The Path of Water - 21st century Taoism

Taoism e-Course

2012-01-25T23:08:00.002Z

I don't intend to make a habit of promoting products or courses through this blog but I'd like to make an exception if you'll bear with me. Bill Martin has written some excellent books interpreting the teachings of the Tao Te Ching. His book "A Path and a Practice" is by some way the best book I've read about Taoism, exploring and explaining it in a simple clear and unpretentious way.

Bill is running a 28 day e-Course (30 January - 26 February 2012) about Taoism through the multi-faith website Spirituality & Practice. Should you be interested in finding out more - the details are here. If it's anywhere close to the quality of his books it should be very good.

Taoism in action

2011-07-05T14:35:00.001+01:00

In my opinion Taoism is pretty pointless if it can't improve our experience of life (other belief systems take note!). I find that it's becoming increasingly important in my life, and frustration, unhappiness, anger, boredom etc.... only arise when I'm not using it. I wrote the following in response to a question on the Reform Taoist site about practical examples of using Taoism.

A good example came up on Saturday. I was due to play as the lead musician for our Morris Dancing side. Without boring you with the details, this is far more demanding than just performing in public because there's lots of things that you need to concentrate on and lots of distractions. You're also responsible for the whole dance and the playing of the rest of the band. Add to this that we were in the company of other sides, so if I c*cked it up it would certainly be noticed. In the past this pressure of being lead musician for public performances has got to me a bit and despite extensive practice I've never done that well - mainly just about scraping by. I've found the whole thing unpleasant - only really happy once it's over. As you can imagine, I was dreading this event.

I started re-reading Bill Martin's "Path and a Practice". I thought to myself "This is stupid! I'm a Taoist. I know what's going on - it's the "carving" not the "block" - I just need to address it."

I was reading a bit where it's looking at the TTC Chapter 9. Martin's version reads...

This is a path of letting go
so there will be room to live

If we hold on to opinions
our minds will become dull & useless
Let go of opinions

If we hold on to possessions
we will always be at risk
Let go of possessions

If we hold on to ego
we will continue to suffer
Let go of ego

Working without thought of praise or blame
is the way of true contentment

...and I got it!

I was holding on to opinions - mine, other people's, and most of all what I imagined that other people might think.
I was holding on to possessions - my position as lead musician and status in the side.
I was holding on to ego - my sense of self, self-worth, position, status, place, sense of importance
I was playing with thought of both praise & blame - part imagining a future where everybody says "Hey! You were great!" and part imagining one where everybody says "Hey! You were sh*te" - wrapping it all into a tapestry with memories of past successes and failures.

All of this is natural enough ego-led stuff. You just need to accept and understand that it's the natural chattering of the ego and put it into perspective, understanding that it's not reality. Then you can just let it all go.

So that's what I did..... And I had a really good time - enjoying ever minute of the whole days worth of events.

Sounds easy - but it's not. Maintaining harmony for long against the hyperactive neurotic attention seeking toddler that is the ego is very hard - a lifelong project. But it's worth it because in those moments when you hit it - oh boy!

Taoism and renewal

2010-12-20T08:53:00.000Z

At this time of the year I'm always reminded of the Taijitu symbol - or the Yin / Yang symbol as it is better known. Not just a pretty design, it symbolises something fundamental in the nature of reality and our experience of it. At the point of greatest Yin, Yang is born and at greatest Yang, Yin is born. Over time everything is born, grows, dies, and is then renewed starting the cycle all over again.

For those of us in the Northern hemisphere tomorrow is the Winter Solstice and we can see the relationship with the Taijitu because at the point of Solstice, our longest night, is born the start of the long journey to the Summer Solstice, our longest day. Indeed I've seen suggestions that the origins of the Taijitu is in observations of the Sun as it moves from Winter to Summer Solstice and back again.

So what does this tell us about our day to day lives? Possibly the best lessons are captured in the old sayings "nothing lasts forever" and "the darkest hour is before the dawn." If you are feeling sad, remember that over time this will pass. If you're feeling overwhelmed by everything, remember that the intensity will not persist and if you hang in there things will become easier. We should also remember however that the opposite is also true, there may be times when we feel sad and times when we feel overwhelmed. So when life is good and when you are enjoying yourself savour it - enjoy the moment - don't take it all for granted. These changes will happen whether or not we want them to. While me may be able to exert some influence upon them essentially we have to bend with the wind - to live in the moment experiencing things as they are, not raging and shouting about how we think they should be.

There is a time for being ahead,
a time for being behind;
a time for being in motion,
a time for being at rest;
a time for being vigorous,
a time for being exhausted;
a time for being safe,
a time for being in danger.

The Master sees things as they are,
without trying to control them.
She lets them go their own way,
and resides at the centre of the circle.

TTC Ch. 29 (12)

Taoism and the Universe

2010-08-09T16:50:00.000+01:00

The universe is the unity of all things. If one recognizes his identity with this unity, then the parts of his body mean no more to him than so much dirt, and death and life, end and beginning, disturb his tranquillity no more than the succession of day and night.

Chuang-tzu

Taoism, forgiveness and anger management

2010-06-03T22:56:00.001+01:00

On the Reform Taoism member forum there's been a really good discussion going regarding anger management and forgiveness. I'm reproducing here the essence of my posts in the thread in the hope that they may be of some wider use.

The original poster (OP) initially asked for insights from members with regard to Taoism and anger management. This was my response...

For me anger is wrapped up with the ego and arises when my perception of how the world/things/life etc "should be" comes in conflict with how it actually "is." IMHO there's nothing wrong per se with feeling angry. If you feel angry then let it out, but try to direct it so that it causes minimal damage.

What I do once it's out is try to examine where the conflict is and how it arises. I don't try to "control" or "manage" my anger but I find that through understanding the nature of the source conflict, I gain perspective and the situation rarely arises again. Sometimes however it takes several goes before I really understand the source of the conflict.

The strange thing I find is that usually when I finally understand the root of my anger it's almost always something petty, small, and quite often embarrassingly childish. But then as Taoists we shouldn't run away from our childishness - just not let it take over our lives.

...Following on from the anger management discussion the OP identified that some of their anger originated in unresolved feelings from events in past relationships. In an effort to resolve these the OP enquired about Taoist advice regarding forgiveness. The essence of my responses and resulting discussions are presented here...

Forgive or don't forgive. It doesn't matter. It won't change the past - that's been and gone.
Forgiving or not forgiving maintains the illusion that events can in some way still be changed.
Dwelling on past events will bring you no benefit, it won't change anything - it will only take you away from the present and hamper your ability to find harmony.
Everything "good" and "bad" has brought you to this point. Both are of equal value in making you who you are.
What to do? Give yourself a break.
Accept the past for what it is - something that has been and gone.
Make the decision to live the life you have now, not one that has ceased to be.

...the discussion proceeded onto the roots of the emotional pain from which the anger arises and the urge to forgive or not forgive. You may notice that these issues are closely tied with those of guilt and shame covered in my previous post. Here's what I had to say...

It is the ego that feels wronged. It's saying "Don't you know who I am? I'm too important to be treated like this!" It's all tied up in only "seeing the manifestations" as described in chapter 1 of the Tao Te Ching.I believe that this is a good example of how Taoism can offer us better answers.

It all boils down to a conflict between what happens and what a person (specifically their ego) desires to happen. There is a vision projecting into the future of how things will be & when reality doesn't fit the illusion there is naturally conflict, pain, etc. This can be further amplified by past similar events reinforcing the sense of injustice or vulnerability. This is what the Tao Te Ching is talking about when it says things like...

When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

The Master sees things as they are,
without trying to control them.
She lets them go their own way,

When there is no desire,
all things are at peace.

[The master] has no will of his own.
He dwells in reality,
and lets all illusions go.

Be content with what you have;
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.

...so both forgiving and not forgiving are just tricks of the ego making it seem as if you have some kind of power or control over past events. Don't fret over the past and how things didn't live up to your expectations, and don't build expectations of the future and how things are going to be. Give them both up and live in the now...

Living in the moment,
abandoning the baggage of past events,
abandoning the baggage of future expectations,
you become free.

Taoism and guilt or shame

2010-06-03T11:12:00.010+01:00

Looking at some of the stats for visits to the site I saw that one issue that comes up repeatedly is how Taoism addresses issues such as shame and guilt. I think we all have an idea of what we mean by these terms but I thought that I'd look up some dictionary definitions from www.thefreedictionary.com - these are the definitions I chose...

shame - A painful emotion caused by a strong sense of guilt, embarrassment, unworthiness, or disgrace.

guilt - Self-reproach for supposed inadequacy or wrongdoing.

Their origin is in how we have somehow failed to meet up to some standard of behaviour. This standard may be an external one imposed by others or society in general, or they may be internal ones which we have consciously or unconsciously imposed upon ourselves. Taoism can help a lot with these feelings. There are two things to examine - the standard and our actions.

Where has the standard come from? What is its purpose? There are obviously social standards of behaviour like laws and customs, but I'd argue that most are based on values we have acquired, normally without consciously analysing or deciding to adopt them. These standards, both social and acquired, are part of the value judgements that dominate our lives. While seeming to give order and structure they are actually a barrier to true enlightenment. The Tao Te Ching says...

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

TTC Ch. 2 (12)

...so we have to get past these values to truly find our way. However this can be difficult because it's reassuring to have these standards, no matter the pain they give us, because without their guidance and limitations we have to trust ourselves - and that can be very scary.

The second issue is our behaviour. Taoism says that the reason we find conflict with these standards, even when we're trying to follow them, is because we're denying our true nature. This denial leads us to abnormal behaviour patterns induced by the conflict between what we are trying to be and what we truly are. The Tao Te Ching says...

Chase after money and security
and your heart will never unclench.
Care about people's approval
and you will be their prisoner.

TTC Ch. 9 (12)

...and...

Stop thinking, and end your problems.
What difference between yes and no?
What difference between success and failure?
Must you value what others value,
avoid what others avoid?
How ridiculous!

TTC Ch. 20 (12)

...Shame and guilt are illusions that help to bind us to those standards. When we fail to meet them, guilt and shame are a system of punishment enacted to encourage us to "do better" next time. So let go of those standards. Let go of guilt and shame. Stop trying to be who and what you think you should be, or what others think you should be, and start being who and what you really are.

It's important however to realise this doesn't mean "Do whatever you want!" It means something deeper. Doing what you want often means indulging yourself by doing all the things these standards say you shouldn't. Taoism is about moving past them completely and starting a journey of discovery. Indulging yourself in breaking taboos for the sake of it gets you nowhere - it's just the other side of the coin from obeying them. You need to let them go completely.

So! Are you brave enough to abandon everything you "know" and embrace a life where there's no moral compass or arbitrary set of rules to follow? Are you brave enough to discover who you really are? Then maybe it's time to embrace Taoism.

Taoism, blocks, carving & sticking

2010-04-22T10:42:00.001+01:00

There's a concept in Taoism called P'u, which translates roughly as the "uncarved block." Briefly, it is a metaphor that addresses the idea that when we are born we are in harmony with the Tao. Unburdened by values like right & wrong, the names of things, beauty & ugliness, we are free to fully experience existence. As we grow we develop more and more values and move further and further from harmony with the Tao. This is like a block of wood which uncarved has unlimited potential but which with each cut of the sculptors chisel becomes more restricted in the forms it can take. However Taoists are aware of the limitations this "carving" imposes and so seek to return to the "uncarved" state - and hence harmony.

