道本 Tao Source #32

Larry Neal Gowdy

First Speaks, Second Imagines, Third Believes

It is common human behavior that when a man speaks of an uncommon thing, then a second man will write his own interpretations of what the first man said, and then, other people will read the second man's writings and believe that the second man's interpretations must be accurate.

Similarly, a scholar writes a paper on a topic (regardless of whether the paper is accurate or not), a second scholar copies what the first scholar wrote, a third scholar copies the second, a fourth copies the third, and then a fifth scholar claims that what the first scholar said must be true because peer review agrees. A humorous example is of Albert Einstein's claim that Spinoza was a 'religious genius' with a "cosmic religious sense", adding the statement "The cosmic element is much stronger in Buddhism, as, in particular, Schopenhauer's magnificent essays have shown us." (Cosmic Religion) Scholars copying scholars, without any of the scholars having firsthand experience, nor so much as knowing what the topic is that the scholars claimed to possess perfect knowledge of.

A similar scenario was when the first European men are reported to have given notice of lodestones (current evidence suggests that 'primitive' South Americans had already been using compasses many hundreds of years before Europeans first noticed lodestones). Without having a preexisting knowledge of magnetism, the first Europeans (Thales specifically) are said to have believed that the loadstones had spirits inside, the spirits causing the loadstones to attract iron and to align themselves to point near the North Star. In time, Europeans arranged the loadstones to be used as a compass, and, in time, the spirits were given the name of 'magnetism'. Humans still do not know what 'magnetism' is, but the word 'magnetism' is a handy socially-accepted noun-word that points to what is observable by all healthy people, as well as being believed to be true by all who believe what has been written about magnetism. Intimately parallel is the modern belief of the 'magnetic' spirit of electricity.

Similar is the topic of tao... one man spoke of an uncommon firsthand experience, and the man briefly wrote a few words about the experience. The man attempted to give descriptions of the experience, but, without the man's culture having suitable socially-acceptable names (i.e. magnetism), the man chose his descriptions by what words were available to him.

A second man, reading the first man's writings, the second man had not himself firsthand-experienced a similar experience, and so the second man wrote interpretations of what the first man spoke of. The second man, his interpretations related to what he himself had firsthand-experienced and believed in — his words were not and could not possibly be related to the first man's experience. The second man, chose different words, words that were socially-acceptable and culturally common (e.g. heavens and spirits). The behavior of the second man, is what today might be said to be scholarly... of approaching a topic of which an individual has no personal experience with, and to then 'define' the first man's words by what the scholars have memorized of other topics.

The common third step is of the public reading the scholars' words, and then believing that the words must be true, because, it is popularly believed that scholars know everything about everything. The result, as always, became a belief-based following of the scholars' beliefs, while fully ignoring what the first man spoke of.

Also common for many people, is to take another person's idea, see within the person's idea a thing that other people believe is valuable, and to then selfishly desire the thing for themselves. The people, not being capable of firsthand-experiencing a similar thing that the first man wrote of, the people invent a false ideology that claims to achieve the first man's experience. The sequence is common, resulting in popular claims of fantastical powers and other things that never relate to the first man's experience.

And so goes the available histories of the source of tao... one man wrote of self-experience... scholars wrote imaginary interpretations relative to their own normal lives... and then believers in the scholars' words believed that the first man's experience related to the believers' beliefs of selfish spiritual powers and mystical heavens.

One man's self-description... humble, thoughtful, virtuous, of heart... speaking of a source of the experience, the man gave the source of the experience the name of 'tao'. The man's words traveled through a long sequence of scholarly interpretations that led to an ideology that interpreted the words to imply that tao was the One Source God itself. Next, the pompous men of self-interests and callousness towards other people began claiming of themselves to be enlightened and superior because they believed (or self-hypnotized themselves to believe, or simply deceitfully pretended) that they were knowledgeable of and performing what the first man spoke of.

Three general sources... [1] one man's tranquil experience, the source and way of tranquil was within himself, [2] scholars interpreted the tranquility to be from the Source of heavens, and [3] the ideologists egotistically claimed to be "one" with the Nothingness One Source God of Heaven.

A very similar thing exists within a different system of belief... the first man, he said something like 'it is within you', but today, most all known followers of the man's words sincerely do believe that 'it is outside in the skies'. The first man, an insider... the followers, outsiders... the outsiders ignore what the first man said, while claiming for themselves selfish spiritual powers and mystical heavens. Countless millions of scholarly books, each interpreting the first man's words, yet none of the books understand what 'it is within you' means.

The three common 'sources', therefore, point to generalized differences that contradict and do not harmoniously relate to the other.

