Views of the Absolute in World Religions
Center for Media and Independent Learning - University of California Extension
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Taoism
Course Guide written by Mike Fedel
THE NEED TO WIN
When an archer is shooting for nothing
He has all his skill.
If he shoots for a brass buckle
He is already nervous.
If he shoots for a prize of gold
He goes blind
Or sees two targets--
He is out of his mind!
His skill has not changed. But the prize
Divides him. He cares.
He thinks more of winning
Than of shooting--
And the need to win
Drains him of power.
Chuang Tzu, in Merton's The Way of Chuang Tzu, 107
As Smith mentions, there are several different ways to look at Taoism. We can look at it
by describing the three principle divisions or at the various ways of speaking of the Tao. In this
chapter, we will make some brief comments on the three aspects of the Tao and two essential
features of the Tao.
Smith (pp. 198-9) describes three senses in which the Tao may be understood. The first is the Tao as the way of ultimate reality. The second is the Tao as the way of the universe. The third is the Tao as the proper way of human living.
The Tao as the way of ultimate reality is a difficult concept to get a clear idea of. We can get some help by looking at how it has been defined by other authors. D.C. Yu, in the Perennial Dictionary of World Religions, describes the Tao as "the philosophical equivalent of chaos . . . in the archaic creation myth." While this description may appear to describe the Tao as a substance, Yu later writes that "cosmologically speaking, chaos, nonbeing, and Tao are synonymous." The Tao, as the way of ultimate reality, then goes deeper than "the stuff of which everything is made" and might be stated as "the is-ness of everything that is." Everything exists, even before we start thinking about what it is or what it is made of. And understanding it at that level is very difficult to describe--hence the well known phrase "The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao."
The Tao as the way of the universe has parallels in other philosophical and religious systems and is therefore more accessible. It is the way the universe works. It is the flow, the undercurrent which pulls reality along. Bringing ourselves in line with it results in the effortless action called wu wei, which we will discuss below. Using and manipulating this power is the goal of Religious Taoism with its incantations and rituals. Understanding this power and bringing ourselves in line with it is the goal of Philosophical Taoism.
TWO ESSENTIAL FEATURES - wu wei
Two essential features of Taoism are the idea of balance as represented by the Yin/Yang and the idea of wu wei or effortless action. The story at the beginning of this section gives a good example of wu wei at work in everyday life. When we are in tune with the Tao, when we are not concentrating so much on the mechanics of what we are doing, we are more successful.In another popular story titled "Cutting Up an Ox", the prince is fascinated that his cook can carve up an entire ox in such a short time, with such little effort, and with a knife that seems to never need sharpening. He asks the cook "what is your method?" The cook replies that there is no method, he simply follows the Tao. The cook finds the hidden spaces in the joints and the cleaver slides effortlessly through them. The cook has mastered his craft and understands his materials to such a degree that no real effort on his part is required to perform his tasks. To the casual observer, it might appear that carving up an ox requires little skill or strength. To the unskilled butcher, who wrestles and struggles mightily with his own tasks, it is amazing how little effort this other cook expends. To the prince in the story, it is the occasion for a lesson to be learned.
Many of the stories of Chuang Tzu reflect this principle. In another, he points out that we spend much of our energy asking what is right and what is wrong. We debate endlessly and often postpone action while we get our mental house in order. But, he says, "there is no way of determining such things. Yet at the right time, if I cease striving for happiness, the 'right' and the 'wrong' at once become apparent."
In the Tao Te Ching, this principle of wu wei is also reflected in many verses. For example, verse 27 begins with the following lines:
A good traveler has no fixed plans
and is not intent upon arriving.
A good artist lets his intuition
lead him wherever it wants.
A good scientist has freed herself of concepts
and keeps her mind open to what is.
- verse 27
Most of us have had this happen in our own experience. Consider riding a bicycle. In the
beginning, you concentrate on each movement, measuring the motion of your feet and hands as
you learn to master the technique. But, when you have mastered them, you must let them go.
Think about how difficult it would be, now that you know how to ride a bicycle, to think about
every movement and to try to control every aspect of riding. How much easier it is to just ride!
Another example of wu wei is the simple act of using a bus schedule. Imagine if you were to walk to the bus stop every time you wanted to go somewhere. Some days, the bus would come right away, some days you would wait 5, 10, 20 minutes for the next one. You've wasted all that time and effort when with a small bit of "right knowledge", you would have shown up at the right time.
TWO ESSENTIAL FEATURES - Yin/Yang
The yin/yang symbol (see Smith, p.214) is familiar to most of us. The co-existence and interplay of opposites is also a familiar theme, but we sometimes lose the significance of the small circles in each of the large areas. Not only do the opposites coexist, but each contains the other in some way. They are always in flux, interplaying, changing from one to the other. There are several good stories which represent this point. Smith relates one on p.215 of The World's Religions and Novak also relates one in # 12 in his section on Taoism. Both of these stories reflect the importance of being able to see the whole of a situation and the interplay of its elements rather than focusing single-mindedly on one or the other. They also reflect the idea that what at first appeared to be good may later appear to be bad. Not getting the promotion you wanted last year doesn't look so bad this year when the position is "right-sized" out of the corporation.It is interesting to see some of the polarities reflected in the yin/yang. For example, John Noss describes yin as an "energy-mode in a lower and slower key: it is fertile and breeding, dark, cold, wet, mysterious, secret, the female or negative principle in nature." Yang, on the other hand, is "masculine in character--active, warm, dry, bright, procreative, positive." Notice how the characteristics which are lined up as masculine and feminine do not exactly parallel the way we might associate these categories in psychology or in common use. For instance, "dark" and "cold" would more likely be seen as "masculine" while "warm" and "positive" would more likely be called "feminine".
One additional observation is that the five elements (earth, fire, metal, wood, and water) which make up all of reality result from the interaction of yin and yang. Geoffrey Parrinder, in his book World Religions, writes that these elements do not only coexist as the result of the interplay of yin and yang, but that in some Chinese thought, each element is representative of a period of human history. This particular school of thought is called the yin-yang school. Their belief is that one or the other will be dominant in an era, rising to prominence then decaying as another rises to take its place. Parts of this philosophy, especially the idea of history as cyclical, have found their way into other schools of Chinese philosophy. We can see a similar development in western history when we talk about the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Industrial Age and the Information Age.
THE IDEA OF THE ABSOLUTE IN TAOISM
Finally, we want to consider the idea of the Absolute in Taoism. Most simply stated, the Absolute is the Tao. The Tao is understood predominantly in three ways: it is the fundamental reality of the universe, it is the "way" in which the universe progresses--the energy which sustains and empowers everything, and it is a prescription for how human beings should comport themselves.The need to express the Absolute in anthropomorphic terms is not central to Taoism. But it is not absent. There are Taoist churches and temples in which incense and offerings are given to statues of the Gods of Heaven. There are rituals and incantations for "getting god's help."
Even with this observation, it is still more precise to say that the Absolute in Taoism is the ultimate harmony of the universe. It is the realization of the interplay of opposites. All expositions of Taoism either further describe this basic fact or give examples of it. The examples are generally stories about those who exemplify the virtues of the Tao--and especially wu wei--or lessons about how this harmony works itself out in our everyday reality.