It's a metaphor that I've never been really happy with and it's not what I believe happens. Once a block is carved, you can fill in the holes & artfully paint the surface to make it again look un-carved, but it's just a carved block pretending to be un-carved. I was walking into my daughter's school this morning and suddenly the thought occurred to me that I believe it is more a case of the "unadorned block." As we go through life things like ego, labels, limits etc get added to our original state, just like sticking things onto a block of wood - making us like an "adorned block." If the adornment makes the block look like a hammer it may seem as if it can only be used as a hammer. Take off all the adornment however and you'll find the original block still there unchanged and full of possibilities. So rather than trying to repair the "damage" life has done, we're just trying to get back to something that's always been there but has just become difficult to see.

Taoism and Universal Healthcare

2010-01-27T22:00:00.003Z

I'm interested in what Taoism can tell us about living in the real world and the decisions we make. In recent times the issue of some form of universal healthcare system has been proposed for the United States. As a beneficiary of and contributor to the UK National Health Service (NHS) I think it's interesting to look at the debate and see if there's anything in Taoist teachings that can inform the decision.

Before getting into the nitty gritty of this issue I think I should first declare my personal viewpoint which obviously may colour my response. Like many Europeans I've grown up with state run universal healthcare and the idea that any country would not have such a scheme seems something medieval. I also believe that capitalism can be a crude but effective system for resource management but that in many areas it must be controlled and restricted to meet the greater needs of society as a whole.

To understand what Taoism has to say it is important to first understand the underlying issue. Normally the debate regarding the provision of universal healthcare starts with why should it be done? In this post however I'd like to look at the reasons why not to do it because they relate directly to what Taoism has to say on this issue. The biggest arguments against seem to be either directly or indirectly economic or political. There is the cost of provision, resistance to paying more taxes, suspicion that a state organisation will waste money or that costs will be inflated, and resentment about "subsidising" those who are poorer or perceived as less hard working or worthy. It is important to realise that regardless of the validity of any of these arguments or your personal political outlook, these are issues that relate to the impact that implementing such a scheme has upon you. For those that do not support universal healthcare I am not saying this as a criticism but because it relates to Taoism's teachings.

So what can Taoism tell us about the debate? I would argue that for a Taoist the answer is simple. In chapter 67 of the Tao Te Ching we are told of the Three Jewels or Three Treasures, namely Compassion, Simplicity, and Humility. Obviously introducing a universal healthcare provision is an act of compassion and putting the needs of others before your own involves humility, so I believe that for Taoists supporting such a scheme is consistent with the journey.

It is important however to understand why a Taoist would support such a scheme. I intend to discuss the Three Jewels in more detail in a later post but I feel some clarification at this point is important. The Tao Te Ching says....

When the great Way is forgotten,
the doctrines of humanity and morality arise

TTC Ch.18 (5)

...so compassion and humility are "jewels" of virtue for a Taoist but not for reasons of humanity and morality? Precisely so. Compassion, simplicity, and humility are "jewels" because by practising them it becomes easier to reach harmony with the Tao. A Taoist would not support such a scheme because it is "good" or "just" or "humane" but because it requires you to relinquish a bit of the personal, the "me," the ego - and that takes you a small step closer to harmony.

Season's Greetings

2009-12-24T09:32:00.007Z

Whatever your beliefs I hope you have an enjoyable holiday season and a healthy and prosperous new year.

In harmony with the Tao,
the sky is clear and spacious,
the earth is solid and full,
all creatures flourish together,
content with the way they are,

endlessly repeating themselves,
endlessly renewed.

TTC Ch. 39 (12)

Taoism, Christmas and Ta Chiu

2009-10-15T08:18:00.002+01:00

At Christmas time in Western countries it can be difficult for those of other or no faiths. Do you join in with the seasonal celebrations ignoring the Christian message, do you ignore it, or do you link it to celebrating a festival of your own at this time of year?

While as a Taoist its good to experience and enjoy whatever is happening without loading it with value judgements, it can also be nice to feel that you've got a celebration that is in some way "your own." In this light, over at the Reform Taoist Congregation there's been the suggestion that the Hong Kong Taoist festival of Ta Chiu be celebrated in this holiday period.

Taking place on 27th December, Ta Chiu is heavily tied into "religious" Taoism and its practices. I believe the pronunciation is Ta = like Tar but without the "r" sound at the end, Chiu = joo. Here's the description from cultureandrecreation.gov.au....

Ta Chiu is a Taoist festival of peace and renewal that takes place on 27 December in Hong Kong. The participants summon all of their gods and ghosts so that the gods' collective power will renew their lives. At the end of the festival, priests read aloud the names of every person who lives in the area. Then they attach the list of names to a paper horse and set it aflame, letting the names rise to heaven.

Now the actual practice seems very alien and ritual heavy to a philosophical Taoist, but if you're looking for something Taoist to celebrate around the same time, or if you want to respond to those who wish you a "Happy Xmas" with a Taoist response, this might do the job for you. You don't have to conform to the "religious" parts, just the spirit of "peace & renewal." I that light you can take the basic theme and have any rituals, foods, cards, activities etc that mean "peace & renewal" to you. For me it conjours up images of nature and change. YMMV

Taoism and blogging

2009-10-06T12:03:00.001+01:00

I came across a really interesting blog today which I thought I'd recommend. It covers a wide range of subjects mostly from a Taoist/Buddhist perspective. IMHO it's excellent and it can be found at A Quiet Watercourse. I'll be adding it to my site's recommended blogs as well.

Taoism and dedication

2009-10-06T11:18:00.000+01:00

I've been feeling for a while that this blog has been lacking in direction. I originally set it up as a place to explore Taoism and 21st century life but I don't feel that so far I've achieved what I set out to do. Now, it's in the nature of Taoism that often the journey is a winding one and such has been the case with this blog, but I think I'm finally reaching a point where I know where I want to take this site.

One of the things I think that is needed with any blog is a sense of continuity and freshness. While posts written just for the sake of writing something are rarely enjoyable for either writer or reader, a reasonable frequency of posting is important to keep the blog alive. As a Taoist this can be further complicated because I believe you should only really write when the 'muse' takes you and the words flow freely (wu wei again!) such as I'm feeling today.

In the light of these views I intend to push the direction of this blog back towards discussing how Taoism relates to 21st century issues and what to can teach us about living in this time. Now all I've got to do is wait until the first subject inspires me!!!!

Hurrah!!!

2009-10-01T22:32:00.002+01:00

I just received notification that somebody has suggested this site for inclusion in the Daily Reviewer top 100 Taoism blogs (are there 100 Taoism blogs?????) and that this site has been selected. Thanks very much for whoever submitted the details.

Osho - Tao: The Pathless Path

2009-09-28T21:43:00.003+01:00

Following a recommendation on the New Taoist Community forum I bought a copy of Osho's book Tao: The Pathless Path My understanding is that the book has been created by collecting together the transcripts of several talks given by him.

The book takes several of the parables of Lieh-tzu - the third of the trio of great Taoist philosophers alongside Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu. Osho then discusses the meaning of the parable and explores its subtleties. At the end of the book is a short section addressing some particular questions - such as the relationship between the Tao, Confucianism and Science.

Generally I've been really impressed with this book so far. Some of the flow is a bit weird, but I believe that's probably because it's a transcript of a talk rather than a collection of reasoned essays. Some of the examples Osho gives, particularly in relation to Christianity, I find of little worth - but possibly they were included as part of tailoring the talks for a particular audience. Opinions on Osho seem to vary but I think this book is well worth a read, particularly if, like me, you've only had very limited exposure to the writings of Lieh-tzu.

Distractions

2009-09-18T10:42:00.008+01:00

It's surprisingly easy to go off track when trying to pursue a Taoist life. Recently I've found that I've veered off into one of the most common traps that Taoists face - engaging in Taoism as an intellectual exercise rather than living it. My post "Difficult questions" is a good example of this.

Chapter 56 of the Tao Te Ching reads...

Those who know don't talk.
Those who talk don't know.

Close your mouth,
block off your senses,
blunt your sharpness,
untie your knots,
soften your glare,
settle your dust.
This is the primal identity.

Be like the Tao.
It can't be approached or withdrawn from,
benefited or harmed,
honored or brought into disgrace.
It gives itself up continually.
That is why it endures.

TTC Ch. 56 (12)

...this is not just a warning about those who would preach their idea of the Tao, it is also a guide towards finding the Tao for yourself - and yes I do appreciate the irony of me writing about this!

Personally I've found I've been spending more time engaging in discussion about the implications and meanings of Taoism rather than just living it. It's strange how it creeps up on you - you think you're cruising in the zone only to suddenly realise that you left it a long time ago. Nobody said that it was supposed to be easy but it's surprising how quickly complacency can set in.

One of my favourite writers, William Martin, in his book "A path and a practice: Using Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching as a guide to an awakened spiritual life" sums the approach up really neatly with the question....

Are you living right now,
or are you thinking about living?

Difficult questions - part 2

2009-09-07T11:13:00.004+01:00

After a lot of struggling in an attempt to answer the question I posed in "Difficult questions" I have come to a realisation...

I have been struggling to reach an answer to the question because I've asked the question.

I need to re-evaluate my whole approach to Taoism over the last few years.

Difficult questions

2009-08-26T01:02:00.005+01:00

Over at the New Taoist Community's forum we have what we term "Joint reflections." Somebody comes up with a verse of the Tao Te Ching, or a question about Taoist living, and we have a go at coming up with some answers, observations or interpretations. The intention is not really to come up with something definitive, but rather the process itself helps to develop our understanding.

As part of this I came up with a thought experiment where I gave a potentially unpleasant choice to see what guidance we might find from Taoism. My question and my first attempt at answering it follow, but I suspect I'll be thinking about this for years ;-) .....

A (hopefully) hypothetical, awkward and deliberately emotive question about Taoism in real life and how your understanding would lead you to a decision on what to do...

You are a Taoist
You have a child who is dying from some medical condition
A doctor informs you that there is a new treatment available that comes from the application of cloning and gene modification techniques
Your child can be 'cured' but will then need to take drugs for the rest of their life
For the drugs to be produced, every month a human embryo has to be created in a laboratory & then destroyed during processing

OK. After a lot of thought here's what I've come up with so far. Hopefully it will make some sense. I'm not completely happy with my answer and I suspect a lot of it has lots of ego and selfishness lurking in the background somewhere

I find that breaking things down helps a lot, so here goes....

Does the death of my child matter?

To the Tao it is irrelevant. All is one. Nothing has changed.
To reality it is irrelevant. Some part has changed state but the whole is unaffected.
To the universe, the galaxy, or to the earth it is probably irrelevant.
To to the human race it is is probably irrelevant. After all according to Unicef over 26000 under-5s die from largely preventable causes every day. What does one more matter?
To the UK it probably doesn't matter - just one of many.
To my town it starts to matter. We are a small community and many people know us.
To my family and I it matters a great deal.
To my child it is everything.
However, in 100, or 1000, or 10000 years time will it still matter?
Then again - in time will whatever choice I make matter?
So in the grand scheme of things it's of no significance either way.

