaven is a psychological state of excitation that is so conceptual that it goes beyond familiar sensory pleasure.

However, thousands of years have passed, and revolution after revolution are the marks of man pursuing heaven, and the result is that heaven has changed considerably. What was once a possibility is now a fixture on the earth. The trains, planes, automobile and computer we take for granted are no longer possibilities, and the earth of thousands of years ago has passed away.

We are living in a new earth with new challenges, and new possibilities. New heavens.

Man continues to reach for heaven and in all of the myriad and contrasting ways he has always done. The scientists, artists, athletes, coaches and philosophers all wonder and push for new possibilities.

"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. Luke 21: 33

Jesus demonstrates his knowledge that mind is fundamental, and that earth and heaven are nothing more than an ever changing interplay caused by the contrasting nature of each other. All worlds (minds) depend on these analytic poles, which are more fundamental than the flux of mere content. The heavens and earths of old make way for the new.

It is the philosophers who know of the fourth power, the Tao, or God. The Tao is the aftermath of man bringing the heavens to earth. Heaven changes the earth, and then in return, the earth changes heaven. The Tao is an eternal interplay between heaven (possibility) and earth (existing conditions).

To ignore the earth is to ignore the Tao, and what goes against the Tao comes to an early end.

-

The earthly minded person thinks and imagines that when he prays, the important thing, the thing he must concentrate upon, is that God should hear what he is praying for. And yet in the true, eternal sense it is just the reverse: the true relation in prayer is not when God hears what is prayed for, but when the person praying continues to pray until he is the one who hears, who hears what God is asking for. (Kierkegaard)

-

The Tao is a whole state of mind. It is man translating his actions through the lens of both empirical competence (earth) and creative analytic ability (heaven). It is the translation one patiently watches for. The mind and heart have a natural operation and as one develops, unreasoned activity is increasingly fatal.

Only by following the Tao can man free himself from the bondage between the heavens and earths that he once lived through.

[Dionysus]

very constructive synthesis between eastern and western, this is what is needed today, merging the perspectives of Holism and non-Holism into one. good read

[NobodyListens2Genius]

Cory

Check it out we are idiots. We both have read the tao te ching and believe it to be truth, yet we are online discussing??? Why?

[Russell Parr]

Why did Lao Tzu write the tao te ching?

[Bobo]

Why did the Buddha cross the river?

[NobodyListens2Genius]

Always wondered the same thing. Lao Tzu describes himself as completely empty and dull.

"Thoughts weaken the mind."

Anyway I'm still very glad he wrote it.

[Russell Parr]

Anyway I'm still very glad he wrote it.

One way to look at it: If the wise are to communicate at all, they will communicate wisdom.

Wisdom exposes the seeker to the oneness of all, thus an enlightened person will necessarily and naturally express wisdom in their interactions.

[NobodyListens2Genius]

The first day I came across the Tao Te Ching I wanted to scream like a little girl haha, how lucky we are to have read the words of Lao Tzu or the Buddha Gautama.

I agree it just seems a little contradictory based on the theme of non-action and thoughtlessness, but I guess since he wrote it he thought and planned himself. His intention being to share his wisdom. If only we knew how to get as many people to listen to us today.