Saturday, October 22, 2011

Why I Love to Read Scott Bradley, Our Modern Taoist Classic

Why I Love to Read Scott Bradley
by Ta-Wan


Scott is trawling the best of the dust left behind by the greats and trying to pick the minerals from the silt. Refusing to build his ideas from foundations of air.

I will often write of "obvious, just this" fluff but Scott won't and my replies to his posts are commonly my saying "but isn't this obvious, can't it just be seen that" and, no, from his perspective it can't, it must all be sensible, no accepting any one idea without it seeming to have meat.

We're all aware of the same magic, we're all awake to the mystery, but we have unique paths to explaining this. 'Why explain it at all?' is a common question raised both by seekers and by the masters in the classics they research. The answer is we are attempting to point to the gateway we wish others to enter and if we can explain what we see to ourselves, then others will be aided. It's fun and pleasurable too.

Was Chuang Tzu really enlightened, completely and utterly? Or was he just another Scott with a nice talent for storytelling?

We're all in the same boat, the feeling of separation but the inner realization all is one, and all is well. Chuang Tzu and Lau Tzu both spoke of how the world as a whole was messed up and out of line with Tao, but then also how all was well and nothing could deviate from Tao. In this way, they were admitting that they too were just as human as the rest of us. We know the show is this incredible Oneness but we still allow ourselves to be amazed that within an infinite possibilities "bad stuff" still occurs.

Given that Tao is infinite, unfathomable, can it be surprised that there are beings who don't get it? Can we be surprised that oppressive rulers exist? Not really. History shows us again and again that there are the 'bad' and the 'greedy' and there are always too the 'good' and the 'wise'. This is my personal reason for having no TV and not following news and not being hung up over the terrors in the world - They'll always exist in infinity. I'd rather just dedicate myself to inner calm and peace and share that with those around me.

By not reading the news and being caught up in the fluff of the world I am able to dedicate much more time to exploring the fluff left behind by the wise and I quickly exhausted Taoist literature and moved like many do to the Buddhist, Zen/Chaan, Vedantic stuff. I was very happy when Scott popped up on the Rambling Taoist with new books I found just as enjoyable as the Chuang Tzu. Books such as The Life & Teachings of Zhouzi, The Tao of Dark Sages and The Book of Chen Jen - All excellent reads due to the humour and subject matter. He should be published!

Check them out!

You can check out Ta-Wan's other musings here.

2 comments:

  1. When I see the TV, I kill it. (Unless it's Korean drama with a hot Asian swordsman...)

    And Scott IS published, here, just not printed, bound and barcoded for sale.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah it would have been great to pick up a Scott Bradley book while I was traveling the world and not on-line much. It is great his work is available for all here. I hope that those visitors who've not read him do at some time.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are unmoderated, so you can write whatever you want.