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This file is the work of Stan Rosenthal. It has been placed here, with his kind
permission, by Bill Fear. The author has asked that no hard copies, ie. paper
copies, are made.
Stan Rosenthal may be contacted at 44 High street, St. Davids, Pembrokeshire,
Dyfed, Wales, UK. Bill Fear may be contacted at 29 Blackweir Terrace, Cathays,
Cardiff, South Glamorgan, Wales, UK. email
[email protected].
Please use email as first method of contact, if possible. Messages can be sent
to Stan Rosenthal via the above email address - they will be forwarded on in
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......................................Beginning of file...............................................
INTRODUCTION
Early Taoist literature was written in an abstract and somewhat amorphous style,
as a result of which it is sometimes thought of as being metaphysical. The same
label may of course be attached to many ancient writings, produced as they were,
in times when such abstract notions as thoughts, feelings and ethics were
considered to be the 'heavenly attributes' of man. However, this does not mean
that Taoist literature was intended for occult purposes. As Cheng Lin states
"There is nothing in it which may be construed as
encouraging the occult ... such as ... divination
and alchemy." (1)
In common with ancient Greek mythology it is probable that early Taoist writers
employed alagorical techniques, and that, since psychology did not then exist
as a subject, wrote of 'the heavens' in much the same way as we might write of
'the mind' as the 'seat of knowledge and wisdom'. We know from the work of
Freud (2) that this was so in the case of the Greek writings but whereas the
psychological models which initially developed in the West from Greek mythology
represent a psychology of morbid states, the more recently developed psychology
of individual development and 'wholeness' (humanistic psychology) is much closer
to the tradition of Taoist teaching.
Although Taoism has been known of in the West for over two hundred years, it is
only recently that it has been recognised that much of what was thought to be
Taoism is in fact Confucianism. Far from being a stoic philosophy (simply
accepting the status quo) Taoism is in fact a dynamic system, emphasising an
holistic approach to life, and the necessity of realising the significance of
the changing interactions which take place between the individual, society, and
the world of nature.
The use of techniques developed from Taoist principles is by now well known.
The dual symbol 'yin-yang' theory was adopted by western mathematicians over
two hundred years ago as 'binary notation', and this century has seen its major
aplication in computing. Even in orthodox medicine increasing numbers of
practitioners recognize the value of acupuncture, even if they do not understand
its underlying principles. Tai chi, the Taoist exercise system is widely
practiced, and there are many scientific theories which have developed as a
result of the application of Taoist principles. Although the 'behaviourists'
have a strong foothold in psychology, there is evidence that in this area also,
interest in Taoism is growing, and includes an interest in its associated
method, 'Ch'an' (better known by its Japanese name 'Zen').
Although often presented in a somewhat commercial manner, the benefits of
meditation are now widely acepted in the West, and such books as 'The Tao of
Physics' (3) and 'The Turning Point' (4) have done much to capture the interest
of physical and social scientists in Taoism just as Taoism and Ch'an painting
fired the imagination of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century artists
and designers of the Post-Impressionist and Art Nouveau schools.
Whilst Taoism is manifesting itself in the West through a variety of media and
disciplines, it should not be thought that its acceptance has been sudden, for,
as will be readily appreciated, we who constitute western society prefer to
understand before we experience.
The Taoist sages of old would have acknowledged this hesitancy as a natural
phenomenon, for Taoism did not sweep through the Far East like a flood, rather
it was accepted 'a drop at a time'. It is an aspect of Taoist philosophy that
enforced or sudden change is usually short lived, whilst the changes which
occur in the fullness of time, or 'without contrived effort' (wu-wei) are likely
to be both more benefitial and longer lasting.
As I have (hopefully) indicated, the philosophy of Taoism has many wide ranging
applications, but it is not my intention to examine this diversity here. As the
title states, my concern in this work is to illustrate a particular application
of that philosphy, its application to psychology. It must be emphasized
however, that in Taoism, psychology is not only concerned with the individual,
but also with the relationships between the selves who constitute a society,
and the relationships between individuals, groups, and the world at large.
