Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Interview with the Author - Part 10

This last section of the manuscript for The Book of Chen Jen is broken down into several posts. To see all the posts in chronological order, go to the Book of Chen Jen Index Page (scroll down to Section 3). For the sake of these posts, the questions posed by the interviewer, Sue-tzu, will be in bold and the answers by the author will appear as regular text.

Well, that’s another aspect of Chen Jen’s teaching that I find ‘disturbing’ — his extreme quietism.

Yes, that’s a corollary. But let’s finish with the larger issue of ‘nothing matters’ first. In his last saying on that subject he exclaims, “What freedom!” To be free one must be free of all care and to be free of all care, one must be free of all caring. And this is possible because he has realized in his being that all things are ultimately as they must be by virtue of their simply being so. Tao encompasses all. Nothing escapes its net. Everything flows to the Source. All things resolve to a common end, however or whatever the nature of their temporal existence. There is nothing to worry or care about.

Let’s consider, for a moment, a theoretical sage. He is empty of ego-self and its identity. He has let go of every care. Nothing can affect his composure — not death or pain, not good fortune or ill. He roams carefree in the world, internal and external, without meaning or purpose. He knows neither hope nor despair, right nor wrong, happiness nor sadness. All is transcended and his awareness is unencumbered. He has realized that nothing matters because all things matter by virtue of their being of Tao and because they are of Tao they are as they must be. This is the supreme freedom.

And when he comes upon an injustice or the infliction of pain, on an innocent child for instance, what does he do?

What did Chen Jen and Tzu-yu do when they met the refugees from the earthquake?

They gave them all their money so they could buy food.

Why?

Not because it was the right thing to do — the application of an external moral principal — but because it was in their innate natures to do so.

You’ve got it! This is wu-wei, non-intentional doing — doing unintentionally. There is no contradiction between transcendent not caring and actually taking care of others, because the caring for arises spontaneously as an expression of humanity. The sages felt no obligation to help, or anger that an earthquake occurred. Though we might say they were moved to compassion, they were not burdened by compassion.

At this point, I cannot but re-iterate that all this discussion to demonstrate the nature of this unburdened awareness has nothing to do with that awareness. The point is to be it, as Chen Jen says, and that does not happen by discussing or understanding it. In fact, there is no understanding it.

How does this apply to saving the whales? The Chen Jens of today are unlikely to come across whales in their endangerment, yet they are endangered nonetheless and only activism would seem to offer them any help.

Is there a difference between seeing a need and hearing of one? Could not our sage likewise be moved to help whales upon hearing of their need?

Perhaps the saying that speaks most to this is “Can you forget the world?” There is no doubt that if we are disturbed by quietism this saying will leave us aquiver.

Yes! That one really gives me problems; especially the part that asks, “Can you forget all others?”

Yet if we take the saying as a whole I think it is saying this: Engagement in the world by one who has realized supreme indifference is more effective than engagement by one who engages the world on its own terms. It’s like fighting for peace. It’s a merry-go-round of unending cause and effect. To have realized supreme indifference is to have stepped off the merry-go-round and to bring peace through peace.

There, now I have sanitized Chen Jen and we can live with his radical indifference and quietism!

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