From Taoism I know that life, death and individuality are illusions - yet I want to "save" my child - an act of ego as much for my benefit as for the child's.
I do however believe that my child should have the chance to make its own choice, and through the treatment it will get the chance to become an adult and decide for itself - even if that choice is to stop the treatment. It will also get the opportunity to seek harmony with the Tao in the interim should that be its path. I also don't believe that my child should bear the consequences of my beliefs, but at the same time I'm aware that I can't predict the consequences of my choices. There is the potential in this for a existential nihilistic approach, because in Taoism in the end nothing we do matters - except to us - but that's not really what Taoism is trying to teach us. At the end of the day Taoism is not about what "matters", nor is it about the destination, it is about the journey.

The level of intervention seems to go against the Taoist concept of Wu Wei. A better approach from a Taoist perspective might be to follow the path where I learn to deal with loss rather than wielding all the big guns of science to intervene, but everything in my make-up tells me that the treatment would be the right thing to do - but is that Te or ego I'm listening to? So I would choose the treatment aware that it includes many contradictions and self-delusions. I would do it because I have the choice, or at least the illusion of choice, and I would prefer to continue the journey a bit further with the company of my child.

Like I say, I'm not completely happy with this answer, but it's my first attempt & any observations would be gratefully received.

Becoming a Taoist - part 2

2009-08-21T00:47:00.004+01:00

Humans love ritual. If you've any doubt about this just look around. Not just religious rituals, but those of celebration, those of remembrance, and even rituals whose original meaning has faded in the mists of time (anybody here touch wood?).

Following on from my post in February 09 regarding becoming a Taoist I've come to realise that for many people the act of formally "becoming" a Taoist is something that may need to be marked by some form of ritual to feel "real." So if you feel you want to have some kind of ceremony or ritual, what sort of ceremony or ritual should you have?

I'd recommend that you come up with your own, but if you're short of inspiration or you'd like something prepared in the spirit of what it is to be a Taoist, how about the following?....

Take a bottle of water (water is after all a recurring symbol in Taoism, and of course relates to the name of this site!) and something to eat and find a quiet place to sit surrounded by nature - maybe a wood or a park. If you think it's important to take some friends, do it; if you don't think it's necessary, don't bother.

Say "from this point on I am a Taoist and I seek to achieve harmony with the Tao."
Sit and listen to the sounds around you.
See nature all around.
Smell the scent on the air.
Feel the wind, sun or rain on your skin.
When you feel thirsty, take a drink.
When you feel hungry, eat the food.
When you tire of sitting & experiencing nature - get up and do something else.

Now you've become a Taoist ;-)

Bloggers Unite For Human Rights 2009

2009-07-16T08:03:00.007+01:00

17th July is the day of Bloggers Unite for Human Rights 2009.

Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)...

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Taoism is about discovery and growth. It is about achieving a new understanding of the nature of reality, our place within it, and what this teaches us about living better lives. Whether pursued as a Taoist or within the context of a religion such as Buddhism, Christianity or Islam, it is about exploring and finding answers for yourself.

Many states and expressions of religion seek to restrict the options for people, through subtle pressure or through enforcement by religious or political bodies. Informally, many communities act to persecute and discriminate against those that are seen as being different on the basis of belief. In some parts of the world those that seek to explore belief or change religion can face persecution, rape, torture or death.

From a Taoist perspective I'd have to question whether your beliefs are of much worth if you can only retain followers through the threat of discrimination or violence. As a Taoist, while I recognise that such activities hold the seeds for the eventual destruction of the beliefs they try to uphold, I also see that until that comes to pass many people will suffer.

In Taoism there is a long tradition of helping others, particularly the poor and oppressed. Organisations such as Amnesty International have demonstrated that coordinated campaigns can make a difference when confronting abuses of human rights. Participation in campaigns to raise public awareness can serve to shine an unwelcome spotlight on the activities of the abusers and help the sufferers.

The "three jewels" of Taoism are Compassion, Moderation and Humility. IMHO there is no room within these "jewels" to accommodate suppression of freedom of belief. As a Taoist I fully support the aims of the UDHR and in particular Article 18.

Without basic human rights people's opportunity to explore the spiritual side of their nature is severely restricted. I'd urge you to read and support the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

There are several organisations that seek to help those suffering torture or execution for their beliefs. For more information see http://www.bloggersunite.org/event/bloggers-unite-for-human-rights-2009.

If you are a blogger and are interested in supporting this event, the main Human Rights day on December 10, or other events relating to human rights, try visiting http://www.bloggersunite.org for more information.

What is Taoism?

2009-07-14T08:04:00.006+01:00

What is Taoism - how to explain it to others - is a question that repeatedly arises. How to explain something that can only really be alluded to, implied, or pointed to, rather than explained. I was reading the "See" page of Deng Ming-Dao's book "Everyday Tao" and something in the words spoke to me....

Deng Ming-Dao talks about Taoism being a direct spirituality. Most religions rely on priests acting as intermediaries between "ordinary" people and spiritual experience. Most religions have holy writings that take spiritual experience and try to structure it as a set of rules to be followed and a set of rituals to be performed. Taoism in contrast is about learning to experience the spiritual on an individual, personal basis. It's about trusting that every person is capable experiencing spirituality themselves. All that books such as the Tao Te Ching do is point the way.

So...

"What is Taoism?"

Direct spirituality.

Dealing with loss

2009-06-27T00:42:00.004+01:00

On the New Taoist Community forum a poster was asking for advice on dealing with the feelings arising from a relationship breakdown. FWIW, with some modification for tense & context, here's my response...

Tears and emotions are the natural response to loss. They're not good or bad - they just are what they are. When going through a grieving process, the emotions need to be released. They should be let out in the knowledge that they're part of a natural process and will lose their intensity over time.

Negative thoughts are also natural at such a time, but they don't really achieve anything. IMHO their source is the conflict between the image of the future that has been held for a long time (e.g. married & family life), and the image of the future that is developing now. Both of these images are illusions. We can guess, but we don't really have any idea of how our lives will be 1 day from now, let alone over a course of years; and our memories of past events are merely distorted reflections. All we have is right now. The past has happened and nothing can be done to change it. The future is a path to be walked and experienced, an adventure into the unknown that always starts from where we are.

When you find yourself getting wrapped in negative thoughts, try concentrating on being solely in the present moment. Notice how the light reflects on a glass of water. Concentrate on the taste and smell of the food you're eating. Observe the shape of the clouds. When you get consumed by thoughts of what you should have done, what you could have done, what you're going to do, and what you might do - take a deep breath, let it all go, remember they're all just tricks our brain plays on us which are of no real use. Try concentrating on the here and now, on the small and mundane, the breath going in and out, the feel of the things touched. When the negativity starts returning, understand it's natural but of no use, let it go and then gently return to concentrating on the present moment again. The drifting into negativity is natural but can be poisonous, for example leading to anxiety or self-loathing, the concentration on the present is the antidote.

Hello world!

2009-06-27T00:37:00.004+01:00

This site has now had visitors from all the inhabited continents on the planet. From the USA to China, from Australia to Iran, from Sweden to Chad, and from the UK to Peru. Thanks to everyone who has visited and I hope you found something useful.

Taoism, parties and fitting in

2009-06-21T00:44:00.006+01:00

One of the members of the New Taoist Community asked if members had any personal accounts of how Taoism affects or helps us. I thought I'd offer the following...

Long before I encountered Taoism I became aware that I had a problem. I'd go to social events and I'd feel awkward and clumsy, even when in the company of good friends. When I began working in office jobs I became even more aware of this problem so I'd try to watch how other more confident people acted and try to mimic them. This false behaviour made me more self-concious and that in turn made me more awkward. People seemed to be able to tell that there was something false about how I behaved and responded to me with caution.

Before I found Taoism I had started to become aware that this only occurred in environments where I was trying to fit in - trying to be like everybody else. When I was in different situations I had no such problem. When I was drunk I didn't have the problem either - not because the alcohol was giving me confidence, I've always had a fair amount of self-confidence, but because after a couple of drinks I didn't care what people thought of me and I was willing to be who I am. The problem was that I didn't know what this meant or have a wider understanding of the world in which to fit these observations.

When I discovered Taoism, one of the first things in the Tao Te Ching that really resonated with me was the line in chapter 41 about somebody understanding the way appearing foolish to others. I realised that the reason I felt awkward and clumsy was because I was trying to fit into these situations according to their rules, not according to who I am. I started to stop worrying about fitting in, about being like everybody else, and suddenly things came together. Parties, which had always been difficult to me now became fun. The more I explored Taoism, the better it got.

Occasionally I find myself slipping back into the old ways of thinking, just for a moment or two. Then I remember the Tao Te Ching and everything becomes fine again. In preparing this posting I had a look through a couple of translations of the Tao Te Ching to extract some lines which have some relevance to me for this subject. Mainly from Mitchell, but with a bit of Merel, I've joined them together to come up with a chapter appropriate for me regarding this situation...

Who understands the Way seems foolish;
Who progresses on the Way seems to fail;
Who follows the Way seems to wander

Must you value what others value,
avoid what others avoid?
How ridiculous!
Open yourself to the Tao,
then trust your natural responses;
and everything will fall into place.

Care about people's approval
and you will be their prisoner.
When you are content to be simply yourself
and don't compare or compete,
everybody will respect you.

Food for thought

2009-06-17T23:08:00.008+01:00

A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Albert Einstein

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
Andre Gide

"Rabbit's clever," said Pooh thoughtfully.
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit's clever."
"And he has Brain."
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit has Brain."
"I suppose," said Pooh, "that that's why he never understands anything."
A A Milne

When you discard arrogance, complexity, and a few other things that get in the way, sooner or later you will discover that simple, childlike, and mysterious secret known to those of the Uncarved Block: Life is Fun.
Benjamin Hoff

“An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”
Mohandas K Ghandi

Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you.
Carl Jung

“Peace will come to the Middle East only after everyone stops fighting.”
G W Bush

Taoism and Environmentalism

2009-06-14T22:27:00.003+01:00

I was thinking about writing something about Taoism and the Environmental movement. Whilst doing some initial research I came across an interesting essay on scribd.com which discusses the building of a modern environmental ethic based upon Taoist thought.

The essay is called The Tao of Green: Building an Environmental Ethic with Taoist Philosophy and is written by Stephen Wolkwitz.

Happiness

2009-06-14T22:21:00.005+01:00

“Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.”

Chuang-tzu

Sustainable energy

2009-06-12T07:56:00.007+01:00

Not directly about Taoism and I don't want to use this blog to preach about environmental issues, but for those who may be interested I recently came across a very interesting book. Written by Cambridge University Professor Dr. David MacKay FRS, Sustainable Energy - without the hot air can be bought from places like Amazon, but is available for free in electronic form.

The book attempts to explain why so many scientists believe in human generated climate change and how they come up with targets for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. In a very clear and non-academic way he takes you through how to work out your own viewpoint and how to come up with your own answers. He uses this approach to examine whether we can support our modern society through the generation of energy from sustainable sources.

For anybody interested in the subject whether convinced environmentalist, skeptic, or somewhere in-between, this book has a lot of information that can help inform your viewpoint. It concentrates on the science not on moral questions and I recommend it.

Tai Chi Qigong Shibashi

2009-05-12T11:58:00.005+01:00

Pre-children I spent a few years learning Yang long form Tai Chi. With greater commitments I found I couldn't find the time to continue this, but I've always missed the Qigong (Chi Kung) exercises which we did as a warm-up and which I always found particularly beneficial and enjoyable. Recently I came across Tai Chi Qigong Shibashi which is a recent (1982) fusion of some elements of Tai Chi and Qigong. It's designed to be something that most people should be able to do fairly easily and in a limited space, inside or outside. I've been pleasantly surprised to find that when doing it I get the same positive experience as with the Qigong I used to do.