Furthermore, its teachings on the significance of the process of change and
factors which impinge on change, rather than only on the thing (or things)
which change, is probably not easy for the Western mind (and especially the
scientifically trained Western mind) to comprehend. This difficulty might be
caused in part by the fact that Taoist psychology includes both individual and
interactive (or 'social') psychology, whereas, in the West, these are frequently
separate disciplines.
The text is dividied into two parts. The first part contains the primary
statements of the 'the tao of the self', these statements being psychologically
orientated, (and most frequently) re- statements of texts selected from two
classical Taoist works. The sources most frequently used are;
a) The Book of Changes (BC)
b) The Way of Reason and Virtue (RV)
(The initial letters shown in parenthases are used in the text to indicate
source references.)
Part two consists of commentaries which explain and provide more detailed
information on the text shown in part one. The initial statements and the
commentaries are identically numbered for cross-referral. The sources of the
original Taoist texts are referenced in part two.
The 'Book of Changes' (I Ching) is virtually always described in terms of its
sixty-four hexagrams, and it is therefore these numbers which are cited in the
references. Since the 'wings' included in larger editions of the I Ching are
Confucian, rather than Taoist, in origin, they have not been used in this work.
Most English editions of the I Ching are designed primarily as aids to problem
solving and forecasting, but the reader should be wary of those translations
which are written for the purposes of divination. The numbers cited in this
work refer to the numbers in 'King Wen's (World of Senses)' version of the I
Ching, rather than the sequence shown in Fu Hsi's (World of Though)' version.
The majority of English translations of 'The Way of Reason and Virtue' (Tao Te
Ching) are divided into numbered 'verses' and the reference numbers employed
refer to the paragraph numbers employed in the majority of translations. Since
the numbering of the paragraphs is usually in continuous ascending order (verse
two begins with paragraph five, and verse three with paragraph eight, etc.) the
reader should have no difficulty in finding the appropriate source. The
translation used for the compilation of this work is that of Cheng Lin, which
is based on the text of Wang Bih (c.226 - 249).
Other references are also shown in parenthesis. These include references to;
c) The Gateless Gate (GG)
d) A Time of Blossoming (TB)
e) The Self as Process (SP)
The first two of these are my own translations. 'The Gateless Gate' was first
published in 1972, and 'A Time of Blossoming' in 1975. Both were originally
published by the British School of Taoist Zen. The page numbers cited refer to
the page numbers of the first edition in each instance; this is also the case
with reference to 'The Self as Process', published by the Institute of Holistic
Development in 1983.
The sources of all other references are detailed in the reference section at
the end of the book.
The illustration shows Lao Tzu riding on an ox or water buffalo, on his way to
retirement. Legend tells us that during this journey Lao Tzu stopped for two
days, in which time he wrote the Tao Te Ching. In common with the 'ox-herding'
pictures (or 'Ten Bulls' of Zen) the 'man riding the ox' symbolizes the
enlightened man, or sage, having found his own true nature by taming the bull,
which represents his 'ego self'. In this instance, the figure, Lao Tzu, holds
bamboo strips, forming a scroll of the type on which the original Tao Te Ching
was said to have been written.
SOSAN ONE
The Finger and the Moon
A traditional Zen Taoist teaching session (called 'sesshin') consists of periods
of quietness and the practice of tranquility, a short talk by the teacher
providing the content of the sesshin, and a period of questions and answers.
The talk rarely exceeds fifteen minutes in duration, and is considered by some
to be the 'focal point' of the sesshin. It is at least an important reason for
the participants gathering together.
Because of its comprehensive nature, Zen Taoism is a complex subject. For this
reason, and because its traditions are based only upon practices of proven
value, the contents of this book are presented in the form of the short talks
('sosan') traditionally used in sesshin. Most of these sosan introduce
specialist terminology which may be new to the 'novice' reader. I have used
such terminology where I believe it to be important to a proper understanding of
Taoist Zen concepts. Each of these terms is explained or translated when it is
introduced, some sosan being concerned solely with the 'meaning' of a
particulat term. In these instances it is not the term which is of importance
(except for purposes of communication) but the underlying concept.
