Taoist basics unwittingly confirmed by modern science

[Taomeow]

 

So, I was reading this article just published in

Nature

, and apparently they have confirmed scientifically, though they don't know it yet, a few fundamental taoist axioms --

to wit, that wuji gives rise to taij, and that extreme yin flips over into yang, and that absolute stillness gives birth to movement.

 

 

http://www.nature.com/news/quantum-gas-goes-below-absolute-zero-1.12146

[Apech]

Thank you. V interesting but the article was very badly written and mixed concepts of temperature ... see the comments on the article for the general confusion ... which was a shame.

[Taomeow]

You're right -- I didn't find a good online version in a hurry, I heard a much better version in a radio interview. Just wanted to throw in a pointer.

[takaaki]

 

http://www.nature.com/news/quantum-gas-goes-below-absolute-zero-1.12146

You do have a lively imagination.

[Taomeow]

That too, but I have some taoist education.

[takaaki]

That too, but I have some taoist education.

Are you needing scientific validation of your taoist education? You know you are on your own when you walked down that path away from a scientific reality.

[deci belle]

Nothing has been confirmed. Science stumbles on lots of things… it will forget soon enough.❤

[Taomeow]

Deci, did you read my mind, or the part I wrote and then deleted? It was this quote:

 

• Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened. -- Sir Winston Churchill

[deci belle]

I have no such powers… heehee!!❤ I didn't see what Vous deleted either, honest!!

 

 

 

 

ed note: add last line

Edited January 22, 2013 by deci belle

[Stigweard]

Had an interesting and rather lively discussion with a good friend about the nature of Tao. A comment was made that "there is no scientific basis for the tao to exist, it is a matter of faith".

Thought I would share my response:

In fact there is every scientific basis of Tao because Tao is pure and simple mundane, boring old reality. The ancient sages saw that nature has a rhythm, a pulse, a waxing and waning of polarities. They saw that one phase gives rise to another which in turns perishes to give birth to yet another. Every phenomena is dependent and originates on previous phenomena ... an interdependent flow of life. They nicknamed this process of mutually dependent and interchanging polarities "道 - Dao" ... the way.

Science tells us exactly the same thing ... that there are natural cycles that are measurable and predictable. That things are born, grow, decay and die. Then the rotting corpses provide fertilizer for the next round of birth. The earth spins and wobbles its way around the sun giving us interchanging night and day, summer and winter. The gravity of the sun creates a harmonious dance of planets as they cycle and spin. Galaxies spiral out on their eternal voyage. Science has proven that the Tao exists as the ancients depicted, except we call it "nature".

Remember that Tao is harmonic process or order that the universe seems to be tuned to ... if something happens it happens to a certain set of laws or processes ... that subtle truth is Tao ... not an "it" ... not an abstract concept ... but an very real and mundane process that is observable in practical terms. If we understand the "way" this process evolves then we can learn to be in tune with it and ride it like a surfer rides a wave ... that is being "one with Tao".

 

[zerostao]

good to see you back around these parts stig,

nice response. (i still trust Tao much more than science)

Tao/Nature very closely linked for sure

[Owledge]

 

Deci, did you read my mind, or the part I wrote and then deleted? It was this quote:

 

• Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened. -- Sir Winston Churchill

Probably why still so few people know he's a war criminal / mass murderer.