The Tao of Pooh

[Yen Hui]

Yen, relax please. This is not a competition.

Can I blame the vibs on a bad caffeine overdose?

 

For me words and thoughts and such have only a limited value ... that needn't make us 'enemies' though -

right?

True!

 

If you really are interested in linguistic metamodelling then I'd be happy to demonstrate, but not framed as

some kind of challenge or test of intelligence. In fact I think it's something that might really interest you.

Yes, I'm interested in seeing a demonstration of it, on your terms. You have my word not to view as "some

kind of challenge."

[mYTHmAKER]

Actually I thought The Tao of Pooh was a fun read.

Anyone read The Tao of Piglet?

[Lozen]

Isn't it the Te of Piglet? I wanna read!

[Yen Hui]

Quite frankly, Yen Hui has had an agenda re this thread since its inception.

Quite correct. It was clearly stated from the outset that I was posting some things for the few who are not

"entirely closed-minded", to the Taoist classics, of course. Now, anyone who plainly says out loud that they

are bored with the sayings of Taoist antiquity obviously has an entirely closed mind toward them. They do

not belong to the tiny group of the receptive few for whose sake alone I ventured to post what

I have, thus far.

Edited July 2, 2007 by Yen Hui

[Yen Hui]

Also the word was "confusionist," not "Confucianist." If you read the quote, it says, "the dried-up Western

descendant of the Confucianist Dedicated Scholar." That would be called a play on words. Anyway, it's a

lovely little book and I think you should read it before getting all offended by it.

The term 'confusionist' comes across to me as a derogatory term as much directed at the 'Confucian', if not

more so, as at the Westerner. The obvious parallellism between the two terms leads me to that conclusion.

I suspect I might read it some day soon, not for myself, but for my daughter's sake. She's just completed

Grade 5 and will have 1 more year of conventional education in the state school system. After that, it's all

home-schooling for her. And the Tao of Pooh will probably be on her tailor-made curriculum for either Grade

7 or 8.

[Yen Hui]

From the Tao Te Ching:

 

"To attain knowledge, add things every day.

To attain wisdom, remove things every day."

 

These are the first two lines of Chapter/Section 48 of the Tao Te Ching. Now, Cleary's translation of these

two lines is slightly different, and reads like this:

 

For learning you gain daily;

for the Way you lose daily.

 

Now, personally, I prefer Cleary's rendering, but before examining its meaning, it is useful for us, perhaps,

to look first at Chapters/Sections One and Twenty, in order to establish some kind of base or foundation:-

 

TAO TE CHING - CHAPTER ONE

 

01 - A way can be a guide, but not a fixed path;

02 - Names can be given, but not permanent labels.

03 - Nonbeing is called the beginning of heaven and earth;

04 - Being is called the mother of all things.

05 - Always passionless, thereby observe the subtle;

06 - Ever intent, thereby observe the apparent.

07 - These two come from the same source but differ in name;

08 - Both are considered mysteries.

09 - The mystery of mysteries

10 - Is the gateway of marvels.

 

Regarding lines 3 and 4 above, Cleary's Commentary offers the following explanation: "Nonbeing, or the

nameless, stands for passionless, uncontrived, formless awareness. Being, or the named, stands for discursive

intellectual activity." Regarding lines 5 and 6, his Commentary offers this explanation, which is foundational,

I feel, to a correct understanding of the first two lines in Chapter/Section 48:-

 

"These lines (5 and 6 above) are one of the keys to Taoist praxis. Chen Jingyuan, an

adept of the Complete Reality School, explains:

 

'Both passion and intent mean focusing the mind on things. The subtle is the essential;

and it also means the most extremely rarified. The evident is an edge [of reality], like

a little pathway by a major road. The word also means return [what comes back to

you as a result of intentions].

 

'The empty selfless Tao is immutable, so it is said to have no intention; yet it becomes

pregnant with myriad beings, so it is said to have passion.

 

'To observe the subtle with constant dispassion means to keep the attention on emptiness;

to onserve the evident with constant intent means to sustain certain thoughts.

 

'Constancy means real constancy, the Great Way, of which dispassion and intent are

adaptive functions.' [End of Chen Jingyuan's Explanation of Lines 5 and 6]

 

Regarding lines 7 and 8, the same Commentary offers the following explanation for them:

 

"The above mentioned two aspects of awareness, formless intuition and discursive intellect,

both derive from an even profounder source. Both kinds of awareness are unfathomable

mysteries, if for no other reason than that they are themselves the means by which we

assess our experiences of them; and it is for the same reason that their source is by its

own nature an even greater mystery."

 

Regarding lines 9 and 10, the Commentary offers this:

 

"In terms of the mystic psychology of Taoism, according to the Complete Reality school,

this refers to the so-called 'mysterious pass,' the central switch post or 'opening' between

the rational and intuitive modes of awareness, described in the earlier passage as

intentional observation of the apparent and dispassionate observation of the subtle.

Taoist practice involves 'opening the mysterious pass' to allow the mind to work

in both modes without interference."

 

Turning now to Chapter/Section 20, line 1 of it says: "Detach from learning and you have no

worries." Now, once again, Cleary's Commentary offers the following explanation for this:-

 

"Here 'learning' means habituation to convention. Chen Jingyuan says, 'Modern learning is

superficial. Detachment from learning does not mean not learning anything at all; it means

maintaining the natural essence of mind.' Lin Dong says,

 

'If you give up the original natural essence of mind and seek the Way outside, there is

something special called learning, which is all externally oriented. Only by detachment from

this learning can you be worry free: this is attained spontaneously by following essential nature;

it is not learned.' ( Taoist Classics, Volume 1, p. 118 )

 

Returning now to Chapter/Section 48, and the first two lines of it, which you have quoted, I feel Cleary's

Commentary on line 3 offers us some insight into the original intent or meaning of lines 1 and 2. Line 3,

in Cleary's translation, says "Losing and losing," which he says "means shedding psychological barriers to

the reality of the way, barriers created by self-assertion and the accretions of mundane conditioning."