It's not an exclusively Taoist thing, just a set of gentle exercises designed to promote energy, but I find doing it does lead to a meditative state. I thought it might be of interest to some of you. After searching I think the best introduction that I've found is on the website http://www.everyday-taichi.com/shibashi.html

The Goal of Taoism

2009-05-12T09:28:00.008+01:00

I've seen a lot on the web regarding what Taoism is about and what its goal is. Much of what I've seen on some forums seems to view Taoism as being essentially about going with the flow, getting in touch with nature and chilling out. While there is some truth to these interpretations, they are I believe just scratching at the surface and missing the real beauty of Taoism. IMHO there is a destination in Taoism - an experience of reality that is deep and profound.

As Taoists we seek harmony with the Tao through Wu Wei (non-doing), but if somebody actually achieves this what are they like? The Tao Te Ching (TTC) is a bit like a guide book to this destination and parts of it describe just such a person - the Sage or Master. Consider the following bits from the TTC where it describes the Sage. The lines are from the Mitchell translation, but I've changed the word used from Master to Sage as I believe this is the better word to describe such a person in English because the word Master has so many unhelpful overtones...

The Sage keeps her mind
always at one with the Tao

The Sage, by residing in the Tao,
sets an example for all beings.

the Sage travels all day
without leaving home.

the Sage is available to all people
and doesn't reject anyone.

The Sage sees things as they are,
without trying to control them.

The Sage does his job
and then stops.
He understands that the universe
is forever out of control,
and that trying to dominate events
goes against the current of the Tao.

The Sage doesn't try to be powerful;
thus he is truly powerful.

The Sage does nothing,
yet he leaves nothing undone.

the Sage concerns himself
with the depths and not the surface,
with the fruit and not the flower.
He has no will of his own.
He dwells in reality,
and lets all illusions go.

Now the important thing to understand is that the Sage does not do these things through following some sort of intellectual process. The Sage doesn't sit down and meditate to achieve this state, nor does he or she practice not trying to be powerful. or not doing. The Sage is not even a Taoist, for Taoism is the pursuit of harmony with the Tao, but the Sage has already achieved it. The Sage does not DO these things, the Sage IS these things. The TTC is describing their state of being. The Sage could no more not do and be these things than I could jump off a cliff, flap my arms and fly! This state of being is I believe what Taoists call harmony, or in Zen - enlightenment.

So how do we become such a person? Well that's what Taoism is all about. Through learning about Taoism and the nature of the Sage we can start to approach this state by modifying our preconceptions, attitudes and actions. We can also take different paths of study, exercise, or meditation in the hope that they'll help to move us closer to this state. There is however a point at which harmony can be achieved only through letting go. A point where no action can move you closer to the goal.

How to take this step? Well if I knew that I probably wouldn't be writing this blog. If you have the answer - please let me know :)

Taoism & Zen

2009-03-17T22:43:00.009Z

I've recently started looking into Zen Buddhism. This may seem strange in a blog ostensibly about Taoism, but I've come to realize how close the two are. In the process I've had to shed a lot of ideas I held about Zen which were based on ignorance or misunderstandings. For anybody interested in Taoism I'd recommend they investigate the basics of Zen to see if it can be of use to them.

The origin of Zen Buddhism (or in Chinese - Chán) is credited to the Indian Buddhist monk Bodhidarma, who is said to have travelled to China to bring a new method of directly achieving enlightenment. Chán Buddhism evolved through the fusion of Taoist and Buddhist ideas, developing its full expression in China, Japan, Vietnam and Korea.

By my understanding, the enlightened state that Zen students seek is one and the same as the harmony sought by Taoists. Where Taoism & Zen differ is the path to this harmony or enlightenment. Taoism at its purest is spontaneous and unstudied. To practice any kind of discipline in order to achieve harmony is to have missed the point. Zen on the other hand is developed on the principal that while there are many paths to enlightenment, they are unreliable, erratic and transient. The Zen approach has been developed to enable more predictable and permanent results. Whichever side of the debate you find yourself, it is obvious that each have a lot to offer the other in the way of observations and perspective.

For myself, my interest in Zen relates to this idea of the transitory nature of enlightenment. I've had experiences which I'd describe as having glimpses of harmony, but after lasting seconds, minutes, or once a sequence of sporadic experiences over a few days, the state is lost again. Almost at will I can reach the state but I don't have the tools to keep myself there. I'm hoping that Zen may shed some light on this.

The experience of harmony also led me to misunderstand its significance. At first I attributed to it an almost mystical nature - something beyond the ordinary world, but now I've come to appreciate more of its true meaning. I hope that through understanding the observations of the Zen masters I might be able to even better judge my own experiences and continue to progress along the path.

To get a flavour of the similarities between Zen and Taoism, here's something written by Dr. D.T. Suzuki in his book An Introduction to Zen Buddhism (ISBN 0-09-151121-6) which is based on a series of essays he wrote during World War I. It's an interesting and thought provoking book which I'd recommend...

The basic idea of Zen is to come in touch with the inner workings of our being, and to do so in the most direct way possible, without resorting to anything external or superadded. Therefore, anything that has the semblance of an external authority is rejected by Zen. Absolute faith is placed in a man's own inner being. For whatever authority there is in Zen, all comes from within. This is true in the strictest sense of the word. Even the reasoning faculty is not considered final or absolute. On the contrary, it hinders the mind from coming into the directest communication with itself....

The central fact of life as it is lived is what Zen aims to grasp, and this in the most direct and most vital manner. Zen professes itself to be the spirit of Buddhism, but in fact it is the spirit of all religions and philosophies. When Zen is thoroughly understood, absolute peace of mind is attained, and a man lives as he ought to live...

Some say that as Zen is admittedly a form of mysticism it cannot claim to be unique in the history of religion. Perhaps so; but Zen is a mysticism of its own order. It is mystical in the sense that the sun shines, that the flower blooms, that I hear at this moment somebody beating the drum in the street. If these are mystical facts, Zen is brim-full of them...

When a Zen master was once asked what Zen was, he replied, "Your everyday thought". Is this not plain and straightforward? It has nothing to do with any sectarian spirit. Christians as well as Buddhists can practise Zen just as big fish and small fish are both contentedly living in the same ocean. Zen is the ocean, Zen is the air, Zen is the mountain, Zen is thunder and lightning, the spring flower, summer heat, and winter snow; nay, more than that, Zen is the man...

National Unitarian Fellowship

2009-03-10T14:30:00.005Z

Well after further investigation I've decided to join the National Unitarian Fellowship forum fully, with a view to becoming a paid-up member of the NUF in due course. The natives seem very friendly and I've been very impressed with the breadth of discussion and the supportive nature of the community there & I'd recommend having a look. One point to note is that you don't really get to see most of the forum activity unless you join, but joining the forum itself is free. I'll post more when I've had a chance to more fully participate there.

New Taoist Community

2009-02-18T23:42:00.005Z

Not a proper blog, just a "heads up." Along with another Reform Taoism member I've set up a site we're calling "The New Taoist Community." I've described it as being "an experimental site for philosophical Taoists, Pantheists, Zen Buddhists and others with an interest in the fundamentals underlying Taoism to explore the subject and find ways to develop a meaningful communal approach to expressing their beliefs in the 21st century."

The idea is that in the forum we can explore the aspects of our spirituality that we hold in common and try to find communal ways of expressing this to develop a real community. What form this will take & how it will look - well that's something for the members to decide.

You can find the New Taoist Community at http://sites.google.com/site/newtaoistcommunity/

Unitarian Universalism

2009-02-10T22:59:00.005Z

Continuing on my search for Taoist suitable communities I've also been pointed by a fellow blogger to Unitarian Universalism. I'd come across them before but for some reason felt that they might be too much of a Christian organisation. Looking at them again I realise that while their roots are in liberal Christianity, they are more about supporting individual searches for spiritual development and understanding than about any particular creed, and they may be a potential home for this Taoist. Certainly what I've read online from Taoists, Buddhists, Pantheists and Pagans seems very positive.

From internet research it seems that some of the physical churches may be more centered on Liberal Christianity than others (particularly in the UK), but their modern tradition is striving to accommodate all seekers who support their principles which are....

The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

They list the sources of their faith as...

Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life;
Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;
Wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;
Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;
Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.
Spiritual teachings of earth-centred traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.

They have members who identify with the major Western Monotheistic religions, but also members who are Buddhist, Hindu, Atheist, Pantheist, Pagan, Humanist and Taoist.

I'm interested in exploring this community more, so as a first step I've taken trial membership of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, the online Unitarian Universalist congregation. This site has lots of interesting resources including a new discussion list for Taoist members and those with some interest in Taoism.

For the UK the organising bodies are The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches and the National Unitarian Fellowship, while the international body is The International Council of Unitarians and Universalists. I'll post again on this subject when I've had more time to explore, but you might find these sites useful if you're looking for a community expereience as part of your spiritual journey.

Pantheism

2009-02-10T22:36:00.007Z

I've been thinking for a while that there's something missing from my Taoist experience. I've had difficulty putting my finger on it but I think at last I've got there. I seem to be missing the feeling of wonder and awe at the world around me and I feel that that is something which I need as part of my experience of life. It could be a failing of philosophical Taoism but is more probably something missing in my understanding or a level of experience of the Tao that I've not yet reached.

I've also been looking around at "spiritual" communities where a Taoist might feel at home. A place where there is the opportunity to explore my beliefs with those that share similar ones, but also those who have travelled seemingly complementary paths. I had hoped that the Reform Taoist Congregation might be that place but it has not got there yet. I hope that someday it might develop into such a place but for the moment I believe it will be a long while before it develops beyond being an internet forum, albeit one well worth participating in for the quality of opinions and the pleasantness of the company.

Through exchanging messages with some of the people I've met on the Reform Taoism forum I've found modern scientific Pantheism and the World Pantheist Movement. Scientific Pantheism seems to me to be Philosophical Taoism with an emphasis on a reverence for nature. They list their beliefs as...

Reverence for Nature and the wider Universe.
Active respect and care for the rights of all humans and other living beings.
Celebration or our lives in our bodies on this beautiful earth as a joy and a privilege.
Realism - acceptance that the external world exists independently of human consciousness or perception.
Strong naturalism, without belief in supernatural realms, afterlives, beings or forces.
Respect for reason, evidence and the scientific method as our best ways of understanding nature and the Universe.
Promotion of religious tolerance, freedom of religion and complete separation of state and religion.

I'm not sure if the World Pantheist Movement might be that home I'm looking for, or one of several, but I feel it's interesting enough to be checked out further. I'll post more on this when I've gained more experience of the WPM and how this reverence does or does not fit with my understanding of Taoism, but I recommend that you visit their site to see if it has something to offer you.

Evil

2009-02-10T22:09:00.003Z

I've just joined a new Taoism discussion list. It's hosted on the Unitarian Universalist "Church of the Larger Fellowship" site (for more on this see the following post). One of the first posts asked about Taoism's view on the existence of Evil and what it tells us about dealing with people who are destructive or intend to cause harm. Answering this question has probably been the most difficult post to write, requiring a lot of thought, and I'm not completely sure about everything in my answer. For what it's worth, the following is the answer I arrived at...

From a Taoist perspective Evil doesn't exist - it's just an excuse we use to distance ourselves from human actions which we find abhorrent. By saying "it's evil", "he's evil", "she's evil" etc, what we are really saying is that they must be evil or being influenced by evil because there's no way we would ever act like that. Of course the reality is that the potential for such actions lies within all of us.

