MEDITATIONS: TAO TE CHING CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

for the decline of the tao way of life
begins with prisons of the bodymind
and externally applied rules of the bodymind

defined allegiance
justice blind
equity bound in invisible knots

when judicious thought is the goal
and not thinking
intelligence leads to observed contrast
supplanting the thinking moment

faithless ceremonies are created
that disturb the bodymind

the bodymind is a family
harmonious when

open absence
blends with
full presence

serene when

full presence
blends effortlessly with
will, thought, and imagination

a natural coalescence

will, thought, and imagination
meet and support
the life force

this simple assemblage
speaking directly to the heart spirit
results in a myriad of actions
filled with spontaneity and naturalness

composed and at rest
this family
playing in a field of spontaneous interaction
enjoys peaceful congress with
the shape and void

when the bodymind
is forced
and ill at ease

insincere devotion
to the bodymind
manifests itself
and spills over every facet of life

rejection of the tao way of life
can be checked only through compassion
for the self
for others

then reclamation of the original nature of mankind
can begin

the ancient child asks me to enumerate the steps

the open absence of the bodymind
must combine and share with
the closed presence of the bodymind

the closed presence of the bodymind
must combine and share with
the mind intent of the bodymind

the mind intent of the bodymind
must combine and share with
the life force of the bodymind

the life force of the bodymind
must combine and share with
the heart spirit of the bodymind

the heart spirit of the bodymind
must combine and share with
the spontaneous actions of the bodymind

the spontaneous actions of the bodymind
must combine and share with
the shape and the void

—Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching; An authentic Taoist translation. translated by John Bright-Fey

The Tao is the Way, the road which one walks if he is to life his life in accord with objective reality objectively (as opposed to how humans experience reality). To walk this road is the “tao way of life;” therefore, to say that this way of life is in decline is to say that one is living in accord with something else. It is to say that one’s morals are founded in something other than the transcendent, something other than Truth.

What are these somethings other? Lao-tzu calls them “prisons of the bodymind.” Well, what is a prison but a boundary in which one his held against his will? Then, what is a prison of the body? A prison of the mind? The former refers not merely to literal institutions of detainment, but also to experiences of tangible limitation (e.g. you fail to run a mile without stopping and decide from that experience that it is impossible for you). The latter refers “words and labels” (i.e. concepts whose borders are fixed or “frozen” arbitrarily—made falsely immutable to change).

Both of these “prisons” are forms of presumptive judgement. They are presuppositions, allegiances and conclusions drawn ahead of time and assumed axiomatically. They are the belief that one has already thought through all that there is to think. They are the cup too full to receive anything else. They are judging INSTEAD OF thinking; and no matter one’s intelligence, if he reasons using only his own presumptions, the conclusions he reaches will only create “faithless ceremonies.” He will spawn a model of the world, like a map, which he cannot depend on, which will lead him down an unbalanced path in which he brings his multitudinous wills into self-conflict.

In his book, the Birth of Tragedy, Friedrich Nietzsche describes this balance of the “bodymind” using the symbols of the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus. To Nietzsche, the Apolline is the dream or illusion which mankind must project onto the chaos of the transcendent world in order to survive within it; it is comparable to the mind, the veil of Maya, ego-consciousness, or Jungian projection of psychic contents onto the objective world. In this view, one’s “words and labels,” and even his notions of differentiated concepts themselves are necessary falsehoods—for always one’s perception is at least partly limited, inaccurate, or otherwise plagued with errors. The body, the thing-in-itself in which the unconscious “heart spirit” resides in closer contact with is the Dionysiac; this aspect of man is the will, is his animating force. It is that which can only be described through Apolline masks, “words and labels,” but is True despite its incomprehensibility. Too much of it and one drowns under the tides of the infinite abyss, sinking like a statue, petrified by his realization of his own insignificance—or else he is devoured by his own internal demons. However, without enough of the Dionysiac element, he suffers senescence—he becomes senile: unable to learn, to adapt, to understand his faults or to admit them. He forgets the original purpose of his actions or of the traditions which those actions had previously founded.

But this decay can be prevented, or at least delayed, Nietzsche argued, as did Jung after him. For in certain moments, such as during artistic production, the Apolline and the Dionysiac enter into a form of dance. In Jungian language, the conscious and unconscious selves individuate just as Lao-tzu describes. They separate, “open absence,” and temporarily divided, the conscious ego becomes the observer to a formerly invisible aspect of the Truth of the unconscious self. Of course, the act of seeing colors the unknowable. An Apolline mask is applied, but likewise, the terrible reality glimpsed by the ego consciousness leaves scars (i.e. the Dionysiac unconscious colors the Apolline ego as well). Thus consciousness and unconsciousness come crashing back together, both changed, remade in each other’s image, reconstituted in greater “harmony.” The model, or map, of the world has been redrafted as to become reliable again. One can continue on with life. He has become re-animated. “Will, thought, and imagination / meet and support / [his] life force.”

What follows is the aforementioned process laid out—an individuation cycle:

The ego must separate from and become observer to the will. Seeing it for what it really is, one must accept the pain of the reality that is himself. This splitting and recombining results in renewed motivation. This motivation is alignment of the multiple and oft times heinous and contradictory desires of the will; and through this alignment, the “heart spirit” deep within the “body” acts in spontaneous consort with the mind (for the body and mind are not truly separate entities). These spontaneous actions capture as close an accord as is possible for action in the Tao way of life. They are an Apolline image, or shape, of one moment of the constantly transforming, transcendent, Dionysiac void.

Lao-tzu. “Chapter Eighteen”. Tao Te Ching; An Authentic Taoist Translation, translated by John Bright-Fey, Sweetwater Press, 2014. pp.32-4