Dan Is Not The Way, The Truth And The Life. But He Knows A Guy…

(This is not part two of the last post.  That will come later.)

 

 

Let’s talk for a moment about the Tao.

 

There was a time in Western nations when one could use biblical metaphors with impunity.  This was simply because the bible was the only book that everybody had either read, or had read to them.  This made the bible a universal translator of sorts.  It didn’t matter if you were from Sweden or Switzerland or Swansea or Seattle; if you referenced a David and Goliath situation, everybody knew that you were referring to a little guy fighting a big guy.

 

That is much less true now.  Fewer and fewer people read the bible, and even so-called bible believing Christians mostly allow themselves to be spoon-fed beliefs on Sunday morning.  The universal translator is no longer so universal.

 

Anyway.  Were I to make an imperfect comparison, I’d say that the Tao Te Ching is the bible of the East.  Written in China about 600 years before Jesus Christ was laid in a manger, it influenced, in various measures, pretty much all the following philosophies and religions in the region.  And it has the common decency to only be 81 short poems, rather than 3000 pages of genealogy and logistical records and rousing tales of genocide and incest.

 

The eponymous Tao, the subject of the book, is simply (simply!) the way the universe works – its ineffable machinery, infinitely complex yet as gentle and natural as water running downhill.  And the Tao is participatory as well; people are part of the universe and not excluded from its functionings.

 

Although we are uniquely burdened by choice.

 

You could put your car in first gear and drive around all day at 40 miles per hour, running the engine at 9000 RPM, spiking your temperature gauge.  And it would get you from point A to point B – at least until the engine overheated and seized, or you blew up your radiator, or any number of other unpleasant and expensive consequences.  And what right would you have, having done such a foolish thing, to complain about those consequences?  To count them as unfair?

 

You see where I’m going with this?

 

While Christians from the Western tradition tend to see consequences as direct and purposeful punishment from a wrathful God (giving us an entity at which to shake our wee ineffectual fists), the Tao Te Ching would say that those consequences are the natural results of refusing to participate in the way the universe works.  Simple cause and effect, nothing more.

 

“But Dan, my car should run all day at 9000 RPM if I want it to!”

 

Why, you asshole?  Why should it do that?  Who lied to you and told you that you get to dictate the terms by which your Dodge Caravan operates, much less the fucking cosmos?

 

And lest you assume that I am the hippy version of a prosperity preacher, promising wealth and security in exchange for compliance (and a minimum of ten percent of your income), try this on for size:

 

Complying with the Tao, voluntarily and joyfully making it your way of life, comes with no guarantee, written or implied, of health, wealth, or a partridge in a pear tree.  When that tornado touches down in your trailer park, your double-wide may very well fly off to the magical Land of Oz.  If that taco truck jumps the curb, the universe will not gently steer it into the pedophile in the trench coat rather than you.

 

So why bother, right?  If the universe isn’t going to reward you like an indulgent parent (or a simplistic Christian God), why dedicate your life to trying to align yourself with its workings? 

 

Well, just for starters, you’ll stop doing bad things to yourself.  Think about that.  Really, take a moment and consider it.  If that was the only advantage of walking within the Way, would it not still be worth any price?  All the harm you do to yourself and your loved ones through your own venality, selfishness and perversion – it will stop. 

 

That doesn’t mean that the consequences for your past actions are deferred; you’re still going to have to deal with what you’ve done in the past.  And, even worse, I can guarantee that you will transgress in the future.  But you can recognize the consequences of your actions, and use them as instruction and motivation.

 

Also, and refreshingly, the burden is light.  Feather light.  Carbon nanotube light.  There will be no self-flagellation in a stone cell.  No clinging to the pillars of a church because you can feel the fires of hell licking at your feet.  The Tao feels good, man.  It feels good.  There is a deep peace that accompanies it, one that is simply beyond my powers of description.  The realization on some primal-psycho-spiritual level that this is the way things are supposed to be.

 

So, two things that still need addressing:  How do I do that?  And, if it’s really as good as you say, why would I ever do otherwise?

 

We’ll address the second one first, because it’s the more simple of the two.  You will leave The Way, you will willfully, voluntarily hurt yourself and others, simply because the option is available to you.  Not by accident, not through some cruel twist of fate, but because you can, and on a long enough timeline, you will.  Suck it up, cupcake.  Welcome to the human race and the high price of free will.  Take your consequences on the chin, learn from them, and screw up less often and less painfully in the future.  Diminishing returns of stupidity.

 

Now, the hard part:  How do I do that? 

 

Well, all it requires is a lifetime of sincere dedication.  Sincere pursuit.  You can’t buy it, steal it or fake it.  But you can start from wherever you are, right now.  The highest ivory tower or the deepest, darkest shithole.  Take the first step.  Read books, ask questions, think about it constantly and ravenously, and never stop.  It’s a Way, after all, not a treadmill.  It’s progressive.  There will come a point when you pause and look behind yourself, and you will be in awe at how far you’ve traveled. 

 

And baby, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

 

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