A Conversion Experience VIII

Scott Bradley

In this way, wholeheartedly embody the endlessness and roam where there is no sign, fully realize whatever is received from Heaven, but without thinking anything has been gained thereby. It is just being empty, nothing more.
(7:13; Ziporyn)

"Fully realize whatever is received from Heaven." How could we wish to do anything other than this? Well, not everything we have received pleases us; life comes with death; the full bloom of youth ends in sickness and decay; the 'me' experience likely becomes no experience at all. The human experience comes in a particular package and the happiest way to experience it is to fully embrace it all; whatever is received.

Yet, here Zhuangzi is probably speaking more to the sunnier side of life; fully realize your humanity. Make the most of it. Enjoy it to the max. The hard parts only help us to do just that. Never are we required to negate anything that we have received. Is there anything we have not received? Daoism is life-affirming. Grow, prosper, fully live out your days. Enjoy. This very life is all that need concern you; from whence it came and to where it goes, these will take care of themselves. You need not "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" because there is nothing that needs saving. All is well. It's all taken care of. Trust to the goodness of what is; it will be what it is in any event.

"Heaven", of course, is not an intentional thing; it is not a deity. Heaven is this happening, this cosmic event of which we are a part. Heaven is Nature, things as they manifest. Heaven is Mystery, for things are thus and we have no understanding of a why or wherefore.

The question remains if we have received something of which we are unaware. Is this a call to realize some essential "true" self that lies beyond our actual self in its interface with the life experience? I think Zhuangzi implies no such thing. I believe he calls us to fully realize this life that is experienced, not one that is not. And this calls for an engagement that is embracing and affirming of that experience, one that does not negate and flee it for some hypothetical other. Drift and doubt, our tenuous existential presence, are not subsumed by some imagined resolution but are the very vehicles upon which we mount and transcend into freedom, the freedom of abandonment and thankfulness.

You can check out Scott's writings on Zhuangzi here.

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I Ching: Hexagram 54 - The Lines, Part 4

Nine in the fourth place means:
The marrying maiden draws out the allotted time.
A late marriage comes in due course.

The girl is virtuous. She does not wish to throw herself away, and allows the customary time for marriage to slip by. However, there is no harm in this; she is rewarded for her purity and, even though belatedly, finds the husband intended for her.

Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.

Somebody Lacks a Sense of Humor

Trey Smith

On June 5, the Guardian posted the first of many documents, leaked by former contractor Edward Snowden, that detail NSA‘s spy practices. Two days later, [Dan] McCall put up a handful of T-shirts and bumper stickers for sale on the custom goods marketplace Zazzle, which distributes most of Liberty Maniacs’ goods. Each of those items had the NSA logo, plus a common joke as a slogan: “The only part of the government that actually listens.”

“Within an hour or two,” as McCall told the Daily Dot, Zazzle emailed him to say the shirt had been removed from the Zazzle site. (Zazzle didn’t respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment, nor did the NSA.)

Zazzle’s first email, which McCall forwarded to the Daily Dot, said in part:

Unfortunately, it appears that your product, The NSA, contains content that is in conflict with one or more of our acceptable content guidelines.

We will be removing this product from the Zazzle Marketplace shortly. …

Result: Not Approved

Policy Notes: Design contains an image or text that may infringe on intellectual property rights. We have been contacted by the intellectual property right holder and we will be removing your product from Zazzle’s Marketplace due to infringement claims.

~ from The Parody Shirt the NSA Doesn't Want You to Wear by Kevin Collier ~

Jeez! Somebody not only lacks a sense of humor, but obviously doesn't understand the concept of parody! I can tell you one thing. If I can work it into our budget, I want to buy either a shirt or a tote bag with this slogan on it. Heck, maybe both!

Afternoon Matinee: Protest - Nine to Five

Performed by Dolly Parton

Tumble out of bed and stumble to the kitchen;

Pour myself a cup of ambition,

And yawn, and stretch, and try to come alive.

Jump in the shower, and the blood starts pumping;

Out on the street, the traffic starts jumping,

With folks like me on the job from nine to five.

Working nine to five, what a way to make a living

Barely getting by, it's all taking and no giving

They just use your mind, and they never give you credit

It's enough to drive you crazy if you let it

Nine to Five, For Service and Devotion;

You Would Think That I Would Deserve a Fair Promotion;

Want to Move Ahead, But the Boss Won't Seem to Let Me.