It is common for the student of Zen Taoism (or of anything else for that matter)
to think at a particular time, that he or she fully understands a given concept,
only to later discover that his or her understanding was perhaps not so complete
after all. The reader should not therefore consider it a personal failing if
something which initially seemed to be clear, suddenly looses its clarity. It
is during the question and answer period ('mondo') that learning is considered
to take place (the saying is, "sosan is for teaching, mondo for learning") and
since the writer and reader are 'once removed', the medium of print is but a
poor substitute for face to face teaching, and no real substitute for learning,
particularly since it does not provide the opportunity for questions and
answers.
Even face to face teaching, relying as it does upon verbal communication and the
pauses and inflections of speech, can provide only the verbal labels or words
which describe the concepts it tries to communicate. The concepts themselves
are entities of a different nature, not the words which are used to describe or
define them. The reader is therefore warned that the expressive beauty of a Zen
Taoist aphorism might all too easily hide its message.
It is worth mentioning that these aphorisms come in many forms, and are usually
teaching devices, used in order to provide the student with a means of gaining
insight, regarding himself or herself, about 'the human condition', and about
the 'meaning' of Zen and Taoism, which in essence, are so merged as to be one
and the same. There are indeed many thousands of people who have never attended
a formal sesshin, but who have in some way drawn comfort from or been aided in
their personal development by reading or hearing one of these aphorisms which
they found or believed to be pertinent to their particular situation.
Such an aphorism, which concerns the danger of being 'carried away by words',
reads,
"Look not at the finger pointing to the moon,
But to the moon at which the finger points,
And remember that the finger would not itself be seen
But for the light cast by the moon at which it points."
SOSAN TWO
"....and the Freedom to Grow."
Zen Taoism is a combination of Taoist philosophy and Zen (or Ch'an) methods. It
may be considered as either a philosophical system or a way of life, although
having no deity or form of worship, it is not a religion. Nevertheless, it does
have its own ideology, perhaps best expressed by its traditional 'gessho'
(gesture of greeting and farewell) symbolising the wish that one's companion
enjoys 'love and peace, and the freedom to grow'. At pragmatic level, Zen
Taoism accepts that 'the freedom to grow' is often problematic, and much of its
teaching is concerned with energising and sustaining personal development, to
the mutual benefit of the individual and society.
Although the central concepts of Zen Taoism are relatively few in number, the
fact that they form a system by their interactions and interdependency creates
a certain kind of complexity. It may therefore be validly described as both
simple and complex. Whilst this may seem to be paradoxical, a brief description
of 'Tai Chi', a popular form of Zen Taoist calisthenics, will illustrate that it
is paradoxical only at verbal level. In Tai Chi the participant performs a set
sequence of movements, but (unlike Yoga) the positions or postures are not
'frozen'; rather, the movement continues with fluidity throughout the sequence.
Among Zen Taoists, Tai Chi is known as 'meditation in movement', implying that
although the body is in movement, the mind is 'still' (calm or tranquil).
Zen Taoism does not consider stillness and movement to be in opposition, but
complimentary to each other. Although it is something of an over-simplification,
Taoism may be described as a philosophy of change and therefore of movement (or
process), whilst Zen teaches the importance of stillness. Taoism had already
taught the significance of change for over two thousand years when, in the sixth
century of the Christian era (CE), it adopted the Zen method of achieving
stillness or tranquility of mind, this method being a form of seated meditation,
known as 'za-zen'. A little while later, Taoism adopted the teaching system of
Zen, whilst for its own part, Zen was by this time using the dialectic method of
teaching employed by the Taoist sages and Classical Greek scholars.
The result of these interactions has been the development of a unique and highly
effective method of teaching and applying the concepts and themes of Taoism.
This method has proven to be so adaptable that it has been successfully applied
to many subjects and activities. The following examples are intended to
illustrate only the diversity and range of some of these applications.
In the visual arts we have the 'discovery' of Impressionism and recent
developments in pottery; in the performing arts the teaching of music and
movement now use Zen methods; in the martial arts we have Kendo, Judo and
Karate; and in the 'helping professions' we have non-directive counselling. In
sport there is a coaching movement called 'the inner game'; in mathematics, the
binary system; in psychology, process theory; and in clinical medicine, the
'Balintist' school reflects its Taoist influence.