So if we are all capable of truly "evil" acts, why are they relatively rare? Followers of monotheistic religions often claim that it is because of the moral guidance that they offer, yet people that don't follow those religions seem no more likely to commit such acts, and in fact some of the worst cases of genocide have taken place in countries with a strong monotheistic tradition (e.g. Germany, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur).

Taoism gives a different answer. We each have something called our "Te", which is our "inner nature", our bit of the Tao. Taoism teaches that the closer we are to being in harmony with our Te, the more in balance we are with the whole of existence. The further we move from our Te, the greater the stresses and pressures we are subject to. Chaos theory demonstrates that a complex system that is stressed has the potential for wildly extreme behaviour. Think of a pan of water boiling - when first the heat is applied patterns form as convection occurs, neat patterns of small bubbles start rising to the surface, and then at some point the amount of energy in the system hits a point at which it starts to wildly boil without any obvious order. People are the same, except instead of heat, it is the distance from harmony with the Te that is the driving force. That is the source of "evil."

In the case of some sexual crimes this distancing can easily be seen. The perpetrators are those who for some reason have become distanced from naturally expressing their sexuality - possibly because of attempting to conform to religious or social "norms", psychological problems resulting from parental relations, or due to being abused themselves. They have become so distanced from their Te that their sexuality becomes distorted and tangled with issues of power and self-worth, with pressure building until it finds an outlet.This doesn't excuse their actions, but understanding the source is a lot more useful than attributing the actions to some nebulous concept of "evil."

So what does Taoism teach us about dealing with "evil?" Taoism has a long history of supporting acts to defend the self or the defenceless but it offers no easy answers. It does however provide guidance which we can use to try to navigate our way through the problems we encounter. To explain these I'll talk about violence, but the principles can be applied to any situation.

In anything taken to the extreme there is the root of its opposite. So if you meet violence with enough violence, peace can occur - possibly because all the participants are sick of the carnage or dead - but if the violence is not in harmony with our Te, we might bring peace through violence but move ourselves further from our Te, increasing the stresses and maybe making us act as badly as those we were trying to stop.

To balance one action you can apply the opposite. So to combat violence you can use passive resistance. Gandhi used such tactics against the military power of the British Empire and won. By employing the opposite he took away the power of the violent. However, excessive passivity in itself can lead to violence, and perhaps events in India after independence can be seen as partly the result of this?

Taoism advocates finding the middle way. In Tai Chi the aim is to use your opponent's energy to defeat himself. Through a careful balance of force and passivity the energy is drained from the opponent and he is unable to attack any more - the heat under the pan is turned down, at least for a while. In everyday life the same techniques can be applied.

Back to the original question "how to deal with other's 'toxic' auras and behaviour?.....since others sometimes actively seek out to harm you or people close to you?"....A Taoist wouldn't seek to "defeat" or "fix" such people, but rather would try to use a mix of intuition, intellect, guile, distraction, force and passivity to negate the effects of their actions and to reduce the energy driving it - for instance an angry person shouting and bullying loses energy rapidly when encountering somebody who seems calm, polite, controlled and unflustered.

Hold on to your hats!

2009-02-10T21:51:00.003Z

Last September I began studying for a degree with the Open University, the UK's national distance learning University. It began as a way of having some intellectual stimulus over the next few years while I'm staying at home raising our son, but I've also realised how many areas of study have something to say with regards to the world around us, and hence about Taoism.

In a few days I begin a course examining the impact of technology on the environment and the potential of technology to deal with the consequences. This will require me to spend extra time studying while I get organised with the course so I probably won't be posting here much for a while. There are however several things I've been meaning to write about, so I'm going to try to get them all out of the way in one go. I don't normally like to post on different issues in quick succession as I like to take some time to mull over my views, but I hope you'll excuse me if this time my ideas seem more half-baked than usual ;-)

The benefits of following Taoism

2009-02-10T12:39:00.002Z

So to paraphrase the song, "Taoism! What is it good for?"

Well here's my take on it. I came to Taoism partly as a rejection of other belief systems that I had encountered. So many times religions encourage us to stop thinking, distrust the evidence of experience, and instead use "faith." Something like..."So you think the sky looks blue? Our holy book say it is green. Have faith and trust that it is green and it is just an evil spirit that is making you think it is blue!" There also tends to be reliance on teachers, priests, gurus or saints who hold some deep hidden knowledge which they "interpret" for the masses, but which the "masses" are for some reason unable to see directly for themselves. For me it all smacks of fraud and deception.

Taoism on the other hand encourages us to seek our own experience and develop our own understanding. Through the observation and direct experience of nature we find a way to live a life true to who and what we are, but not one that suppresses another's chance to do the same and reach their own understanding. Something like "You think the sky is blue? Then for you it is blue, but maybe for somebody else it might look green." As Taoism is not telling us how things are it encounters no conflict with advances in scientific understanding.

Taoism is free of things such as guilt and shame which IMHO never have a positive influence on human behaviour. If you believe that you are shameful or guilty just through being alive, what sort of person are you likely to become? I believe these are just tools used by some religions as a means of control.

Taoism is a path of peace. Whilst violence is not precluded in Taoism, the self-awareness that is developed in following the path reduces the influence of the ego which I believe is at the root of most conflict. For most Taoists resorting to violence is a final step reserved for the most extreme situations and for the protection of those that are unable to protect themselves.

Taoism also equips Taoists with tools which help them live their lives, understand events and develop the perspective which helps to avoids the extremes of living where so many problems are found. Taoism is also a rejection of intolerance and hatred of difference, and variety is part of the joy of existence. Balance, harmony, perspective, compassion - all of these are at the heart of Taoism and lead to IMHO an enhanced life experience.

Taoism also helps us to understand our place in existence, neither deluding ourselves about how important we are, nor undermining our relevance or diminishing our place in nature. Learning to really know who we are gives us the ability to make the most of our lives without wasting time pursuing illusions.

How to become a Taoist

2009-02-05T08:20:00.006Z

I want to write a couple of short posts about becoming a Taoist and what I see as the benefits. Firstly I'll concentrate on becoming a Taoist.

For philosophical Taoists there's no ceremony, initiation or exam required before you can consider yourself a Taoist, but I do believe that there's a process. Taoism is about a journey of self-discovery, or more correctly self-rediscovery, a rediscovery and acceptance of your true nature while stripping away the baggage, preconceptions and misconceptions that you've collected growing up or in adult life. Through this journey you begin to experience reality in a different way and find that the highs and lows of life have less impact upon you.

So at what stage do you become a Taoist? Well, you'll find that lots of Taoists say something like "...and then I realised that I'd been a Taoist for ages, but just didn't know it!" In my experience, for most people, by the time they come across Taoism or the Tao Te Ching they're already on the journey and just recognise in Taoism something that they've understood on some level for ages. However I believe that there's an extra step beyond this recognition before you should consider yourself a Taoist, and that's taking the step of deciding to actively engage with Taoism and to decide to live your life exploring what this means.

Change

2009-01-28T07:49:00.006Z

Change seems to be the word of the moment. With Barack Obama's election in the US, with chaos in financial markets, with the change in direction of economies. How should we deal with change?

Personally, I've reached one of those points where you wonder which direction you should go next. There's a debate in the Reform Taoist community about how we progress in the future - whether we continue the way we have been going or try a new direction. The question for me is "Is my journey best served by trying to fight for change within the organisation, or would it be better for those of us that want change to form a new community that reflects our needs at this time?"

I've been reading around looking for inspiration and I found some in Deng Ming-Dao's book Everyday Tao. He talks about the early observers of Tao, and how they found it by observing the world around them, seeing things born, grow and wither. He uses the image of a man running down a path to describe Tao. This movement and change is at the heart of the Tao, although of course stillness and stagnation are also there. It is in the movement and change that we see the vitality of the Tao. It got me thinking that if Reform Taoism has stagnated from my perspective, perhaps starting a new community where members were more able to express themselves and develop would be the "running man" path.

Any change is a step into the unknown - it's easier and safer to go with the status-quo. If you change, you might fail so maybe it's better to leave things as they are. But does this truly lead to a fulfilling journey through life though? If I'm asking the question, maybe the decision is already made? Is it possible to return to acceptance? I think you can see where this is leading me, but I've not completely decided so watch this space!

On the wider front, what does Taoism teach us about dealing with change? Change is inevitable. It can be held at bay for a time through effort, but it can never be stopped. In following Taoism we try to experience and understand our true inner nature. Using the analogy of water (well the clue's in the name of the Blog!) if we are in a river we can cling for as long as we can to the sides before our strength fails and we are swept helplessly downstream by the current. Or, through self-knowledge and self-confidence, we can embrace the flow of the river, let the current take us, and use our strength and skill at appropriate moments to avoid any rocks in our path. The latter is the Taoist way, but be warned! It can be scary.

Tao,Taoism & Atheism

2009-01-05T12:02:00.005Z

I'm continually trying to find a way to make my understanding of the Tao and Taoism more accessible. I haven't got there yet, but as part of this process I've written a response to a post on the Atheist Nexus questioning whether somebody could be an atheist and a Taoist at the same time. FWIW my response follows - the bits in orange are excerpt from the original poster's entry...

People get hung up on the Tao - imagining that it is some esoteric mystical something far away or out of sight. In fact it is mundane, routine, common & everywhere. The roots of Taoism are in the observation of nature and, while some Taoist religious traditions may adopt a mystical or god-like interpretation, Taoism is basically a set of observations about the world around us and what they can tell us about how we can live our lives. Note: how we can NOT how we should live our lives.

Taoism states that everything in the world is believed to be a manifestation of the Tao and are restricted, in a sense, by the Tao....The Tao is unity (whatever that means...

A simple way to envisage it is...

There is something which for convenience we call "the Tao" which has certain properties.
Part of the Tao we call "the Universe" and it has some, but not all, of the properties of the Tao
Part of the Universe we call "the Earth" and it has some, but not all, of the properties of the Universe
Part of the Earth we call "Me" and I have some, but not all, of the properties of the Earth.

...still not happy? ...Think about your big toe.

It is part of the unity you call "you" - yet it can also be thought of as a separate thing called "a big toe."

the tao is described as being indescribable (doesn't that sound familiar to something other theists say about their God?)

The Tao is not indescribable, it is just impossible to completely describe. Any description is just a poor approximation capturing only some of its true nature, and the description is not the same as the thing itself. This is easy to demonstrate with an example...
.
Think of a nice yellow painted HB graphite pencil. Now describe it completely

Obviously you can talk about it's colour, length, width, and weight. You can talk about he paint on its sides, the type of wood it is made from, how pointy it is, does it have an eraser, where the graphite came from, and who made the pencil. You can describe all the different uses for the pencil - writing, drawing, poking holes in things...

Have you described it completely yet?

What about the design & the designer of the pencil? What about the culture that produced the designer? What about the evolution of mankind that produced the pencil designer's culture? What about the evolution of the tree that provides the wood? What about the origin of the Carbon in the graphite? What about the subtle changes occurring in the pencil due to variations in temperature & pressure, or decay over time? What about the origin and evolution of the universe in which the pencil exists?