I Swear Some-times, That Man Is Out to Get Me.

They let you dream just to watch them shatter;

You're just a step on the Boss Man's ladder,

But you've got dreams he'll never take away.

In the same boat with a lot of your friends;

Waitin' for the day your ship'll come in,

And the tide's gonna turn, and it's all gonna roll your way.

Working nine to five, what a way to make a living

Barely getting by, it's all taking and no giving

They just use your mind, and they never give you credit

It's enough to drive you crazy if you let it

Nine to Five, They've Got You Where They Want You;

There's a Better Life, and You think About It, Don't You?

It's a Rich Man's Game, no Matter What They Call It;

And You Spend Your Life Putting Money in His wallet.

Working nine to five, what a way to make a living

Barely getting by, it's all taking and no giving

They just use your mind, and they never give you credit

It's enough to drive you crazy if you let it

Nine to five, yeah they've got you where they want you;

There's a better life, and you think that I want, don't you?

It's a rich man's game, no matter what they call it;

And you spend your life putting money in his wallet.

~ from Lyric Wiki ~

Taoist and Buddhist Tweets 61

Ta-Wan

When I have perfect wisdom,

then all shall be released.

I cannot achieve this any other time than now,

Therefore all beings are perfectly awake,

and I have perfect clarity.

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

Bit by Bit - Chapter 20, Part 16

Trey Smith

Confucius was in trouble between Ch'en and Ts'ai, and for seven days he ate no cooked food. His left hand propped against a withered tree, his right beating time on a withered limb, he sang the air of the lord of Yen. The rapping of the limb provided an accompaniment, but it was without any fixed rhythm; there was melody, but none that fitted the usual tonal categories of kung or chueh. The drumming on the tree, the voice of the singer had a pathos to them that would strike a man's heart.

Yen Hui, standing with hands folded respectfully across his chest, turned his eyes and looked inquiringly at Confucius. Confucius, fearful that Yen Hui's respect for him was too great, that his love for him was too tender, said to him, "Hui! It is easy to be indifferent to the afflictions of Heaven, but hard to be indifferent to the benefits of man. No beginning but has its end, and man and Heaven are one. Who is it, then, who sings this song now?"

Hui said, "May I venture to ask what you mean when you say it is easy to be indifferent to the afflictions of Heaven?"

Confucius said, "Hunger, thirst, cold, heat, barriers and blind alleys that will not let you pass - these are the workings of Heaven and earth, the shifts of ever-turning things. This is what is called traveling side by side with the others. He who serves as a minister does not dare to abandon his lord. And if he is thus faithful to the way of a true minister, how much more would he be if he were to attend upon Heaven!"
~ Burton Watson translation ~

Shit happens. It doesn't matter how each of us chooses to live. Bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. One of the great secrets of life is learning to roll with the punches!

To view the Index page for this series, go here.

BO Must Read This Blog!

Trey Smith

Back on Friday, I asked if Barack Obama was going to follow Britain's lead by allowing Congress to vote on whether or not the US should attack Syria. Up until that point, all signs pointed toward the President making a unilateral decision without any Congressional input. But just when it seemed like Obama was going to push the proverbial button, he blinked and said he would allow Congress to weigh in on the matter. To say the least, it is something of a perplexing about-face.

Dave Lindorff writes that overall opposition by the American public -- not simply my blog post on the matter -- caused Obama to have second thoughts.

Behind these flowery words is a hard reality: the president of the United States has been compelled to back down. Public opposition in the US and abroad to yet another war of choice launched against another middle eastern nation that poses no threat to this country has brought the American war machine, at least for the moment, to a screeching halt. In Europe and elsewhere, public pressure has forced leaders to back away from their initial reflexive support for a US strike on Syria. And according to Charles Blow of the New York Times, 50% of Americans oppose any US military action against Syria, with only 28% saying that an attack on Syria would be in America’s interest. Blow says this is the highest level of public opposition to war in three decades of US warmaking.

It is a time for celebrating the power of the people, but it is not a time for resting. The lobbying of members of Congress by the administration and the various interests that are pushing for war will be intense over the coming week or so. Public pressure on members of Congress to oppose any attack will have to be even more relentless and intense.

