As of 1997, Le Guin could claim that the best, soundest, clearest introduction and guide to taoism is still Holmes Welch’s Taoism: The Parting of the Way. (per her translation of the Tao Te Ching)
Even where the text is dated, I find it hard to disagree.
Raw notes ⚭
- To read is an act of creation
- The Tao Te Ching: We cannot be certain what it means. We never will be.
- It’s the magic mirror, reflecting what the reader seeks
- Baffles and irritates orthodox minds
- Zen owes much to Taoism
- The nonexistence of absolutes, the nonexistence of contraries
- To act without action
- The cyclical pattern of change
Unvaryingly the wheel turns; what goes up must come down. Victories lead in the end to defeat, force to weakness, laws to lawlessness, good to evil—all because, as Fung puts it, “if any one thing moves to an extreme in one direction, a change must bring the opposite result.”
- Learn how to unlearn
This came to be called the “Period of the Fighting States.” China seemed to be spinning down a whirlpool of ruin. To the people of the fighting states, as to some people today, it appeared that the world—the known world—must finish as a wasteland.
These were the times in which Lao Tzu lived.
Lao Tzu rejected the Confucian answer. Indeed, he probably believed that Confucius was the person who had triggered China’s decline by preaching morality. Lao Tzu’s answer was the doctrine of inaction, or, in Chinese, wu wei (literally, “not doing”). In his opinion the best method of coping with pillage, tyranny, and slaughter was to do nothing about them.
“Not doing” in a special sense, of course:
- “Weapons are wont to rebound” (30W)
- “The more laws you make, the more thieves there will be” (57)
- “The sage does not boast, and is therefore given credit” (22)
- “He who acts harms, he who grabs lets slip” (64W)
The principle underlying this:
In human relations force defeats itself. Every action produces a reaction, every challenge a response.
- Evolution might be thought of as a march towards ever more highly articulated and effective capacity for resistance
- So when anyone, ruler or subject, tries to act upon humans individually or collectively, the ultimate result is the opposite of what he is aiming at (Law of Aggression)
- wu wei—“to yield is to be preserved whole, because the wise man does not contend no one can contend against him”
- Doing nothing, yet achieving everything
- How can inaction succeed? By being rather by doing, by attitude rather than act, by attraction rather than compulsion
Lao Tzu recognized that we intuitively sense one another’s feelings, and that my attitude, rather than my acts, is the determining factor in your attitude and your acts.
Having a concept of good leads to having a concept of evil, which leads to combatting evil, which only makes evil stronger
Good done to one person may be evil to another
Everyone is telling the truth—if you can only understand it
The regret which legitimizes the use of force is a cardinal point of taoism
Lao Tzu believes that man’s original nature was kind and mild, and that it became aggressive as a reaction to the force of legal and moral codes (ie Confucianism)
That’s the basis for statements like, “banish human kindness, discard morality, and the people will become dutiful and compassionate”
Confucian morality with its 3,300 rules of etiquette—this makes hypocrites of men who were once simple-hearted, for they outwardly conform while they inwardly rebel
- ((if Wei Ying was consciously modeled on taoist principles in Mó Dào Zǔ Shī, I bet the Lan Clan’s 3000 rules was modeled on confucianism? The whole outward/inward contrast of morality + the failure of those rules to provide justice pretty much tracks?))
Conformism can only lead to aggression
Even non-aggression can be aggression, if one makes others feel inferior
To make another feel inferior is the essence of aggression
Vicious circles of lying, hatred and violence—avoid starting new circles, and interrupt those already started
Basic doctrines of taoism:
- water
- uncarved block
- raw silk
- newborn child
From the first parental whack to the last deathbed prayer, man is kneaded and pummelled, either by those who want to make him “good” or those who want to use or destroy him. He becomes a reservoir of aggression on which society can draw to produce its goods competitively, fight its wars fiercely, and raise children more aggressive than himself.
- Fewer desires—doesn’t mean desires of the flesh, but money, power, and importance (ego)
- Competition is the seed and the fruit of the greatest social evils
- We cannot practice inaction or hold the uncarved block unless we cease to care whether the world yields to us or not; and for that very reason it will yield
- Once you care about public opinion, you can’t keep your balance or hold the uncarved block
But until morality is discarded by everyone, there will be the dilemma of conformance. Those who conform are full of resentment against those who do not: those who do not conform are a challenge to those who do. Therefore the Taoist conceals his non-conformance. He does not flaunt the Uncarved Block. He does not make a morality of amorality, for that would be committing the error he set out to avoid.
The Confucians bear somewhat the same relationship to the Tao Te Ching as the scribes and Pharisees to the New Testament
Our inner nature is an extension of the nature of the universe; to follow one is to be in harmony with the other
To follow nature means being ready to accept her support and her cruelty as one
In the west, mystics generally regard the universe as real and God as personal; most eastern traditions regard God as impersonal and the universe as illusory
A doctrine held by several schools of Buddhism: the past, present, and future are equally real and coexistent
The chapter comparing Lao Tzu to other mystic traditions explains why that’s what draws me — less emotional ecstasy, more practical conundrums
certain ends are best accomplished without the use of conscious means
Ignorance is a disease. “The Sage’s way of curing disease also consists in making people recognize their diseases as diseases and thus ceasing to be diseased” (71W).