I've got to admit that I didn't realize that Orwell's 1984 featured a love story within the plot. I had always thought it was more a political treatise about the dangers of power run amok. Maybe, by the end of the book, I will have changed my mind as some of the pieces of the puzzle come together -- if, of course, that does happen. Who knows? It may not.
The big point that has been driven home to me (as far as I have read) is this idea that power wants nothing to do with love. Love is a threat to power because it fuels passion, devotion and commitment to ideals that challenge unmitigated power.
But something else has struck me. In reading 1984, I have come to realize WHY the philosophy of Taoism speaks to me in such an elemental way. Taoism is about love, though it is a word you rarely, if ever, find in the ancient texts.
It is a different kind of love. If you believe that all life comes from one source, we are bound to anything and everything that ever was, is or will be. Each of us shares a kindred spirit with everything else. If I am a manifestation of this one universal principle and I love anything, then it means that I love all.
It is not a passionate or dispassionate love. It is not sexual or non-sexual. It is neither intimate nor platonic. It supersedes all of these petty distinctions. It is something that is inherent in life itself. It is there always and all we each have to do is recognize it.
Religion and many philosophies try to locate it outside of ourselves; it is embedded in some external entity or force. We are told we must worship this other and, in doing so, we can tap into the essence of love.
The Taoist philosophy posits that there is no middleman. There is no need to look toward the heavens. There is no purpose in worshiping something external. The seed of life (and love) is part of each of us and we are part of it. All that we need to do is recognize it, acknowledge it and embrace it.
This series of posts based on George Orwell's novel, 1984, will be rather avant-garde. My focus will not be to explain Orwell's premises or what HE meant -- it is more about what his prose stirs in me, often in relation to the way I view the world today. Some of my observations may fall in line with Orwell's intent, but others will go off in a wholly different direction. To read my intro to this series, go here.
The big point that has been driven home to me (as far as I have read) is this idea that power wants nothing to do with love. Love is a threat to power because it fuels passion, devotion and commitment to ideals that challenge unmitigated power.
But something else has struck me. In reading 1984, I have come to realize WHY the philosophy of Taoism speaks to me in such an elemental way. Taoism is about love, though it is a word you rarely, if ever, find in the ancient texts.
It is a different kind of love. If you believe that all life comes from one source, we are bound to anything and everything that ever was, is or will be. Each of us shares a kindred spirit with everything else. If I am a manifestation of this one universal principle and I love anything, then it means that I love all.
It is not a passionate or dispassionate love. It is not sexual or non-sexual. It is neither intimate nor platonic. It supersedes all of these petty distinctions. It is something that is inherent in life itself. It is there always and all we each have to do is recognize it.
Religion and many philosophies try to locate it outside of ourselves; it is embedded in some external entity or force. We are told we must worship this other and, in doing so, we can tap into the essence of love.
The Taoist philosophy posits that there is no middleman. There is no need to look toward the heavens. There is no purpose in worshiping something external. The seed of life (and love) is part of each of us and we are part of it. All that we need to do is recognize it, acknowledge it and embrace it.
This series of posts based on George Orwell's novel, 1984, will be rather avant-garde. My focus will not be to explain Orwell's premises or what HE meant -- it is more about what his prose stirs in me, often in relation to the way I view the world today. Some of my observations may fall in line with Orwell's intent, but others will go off in a wholly different direction. To read my intro to this series, go here.
My old hermit emphasized that we should have "ai xin," a loving heart. No, you don't find that in the texts so explicitly, but it was transmitted to me by a real, practicing Taoist
ReplyDeleteExcellent sir.
ReplyDelete{Gives standing keyboard ovation}