To fully describe the pencil you need to describe everything in the entire Universe from the dawn to the end of time, otherwise all you have achieved is an approximation. Then of course you'd have to repeat the above for all different cultures and languages on earth because language and culture can accommodate subtle differences in understanding and meaning. Once you've done that you'd then need to describe it from the perspective of a dog, or a bird, or the subtle gravitational effects the pencil's mass exerts on a distant Sun and its impact on any alien life. Even if this could be achieved it would still be an approximation because at the sub-atomic level it becomes difficult to describe things except through probability.

Assuming it were somehow possible to compile a complete description in all ways of the pencil - could you write with the description? Could you draw a picture with it? All you would have would be a description not the physical pencil.

So the Tao that can be described is not the real Tao - it is just a collection of words that goes some way to give an approximate description of the real Tao.

Celebrating the Winter Solstice

2008-12-14T19:46:00.004Z

As Reform Taoists we try to celebrate certain events, not for the belief in a higher power, but because they remind us of the path we are on. One of these events is the Winter Solstice (Northern Hemisphere) as the time when a process changed direction and the world begins the journey towards Spring.

This is how I plan to mark the Solstice...

I'll wait until the rest of my noisy family have gone to sleep, pour out a small glass of Port and then I'll have all the lights off and light a single candle. I'll relax just watching the candle for a bit, then I'll spend a short time remembering good things about family members & friends who have died, drink a toast to them with the Port, blow out the candle and then probably stub my toe trying to find the light switch

The candle is for a few reasons...

1 - Midwinter celebrations across the world have long associations with light
2 - At the time of maximum darkness there is a point of light, reminiscent of the taijitu (yin yang symbol).
3 - I like candles

Thinking about deceased family members & friends is because...

1 - There are long associations with this time of year being linked with death & renewal
2 - It's nice to take some time out to remember people who have gone & this time seems as good as any.

The Port is because I like Port.

Physics & the Tao

2008-12-14T19:31:00.004Z

We've been discussing the Tao and the Big Bang, how they are related and how Taoism is viewed by scientists. Is the Big Bang the same thing as the creation of the 10000 things referred to in the Tao Te Ching and can Taoism make predictions relevant to Physics?

My feelings are that I'd be cautious about directly linking the origins of the universe with the origin of the 10000 things. Taoism teaches us that there are no absolutes and already scientific theory is moving beyond the big bang with ideas such as M-theory and ideas that "time" in some form can pre-exist the big bang. There will also be the limitless manifestations of Tao which are forever beyond our knowing. What is interesting is that again and again in science we come across the same ideas as are found in Taoism and it is no surprise that we see something of the origin of the 10000 things reflected in our knowledge of the big bang.

As for Taoism and science? I'd venture that most scientists don't know or understand Taoism. Certainly those that encountered it like Bohr clearly saw the conceptual links between Physics and Taoism. Taoism is a series of statements of demonstrable fact combined with conclusions on what this tells us about how we can live our lives. The statements hold true wherever they are applied and so are just as valid in Physics or Mathematics. For example, by my understanding, Mandlebrot's analysis of the length of the coast of Britain demonstrating that a finite area can be enclosed by a line of infinite length is easily predicted from the opening lines of the Tao Te Ching - for exactly the same reasons. Equally Mandlebrot's work is an elegant example of the meaning of "The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao".

The advancement of science has been repeatedly held back by adopted orthodoxies - like the belief of God's hand at the heart of everything, celestial bodies moving in perfect circles, or the mechanistic predictable view of the universe's workings. These orthodoxies have repeatedly led to the dissenters being ostracised, outcast or whatever until, in a revolution brought about by a failing of the old orthodoxy, suddenly the old paradigm is overturned leading to some of the dissenters being validated. To the best of my knowledge, each time this has happened the new paradigm has moved closer to a picture of the universe in accord with that of Taoism.

Taoism doesn't need science to validate it, and science doesn't need Taoism - but the roots of both are the same and I believe each can provide something useful to the other.

Homosexuality

2008-11-17T08:48:00.006Z

On the Reform Taoism forum a question was raised about what Taoism tells us about homosexuality and legal gay relationships. For what it's worth, here's my answer...

IMHO there's a few points here.... The first is that the Tao Te Ching is not a religious text in the same way as the Bible or Qur'an. It does not claim to be the "word of God" or some kind of infallible reference, but rather is the observations of either one or a group of people depending on what you believe. I like to think of it as a travel book, where the writer says "I did this to get where I wanted to go", and you can take from it what is useful to get you to the same destination, but it is not something to be blindly followed. If other texts pass any comment I don't know, but it would only be an opinion not a law. At the end of the day you are your own guide to the Tao.

Secondly Taoism is about finding your own way to live rather than telling others how they should live theirs. I see no way that two people having a consenting relationship affects me finding harmony with the Tao, so I don't see why what they do should be any of my business.

Finally, one of the foundations of Taoism is observation of nature. Apparently homosexual behaviour is common in nature and, while one should be cautious about reading too much meaning for humans in the behaviour of other species, it does make it difficult to claim that gay humans are "unnatural".

Crying children

2008-08-22T14:13:00.007+01:00

On a more upbeat topic, a poster on the Reform Taoism forum was a while back asking for ideas on how to deal with a baby who was healthy but crying a lot due to teething, and the stresses that places on parents. Obviously it's important to check with professionals to ensure there is no serious problem, but assuming all is OK, here are my few thoughts....

I was helped by my mother-in-law's experiences - she used to be a maternity nurse training as a midwife but even she found times where being a new mother got to her. Her life got a lot easier when she reasoned that when she worked in the hospital they checked that any crying baby was basically OK healthwise, well fed and with a clean nappy, and then the nurses would leave them to cry because they were very busy. The babies in the hospital grew up fine, so she brought up 3 kids working on the basis that if the baby was basically OK (e.g. suffering from teething) then if the crying was getting to her the simplest thing to do was to put the baby somewhere where they were safe (e.g. their cot/crib), shut the door, sit down & have a cup of tea for 10 mins, then go back to trying to comfort them feeling a bit less stressed.

If you feel you're close to snapping the child will be a lot better off if they're left to cry in a safe location while you regather your composure than they will be with a stressed out parent. The other thing of course is that babies can sense their parent's distress and that makes them distressed which makes them cry, so it becomes a vicious circle.

Another important thing is to look at your expectations. If you're getting stressed because you want or need to be doing something other than comfort the baby, just accept that it isn't going to happen & just live for that moment.

One other thing I'd add is that as parents we seem to feel pressure to "fix" everything "wrong" with our children. I'm not suggesting that you don't try to comfort your child, but teething hurts, and when things hurt, children (and adults) cry. It's a natural process. Don't feel that if you can't stop your child crying you've failed somehow - just comfort them and be there for them, calmly soothing them as they work through the pain of growing.

All the world knows beauty but if that becomes beautiful this becomes ugly
all the word knows good but if that becomes good this becomes bad (11)

Taoism teaches us that our judgements are relative. By deciding that something is good (e.g. a quiet baby), something else (e.g. a crying baby) is therefore bad. We then try to achieve the good and remove the bad but in reality they are two sides of the same coin. Through excessive efforts to quiet a baby we can actually cause the baby to cry more, or we can get the baby quiet but the methods used can cause more problems further down the line.

In Taoism we seek a middle path, trying to find balance. A baby that cries all the time or never cries should both be causes for concern, but so too should be parents that seek to have a baby that never cries or that they consider to be a burden to their lifestyle.

The Soul

2008-08-22T13:59:00.003+01:00

Continuing on my cheery theme of death (I'm really in quite a happy place right now so I don't know why this theme keeps coming up - maybe the Tao is trying to tell me something?????), a while back the question came up of whether there is a separate "Soul" which survives after death and whether science can tell us anything about it. The following is my take on this - YMMV....

What we know is that nature is part of the Tao & that by observing nature we can gain some understanding of the Tao.

Nature is unsentimental. Once things have finished their "usefulness" they die. Our science and technology can postpone this for us but only for a while. If we have a soul separate to our physical existence it seems reasonable to assume that it dies too unless it has some "usefulness" separate to physical existence.

Nature is efficient. It doesn't repeatedly create new energy from which to form matter. When we die, everything that we are is not destroyed - just recycled into new forms. Presumably the same would be true for a separate soul.

The Tao is more than Nature so it is possible to conceive that the essence of a soul falls outside of Nature, but if it does there's nothing that science will be able to tell us about it.

Funerals

2008-08-21T07:57:00.011+01:00

Nice cheery subject, I know, but I've seen a few posts on forums over the years discussing how to arrange a funeral service for a philosophical Taoist. I saw another the other day and it got me thinking about how I might want it done given that most probable attendees might not even really know anything about Philosophical Taoism or even Taoism in general.

I was also looking for some structure which would not be completely unfamiliar to the attendees, but which would be true to my beliefs. It's not going to matter to the deceased whatever happens but ritual is a useful mechanism to help the mourners cope.

Whatever...this is what I came up with as a possible structure for such a service. It's envisaged that one or more people would handle the officiating (speaker) role and my personal request would be that all attendees wear brightly coloured clothing - just to brighten things up!

Any opinions and/or suggestions gratefully received.

Philosophical Taoist Funeral Ceremony

Welcome & thank you for coming to this ceremony to mark the passing of ..insert-deceased's-name..

..insert-deceased's-name..

was a Philosophical Taoist. The concept of Tao is the Taoists most deeply held belief, and the Chinese word "Tao" roughly translates as "Way". Lao-tse, the ancient Chinese philosopher widely regarded as the founder of Taoism, taught that the Tao simply defies description and that the only true way to seek it is through personal spiritual exploration and dedication.

The Tao is difficult to explain but amongst other things it is conceived as the fundamental non-sentient, impersonal basis of reality. The Tao can be seen behind the natural processes and balance of the Universe and all things in the Universe, while seeming separate and distinct, are actually just aspects of the Tao.

Philosophical Taoists believe that Death is not a loss, but a transformation, and that what we knew as

..insert-deceased's-name..

has now moved on to participate in the endless dance of manifestation and change that is the Tao. While it is natural to feel sorrow at ..insert-deceased's-name..

passing, it is important to balance this sorrow with our memories of the life

..insert-deceased's-name..

lived, our times together, and the love and friendship that we shared.

<...insert short obituary for the deceased, hopefully with a story or two of happy experiences & giving personal idea of deceased's personality...>

Philosophical Taoists do not have Gods or prayers or hymns, but they do follow the teachings of Lao-tze's book called "The Tao Te Ching", which he wrote over 2500 years ago. The Tao Te ching is not a Holy Book like the Bible or Koran, but rather is a guidebook on how one can live in harmony with the universe. I'd like to read you just an excerpt, adapted from a translation by Jonathan Star...

Become totally empty
Quiet the restlessness of the mind

Only then will you see that all things emerge from emptiness
Only then will you see that all things flourish and dance in endless variation
Only then will you see that all things dissolve back into perfect emptiness
Emerging, Flourishing, Dissolving back again - This is the eternal process of Nature

Be still
With stillness is revealed eternity
With Eternity is revealed a vision of oneness
With a vision of oneness is revealed universal love
With Universal love is revealed the great truth of Nature
The great truth of Nature is the Tao

Whoever knows this truth lives forever
The body may perish and deeds may be forgotten but he who has the Tao has all eternity

Now can we all take a minute of silence to consider our own memories of

..insert-deceased's-name..

This was

..insert-deceased's-name..

favourite ..music/reading/etc....

<...Play music/read etc... while coffin is buried or curtains close for cremation or coffin buried...>

Thankyou

2008-05-19T21:23:00.006+01:00

I'd like to say thanks to those people that have kindly taken time to post comments, and to reassure them that I do intend to add posts to this site over the coming month & years.

