No-Thing-Ness

 

A    Chuang-tzu’s critique of Confucian ju philosophy was that it dealt only with the world of the lesser Tao. Ju is the ability to be compassionate to others by practicing empathy. To live by this Tao, one must be able to do “good” without any selfish inclinations. The philosophy of Confucius is based in the world of objects. To follow the ju philosophy, “goodness” is turned into an object of desire. A man of the lesser Tao completely ignores the goodness in himself, which can operate through the greater Tao, and only looks to the external norms and laws to find the good. Chuang-tzu contends the man of greater Tao will see that goodness is endowed with existence and cannot be cultivated or taught by external norms. The pursuit of the lesser Tao leads to reducing goodness into something that is attainable. The more it is treated as an end, the less real it becomes through defining and training. This is because the greater Tao cannot be defined or trained. The greater Tao Chuang-tzu uses to critique Confucian ju philosophy is the infinite void around and in everything that exists. It cannot be taught, defined, or seen. If one has guidelines or ideals of doing the “good.” he or she will be acting according to their own consciousness, which is grounded in the lesser Tao. To let go of the want to do “good,” one must give no definition of “good” and simply wait for the time to act with spontaneity. The way to finding the good is to stop looking for it.

In the allegory of the bell a monk rings a bell for some bystanders and asks if the music of the bell came from the metal casting or the non-being inside the bell. Chuang-tzu would expect the Confucian to say that the sound came from the monk hitting it or the acoustics of the casting. Any answer they would come up with would be due to a science based in the world of objects or lesser Tao. Their methods of finding the “sound” would even be a fallacy because they would be using the rules of what constitutes a sound. They would desire to find “sound;” thus turning it into an object for attainment, which then renders any search for the real sound of the bell dead. Chuang-tzu, on the other hand, would not deny the phenomenal truths of the bell, but he would not hold that to be the standard of the bell’s music. He would contend that both the casting and the non-being (greater Tao) within the bell created the sound together. The bell would not be the bell if it did not have both non-being and casting together in the embodiment of a bell.

B Loa-tzu believed that to become a sage one must return to non-being, from whence all things came from. To do this, one must first take a step outside of one’s own subjectivity to realize there are other principles at work in the world. This would put a person among the world of being and recapture the self from the me. From here, the person must return themselves to non-being, or the greater Tao. Lao-tzu believes that with each person’s presence in being there is an essence that is a union of the finite and infinite. This essence can be called the I and is on the side of form, while our material or biological selves is the me. The me is on the side of matter and only exists in this world. A byproduct of its creaturely existence is that it cannot look back or comprehend the infinite. The I, on the other hand, can look into the infinite. Imagine the I tip-toeing on the small wall between non-being and being. It can turn its head towards the me or look back into the infinite. This is where the problem occurs. Given the me is the I’s way of being for a lifetime, the I will begin to identify with and collapse into the me. This stems from the I having preferences for the me’s career in the world. The I also understands that the me is a reflection of it as it undergoes change, so it has the tendency to say the me is the true self. This is a total collapse into the me. This fall of the I causes immense spiritual suffering, because the I gives the me imagined importance in the world, which puts the me at odds with anything that gets in the way of its wants. Lao-tzu saw this as the fall and contended that man’s I must return to its essential relationship with the me. This relationship is an objective observer with non-attached spiritual attention. The sages would be able to check their I’s so they don’t collapse in the existential. This way of living frees the I from the finite, which is the main goal of Lao-tzu’s teachings.

A cross has a vertical and a horizontal line intersecting. On this vertical axis is the I watching the me, which is walking along the horizontal part the of cross. This puts the I and me embodiment on the intersection of the cross. Soon the I wants the me to walk on the horizontal faster than the other me’s and it collapses into the me. Now, the only dimension to the embodiment is on the horizontal. Our original condition is to be on the intersection of the cross so the I and the me can be raised to heaven. Loa-tzu believes we must return to the cross by keeping the I out of the horizontal and by the I objectively willing the good of the me. This in turn will raise you to heaven or the greater Tao, which is non-being.

C Wei wu wei literally means action with no action. It is the way of life for people whom embody the greater Tao, without needing to embody anything. By letting Tao work in a person, wei wu wei happens without effort or any set goals. It is the essence of wei wu wei to be on the side of the offered destiny of a situation. Every moment requires an action, which can either be seethed in personal desire or be of spontaneity and singleness of attention. It may seem to the lay person that the Taoist is a pacifist even in the face of evil. The champion of wei wu wei sees the truth of the situation, while objectively discerning what moral action should be done. Therefore wei wu wei is to negate the refusal to attend to the need of the other or the situation. To do this, the Taoist first needs to accept the truth of the situation by looking at it with spiritual attention, which is in no way attached to the social or the self. After this, he or she will become alert to the situation and the consequences of acting. Without being alert to the situation, one may act rashly or with some sort of desire, which undermines the singleness. After the need is discerned, one will act according to the situation. The Taoist must act, because he or she knows that moments never come twice. With no goals in mind and the self pulsating with the greater Tao, the good of the situation will be met through wei wu wei.

An example of a man operating with wei wu wei is the parable of the Good Samaritan. A man on his way to Jericho was beaten near death and robbed. He lay in the street and a priest walked by him and instead of helping, he crossed to the other side. Then a Levite comes across the same beaten man and does the same as the priest. Finally, the Good Samaritan sees the man and bandages him up, then takes him to an inn, where he pays the innkeeper to bring him to good health. The Good Samaritan saw the man that people had avoided and accepted the truth of the situation, which was that without help, this man would die. After that, he becomes alert to the situation’s consequences, which without action would most defiantly scar his soul with bad karma. Lastly, he acted according to the need of the situation and the latent good was brought out of the situation. Jesus tells this parable to illustrate when to act as a neighbor should. Jesus was illustrating that one has to work on kairos time, which is how one must embody wei wu wei, to see past the chronologically mundane and see what needs to be done at that moment.

Critique on A

Chuang-tzu’s critique on Confucian ideals of virtue leaves out the fact that the heart of Confucianism is sincerity. In the Five Relations, one must sincerely be a father to a son, and husband to a wife, or a ruler to a subject. Before any liturgy or laws are followed, a person must already have the good working through them with sincerity. Confucians thought the laws would help people become sincere. Chuang-tzu’s critique of the Confucians isn’t fair because it ignores that Confucius saw good coming from sincerity, which was helped along by different Tao’s depending on one’s lot in life. Just because Confucius didn’t give sincerity some abstract and metaphysical source like non-being, doesn’t mean it does not come from the same place. The so-called hero of virtue could very well be operating on the greater Tao, because they are sincere in their dealings, which would transcend any ideals of the good, because sincerity creates these ideals.