One Tao From Three Points of View

From the firsthand point of view, [1] 'Laozi's' firsthand tao was as if the 'essence within'... the first tao source, was, therefore, in general words, the 'one thing' that resided alone. '...similar maybe womb, I not know any it child, resemble god, it first'.

[2] The second source is of mutuals and ingredients... 'Would intend abandon it, will solidify interest it'. Within the common two-dimensional way of thinking, up must have down, left must have right, and old must have new. Also within the writings is a knowledge that all things are composed of other things, including virtue. The second source, therefore, points to the creation of things occurring through the act of things combining in harmony, which is also a thing that can be observed to be real.

[3] The third source is the cross-lighting and projection of the first two to pose the plausibility that the originating Source of all things made use of a similar process... that the originating Source of Nature and the Universe might use a 'method' like what is observable within Nature's creativity. The idea then begins to settle comfortably, that the root of Source is creativity... one's self, creative, then also like root of Source.

The three firsthand points of view are not contradictory... the first is a real firsthand experience... the second is able to be firsthand observed relative to the first firsthand experience... and the third ponders if the Source used a similar method for all of Creation. The method used by the Source is known to be far more complex than what is observable by humans, but still the general idea of all things requiring three or more ingredients to create one thing, remains valid, and thus leads to a curiosity of how far back into the past that the idea can retain sensibility.

Tao Descriptions

The 'Laozi' voice gave several self-descriptions within Daodejing, and though there may exist similar writings amongst people who do Tao, it is extremely rare to find similar self-descriptions available to the public. Some of 'Laozi's' descriptions were so explicit, that it still seems sad that common translations ignored the descriptive words, and instead chose to use words of magic.

Heshanggong is said to have been a commentator of Tao... the following is a rough word-per-word draft version from Heshanggong's chapter Body Way, section #31:

'Capable it nature middle, again have nature, natural chi-energy have thick thin, remove emotion, remove desire, observe middle peace, this call aware tao, key it entrance-opening door.'

Heshanggong's use of 'chi-energy' is very good as being suggestive of the presence of an 'energy-like' field that is 'thick' of the quantity of 'thin', or, as what might be analogically phrased today, 'a dense magnetic field of unseen light'. One of 'Laozi's' analogies was of the dust raised by a herd of deer... a thick denseness of small particles. While encompassed within the middle-center of the 'chi field', the mind is aware of the body's absence of gross emotions, absence of desires, and the state of self is of 'blissful' tranquil peace. The name, given by Heshanggong, to the firsthand experience is 'aware tao'... the experience, as well as the 'chi-field' itself, is as the first step 'key' to what is then possible of creativity.

The 'Laozi' words pointed to a similar 'chi', but described the self-experience more clearly with details that are obvious to individuals who have firsthand observed similar (the Spiritually Connected book (©2000) loosely referred to the 'chi' as the "foundational emotion"), but the descriptions have no meaning to scholarly approaches.

The 'key' word, also used by 'Laozi', was fully misinterpreted by common translations... the common translations believing that the word implied magical mystical things...

A point of importance is that the idea of 'removing emotions and desire' is not an act accomplished from the outside... nor an act accomplished by will, nor an act accomplished by desire, but, rather, within the self-experience the emotions and desires simply no longer exist... emotions and desires no longer have the fuel to exist.

As the words appear to suggest, the tao of Heshanggong's and 'Laozi's', is the firsthand experience... 'it is within you'... but for scholars and believers, they believe that tao is a thing that must be forced (like the other system of belief's 'the violent take it by force'), a thing attained from the outside, not from the inside. Pompous men, full of vainglory and hunger, claim that they have achieved Oneness with the Source... the claims' purpose, obvious...

Conclusions

'Laozi' lived in a different land, during a different era, speaking a different language, writing different symbolisms, and thinking different mental concepts that cannot possibly be known today. The only thing of 'Laozi's' words that can hold high confidence, is that all interpretations must have 大 arms-wide big major mistakes. Researching and translating the ancient Chinese texts can be very intriguing, as well as sometimes rewarding, but the ideas gleaned from the texts can still only have meaning found within one's own firsthand experiences.

Similar to all other ideologies, each core idea has been interpreted differently by different people, resulting in opposing cliques... the Tao philosophies are not immune to the weaknesses of the human mind.

