Verse EighteenDo not lose sight of the single principle: how everything works.~ John Heider rendition
When this principle is lost and the method of meditating on process fails, the group becomes mired in intellectual discussion of what could have happened, what should have happened, what this technique or that might do. Soon the group will be quarrelsome and depressed.
Once you leave the path of simple consciousness, you enter the labyrinth of cleverness, competition, and imitation.
When a person forgets that all creation is a unity, allegiance goes to lesser wholes such as the family, the home team, or the company.
Nationalism, racism, classism, sexism: all arise as consciousness of unity is lost. People take sides and favor this versus that.~
I think Heider's version of this verse really draws out the true meaning of the why and the how of failing to see the unity of all things. The act of making distinctions -- particularly amongst fellow humans -- creates a sense of separation and engenders a constant us versus them or you versus me mentality.
If you look at the four isms listed about, what do they each share in common? The answer is obvious; one group (our group) is placed above all others. When one group is promoted as the ideal, then all other groups are disparaged, ridiculed or minimized. This creates jealousy, anger, frustration and the desire to put the ideal group in its place -- under YOUR group!
As I've written numerous times before and will write many times again, the other chief problem with failing to see the unity of all things is humankind's wanton subjugation of all entities and beings not human. For me, this represents the most extreme form of arrogance. From this myopic perspective, all human desires reign supreme and everything else is nothing more than a meaningless afterthought.
From one Christian perspective -- though it doesn't appear to be a universally-embraced concept -- the mistreatment of the least among us is the same as mistreatment of the almighty. For Taoists, this maxim is true of ALL things. Abusing the earth itself or any entity of it is the same as turning away from Tao.
If all things are connected and we each are part of the one, then there is no us or them. What this means is that every injury inflicted upon another is, in truth, a self-inflicted wound upon ourselves.
If you look at the four isms listed about, what do they each share in common? The answer is obvious; one group (our group) is placed above all others. When one group is promoted as the ideal, then all other groups are disparaged, ridiculed or minimized. This creates jealousy, anger, frustration and the desire to put the ideal group in its place -- under YOUR group!
As I've written numerous times before and will write many times again, the other chief problem with failing to see the unity of all things is humankind's wanton subjugation of all entities and beings not human. For me, this represents the most extreme form of arrogance. From this myopic perspective, all human desires reign supreme and everything else is nothing more than a meaningless afterthought.
From one Christian perspective -- though it doesn't appear to be a universally-embraced concept -- the mistreatment of the least among us is the same as mistreatment of the almighty. For Taoists, this maxim is true of ALL things. Abusing the earth itself or any entity of it is the same as turning away from Tao.
If all things are connected and we each are part of the one, then there is no us or them. What this means is that every injury inflicted upon another is, in truth, a self-inflicted wound upon ourselves.
I've always read this chapter as a kick in the shin to Confucian and Legalist morality, but your reading holds true as well. Self-consciousness inevitably gives rise to the creation of distinctions, self/other, us/them, etc. Being at one with the Tao makes those distinctions unnecessary.
ReplyDeleteThe task seems to be, how to stop doing this. . . .
That's the grand beauty of the TTC. There is no one way to read it. It's multi-layered and holds many meanings -- like yours (which I like, by the way).
ReplyDelete