from Verse One Hundred SeventeenSo if people's vision does not see far, you cannot talk to them about something of immense scope; if people's knowledge is not broad, you cannot speak to them about what is finally ultimate.~ Wen-tzu: Understanding the Mysteries ~
For me, this encapsulates the folly of religion. "Believers" spend their lives talking about what they can't hope to see or know while pretending to see and know it!
The universe (or heavens) is too broad for any finite being to see through it or across it. There is limitless knowledge so vast that no finite creature can broach it. More simply put, it is logically impossible for a finite form to understand infinite formlessness. The frame of reference is missing.
That is why philosophical Taoism focuses on the manifestations of the infinite that can be experienced in this realm in this life. To do more than that is unmitigated speculation and/or delusional thinking.
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
The universe (or heavens) is too broad for any finite being to see through it or across it. There is limitless knowledge so vast that no finite creature can broach it. More simply put, it is logically impossible for a finite form to understand infinite formlessness. The frame of reference is missing.
That is why philosophical Taoism focuses on the manifestations of the infinite that can be experienced in this realm in this life. To do more than that is unmitigated speculation and/or delusional thinking.
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
I had to read this post a couple of times, and still I am not quite sure what bugs me. It is all very correct, really - but there is something about your conclusion in the middle paragraph that just doesn't sound quite right.
ReplyDeleteDon't we continuously build frames of references to connect the finite with the infinite?
The infinite can not be known by the mind.
ReplyDeleteAnother process must be free to contemplate it.
Beyond the mind lies knowing.
This knowing may be called not-knowing.
In not-knowing lies certain knowledge.
This is not belief.
Zee,
ReplyDeleteChuang Tzu tells a story about a certain cicada that is born in the spring and dies in the summer. Because its life span is so short, it has no conception of the 4 seasons. Humankind is like the cicada. Because we are finite, we can have no conception of the infinite.
Crow,
That would be one way of explaining it.