Also similar to all other ideologies, the most popular cliques will be those populated by individuals who believe that they will be given a reward... self-gain... selfishness... greed... veneration from others... powers... supernatural powers... no self-participation necessary, no effort necessary, just believe in the words, and then claim one's self has earned eternal perfections of infinite material gains. The cliques never appear to cross-light the absurdities that the selfishness is one of the most important things that the original teachings taught against. The cliques' followers do not care about other people, do not care about their own behavior, do not care for what is right and wrong, do not care of the great harms that they do to other people, and the cliques' followers twist the original written teachings to claim that 'perfection' is found within the followers' existing cold callousness of heart and mind.

The cliques' followers do not care about anyone but themselves, else the followers would have yearned for and chosen of themselves to be better for the benefit of other people... the followers do not place 'caring' high on their list of inner traits... the only highly placed trait, is self-gain. An insider might say 'I have no desire for heavens and rewards, I only wish for myself to become a good person', while an outsider might say 'my receiving rewards and supreme bliss in the heavens is all that counts'.

'Hope person-ist, not now... straddle person-ist, not walk'... having hope for future rewards, excludes self-value in the now... believing contradicting beliefs, excludes value of present walk...

One form of the 'tao awareness' is the created product (chidao) of a very specific combination of inner quality ingredients. Various other examples exist that might (mistakenly) appear or be believed by some people to be similar or the 'same' as the 'tao awareness'... one is the purposeful destruction of one's mind, of self-hypnotizing one's self to not feel emotions, nor to sense sensory perceptions, and within the self-hypnosis is a self-willed numbness of mind that believes that it has escaped suffering... a second variation is of a normal mental ability of 'self-displacement' that unintentionally occurs during prolonged intense stress (prolonged intense stress is a method intentionally taught within some cliques to be the sole path to enlightenment)... a third variation is of remembering before being born, of before the nervous system developed enough to create the senses of the body's emotions and sensory perceptions... plus other variations, but, one thing is certain, that no two experiences can be identical, the same, nor equal. 'Laozi's' tao awareness was his, and never will anyone experience the identical same tao awareness.

An honorable man, his honorable concubine, heartfelt caring for the other, an infant's grave, from an era of about three-thousand years ago, from a long-forgotten language... the man's thoughts and emotions cannot possibly ever throughout eternity be imaged by anyone living today. Similarly, 'Laozi's' tao, colored of his own life... only the scholars believing that they are as gods, able to omnisciently know another person's heart and mind, while the scholars cannot so much as describe a single emotion within their own selves, nor so much as describe their own superstitions and imaginations of their spirits of electricity and magnetism.

A few words are frequently used by ideologies when speaking of awareness within tao and others... bliss, tranquil, peace... the use of the static words resulting in the frequent false belief that there can only be one bliss, one tranquil, and one peace...

No two sounds are of the same pitch, nor the same volume, nor the same duration, nor the same tones... no two things are identical of color... no two electrical sine waves are identical... no two magnetic fields are identical... no two humans are identical... nothing is identical, including bliss, tranquil, and peace. Cliques that claim sameness of bliss are false teachers. Cliques that teach sameness of love, virtue, beauty, or any other things, are false teachers. There are no boundaries of love, beauty, and happiness, but still some cliques claim that they offer "supreme bliss", which proves that the cliques' teachings and masters claim things that cannot be true.

Nature is the standard... Nature's way always has all things to be different... Nature's way permits nothing to be identical... all healthy logic is based upon the sole standard that is Nature... healthy logic concludes that nothing is identical... healthy logic concludes that there is no such thing as identical bliss, identical tranquility, nor identical peace.

One man's bliss, is another man's filthiness... a non-thinking man's happiness within material riches, is a thinking man's wallowing in selfishness... just because an ideology claims to be the path to bliss, it does not mandate that the 'bliss' is itself of quality. Quality is as the attribute of how things harmonize to create a thing of greater value relative to the thing's purpose... and, so, what is the purpose of an individual seeking bliss? Which ingredients create the best quality of purpose? If the ingredients are ignored, then so will the product reflect the absence of quality, and have no value.

To seek tao awareness, out of desire for one's profit, will, and does, result in a disharmonious disquality creation... people's bodies are the ingredients of what they eat... people's inner natures are the ingredients of what the heart chooses.

Chidao... harmony way... chi way... take what is present, choose quality ingredients, 'it is within you', harmonize quality ingredients... create a new thing that no one has ever before imagined. There are no boundaries to what is possible within creativity... but, if the choice is within a selfish desire of gain, then the ingredient will cause failure... if the choice is with an inner need of self to become a good person, and if the inner need is proper, then the person will become as good as which inner ingredients are harmonized.

The words of 'Laozi', do appear to infer his having been consciously aware of his own inner ingredients, of recognizing that the source of his own tao awareness, was within himself.