The Tao of Dark Sages - Chapter 20

The Tao of Dark Sages
by Scott Bradley

Sue-tzu: “There is no one older than a dead child.”

Scott-tzu: Thank you for that wonderful thought, Sue-tzu!

Sue-tzu: You’re welcome. I was thinking about something Gabi asked me this morning. Why I don’t desire to be totally enlightened. You remember how I used to say that nothing really matters in the end? Return is the movement of the Tao? I think all these are related. The same.

I like that passage in Chuang-tzu because it smacks you right in the face. In context it’s about the total relativity of all things and all judgments: “Under Heaven there is nothing greater than the tip of a hair, but Mount Tai is smaller; there is no one older than a dead child, yet Peng Tsu (their Methuselah) died young. Heaven and Earth and I were born at the same time, and all life and I are one.”

All things being one and equal, what is there to strive for? What possible reason could I have for making a chore out of life? There is nothing more poignant than the thought of a dead child, yet in the end, it is really no different than a dead snake. And a dead snake is well, just a dead snake. Am I right, Mark-tzu? From your perspective?

Mark-tzu: Completely. Things are best looked at from the perspective of Tao. And the best way to know that is by considering nature. It is, after all, the Tao of Nature, that is manifest for us to consider. Does nature care about the fledgling fallen from its nest? Or the death agony of a gazelle in the lion’s maw? Or the death of a child? I think not. “If all is One, what is evil?”

Scott-tzu: And who said that?

Mark-tzu: Charles Manson.

Scott-tzu: You do know how to muddy the waters!

Mark-tzu: I try. When we discuss indifference to death and pain, it’s important to remember that without the spiritual reality that gives rise to these insights, as mere ideas, they can be dangerous.

Sue-tzu: And so, to those with insight I say: Eschew seriousness; abandon striving; go with the flow.

If you're interested in reading more from this series by Scott Bradley, go here.