The Special Teachings of Daoism

[CedarTree]

So a lot of the posts I look at are the Buddhist and Zen ones hah but I have found lately some of the Daoist posts very interesting.

 

I'd love to hear certain aspects of Daoist teachings you have found most mysterious, meaningful, intense, etc.

 

Maybe explain what the practice means to you and what you do for your practice and what you would like to do for your practice.

 

How do you see the goal of Daoism?

[silent thunder]

not sure how I'll answer it tomorrow, or in an hour even...

but in this moment, the sum of my word/thought response to your awesome inquiry is this phrase:

 

resolution/transcendence of the illusion of separate distinction of form and source, while fully immersed in the beingness of a seemingly distinct form in the now.

[Marblehead]

I feel a goal is to live according to your true nature.

 

(At least be honest to your Self.)

 

[Rara]

Sitting, smiling, drinking tea. Breathing, tai chi and other martial arts.

 

That outside what is a pretty ordinary life - but always bringing myself back round when I realise I'm being pulled away in day to day life. Feeling and absorbing the moment is the main daily practice. I mess up a lot but I come out better for it.

[9th]

6 hours ago, Marblehead said:

I feel a goal is to live according to your true nature.

 

?

 

Quote

"But objective knowledge, the idea of unity included, belongs to objective consciousness. The forms which express this knowledge when perceived by subjective consciousness are inevitably distorted and, instead of truth, they create more and more delusions.

 

With objective consciousness it is possible to see and feel the unity of everything. But for subjective consciousness the world is split up into millions of separate and unconnected phenomena. Attempts to connect these phenomena into some sort of system in a scientific or a philosophical way lead to nothing because man cannot reconstruct the idea of the whole starting from separate facts and they cannot divine the principles of the division of the whole without knowing the laws upon which this division is based.

"None the less the idea of the unity of everything exists also in intellectual thought but in its exact relation to diversity it can never be clearly expressed in words or in logical forms. There remains always the insurmountable difficulty of language. A language which has been constructed through expressing impressions of plurality and diversity in subjective states of consciousness can never transmit with sufficient completeness and clarity the idea of unity which is intelligible and obvious for the objective state of consciousness.

"Realizing the imperfection and weakness of ordinary language the people who have possessed objective knowledge have tried to express the idea of unity in 'myths,' in 'symbols,' and in particular 'verbal formulas' which, having been transmitted without alteration, have carried on the idea from one school to another, often from one epoch to another.

"It has already been said that the higher psychic centers work in man's higher states of consciousness: the 'higher emotional' and the 'higher mental.' The aim of 'myths' and 'symbols' was to reach man's higher centers, to transmit to him ideas inaccessible to the intellect and to transmit them in such forms as would exclude the possibility of false interpretations. 'Myths' were destined for the higher emotional center; 'symbols' for the higher thinking center.

 

By virtue of this all attempts to understand or explain 'myths' and 'symbols' with the mind, or the formulas and the expressions which give a summary of their content, are doomed beforehand to failure. It is always possible to understand anything but only with the appropriate center. But the preparation for receiving ideas belonging to objective knowledge has to proceed by way of the mind, for only a mind properly prepared can transmit these ideas to the higher centers without introducing elements foreign to them.

 

 

Quote

"Among the formulas giving a summary of the content of many symbols there was one which had a particular significance, namely the formula 'As above, so below,' from the 'Emerald Tablets of Hermes Trismegistus.' This formula stated that all the laws of the cosmos could be found in the atom or in any other phenomenon which exists as something completed according to certain laws. This same meaning was contained in the analogy drawn between the microcosm—man, and the macrocosm— the universe. The fundamental laws of triads and octaves penetrate everything and should be studied simultaneously both in the world and in man. But in relation to himself man is a nearer and a more accessible object of study and knowledge than the world of phenomena outside him. Therefore, in striving towards a knowledge of the universe, man should begin with the study of himself and with the realization of the fundamental laws within him.

"From this point of view another formula. Know thyself, is full of particularly deep meaning and is one of the symbols leading to the knowledge of truth. The study of the world and the study of man will assist one another. In studying the world and its laws a man studies himself, and in studying himself he studies the world. In this sense every symbol teaches us something about ourselves.

 

[Marblehead]

That's all too complicated.  Just be.