This madness can be stopped. We can see that now. But it can only be stopped if we keep the pressure on every member of Congress.

As much as I would like to pat ourselves on the back, I am still left with the question: Why did public opinion impact this singular issue?

Back during the health care debate, overwhelming majorities favored some type of universal health care and yet Obama pulled the plug on the watered down Public Option. Large numbers of Americans opposed almost all of the corporate bailouts as well as the "settlement" with mortgage financiers in regards to the illegal foreclosure of homes. In these cases, widespread public opposition didn't register at all with the president and his advisers.

So, why did public opposition -- an opposition that did not include massive protests and demonstrations -- supposedly turn the tide in this case?

Not unexpectedly, the astute Glenn Greenwald provides the answer.

It's a potent sign of how low the American political bar is set that gratitude is expressed because a US president says he will ask Congress to vote before he starts bombing another country that is not attacking or threatening the US. That the US will not become involved in foreign wars of choice without the consent of the American people through their representatives Congress is a central mandate of the US Constitution, not some enlightened, progressive innovation of the 21st century. George Bush, of course, sought Congressional approval for the war in Iraq (though he did so only once it was clear that Congress would grant it: I vividly remember watching then-Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joe Biden practically begging the Bush White House to "allow" Congress to vote on the attack while promising in advance that they would approve for it).

But what makes the celebratory reaction to yesterday's announcement particularly odd is that the Congressional vote which Obama said he would seek appears, in his mind, to have no binding force at all. There is no reason to believe that a Congressional rejection of the war's authorization would constrain Obama in any way, other than perhaps politically. To the contrary, there is substantial evidence for the proposition that the White House sees the vote as purely advisory, i.e., meaningless.

Recall how - in one of most overlooked bad acts of the Obama administration - the House of Representatives actually voted, overwhelmingly, against authorizing the US war in Libya, and yet Obama simply ignored the vote and proceeded to prosecute the war anyway (just as Clinton did when the House rejected the authorization he wanted to bomb Kosovo, though, at least there, Congress later voted to allocate funds for the bombing campaign). Why would the White House view the President's power to wage war in Libya as unconstrainable by Congress, yet view his power to wage war in Syria as dependent upon Congressional authorization?

More to the point, his aides are making clear that Obama does not view the vote as binding, as Time reports:

To make matters more complicated, Obama's aides made clear that the President's search for affirmation from Congress would not be binding. He might still attack Syria even if Congress issues a rejection.

It's certainly preferable to have the president seek Congressional approval than not seek it before involving the US in yet another Middle East war of choice, but that's only true if the vote is deemed to be something more than an empty, symbolic ritual. To declare ahead of time that the debate the President has invited and the Congressional vote he sought are nothing more than non-binding gestures - they will matter only if the outcome is what the President wants it to be - is to display a fairly strong contempt for both democracy and the Constitution.

I Ching: Hexagram 54 - The Lines, Part 3

Six in the third place means:
The marrying maiden as a slave.
She marries as a concubine.

A girl who is in a lowly position and finds no husband may, in some circumstances, still win shelter as a concubine.

This pictures the situation of a person who longs too much for joys that cannot be obtained in the usual way. He enters upon a situation not altogether compatible with self-esteem. Neither judgment nor warning is added to this line; it merely lays bare the actual situation, so that everyone may draw a lesson from it.

Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.

A Conversion Experience VII

Scott Bradley

In this way, wholeheartedly embody the endlessness and roam where there is no sign, fully realize what is received from Heaven, but without thinking anything has been gained thereby. It is just being empty, nothing more.
(7:13; Ziporyn)

The best thing this post can do is just present Zhuangzi's mystical vision for the consideration of anyone interested. The rest is simply my consideration which is of far less value for you than your own.

"Roam where there is no sign." We might think of sign posts or billboards, but though Zhuangzi most certainly did not, it doesn't matter; the call is the same. "Our homeland of not even anything" is just that. We are tempted to think of this experience as answering our questions and our needs, even in not doing so, but this would only be more of the same. 'Chen Jen' wrote: "There are no answers in emptiness; questions do not arise." For Daoism, the first assertion must certainly be the case, but I wonder about the second. Perhaps they do arise, only they require no answers. Whether or not Zhuangzi actually envisioned an awareness completely liberated from the struggles of our existential tenuousness is open for debate, but in the end, for me, it does not matter; the process is one in which those struggles are perpetually engaged.