Zen Taoism adheres to Chinese Zen (or Ch'an), which should not be confused with
'Japanese Zen', which is a sect of Buddhism. Zen Buddhism is spoken of as the
'brother' of Zen Taoism, but it must be appreciated that the Articles of
Buddhist Faith are not binding upon the Zen Taoist, unless he or she is also a
Buddhist.
It is perhaps the fact that a Zen Taoist can follow any humanist or humanistic/
religious path which has encouraged its following around the world. However,
another reason is undoubtedly that Zen Taoism is unique in that it does not
attempt to ignore complex issues, nor over-simplify them by treating them as
'absolutes'. It teaches that although there are some absolute values, there
are many more instances where that which was a right course of action can become
invalid because of changing circumstances, and that what is a 'right path' for
one individual may not meet the needs of another.
These prefactory remarks should not be taken to imply that Zen Taoism has an
answer to every question, nor a solution to every problem. However, it does
offer advice which has aided countless numbers of people in resolving, if not
'solving' many of the paradoxes of life. Its major teaching is that life is
not a problem awaiting a solution, or a problem waiting to be solved, but a
reality to be experienced.
When applied therapeutically, Zen Taoism accepts that many of the situations
with which life confronts us are of our own making, but that many more are not.
It accepts also that in either of these cases the situation may be painful to
us. It attempts to help the person in pain to bear that pain, and sometimes to
grow as a result of it. In its developmental aspects it is applicable to both
intellectual and 'everyday' situations. As a philosophical system it is often
regarded as 'a microcosm of the universe', and therefore takes many years to
'understand'. It does not offer 'short cuts', nor promise 'instant
enlightenment'. For many it is a lifetime's work, although those who accept it
as worthy of such deep concentration consider it to be a way of life, rather
than 'work'.
Fortunately though, the Zen Taoist does not have to understand the entire
system in order to gain from the benefits it provides, for Zen Taoism presents
the opportunity of experiencing that which too many systems have ignored,
forgotten, or become afraid to teach, namely, love and peace, and the freedom
to grow.
AUTHORIZATION: THE RED 'CHOP' PRINTED BELOW IS THE 'INKA SHOMEI' (SEAL OF
APPROVAL) OF SHIH-TIEN ROSHI, PRINCIPAL OF THE BRITISH SCHOOL OF TAOIST
PHILOSOPHY (TAO CHIA). THE SEAL INDICATES THAT THIS BOOK IS AUTHORIZED AND
APPROVED BY THE SCHOOL.
THE TAO OF THE SELF; 1
THE SHARING OF LOVE
The flowers and trees have sun and rain to aid their blossoming. As human
beings, we should have love to help us grow into self being. (TB 40) If we
erect barriers to the giving and receiving of love, we may, in our folly,
inhibit both ourselves and those who love us, from expressing that love. (TB 30)
When we live in true being, self being, we realize our potential to love, and to
be loved.(TB 42)
We sometimes deny ourselves the experience of love because we fear that if we
receive love we might be or become unworthy of it, and thus lose it. (TB 26)
This fear can be caused by living in a society which values that which it terms
'success', and condemns that which it calls 'failure'. Such a society can breed
success only at the expense of those whom it describes as failures. If we live
this fear in our minds we fear even to develop our own potential, lest we fail.
In this way we deny our own self being.(TB28)
Only when we have true being, self being, and so no longer have a need of self
centred thoughts and actions, then we are ready to share love with the one who
is our counterpart, helping them to achieve their self being, and aiding the
realization of our own self being. (TB 60)
In the act of sharing love, we each accept that the other has the same rights
as we have ourselves (TB 62), we are not jealous of the achievements or
attainments of the other, but welcome and share them as our own, as the fruits
of love. (TB 64)
In the act of sharing love we do not look for the imperfections of the other.
