Continuing with the discussion from Zhuangzi, Chapter 5...
What is it to perfect the Heavenly within? Surely it is not Reality that needs perfecting; it is one’s harmonization with Reality that needs perfecting. It is this harmonization which creates the Reality, or, to put it less radically, which mirrors the Reality.
And what exactly is this Reality within us? It is what is most essential about our human experience; it is not some specific entity, some ‘divine spark’, a soul, a chip off the old Great Clump. It is, most fundamentally, the inexplicable ‘fact’ of our experience itself. It is that the human apparently exists without any identifiable cause. It is that numinous frontier, the vast, inexplicable up-welling of existence out of the Unknown, where the human meets the Heavenly. It is experience experienced at its inception, as something that both is and is-not.
The perfection of the Heavenly is thus more the realization of a lack, then of substance. But this lack, this discovery of a rootedness in the spontaneous up-welling of one’s very existence out of ‘nothing’, is a gate through which one might be free of the need for any substance. To pass through this gate is to be free to wander aimlessly in the absolute emptiness where there is no foreboding of anything. It is where one keeps his foothold in the immeasurable and roams where nothing is. The Heavenly within is, first and foremost, a state of mind rooted in the Mystery which is all that is.
This is Tao.
Note: At the conclusion of this miniseries, a link will be provided for those interested in downloading or printing the entire document replete with footnotes.
What is it to perfect the Heavenly within? Surely it is not Reality that needs perfecting; it is one’s harmonization with Reality that needs perfecting. It is this harmonization which creates the Reality, or, to put it less radically, which mirrors the Reality.
And what exactly is this Reality within us? It is what is most essential about our human experience; it is not some specific entity, some ‘divine spark’, a soul, a chip off the old Great Clump. It is, most fundamentally, the inexplicable ‘fact’ of our experience itself. It is that the human apparently exists without any identifiable cause. It is that numinous frontier, the vast, inexplicable up-welling of existence out of the Unknown, where the human meets the Heavenly. It is experience experienced at its inception, as something that both is and is-not.
The perfection of the Heavenly is thus more the realization of a lack, then of substance. But this lack, this discovery of a rootedness in the spontaneous up-welling of one’s very existence out of ‘nothing’, is a gate through which one might be free of the need for any substance. To pass through this gate is to be free to wander aimlessly in the absolute emptiness where there is no foreboding of anything. It is where one keeps his foothold in the immeasurable and roams where nothing is. The Heavenly within is, first and foremost, a state of mind rooted in the Mystery which is all that is.
This is Tao.
Note: At the conclusion of this miniseries, a link will be provided for those interested in downloading or printing the entire document replete with footnotes.
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