This way, at least for me, is a way of existential engagement. It promises no 'enlightenment', no absolute liberation, no ultimate release. It is work, existential work, and it never promises to be anything more. This is what makes it genuine. There is no "pie in the sky" here. It never flees this actual human experience. In this, as a 'spiritual' path, it may be unique; but this too is unimportant except in that in making the contrast we see more clearly its existential authenticity.

This contrast between the existential and the essential is most helpful in coming to grips with how this way calls us to honesty. Essentialism always points to "higher" realities, truer truths, something more real than our apparent real. "True self", "buddha-nature", Universal Mind, Self, all these bespeak of essentialism. Zhuangzi's call is to an abandonment of all these answers in favor of an embracing of the actual human experience in its utter tenuousness, taking it as it is, letting it be what it is, riding its wave.

That this way would be a call to mystical experience should not surprise us at all; what, after all is not Mystery? The avoidance of the mystical is a denial of our actual experience. Holding ourselves back from the brink is an assertion that we have a self that is not itself Mystery. It is not 'out there' but right here, in here. It is this life. It is us.

For Zhuangzi this is mysticism without a metaphysics, without myth. It is union with nothing except our experience. Nothing is explained. No understanding is achieved. No absolutes are realized. None of our questions are answered. This reality is "what we have received from Heaven", and it is this that we are called to "fully realize".

You can check out Scott's writings on Zhuangzi here.

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I Ching: Hexagram 54 - The Lines, Part 2

Nine in the second place means:
A one-eyed man who is able to see.
The perseverance of a solitary man furthers.

Here the situation is that of a girl married to a man who has disappointed her. Man and wife ought to work together like a pair of eyes. Here the girl is left behind in loneliness; the man of her choice either has become unfaithful or has died. But she does not lost the inner light of loyalty. Thought the other eye is gone, she maintains her loyalty even in loneliness.

Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.

Many Decades Later

Trey Smith

There are lots of "kooks" out there who refuse to accept the government's version of what took place on 9/11. Some say it was an inside job. Others contend that the US didn't act on intelligence it had in hand. Some say the towers that came down were the result of controlled demolitions, not airplanes flying into buildings. Some assert that a missile, not an aircraft, hit the Pentagon.

(Personally, I don't know what to believe. I don't accept the government's version, but I don't ascribe to a particular conspiracy theory.)

Whenever people doubt the veracity of the official story, countless others dismiss their theories or questions with a simple declaration: If what a given conspiracy theorist says is true, don't you think the truth would have leaked out by now? It is because the official version has stood up to the test of time that we should accept it as fact.

But here is the problem with that simplistic rationale: The true nature of events often does not come out for years...or decades. We often learn that the official storyline was a well-manufactured lie. Take, for example, the revelation concerning the CIA and Iran that came out 2 weeks ago.

Sixty years after the overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, a declassified CIA document acknowledges that the agency was involved in the 1953 coup.

The independent National Security Archive research institute, which published the document Monday, says the declassification is believed to mark the CIA's first formal acknowledgment of its involvement.

The documents, declassified in 2011 and given to George Washington University research group under the Freedom of Information Act, come from the CIA's internal history of Iran from the mid-1970s and paint a detailed picture of how the CIA worked to oust Mossadegh.

In a key line pointed out by Malcom Byrne, the editor who worked through the documents, the CIA spells out its involvement in the coup. "The military coup that overthrew Mossadeq and his National Front cabinet was carried out under CIA direction as an act of U.S. foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government," the document says, using a variation of the spelling of Mossadegh's name.

While this might be the CIA's first formal nod, the U.S. role has long been known.

President Barack Obama acknowledged the United States' involvement in the coup during a 2009 speech in Cairo.

"In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government," the president said.

In 2000, then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright spoke of the intervention, and in the same year, the New York Times published what it said was a leaked 1954 CIA-written account of the overthrow.

Even if we take 2000 as the year that the truth of this matter was first revealed, that still is 47 years after the fact! That is 47 years in which conspiracy theorists were labeled as kooks. It is 47 years of people being told that, if the conspiracy theorists were correct, why hasn't the truth leaked out?

