A circle has its ups and downs as it spins around. Biology drives the perception that these ups and downs are truly different. It all begins at the elemental cellular level: neurons flip flop between on (up) and off (down). The billions of neural connection in a complex nervous system make for countless ‘not quite up’, ‘not quite down’ areas. Even so, the dividing line is there. The essential role of the Taoist view is to help remove that line from perception.
That is a tall order. Perception lacks impartiality because emotion (feelings) inherently choose sides: attraction-aversion, like-dislike, happy-sad, pleasure-pain, win-lose. Yes, these two are the same, but diverge in name as they issue forth. In other words, naming things institutionalizes the rift. Alas, the cat is out of the bag; we started naming things in infancy.
Naming the unknown imparts the security of knowing. Knowing a name, a label, takes the edge of the unknown. Heck! At least we know something. I’ll admit I’ve often thought of this as a false sense of knowing, an illusion. Although, that’s going too far the other way. So, to put it more impartially: Names and words deliver neither true or false knowing. The degree of truth or falseness lies in the emotions of the believer, whether speaker or listener.
The more important a belief feels, the more misleading it unavoidably becomes. Emotions of desire (and fear) drive our sense of what is important to us personally. The idea of desiring not to desire sounds like it could help mitigate this. Most religions push this approach, in one way or another, to counter the negative consequences of desire. Although, while it may be an appealing ideal to many, is it realistic? What really works?
Loosening my grip on words and names is the most essential Taoist secret I’ve found. It works. It doesn’t matter what I think, as long as I remember that I don’t know. That really boils down to actually feeling that I do not know, and feeling at peace within that void. This brings mysterious sameness within reach. Then, even when my discernment penetrates the four quarters, I am capable of not knowing anything.
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