MEDITATIONS: TAO TE CHING CHAPTER TEN

creative spirit
vital soul
wonderous bodymind

can you combine these into one phase
and gently hold onto it

one phase one part one moment

can you commune with
and direct the elemental force of life
and enter into the rebirth of gentleness
and be like a newborn

can you wash and cleanse your mystic inner vision
while clearing it of the refuse left behind by ordinary sight

is it possible for you to stay out of your own way
while being your own leader

can you stomp the earth
look to the heavens while being receptive
passive
possessed of quietude

can you be knowledgeable and clever
and regard it as whimsical

create and nourish
let all creation be the worlds
now your own

have fun when you work
work when you have fun

be a leader without appearing to be
and you will personify fine uncarved wood
in the hands of a master carpenter

can you guess who this master is

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

Western tradition sees as separate the body, the mind, and—if one is religious—the soul. This does not seem to be so in the east, at least not in Taoist thought. However, it is easy to fall into the trap of dividing oneself. After all, what the ego (spirit) believes is not always what the emotions (soul) feel, and neither of these elements necessarily corresponds with the current condition or even potential state of the body. But make no mistake, these are components of a whole, not individual entities of their own: body, mind, and soul are the biology from which emotions—those forces which put the body into motion—emerge; and those emotions, that soul, that force of conscience, is what animates consciousness. And this makes sense. Our minds, our frontal neocortex, evolved out of the more “primitive” motor cortex—analogous to how the root of the term “conscious” is “conscience” and not the other way around.

And yet, it seems nearly universal and perhaps inevitable that one experiences himself as a being divided. That begs the question, “Is it possible to join these three together, even if only momentarily?”

Yes, of course. Just as a newborn baby is a being of undifferentiated pre-consciousness, one can, if he is willing to let go of his need for control, paradoxically seize a moment in which his separate selves act in consort. This is the cleansing of “refuse left behind by ordinary sight” in order to look inward, to gain insight, to obtain the “mystic inner vision”. Likewise, this process is the same as the ego stepping out from its own Path, clearing the Way on the narrow road so that wisdom of conscience can lead him in line with the Tao.

He becomes as if possessed by a silent spirit, not separate from the world and earthly interaction, but rooted in it. One has experienced this if he has, in the midst of an act of creation—whether that be artistic, constructive, literary, performative, or even martial—suddenly vanished from inside his own head. The body acts of its own accord and performs feats of ability beyond the reach of the conscious ego. Furthermore, it does so seeming without effort or strain.

Again, one is returned to that connection, that muse and inspiration characteristic of Zarathustra’s third metamorphosis, Nietzsche’s übermensch, Jung’s archetype of the child—he who, seemingly to the ordinary man, performs the miraculous while at play.

His body, mind, and soul have come together, and together they direct the course of potential—AND YET—even he is not the master himself. He must realize and remember that he is not and never will be POTENTIAL ITSELF. He is merely the river, the conduit, the raw material from which the master makes potential manifest.

“Who or what is this master, then?”

It is that which transcends how we want or believe the world should be.

Lao-tzu. “Chapter Ten”. Tao Te Ching; An Authentic Taoist Translation, translated by John Bright-Fey, Sweetwater Press, 2014. p.19