( Taoist Classics, V. 1, p. 126 )

 

So, in light of the above, I'd say that the "learning" and "unlearning" spoken of in lines 1 and 2 essentially

refers to the superficial learning, false conditioning, and bad habits acquired through a typical conventional

education, which is highly fragmented and incomplete by nature, within the context of a so-called "modern"

society. In that regard, then, I find myself agreeing with the basic premise of the Tao of Pooh, concerning

the several obvious pitfalls of such a highly 'constricted' form of education.

[mYTHmAKER]

Isn't it the Te of Piglet? I wanna read!

 

You're right

 

I suspect I might read it some day soon, not for myself, but for my daughter's sake. She's just completed

Grade 5 and will have 1 more year of conventional education in the state school system. After that, it's all

home-schooling for her. And the Tao of Pooh will probably be on her tailor-made curriculum for either Grade

7 or 8.

 

 

Why not for yourself. It's fun.

All the great ones have a childlike innocence

and they love to laugh.

[fatherpaul]

ok ok

let me get this straight now,

 

there ia a tao of pooh

 

a te of piglet

 

 

thus it follows....that eyore has a chin!

 

 

 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

 

 

peace,

paul

[Leidee]

Quite correct. It was clearly stated from the outset that I was posting some things for the few who are not

"entirely closed-minded", to the Taoist classics, of course. Now, anyone who plainly says out loud that they

are bored with the sayings of Taoist antiquity obviously has an entirely closed mind toward them. They do

not belong to the tiny group of the receptive few for whose sake alone I ventured to post what

I have, thus far.

 

 

Again, you assume much. But, I have no desire to show you just how open my mind can be.

 

Enjoy your reading (and its regurgitation). I hope you find your answers there.

 

Peace

L

[beancurdturtle]

ok ok

let me get this straight now,

 

there ia a tao of pooh

 

a te of piglet

thus it follows....that eyore has a chin!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

peace,

paul

why would and ass have a chin?

[fatherpaul]

why would and ass have a chin?

the toa te chin(g)

 

may disagree

 

 

hehehehehehe

 

no disrespect intended, btc,

my apologies

 

peace and happy pancakes,

paul

[beancurdturtle]

the toa te chin(g)

 

may disagree

hehehehehehe

 

no disrespect intended, btc,

my apologies

 

peace and happy pancakes,

paul

and toe to chin I'm deeply offended.

 

O Holy Sage of Pancakes, I couldn't wring disrespect out of your words if disrespect was the water in the last wet rag in the Sahara at the Summer Solstice and I was with thirst.

 

Peace and enlightened waffles,

 

[Yen Hui]

(speaking on what he calls confusionist, desicated scholars)

 

"Far from reflecting the Taoist ideal of wholeness and independence, this incomplete and unbalanced

creature divides all kinds of abstract things into little categories and compartments, while remaining rather

helpless and disorganized in his daily life. Rather than learn from Taoist teachers and from direct experience,

he learns intellectually and indirectly from books. And since he doesn't usually put Taoist principles into

practice in an everyday sort of way, his explanations of them tend to leave out some rather important details,

such as how they work and where you can apply them.

 

Hexagram 20

 

"In nature a holy seriousness is to be seen in the fact that natural occurrences are uniformly subject to

law. Contemplation of the divine meaning underlying the workings of the universe gives to the man who

is called upon to influence others the means of producing like effects. This requires that power of inner

concentration which religious contemplation develops in great men strong in faith. It enables them to

apprehend the mysterious and divine laws of life, and by means of profoundest inner concentration they

give expression to these laws in their own persons. Thus a hidden spiritual power emanates from them,

influencing and dominating others without their being aware of how it happens."

 

Six at the beginning means:

Boy like contemplation.

For an inferior man, no blame.

For a superior man, humiliation.

 

"This means contemplation from a distance, without comprehension. A man of influence is at hand, but

his influence is not understood by the common people. This matters little in the case of the masses, for

they benefit by the actions of the ruling sage whether they understand them or not. But for a superior

man it is a disgrace. He must not content himself with a shallow, thoughtless view of prevailing

forces; he must contemplate them as a connected whole and try to understand them."

[Yen Hui]

Hexagram 20 <=LINK

 

Six at the beginning means:

Boy like contemplation.

For an inferior man, no blame.

For a superior man, humiliation.

 

"This means contemplation from a distance, without comprehension. A man of influence is at hand, but

his influence is not understood by the common people. This matters little in the case of the masses, for

they benefit by the actions of the ruling sage whether they understand them or not. But for a superior

man it is a disgrace. He must not content himself with a shallow, thoughtless view of prevailing

forces; he must contemplate them as a connected whole and try to understand them."

Hexagram 48 <=LINK

 

"However men may differ in disposition and in education, the foundations of human nature are the same in

everyone. And every human being can draw in the course of his education from the inexhaustible wellspring

of the divine in man's nature. But here likewise two dangers threaten: [1] A man may fail in his education

to penetrate to the real roots of humanity and remain fixed in convention--a partial education of this

sort is as bad as none--or [2] He may suddenly collapse and neglect his self-development."