Taoism

In A Dark Time

In a dark time, the eye begins to see,
I meet my shadow in the deepening shade;
I hear my echo in the echoing wood --
A lord of nature weeping to a tree.
I live between the heron and the wren,
Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den.
What's madness but nobility of soul
At odds with circumstance? The day's on fire!
I know the purity of pure despair,
My shadow pinned against a sweating wall.
That place among the rocks -- is it a cave,
Or a winding path? The edge is what I have.

A steady storm of correspondences!
A night flowing with birds, a ragged moon,
And in broad day the midnight come again!
A man goes far to find out what he is --
Death of the self in a long, tearless night,
All natural shapes blazing unnatural light.

Dark, dark my light, and darker my desire.
My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly,
Keeps buzzing at the sill. Which I is I?
A fallen man, I climb out of my fear.
The mind enters itself, and God the mind,
And one is One, free in the tearing wind.

~ Theodore Roethke

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Some beautiful footage -- shot at China's Wudang Monastery -- of martial artists demonstrating their forms, was my favorite part of Opening Dao: a short documentary film introducing some of the the basic principles of Daoism/Taoism and the martial arts.

Enjoy!

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"Reductio ad absurdum, which Euclid loved so much, is one of a mathematician's finest weapons. It is a far finer gambit than any chess play: a chess player may offer the sacrifice of a pawn or even a piece, but a mathematician offers the game."

~ G. H. Hardy (1877-1947)

Can't help but wonder if Hardy -- in this passage from his 1940 essay "A Mathematical Apology" -- was making explicit reference to Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem, which had been published some nine years earlier?

Gödel's analysis began by establishing that "in any non-trivial axiomatic system, there are true theorems which cannot be proven." This set the stage for the actual Incompleteness Theorem, which rocked the boat of formalist mathematics, big-time, by demonstrating that the establishment of a set of axioms encompassing all of mathematics could never succeed. In other words, Gödel used logic and mathematics to show that logic and mathematics had some serious limitations.

Read More...

Stars burn clear
all night til dawn.

Do that yourself, and a spring
will rise in the dark with water
your deepest thirst is for.

~ Rumi

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Via my recent adventure with the terrier, I've been reading and very much enjoying David Loy's Nonduality: A Study In Comparative Philosophy. There's much that I've appreciated about this book, which was originally published in 1988 by Yale University Press, and which draws forth the thread of commonality between three spiritual paths: Taoism, Buddhism and Vedanta.

Perhaps most significant for me personally was that it helped me to resolve -- at least partially -- a kind of cognitive dissonance I've been experiencing, in relation to Mahayana Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta: how these two traditions on the face of it seem in so many ways diametrically opposed, yet have such a similar feel to them. And, since I love noticing what the various nondual traditions have in common, I was quite receptive to Mr. Loy's project.

I've written a review, which ended up quite a bit longer than I had anticipated, so I've divided it into three parts:

Part One: Five Flavors Of Nonduality
Part Two: Nondual Action & Nondual Thinking
Part Three: Philosophical Difference, Identical Nondual Experience

Enjoy!

Healthy and loving sexual relationships can be one component of a Taoist lifestyle. Like good food and ample exercise, physical intimacy and touch provide nourishment and support for our bodymind. It's natural to desire and enjoy sexual connections, at this level.

The role that sexual energy plays in formal Taoist practice is, however, quite unique, and perhaps very different from how you're used to thinking about and relating to sexual energy. It has little or nothing to do with sexuality - our feelings and preferences in relation to being sexually attractive or attracted to (specific) others - as part of our personal or social identity.

Rather, sexual energy is understood simply to be a form of energy - a creative potency whose flowing intelligence can support our practice in all kinds of wonderful ways ...Read more

"The problem of freedom versus determinism is dualistic in presupposing a self whose actions are either free or determined, and the nondualistic denial of an ontological self resolves that bifurcation: if I am the universe, then complete determinism becomes equivalent to absolute freedom."

~ David Loy, excerpted from Nonduality

Walked into Naropa University's library, earlier today, in search of David Loy's Nonduality -- recently recommended. Was met immediately by a little terrier-like dog, who bounded out from an office to greet me.

Said hello, quick pat, then continued into the stacks. The little dog followed, this time rolling over, for a belly-rub. Cute. Then appeared his human caretaker, sheepish and apologetic, though I assured her, no problem. (Even though mostly I am a cat-person.)

A couple minutes later, book in hand, arrived at the check-out desk -- and was met once again by the sweet terrier, who slipped around while his human was performing her administrative duties, for another few moments of petting.

Book in backpack, walked through the library's security gate, out the door into the larger building, and was just about to open the main door to the great out-of-doors, when my new friend bounded out of the library, and charged down the hall to once again present himself at my side, as if to say: "I've decided to come home with you." Totally cute.

Arrived home with the book, and no terrier -- though can't seem now to get that little dog's eyes out of my mind: so bright, clear, playful, open, inviting -- and reminiscent of my childhood canine companion, Winnie: an energetic Peek-A-Poo (half Pekingese, half Poodle) with whom I shared many an adventure.

Opened the book, to the table of contents. Noticed a section -- tucked between part 1 and part 2 -- called "Summary of the Core Theory" -- which seemed like a good place to begin, and from which the above quotation is drawn.

But by far the best part, so far, are those eyes .... woof!

So many forms of qigong-healing, energy-healing, distance-healing out there today. Most of these -- it is my guess -- are variations on the theme of electro-magnetic resonance: one person (qua bodymind) acting compassionately as a "tuning fork" of sorts, for the other.

Also quite interesting are "quantum healing" modalities, which I introduce in the same article. Here the connection is "nonlocal," i.e. outside of space/time. (Hard to fathom, and yet ...)

Along similar lines: various audio- and video-conferencing technologies make possible "real-time" visual and auditory connections -- with teachers and healers -- "at a distance," that previously would have been impossible. Three that I've greatly appreciated and enjoyed, and whose nondual approach feels very much in alignment with Taoist practice, are:

* Francis Lucille (webcasts & webinars)
* Adyashanti ("Radio Adyashanti" at Cafe Dharma)
* Braco (live-streaming of gazing)

I still find in-person connections to be invaluable, irreplaceable in some way -- but for the times when such is not possible, yeah! for our contemporary technology.

Of all of the martial arts forms, it is perhaps Aikido that is most paradoxical, and quintessentially Taoist: fluid, circular, dance-like techniques, applied with the explicit intention not only to protect oneself, but also -- and importantly -- to avoid harming ones attacker. A profound acknowledgement of the not-two-ness of perpetrator and victim.

Beautiful.

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In verse 48 of his well-known poem, our friend Laozi writes:

"The pursuit of learning is to increase knowledge day after day.
The pursuit of Tao is to decrease knowledge day after day."

Which then causes me to wonder: can we pursue both knowledge and the Tao, simultaneously?

As long as there's an egoic "me" supposing to be the "pursuer" and "attainer" of the knowledge -- probably not.

But if by "attainment of knowledge" we're referring primarily to the arising of thought-forms within the mental continuum -- then I'd say, from a Taoist perspective ... maybe: if somehow the thoughts are allowed to self-liberate (to appear as not-separate from their background).

(Even as I write this, I can feel some part of me heavily invested in the outcome :)

Anyway, I've played a bit with this question and others related to verse 48 here. What's your feeling about or experience with this? Do intellectual pursuits necessarily detract from Taoist practice?