If we apply this formula to 9/11, then we really won't know what happened until 2048 (when I would be, if still alive, 91 years old).

Keep that in mind the next time someone tells you that this or that conspiracy theorist is a certifiable kook. That kook may turn out to be right...30 or so years down the road.

Afternoon Matinee: Protest - Right to Work

Performed by Chelsea

Standing around just

For seven days a week

I won't even get no singing on fee

I feel ripped of, yeah

Hey, what about you?

Where was I born

What are we gonna do?

But this I say

We have the right to work

I don't even know what tomorrow will bring

But let me tell you, having no future is a terrible thing

Standing around just waiting for a career

I don't take drugs and I don't drink beer

But this I say

We have the right to work

Yes we do!

I don't even know what tomorrow will bring

Having no future is a terrible thing

Standing around just waiting for a career

I take lives and drugs

And I'm pissed up yeah

Cause I'm a nutter

We have the right to work

~ from Lyric Wiki ~

Taoist and Buddhist Tweets 60

Ta-Wan

Now.

Awakened.

And every moment,

every action,

every act,

every sight of the eye,

sound of the ear,

sense of the heart,

is only the truth.

Then you need no time, no place to be or go,

nothing to seek and nothing missing.

The man at prayer,

the woman singing praise,

are not wrong in your eyes

but as filled with truth

as the moo of a cow

and the wind in the trees,

no more or less.

The grass under your feet is a great

as the space above your head

and both contain each other as the universe contains itself

and you are all things.

Breathing, you are dead.

Living you decay.

As dust you feed life.

As new life you return to life.

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

Bit by Bit - Chapter 20, Part 15

Trey Smith

Chuang Tzu put on his robe of coarse cloth with the patches on it, tied his shoes with hemp to keep them from falling apart, and went to call upon the king of Wei. "My goodness, Sir, you certainly are in distress!" said the king of Wei.

Chuang Tzu said, "I am poor, but I am not in distress! When a man possesses the Way and its Virtue but cannot put them into practice, then he is in distress. When his clothes are shabby and his shoes worn through, then he is poor, but he is not in distress. This is what they call being born at the wrong time. Has Your Majesty never observed the bounding monkeys? If they can reach the tall cedars, the catalpas, or the camphor trees, they will swing and sway from their limbs, frolic and lord it in their midst, and even the famous archers Yi or P'eng Meng could not take accurate aim at them. But when they find themselves among prickly mulberries, brambles, hawthorns, or spiny citrons, they must move with caution, glancing from side to side, quivering and quaking with fear. It is not that their bones and sinews have suddenly become stiff and lost their suppleness. It is simply that the monkeys find themselves in a difficult and disadvantageous position where they cannot exercise their abilities to the full. And now if I should live under a benighted ruler and among traitorous ministers and still hope to escape distress, what hope would there be of doing so? Pi Kan had his heart cut out - there is the proof of the matter!"
~ Burton Watson translation ~

It is sad that throughout history so many equate happiness with financial wealth. It is said that the rich are fat and happy, while the poor lived disheveled lives. Studies have shown that this belief is poppycock. While wealth certainly may guarantee various degrees of power and control, there are many, many wealthy individuals who are downright miserable.

To view the Index page for this series, go here.

I Am (Sort Of) God

Trey Smith

On January 20, 2017, a new president takes office. She is knowledgeable about foreign affairs, has experience making tough decisions under pressure, and has a more finely tuned moral compass than the average commander-in-chief. But most striking is a unique ability she possesses: the power to secretly kill any individual simply by closing her eyes, concentrating for ten minutes, and willing it. Ayman al-Zawahiri? Dead on inauguration day -- a heart attack, by outward appearances. Somali pirates on a ship in the Gulf of Aden? Six killed, and not even the freed hostages can explain why they just kept dropping dead, one by one.

That night, after the new president goes to sleep, it transpires that you alone, among all the people on earth, learn of her power: that she can direct it with total precision, but cannot, for some reason, target anyone inside the U.S. Then you are given a choice. Snap your fingers that moment and anonymously strip her of the power to kill in secret -- or do nothing, in which case you'll lose all knowledge of her ability. For 8 years, she'll use it in secret, or not, as she sees fit.

What would you do?

