April 14, 2008
Monday Poem
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The Tao that can be thought of is not the real Tao
so the Tao that can be spoken is not the real Tao either
soooo, the Tao that can be named is likewise nothing too.
..............................................--Lao Tzu, sort of
'The spirit of the best of men is spotless,
like the new Lotus in the [muddy] water
which does not adhere to it.
.............................................. --buddhanet.net
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My Religious Life
Jim CullenyI was Catholic,
but was not universal enough
when I was.
I was Protestant,
but did not protest enough
when I was.
I was a Transcendental Meditationist,
but was not transcendent enough
when I was.
I was a dilettante Buddhist,
but (unlike the lotus) I failed to bud
when I was.
Now as a Taoist
in an inscrutable plan
I’m most content, because
it’s nothing I can really talk about
if I am.
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Posted by Jim Culleny at 12:29 AM | Permalink
Comments
cute.
Posted by: Litsa | Apr 14, 2008 5:03:21 AM
Very nice.
Posted by: Abbas Raza | Apr 14, 2008 6:57:44 AM
Born a Catholic
Soon surmized
For mumbo jumbo
They take the prize
Now an atheist
Free of the trible
With Mozart my Pope
And Shakespeare my bible
Posted by: Jared | Apr 14, 2008 10:48:37 AM
tribal (sorry)
Posted by: Jared | Apr 14, 2008 10:50:12 AM
Lucky for you, Jim, no one knows what a Taoist actually is.
Posted by: Lloyd Mintern | Apr 14, 2008 3:14:53 PM
Lloyd,
The point, exactly (if I am).
Posted by: J | Apr 14, 2008 3:34:41 PM
The 30 spokes of a wheel all join at the centre.
The usefulness of the wheel lies in the emptiness of its hub.
- Lao Tzu
Every day I turn
Thirty spokes and empty hub
Tonight there are ropes
- Pareidoliac
Posted by: Pareidoliac | Apr 14, 2008 8:50:32 PM
Jim, the point is there are real Taoists, and this making light of all religion, and then saying you are a Taoist (like you are some kind of poker player making a bluff) seems like mockery. But I guess that is all part of the tradition of casual vernacular American poetry; a flippant phraseology, a few equivocating images, and a knowing sneer.
Posted by: Lloyd Mintern | Apr 15, 2008 2:42:55 AM
LLoyd-
That's a take on the poem I'd not thought of.
It can be seen the other way as a line drawing of a cube can be seen from either bottom or top depending up inclination of the viewer.
Posted by: J | Apr 15, 2008 6:43:11 AM
The Taoist that labels himself "Taoist" is not the true Taoist.
Posted by: Jared | Apr 15, 2008 10:22:15 AM
Badda boom ...rimshot.
Posted by: J | Apr 15, 2008 11:01:38 AM
I have always found Taoist philosophy interesting. I believe it is correct in understanding that reality cannot be reduced to our mental categorizations of it. The world is not actually abstract, but a physical reality. This is the most wonderful thing about it.
Posted by: Jared | Apr 15, 2008 12:34:53 PM
Jared
We're presented with something we don't understand.
We create abstractions from it by choice to make it understandable.
Everybody abstracts by different criteria and names the abstractions.
Cultures are built upon agreed upon abstractions.
The abstractions aren't independent realities out of context: the named Tao is not the real Tao.
It's kind of like drawing constellations on the night sky. Pretty arbitrary. Ursa Major is not a real bear. It's not even a real picture of a bear.
That's what I get from it.
Posted by: J | Apr 15, 2008 1:33:06 PM
J,
Yes, I agree. With all due respect to Plato, I think the reality is exactly the reverse of what he said. For him, abstract "forms" were the ultimate reality and the physical world just pale copies of these forms. I would say that the world is physical, including our bodies and brains, and mental abstractions are just creations of our physical brains. I suppose this makes me a materialist. The human concept of Tao is no more the real Tao than the Big Dipper is a real dipper. Each culture sees different "pictures" in the stars and creates different belief systems to explain what we really cannot explain - the mystery of existence. Science does a good job of explaining processes once they get going like the Big Bang and Evolution, but still can't answer the question of how or why a Big Bang occurred in the first place. To "name" is to form an abstraction or a model of the world, but the real world cannot be merely a model and therefore cannot be named. Is there some force beneath the physical universe, a force which created the Big Bang? That seems to be unknowable, and Taoism is right to acknowledge this and remind us of the limitations of human knowledge.
Posted by: Jared | Apr 15, 2008 2:24:01 PM
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