I'm no expert on Taoism and much of what I write on this site is as much to help me clarify what I believe at this time - tomorrow I might have a different perspective - and I hope that, whether on not you agree with my beliefs, there will be something on this site that may help you on your own journey.

I can't guarantee when posts will appear. The process can't (or at least shouldn't) be forced in case I fall into the trap of writing for the sake of writing, or writing because some people have said some nice things about my previous posts. When the time feels right I'll add more posts but I can't say what he frequency will be.

In my personal life I'm at a point of reflection. Our baby son was born in March and there are few things that can teach us as much about living in harmony with the Tao as a new baby.

Who is filled with harmony is like a newborn. (10)

So what is the Tao?

2008-03-04T08:02:00.017Z

This is either the hardest or the easiest question in Taoism, depending on how you look at it.

It's the easiest because there is no definitive answer possible. The opening lines of the Tao Te Ching are variously translated as...

The Way that can be described is not the absolute Way; the name that can be given is not the absolute name. (5)

Existence is beyond the power of words To define: Terms may be used But are none of them absolute.(6)

The Tao that can be described in words is not the true Tao The Name that can be named is not the true Name. (7)

...and what all this is trying to say is that if you had all the time and all the words in the lifetime of the Universe they wouldn't be sufficient to describe the Tao.

This may be difficult to grasp, so maybe an example would be useful here...

Take the word "table" & what comes to mind? You might think of a sleek glass & metal designer construction, personally I think of an old wooden farmhouse table - by the use of a word common to both of us we are already heading off on different tracks of thought. We have also unconsciously limited our understanding as we've both thought of a "table" as piece of furniture, which means we've excluded other aspects of what constitutes a table such as the nature of the materials used to make it, the technology required to construct it, or the development of a culture in which tables are conceived in the first place. And then what about a "table" as used in a spreadsheet, or a medal table listing the most successful nations at the Olympics?

So we now get together a concise definition of a "table" - "it's a piece of furniture which can be made out of a variety of natural or synthetic materials constructed with tools which have developed over millennia of technological development and which performs a variety of roles that have evolved as human society has developed." Of course this is an inadequate definition - what about the origins & varieties of the designs, the origins of the materials, the atomic structure of the materials & their origins being forged in the heart of stars & how those stars came into being? What about the origins of mankind who made the table? What about the feel of a table when you touch it. What about how it feels when you bang your knee on a corner of one? Or how it feels when you're struggling with a heavy parcel and then you reach a table and put it down?

The point is that to fully describe a table would take forever. There is always more you can say, and while we may have an established concept of "a table" it is not necessarily the same thing to two different people.

There is also a problem in that as soon as you start to describe a "table" in any way the restrictions of both language and thought tend to exclude other equally valid descriptions. For example if you start down the line of describing it as a piece of furniture used in dining you're already moving away from any description that might discuss their use in operating theatres, or their use as improvised air-raid shelters. As soon as you start any form of description, the words will always describe something less than the totality of the thing you wish to describe.

Although we can demonstrate that we can never derive an exact definition, we can however identify properties of a "table" which have significance to our everyday experience of them, which are common for most people, and which enable us to communicate ideas.

So, getting back to the Tao, what does this tell us?...

"What is the Tao?" can be easily answered with "It's impossible to say!"

...but of course, that answer's not very useful is it? Seeking insights to better experience the Tao is how we move to the hard answer.

We know so far that anything we say about the Tao will at best only be an approximation of some of its characteristics, but is there anything that can lead us to some kind of understanding? Have a look at the next bit of Chapter 1 of the Tao Te Ching...

Nameless it is the source of heaven and earth; named it is the mother of all things.(5)

In the absence of names Lies the origin of heavens and earth The presence of names Is mother to the 10000 things.(8)

Tao existed before words and names, before heaven and earth, before the ten thousand things. It is the unlimited father and mother of all limited things.(2)

...so all things in existence (the ten thousand things) have their origin in a source which we call the Tao. Given that all things have their origin in the Tao, all their observable characteristics come from the Tao and hence tell us something of its nature. Can we use this to understand better what the Tao is?

Well, we can use the observation of existence to understand facets of the Tao, but as per our little "table" thought experiment, as soon as we concentrate on any particular thing we obviously start limiting our overall understanding by excluding all the other things out there with differing properties.

The third part of chapter 1 in the Tao Te Ching gives us an insight into how to approach the observation of existence to shed light on the Tao's nature...

Whoever is desireless, sees the essence of life. Whoever desires, sees its manifestations.(5)

Freed from desire, you can see the hidden mystery. By having desire, you can only see what is visibly real.(9)

Free from desire, you realize the mystery. Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.(3)

...so by actively pursuing the knowledge you are getting caught up in viewing the manifestations of the Tao. This gives us a big problem, one which Buddhists have been aware of for a long time. We want to experience the truth behind existence and we know that to do this we need to free ourself from desire, but the problem is that the "wanting to experience the truth behind existence" and the "wanting to free ourself from desire" are both in themselves desires! We're stuck!

As creatures we are wrapped up with the manifestations of the Tao and we are always thinking back to the past, or planning what will happen in the future, wanting things to happen, and wishing things hadn't happened - themselves just more manifestations & desires. With us being wrapped up with all these manifestations and desires there's nothing we can do to break out to experience the underlying truth, so what happens now? Well if there's nothing we can do, the only other thing we can try is to do nothing!

Finally we are getting somewhere! It is through doing nothing that we have the chance to experience something of what lies behind these manifestations. Unfortunately doing nothing is a lot more difficult than it might sound (Hey! I never said this was going to be easy!), there's always desires and thoughts and plans bubbling up in our minds, and all the events in our lives to get in the way.

Doing nothing doesn't mean being inanimate: Staying in bed all day won't do it. Being lazy won't do it. Doping yourself up to the eyeballs won't do it. For me Taoism is about learning how to do nothing.

So, this is all very interesting, but how would I attempt to come up with an approximation of a description the Tao? Well I've looked at a lot of definitions many of which I feel capture some aspects well...

The Reform Taoist definition says...

The Chinese word "Tao" roughly translates as "Way"; for Taoists, it refers to a non-sentient, impersonal power that surrounds and flows through all things, living and non-living. The Tao regulates Natural processes and nourishes balance in the Universe. It benevolently embodies the harmony of opposites (i.e., there would be no love without hate, no light without dark, no male without female).

...now I'm not completely comfortable with this description. I believe it is something flowing through all things, but it is also the things being flowed through; the non-things; a non-flowing; a nothingness; the source of the things, the non-things, the flowing, the non-flowing, and the nothingness; and the thing "behind" all these other aspects. I also feel that the use of terms like "regulates", "nourishes" and "benevolently" imply a level of conciousness and personality that I don't think we have any evidence for in our experience.

You can see we're falling into the problem of how to describe something again. If we can't describe a table, how are we going to describe the source of reality? Of course, the actual reason for the problem with the table description is that the table itself is a manifestation of the Tao and the more detail you get into the more you're heading towards trying to describe the whole of the Tao, of which our whole physical universe is only one manifestation.

Jennifer Emick writing on altreligion.about.com says...

The Tao is the living source, the ineffable from which all creation springs…it is the totality of the infinite, which cannot be described in words. Naming or describing is always a limiting act, therefore, that which is limitless cannot be named or described.

...which I think is a nice definition but fails to emphasise that nothingness & non-being are also part of the Tao.

Beliefnet.com says...

The Tao is a transcendent state of being--beyond the reality of the mind that includes words, and beyond the reality of the senses. Yet paradoxically, the Tao is also right here and now since we can perceive the Tao by observing the course of a stream or the flow of our own breath. The Tao is available to our perception when we are fully in the present. The Tao is the divine life that moves through all things.

I really like this definition but I feel it again talks about something moving through things, when the Tao is also the thing being moved through as well as limitless other things, and as well as nothingness.

For me, how I would attempt to describe the Tao at this time (ask me in a year and I'm sure I'll say something slightly different) is something like this...

We experience existence as a collection of separate things: this & that, you & me, life & death, then & now, love & hate, here & there; but the truth is that these things are not separate, but rather all just some of the characteristics of one single thing - the Tao.

The closer we look at things, the more we get wrapped up in the specific details and attributes of that particular thing. The more detached and distant our view, the more we gain a different perspective and see things in a more holistic and unified way. If we wish to experience more of the nature of the Tao we need to let go of the details of particular things to better experience the whole.

Were it possible to stand outside the Tao and see it - all we would see is the Tao. All the "separate" manifestations would be seen truly as just a part of the whole Tao and not separate from it or each other.

Death, Immortality & the Soul

2008-03-03T11:33:00.005Z

There's a bit of discussion regarding death and what, if anything, happens after. I thought I'd post my brief thoughts here as well...

My belief is that Death is not really a loss, but a transformation, and that what we knew as the person moves on to participate in an endless ever-changing dance of manifestation, existence and de-manifestation that is the Tao....

All things emerge from emptiness
All things flourish and dance in endless variation
All things dissolve back into perfect emptiness

..I don't claim to know any better than the next person, but from observing nature we see things conceived, born, growing, dieing, decaying and becoming source material for new life. It seems to me that the desire for some form of personal survival is a natural feature of the ego.

Fundamentally there is no you and I, this and that - all are part of the same single thing - The Tao. The Tao is the thing that is immortal and as a part of it, so are we, but I see nothing in nature to convince me that anything of my personal identity would survive after death, and indeed what use is that identity without the physical person? Nature doesn't retain things out of sentiment.

I can't remember where I read it (somewhere online) but somebody wrote that you already know what death is like. You have been dead (i.e. non-existent) for billions of years before life existed on Earth, or before you were conceived, and death is exactly like that. That seems reasonable to me.

I've tried to synthesize my thoughts into a few brief paragraphs, using the beliefs entry on the Reform Taoism site as a starting point, and this is the best I've come up with so far...

I believe that mortal existence is just one of the infinite number of manifestations of the Tao. Will we be reunited with our loved ones after mortal death? There is no way to know, so I believe that we should focus on the living of life, and not on speculation on what happens after.

I believe that we must learn to overcome the human instinct to view mortal death as bad and as the "ultimate end", and to rest comfortably knowing that what happens to us after mortal death is also part of the eternal process of the Tao. If we can learn to live in harmony with the Tao during our mortal lives, we will be in harmony with the Tao at the time of our mortal death. If we can manage that, then everything else will fall into place; that is the nature of the Tao.

Introduction to Taoism

2008-02-29T08:27:00.005Z

I was thinking of trying to write a simple and not to heavy introduction to Taoism, but while searching the Net for ideas I came across an excellent site which already does this. The Introduction to Taoism site is located at...

http://www.geocities.com/taoism101/

So what's with all the pictures of water?

2008-02-29T08:07:00.005Z

Well, hopefully without getting too pretentious, all these different images are hopefully illustrating one of the key points central to Taoism. In the the opening lines of the Tao Te Ching Lao Tzu writes "The Name that can be spoken is not the Eternal Name" meaning IMHO that when you give a name to something you only partially describe it.

For this particular case when we think of "Water" we might think of a glass of water, or a river, or the sea, but there are many, possibly limitless, other aspects such as the way light reflects on a wet pavement, a rainbow, the patterns raindrops make on a window, a cloud floating in the sky, or as here how water influences the world around us as a form of transport and in the location of our great cities. All of these things are also part of that thing we quickly describe as "Water".