Most people I confront with this question briefly flirt with what the world might be like if a benevolent force quietly killed all the murderous tyrants and terrorists. Then they shudder at the amount of unchecked power the president I described would possess, see the huge risks, ponder human nature, and say they'd snap. History teaches that humans are made of crooked timber. Deep down, we know that no one who'd exercise the power to kill in secret can be trusted with it.
~ from Why the U.S. Needs to Stop Shrouding Its Drone Program in Secrecy by Conor Friedersdorf ~

From the standpoint of the human ego -- yours, mine and everyone else's -- it is god. The way it views and filters the world is they way things are...or so it tells itself. If it views up as down and left as right, any evidence to the contrary will not dissuade it. Its perspective is supreme. The entire cosmos rotates around and through it.

However, though the human ego believes that the world was created for its benefit and its benefit only, it does understand that it alone does not control [enough] aspects of life. Sometimes, shit happens and, though the human ego tries its darnedest to make the shit stop, it seems the shit has a mind of its own too! I guess we could say that the human ego views itself as a god, not the god.

It is for this reason that we are damn lucky that no one possesses the attribute that Friedersdorf describes above. Any human ego that possessed such a power would abuse it by default and it would do so without a second thought. Sure, this particular human ego would tell itself that it used this power judiciously, but subjectivity has a way of impeding justice and fairness. The human ego views its own needs and desires as more important than any others.

I Ching: Hexagram 54 - The Lines, Part 1

Nine at the beginning means:
The marrying maiden as a concubine.
A lame man who is able to tread.
Undertakings bring good fortune.

The princess of ancient China maintained a fixed order of rank among the court ladies, who were subordinated to the queen as are younger sisters to the eldest. Frequently they came from the family of the queen, who herself led them to her husband.

The meaning is that a girl entering a family with the consent of the wife will not rank outwardly as the equal of the latter but will withdraw modestly into the background. However, if she understands how to fit herself into the pattern of things, her position will be entirely satisfactory, and she will feel sheltered in the love of the husband to whom she bears children.

The same meaning is brought out in the relationships between officials. A man may enjoy the personal friendship of a prince and be taken into his confidence. Outwardly this man must keep tactfully in the background behind the official ministers of state, but, although he is hampered by this status, as if he were lame, he can nevertheless accomplish something through the kindliness of his nature.

Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.

A Conversion Experience VI

Scott Bradley

In this way, wholeheartedly embody the endlessness and roam where there is no sign, fully realize what is received from Heaven, but without thinking anything has been gained thereby. It is just being empty, nothing more.
(7:13; Ziporyn)

For the most part I have previously left this description of Zhuangzi's mystical vision to speak for itself, thinking it will either find resonance with the reader or not. There is also the fact that I, the writer, can honestly only guess at what this fully entails. Yet I speak often of "inklings" and "approximations" because I think Zhuangzi's mysticism is largely facilitated by what I call "imaginative meditation". To my reading, Zhuangzi does not seem to advocate an instantaneous 'enlightenment', but rather the steady cultivation of a radical transformation of one's point of view. Thus we can speak of an incremental realization of the experience he describes here. I may be wrong; but though it is important to try to get it 'right', in the end it is only our individualized use of his teaching that matters. In the end, Zhuangzi's way is to encourage us to experience our own.

"Endlessness" is clearly a word that points at something that cannot be put into words. We have a large array of such words — infinity, eternity, omnipresence — none of which, strictly speaking, can be said to supply a mental image that is anything more than a testimony of their inability to accomplish what words are intended to do. But this is precisely what makes them so powerful should we wish to let them be so. They are an invitation to go beyond words, beyond the "understanding consciousness". This is really all that Zhuangzi suggests we do. Only he would have us go beyond merely thinking about them to a place of actually "embodying" them. How is this possible?

"It's just being empty, nothing more." Empty of what? Empty of our sense of being a fixed identity. But though something must "go", it is only a mental construct in any case; nothing is "lost"; nothing could ever be lost. Thus, though we might see this as the negating side of this mystical experience, it is never other than totally affirming. "Release" and "surrender" are words that suggest this. Sweet surrender.

But still we ask "how?" I have suggested my answer; but the only general answer, from a Zhuangzian perspective, is probably something more like "however you wish." Perhaps the most important thing of all is that the process be the "embodying"; for the whole point is to live happily, not to gain some necessary end.

You can check out Scott's writings on Zhuangzi here.

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