Views on Taoism may differ more greatly among people than views on any other ‘ism’ out there. Even the term Taoism is misleading. You could say that the Taoist worldview is too subtle, even mysterious, to be pinned down in an ‘ism’. The first line of the Tao Te Ching says as much, The way possible to think, runs counter to the constant way. The possible to think characteristic of belief itself forms the foundation of every ‘ism’. The next line, The name possible to express runs counter to the constant name, reinforces the Taoist ‘disclaimer’. These two disclaimers make it plain that Taoist thought is in a category of its own, strangely beyond belief. As chapter 15 notes, Of old, the adept student was minutely subtle, profoundly connecting, and deep beyond knowledge.
Belief’s attendant explicit and implicit biases we absorb throughout life deeply affect the long-term quality of life. Accordingly, CenterTao.org focuses on the how, what, and why we think what we think with the aim to neutralize biases and deepen self-understanding to the extent possible.
Why Religion?
One of the best questions I ever asked myself was, “What and why is there religion in the first place?” From the start, I felt the discoveries of paleo-art of the Lower Paleolithic period (about 2,500,000 to 200,000 years ago) were essential to pondering the cognitive characteristics of this period’s Hominids. What inspired the artistic creativity in this group of modern humans, extinct human species, and our immediate ancestors (including members of the genera Homo, Australopithecus, Paranthropus and Ardipithecus)?
From a symptoms point of view (p.141), the most straightforward hypothesis is that this creative drive is symptomatic of the hominins’ concurrent cognitive evolution at that time. Language, and specifically the profoundly dialectic nature of human language, splits reality into two camps, so to speak. This dialectic aspect of language misrepresents Nature at its most fundamental level. Yin and yang are classic representations of this polar point of view that pervades human cognition, and hence perception. In a sense, the dialectic nature of language causes us to feel a visceral sense of disconnection from Nature, which drives us to find ways to connect and feel Oneness again — enter artistic impulses, spirituality and religion.
Re + ligare
Interestingly, the word religion tells the story of its core purpose. The Latin root of religion is re- again, back, anew + ligare – to bind, to connect. Religion does work to a degree in various ways. However, the disconnection humanity feels due to (1) dialectic thought and (2) the shift away from the egalitarian ways of our ancestors, lingers on deeply in everyone. Religion is probably at best a palliative, and at its worst, an elitist justification to discriminate and subjugate.
Adapt and cope we must
The empirically obvious answer to my question, “What and why is there religion in the first place?” is this: Spirituality arose in concert with dialectic thought to help humans cope with the polarizing nature of dialectic thought. Spirituality then morphed into a more political form — religion — to help counterbalance the cultural stresses that followed in the wake of the Agricultural Revolution, its technological advances, and large civilized populations. In short, spirituality and religion are evolving cultural frameworks that help people cope with life.
Interestingly, advances in religious thought and practice have time and again followed advances in technology over the ages. Consider the momentous change that occurred in religious paradigms as the Iron Age began to replace the Neolithic and Bronze Age beginning around 1500 B.C.E. The previous Neolithic pagan religions then began to give way to Judaism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Centuries later came Christianity and Islam.
It is hard to appreciate now, but the advent of a cheap and abundant supply of iron tools was as destabilizing on society as was the Industrial Revolution in recent centuries. Now, heaven knows what the long-term impact of the Electric Revolution will be on culture, but we certainly are experiencing the destabilizing influence of the harnessing of electricity and all that this enables, e.g., cars, tanks, planes, radios, computers, telephones, movies, nuclear engineering, genetic engineering… ad infinitum.
Ideally, religion is a way for people to cope with life’s changing circumstances. Alas, religion always returns to the lowest common denominator — human instinct — and loses sight of its founding fundamentals. A Taoist worldview can be a way of last resort to those for who mainstream religion ceases being a helpful way to cope.
Reunite and Return
It is easier to understand the key purpose of religion and Taoist thought by considering our core problem. The view that humanity has lost its Eden, of one sort or other, is common among many religions. Indeed, the Biblical story of Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden parallels the core Taoist view. Adam and Eve’s problem began when desire drove them to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which caused them to become aware of their nakedness. That is simply a quaint way to frame the evolutionary awakening of human dialectic perception.
The Taoist view soon parts company with most religions, especially in regards to what to do about the problem. As I mentioned above, the word religion itself comes from the Latin word for re-unite, which itself suggests a universal question: How can we re-unite with that innocent pre-knowledge state of good and evil and ostensibly return to Eden? Taoist thought points out a way to return to this original self as much as practicable. This hinges upon first realizing that words, names, and the knowledge of good and evil, are a principle reason we feel disunited, i.e, the dialectic nature of language inherently disconnects.
Divide and Conquer
About 10,000 years ago, the Agricultural Revolution added to the cognitive schism between Nature and ourselves by displacing the uniting egalitarian ways of our hunter-gatherer ancestors with the hierarchical social system we know as civilization. This new civilizing social model exploited hierarchical instincts at the expense of egalitarian instincts.
Essentially, civilization, with its emphasis on specialization, literacy, knowledge, and social ranking, divides and conquers the egalitarian hunter-gatherer in each of us. Dividing and conquering humanity’s ancestral way is socially disconnecting, and yet absolutely essential for organizing large settled populations. This is a good example of how solving one problem has the unintended consequence of creating an inevitable corresponding problem, i.e., a problematic yin interior always follows every solution’s yang exterior. Yes, always! Albeit, it’s often too subtle to notice for a while.
In effect, civilization tames people by vigorously instilling in them a plethora of cultural norms and stories from infancy onward. Let’s face it, such deep-seated domestication (civilizing us) is the only way to get large populations to settle down into more or less peaceful and cooperative coexistence. This comes at a price. Here are a few examples to which the Tao Te Ching alludes.
Not knowing the constant, rash actions lead to ominous results. (#16) The advent of civilization led to an exponential development of technology, which then facilitates an exponential rise in rash actions.
When intelligence increases, there exists great falseness. (#18) Civilization promotes narrow aspects of intelligence that favor success in civilization, which also creates a great falseness in our relationship to nature’s broad reality.
Realizing I don’t know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease (#71) Civilization needs people to believe that they know. This ensures faith and trust in the stories that unite a culture socially, politically and religiously. Expertise, and any hubris in being in the know, is rewarded as long as it conforms to the culture’s norms.
Civilizations strive to bring their large hierarchical layered populations together ‘on the same page’ by connecting the individual to the culture’s social story. This only works up to a point. Nothing can possibly replace the birth-to-death instilled sense of social connection that our ancestral egalitarian ways of old instilled in people (1). With civilization came a much deeper sense of Eden lost. Taoist thought points a way to return. As these lines from chapter 16 put it,
Well, it sounds good in theory anyway. 😉
(1) It will truly help to know the details about our hunter-gatherer ways of old. That background helps you see outside the box vis-à-vis civilization. Indeed, being born in civilization makes it nearly impossible to appreciate the tradeoff humanity made in leaving the hunter-gatherer way. As luck would have it, expeditions in the 1950’s studied the !Kung of the Kalahari Desert in ethnographic detail; the !Kung being the last surviving ‘wild’ hunter-gatherer culture in the world.
These are a few books: The Harmless People followed by The old way: a story of the first people are more than enough to make the point, if you’re receptive. Lorna Marshall’s books, Kung of Nyae Nyae and Nyae Nyae !Kung Beliefs and Rites, offer more ethnographic detail for anyone wishing to deepen their sense of the old way.