We look for our own imperfections, and welcome the help of our counterpart in
overcoming those imperfections; in this way we help each other to grow (TB 66),
for we change our primary function from that of satisfying our own needs to that
of considering the needs of our counterpart, and giving them a priority equal to
our own. (TB 68)
In such an act as sharing love we may use our bodies to create a beauty which
both may share, and so become a part (TB 70), for in this act there is no
subject and no object, for both are made one through the union of the two.
(TB 76)
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
From the seed there grows the shoot, and then the bud appears, a tight but
secure knot, providing its own protection. But the bud does not remain the bud
for ever, for as the plant matures, the bud begins to free itself, and bursts
open to become the flower. (TB 10)
From the baby there should grow the child, secure in the environment which its
parents provide. And the child should grow into the adolescent, who, through
maturation, develops into the self actualized adult, secure in the knowledge of
his or her own being. (TB 12)
It is wonderful when society accepts that childhood is the time in which the
shoot manifests itself and that adolescence is the time when the bud appears,
and with the tremendous strength with which youth should be endowed, begins to
blossom into the flower of self being. (TB 14) During the process of maturation,
we become open to receive experience, just as the blossoming flower receives the
summer dew, and so become free to accept ourselves for what we are, which is the
birthright of every being, just as the life giving warmth of the sun is the
right of everything that grows. (TB 16)
Unfortunately, it is not common for society to allow us such freeedom. Indeed,
it is often the case that the very nature of man prohibits such a society from
ever existing. But this is not to say that we cannot blossom as does the flower,
for if we live our lives to the full, complete in our self being, we do not deny
that with which life presents us, but use our experiences to aid our maturation.
(TB 18)
PARENTAL LOVE
As parents, if we can see that our offspring are not mere 'objects', and no less
'subjects' than are we, then we can cease to manipulate them. Thus, the child
is allowed to become the adolescent, and the adolescent to become the adult, to
the mutual benefit of all. (TB 54)
In parential love, we should place the development of our offspring before our
own wishes, and before our own self delusion. When, as parents, we do not
inhibit the development of our offspring, then they may grow into adults,
secure in their own self being, as a result of our act of love. (TB 56)
Love between brothers and sisters may develop and grow where wise parents do not
use one of their offspring as a goad or spur to the other. (TB 52)
SELF DEVELOPMENT
If we choose to use it for that purpose, life may become a time of blossoming.
(TB 20)
One of the major inhibitors of human blossoming is probably life itself, for in
living our lives to the full, we are required to accept that much of what we
will experience is neither beautiful or enjoyable. Because of this, we might
erect barriers to the reception of experience, not realizing that if it were not
for ugliness, beauty could not exist, and that if we cannot experience sorrow,
then neither can we experience joy. (TB 24)
We must each look into ourselves, and so find the courage to break free from
those concepts of ourselves, which we have allowed to predetermine what we are,
what we should be, or what we should remain. (TB 32)
We should realise that there is no limit to the realization of human potential,
other than those limits which we ourselves set, or allow others to set in our
name. (TB 34)
When we can accept that there are no limits to the realization of our potential,
then we can begin to find that energy which changes the whole of mankind; for
just as the parting of the petals which form the bud, allows that bud to blossom
into the flower, and thus change the face of the earth, so the blossoming of one
indiviudal into a self actualized being, changes the face of mankind. (TB 38)
CREATIVITY
Through the development of self being we may gain the ability to change the
shape of things with our hands, and thus change the function of those things.
(TB 42)
When we have self being, we may gain the ability, by the use of our hands and
minds, to produce things which have beauty, and whose beauty may be shared by
those who are open to accept it. (TB 44)
HUMAN FELLOWSHIP
When we have true being, self being, we allow others their self being and so
may become one with our fellow beings. This we may achieve only by ceasing to
consider ourselves as the primary subject, and our fellow beings merely as
objects which are there for us to manipulate. (TB 50)
When we can see our own imperfections as readily as we can see the imperfections
of others, and when we are as tolerant of the neutral imperfections of others as
we are of our own, then it may be said that we love our fellow beings. (TB 46)
When we can accept others for what they are, rather than try to change them into
something which we would have them be for our own sakes, then we perform an act
of love. (TB 48)
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