Tao and flat-pack furniture

2008-02-23T23:30:00.004Z

So, if I'm here ranting on about Taoism, what impact has it had on my life? Well, one real life impact it has had is that I have attained an almost Zen like ability to assemble flat-pack furniture without getting angry, swearing, screaming or descending into the depths of despair.

It used to be the case that I'd hate to get something that I had to assemble myself. The item used to sit in its packing for months until I could postpone the agony no longer. Then the real trouble would start, frustration at the poor instructions, being told to count everything before starting, cheap screws, difficult to assemble pieces; all of these were a source of enormous frustration and stress, along with a feeling of anger towards the people that devised this form of torture. I'd put it together piece by piece while muttering and planning what I'd put in my letter of complaint to the company. Not surprisingly, most of the flat-packs I assembled were poorly constructed & I felt little satisfaction when they were completed.

Since finding Taoism I've realised that the problems I experienced did not really come from the outside world, but rather from my own perceptions and expectations. Before I even started I resented having to do the job, even though it was me that chose and bought the item. I could have paid more for an assembled item, but I wanted the cost savings of flat-pack - just without the effort. Once started I would be concentrating on rushing through the assembly as quick as possible and planning what I'd be doing once I'd finished. Any delay was another reason to be angry, and of course my anger & haste led to mistakes, which meant more delays causing a vicious circle.

Through Taoism I have gained perspective, relaxing & accepting that this is what I will be doing for the next how-ever many hours, taking pleasure in following the steps described carefully and calmly without thinking about what I'd be doing after, and adjusting my expectations based on experience. All of these mean that when I assemble a flat-pack these days, that's all I concentrate on - and all the stress, frustration and anger just fades away.

The sage works quietly, seeking neither praise nor fame;
completing what he does with natural ease, and then retiring.
This is the way and nature of Tao. (4)

So...how did I become a Taoist?

2008-01-28T22:49:00.000Z

I was raised a Christian in the Church of England. As a family we rarely attended church except for weddings, funerals and main holidays such as Easter and Christmas, but I was sent regularly to Sunday school. Even at a young age, while I liked lots of the stories like Noah, Moses, Jesus with the fishes, I always felt that some things didn't make sense. Why did it matter that Jesus' mother was a virgin? If Jesus was God, why did he have to go through such a charade to forgive us? What's all this nonsense about a Trinity?

By the age of 12 my doubts were complete. Some bits I just didn't believe, and if the teachers were not telling me the truth on those bits, how could I trust them on anything else? I'd pretty much decided that the spiritual aspect of life was completely worthless. However, this started to change when my grandmother died. I missed her a lot and was deeply sad, but then it occurred to me for the first time as a real concept - I was going to die one day too!

I started thinking about life and death and started trying to understand how I fitted in. I don't want to make this sound like some great search - I found out bits about what some religions believed, but this was just brief interludes over the course of many years when most of the time I did my best to ignore the subject.

The western beliefs did little for me and all seemed to have the same flaws that Christianity had in that they seemed to consist of half-baked fairy tales designed to make life and death less scary. When I started to read a little about eastern beliefs I started to feel I was on to something. I'd come to the opinion that whatever was "the answer", it had to essentially be simple.

I'm a great fan of Einstein, particularly his thought experiments and use of reason. One of the quotes attributed to him is "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler" and this has always made sense to me. One of the problems I had with western religion was the level of complexity in their beliefs, a complexity which I believe comes from trying to make their beliefs fit the real world that we experience.

The level of complexity reminds me of the problem of understanding planetary orbits in the 16th Century. Before and after the scientific revolution that changed our world view from a system with the Earth at the centre to one with the Sun at the centre, it was considered that the motion of heavenly bodies must move in perfect circles due to classical theories of how the universe is ordered. The problem with this was that when observed in the real world, some of the planets did not seem to obey the rules, occasionally going the wrong way in the sky for a short while before reverting to their correct motion. Because of the belief that circles must be involved, systems of more and more complex motion involving circles upon circles (called epicycles) were imagined to explain this behaviour. These systems got ridiculously complex but still had trouble explaining planetary behaviour until Johannes Kepler came along and explained the motion with mathematically simple ellipses. If the explanation had been based on a modern scientific process of observation, measurement and theorisation the system of circles and epicycles would never have survived for very long, but because the whole system was built on erroneous beliefs a highly complex explanation was required.

Being drawn to eastern beliefs and simple explanations, Buddhism, and especially Zen seemed to approach what I felt seemed to make sense, but the world-view seemed to see life as a struggle whereas generally I've enjoyed life, so for many years I was uncommitted.

When I met my now wife, one of the books she had was "The Tao of Pooh" by Benjamin Hoff. When I read the book I thought WOW! I don't agree with everything it's saying, and some parts seem contradictory, but this is the closest I've found to what I feel. I read on from here taking in some other Taoist writings, specifically the Tao Te Ching (TTC), and found that where I'd disagreed with Hoff, the TTC seemed to give answers that seemed right to me.

After this revelatory moment you'd think I would have dived in head first, but actually it went on the back burner - always there in the back of mind but un-pursued. It was only when I hit the age of 40 and started again to think about death and started to get fearful in the middle of the night that I really started to delve into Taoism and found it answered my questions and has lead me on a path of contentment, but also of wonderful experience.These days I wouldn't claim I'm a very good Taoist but each year I find it influences my life more, I'm more at peace, and I get richer experiences from life.

If any of this rings any bells with you then I'd recommend that you find out a bit more about Taoism and see if it can give you what you need to enjoy and savour life, and let it give you peace with the approach to the inevitable end of life. I recommend it!

Taoism or Daoism???

2008-01-28T12:58:00.001Z

You might be confused that sometimes you'll see the words "Tao" and "Taoism", and at other times it's written as "Dao" and "Daoism". So which one is correct?

The two spellings arise from two different systems which have been created to represent Chinese (Mandarin) words using a Romanized alphabet. The Wade-Giles system was developed in the mid-to-late 19th Century and was the main system used through most of the 20th Century. The Pinyin system was adopted by the People's Republic of China in 1979 and has since become the international standard system for modern Chinese. Despite the difference in spelling, both systems are attempting to represent the Chinese word which sounds like "dow" - rhyming with "cow", "now" and "how" - so that's how it should be pronounced regardless of spelling.

For myself however, I first saw the "Tao" version and not knowing any better imagined that the word began with a "t" sound, and hence that's how I began to say it. These days, despite knowing better, I still say the words "Tao", "Taoism" and "Taoist" with a "t" sound instead of a "d" sound. There are three good reasons why I do this....

One of the central principles of Taoism is that the word is not the thing. The opening lines of the Tao Te Ching are "The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao" so getting hung-up on how the word is meant to be said is completely missing the point. Instead of calling it "The Tao", we could call it "The Universal Motivation", "The great Ooohjah", or even "Bob" and still mean the same thing. It's not important and I think it's important to remember this.

When I was in Shanghai, our guide told us that when the Chinese talk of Taoism using the English Language they say "Taoism" with a "t" when they mean Philosophical Taoism, and "Daoism" with a "d" when they mean Religious Taoism. Now I've not heard this anywhere else, but who am I to argue with him?

I prefer the sound of the word when it starts with the "t" sound. Of the two, that pronunciation makes me happier.

What is Reform Taoism

2008-01-24T12:06:00.003Z

I'm a member of the Reform Taoist Congregation, so what's that I hear you ask. To explain Reform Taoism, formerly called Western Reform Taoism, the easiest thing is for me to give you the decription on the Reform Taoist Congregation website written by its founder Michael Torley...

It is a religion, but probably not in the sense you're used to. Specifically, we do not believe in a god or deity; we believe in an impersonal force called the Tao. We also have no established concept of an "afterlife". However, we do believe that the Tao demonstrates to us the proper way to live. Through our beliefs, we learn how to act under any conceivable circumstances; how to handle problems; and how to live life properly, without causing harm to others. The fact that we place our lives and our trust in the Tao is what makes Reform Taoism a religion, rather than simply a philosophy.

We are brothers and sisters to each other, and as such, we respect each others' opinions and decisions. The purpose of a spiritual community is to lend support and encouragement. We help each other through rough times, and we offer advice to those who need it.

I don't necessarily agree with everything that other members of Reform Taoism believe, but we are a friendly community with similar beliefs committed to helping each other on their path. If you're interested in finding out more about Reform Taoism, follow the link in the Taoism Links section - and have a look, particularly at the Beliefs section on the "About Us" menu.

The Path of Water

2008-01-24T10:54:00.003Z

Why did I call this blog "The Path of Water?" The Tao translates as the "Path" or the "Way" and it is often compared to Water because many of the properties of Water provide an insight into the nature of the Tao which most of us can relate to.

The highest good is like water which benefits all things and contends with none. it flows in low places that others disdain and thus it is close to the Tao. (2)

Water doesn't try, it doesn't want, it doesn't seek praise, it doesn't have pride, it does not feel fear, it does not feel inadequate, it just does, it just is. It acts in ways that are in balance with it's true nature.

We can learn from Water through acting in ways that are true to our nature. This doesn't mean reverting to living in trees; part of human nature is to explore, to compete, to invent and to learn; but it does mean that these should be balanced with other aspects of our nature such as nurturing, loving, and spirituality. In losing site of these aspects and undervaluing or rejecting them we leave a gap which we try to fill with possesions, comfort food, TV and status, but we can never be satisfied by these things as they don't fill the gap, they just distract us from it for a short while.

Water also has the property of stillness. When left without any outside forces acting on it Water becomes still and in its stillness is a "magical" peaceful quality which many of us recognize and are moved by. In Taoism it is through stillness that we can gain insight into the nature of the Tao.

Empty your mind of all thoughts. Let your heart be at peace. (3)

A Taoist Meditation

2008-01-23T21:16:00.000Z

Become totally empty, Quiet the restlessness of the mind.Only then will you see that all things emerge from emptiness. Only then will you see that all things flourish and dance in endless variation.Only then will you see that all things dissolve back into perfect emptiness. Emerging, Flourishing, Dissolving back again - This is the eternal process of Nature.

Be still. With stillness is revealed eternity. With Eternity is revealed a vision of oneness. With a vision of oneness is revealed universal love. With Universal love is revealed the great truth of Nature. The great truth of Nature is the Tao

Whoever knows this truth lives forever. The body may perish and deeds may be forgotten, but he who has the Tao has all eternity. (1)

The Tao & Reform Taoism

2008-01-23T21:06:00.002Z

I am a Taoist and a member of the Reform Taoist Congregation. The concept of Tao is the Reform Taoists most deeply held belief, and the foundation of our religion. The definition of Tao listed on the Reform Taoism website say that the Chinese word "Tao" roughly translates as "Way" and for Reform Taoists it refers to, amongst other things, a non-sentient, impersonal power that surrounds and flows through all things, living and non-living.

The Tao regulates Natural processes and nourishes balance in the Universe. Lao-tse, the ancient Chinese philosopher widely regarded as the founder of Taoism, taught that the Tao simply defies description and that the only true way to seek it is through personal spiritual exploration and dedication.

Reform Taoists believe that Death is not a loss, but a transformation, and that what we knew as a living person moves on in Death to participate in the endless dance of manifestation and change that is the Tao.

Here we go....

2008-01-23T20:53:00.001Z

This is my first posting on this site and my first blog posting ever. Hopefully the next ones will prove to be more interesting.