No More Learning

c. ) of Wu.
42. William Theodore deBary, The Buddhist Tradition in India, China and Japan (New York: Random House, 1972), 134-135. From a text called Mouzi li huo lun (Mouzi Settling Doubts), which is traditionally believed to date from the end of the second century a. d.
the dao and the field 47
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? The Daode Jing and Comparative Philosophy
David L. Hall
The Confucian asks, ''Master Lao, you say that 'the way that can be spoken of is the constant way. ' Why, then, do you offer so many words which speak of the Way? ''
To which Laozi replies, ''I make for you a golden embroidery of drakes and pass it along for your enjoyment. I cannot, however, show you the golden needle by which it was made. ''
Before beginning any classroom discussion of the Daode jing I always recount this apocryphal exchange as a means of making a point about the language of that work and, indeed, of language generally. That cautionary tale is useful in warning us not to mis- take the embroidery, however fine, for the ''golden needle'' that permits its creation. And, of course, the Daoist would believe that the sentiment of this story suggests the mood with which we might well approach language itself.
Words, the Daoist might say, serve as both signposts and barriers. It is as if the very sign that tells us where to go stands in the way of our getting there. Were I, for example, to encounter a sign in the form of a roadblock across the only highway leading into town that read ''El Paso 99 Miles,'' I would know that I was heading in the right direction but would be prevented from going home.
Knowing this, we may be reconciled to the fact that traveling along the way that can be spoken of is the only means whereby we may celebrate the Nameless Dao. Its ability to provide its
50 approaching the daode jing
readers important experiences of the evocation of meaning beyond any words is what makes the Daode jing one of the most provocative of all the texts of world literature.
My first encounter with this book was as oblique as is the language of the work itself. As a high school student, I was on a long bus trip across the western states. While at a rest stop in Pecos, Texas, I was browsing through books and magazines displayed at the bus depot. Amid the usual examples of romance and detective fiction were two books whose titles immediately caught my eye: The first was A. N. Whitehead's Adventures of Ideas; the second was a work entitled The Way of Life. Its subtitle was The Tao Te Ching. I recall being fas- cinated by both works, each of which promised to transform my rather dull bus trip into a far more exciting journey. I had only enough money for one book, however, and so had to make a decision. After several minutes, I finally selected Adventures of Ideas.
I have come to believe that my encounter with these two books was more significant than I initially thought. For, some years later, as a graduate student, I selected the philosophy of Whitehead as the subject of my dissertation re- search. And it was not long after I began teaching that I found myself extending my interest in process philosophy by comparing Whiteheadian thinking with the Daoist sensibility through a consultation of the Daode jing.
Comparative Philosophy as a Collaborative Enterprise
Before discussing the manner in which I use the Daode jing in the classroom, it might be useful to address another issue concerning the pedagogy of that text. For those such as I who do not read classical Chinese, the question arises as to how one might approach the work. I assume that relatively few of those who employ this text in undergraduate teaching are expert in Chinese language and culture. In my experience, this is particularly true of those who use the work as a philosophical text. I would like to ask, therefore, by way of introducing the remainder of my remarks: ''What is the role of the Western philosopher in furthering the appropriate use of classical Chinese texts in the classroom? ''
The first thing to be said is that, quite obviously, if a translation of the Daode jing is to be relevant to the Western context, it is not enough that the translator be expert in only Chinese thought and culture. A reasonably subtle understanding of the Western philosophical tradition is presumed in every adequate translation of that work into Anglo-European languages. In the ab- sence of this combination of sinological and Western philosophical skills in a
the daode jing and comparative philosophy 51
single individual, the translation of the Daode jing into an English-speaking context suggests the need for collaboration between Chinese and Western specialists. Often this collaboration is minimally accomplished when the in- dividual ignorant of the Chinese language consults a number of different translations of a given text and seeks some broad understanding of the history and culture of the period that contextualizes the work he or she is seeking to understand. Without some such concern, the Western interpreter of texts such as the Daode jing is likely to present either a superficial or a distorted inter- pretation. By the same token, when the sinologist seeks to translate a Chinese classic into English, he or she has the responsibility of gaining some under- standing of the general cultural context into which he or she is seeking to translate the given work. Nothing is more disappointing than to pick up a copy of the Daode jing, the Zhuangzi, or the Analects translated by someone who, however subtle his or her sinological skills, is relatively innocent of the Western intellectual tradition. The result is always a travestied, trivialized, and un- teachable text.
My own understanding of Chinese texts has benefited significantly from a collaboration begun some fifteen years ago with the sinologist Roger Ames of the University of Hawai'i. Ames's expertise in classical Chinese language and Chinese philosophical texts, combined with my knowledge of Western phi- losophy and the methodology of comparative cultures, has provided each of us with a more solid foundation from which to communicate the language of Chinese philosophy to undergraduate and graduate students.
Moreover, it is important to note that, though I am not trained in Chinese language, the speculative interpretation of Daoism contained in some of my earliest published writings has in fact influenced the translation of key terms in the more specialized treatments in subsequent works by Ames and me. Moreover, that interpretation is elaborated in our discussions of Daoism in our recent work, Thinking from the Han, as well as in articles on the subject of Daoism by the two of us in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
My intent here is really not to boast about my understanding of Daoism. I merely wish to correct what I consider to be a serious misunderstanding that affects the appropriate exercise of comparative Chinese/Western thought. In the case of texts such as the Daode jing, Western-trained philosophers have, on the whole, a great deal more to contribute to the translation of Chinese intel- lectual culture into Western cultural contexts than they might otherwise be- lieve. Making sense of texts such as the Daode jing within an Anglo-European philosophical milieu is, first and foremost, a collaborative effort. Until this fact is endorsed by both (sometimes) overly confident sinologists and (often) all too
52 approaching the daode jing
timid Western specialists, the translation of Chinese philosophical texts into Anglo-European contexts will never reach the most desirable level.
The Daode Jing and Comparative Philosophy
As one of my principal philosophical interests is comparative thought, I most often have recourse to the Daode jing in classes devoted to Chinese and Western comparisons. The strategy of such a course is to suggest some fundamental assumptions of Western thought that might not be common to mainstream Chinese cultural sensibilities. The method involves attempting to bracket these assumptions in order better to understand the presupposi- tions of Chinese intellectual culture. There are, of course, many possible topics for such ''uncommon assumptions. '' Chinese and Western classical cultures originate from alternative assumptions that shape dramatically con- trasting senses of ontological and cosmological issues, such as the nature of ''being'' and ''existence,'' the sense of ''cosmos'' or ''world,'' the understand- ing of ''natural laws'' and ''casual relations. '' In addition, classical Chinese approaches to such Western philosophical topics as ''self,'' ''truth,'' ''tran- scendence,'' ''reason,'' ''logic,'' and ''rhetoric'' are quite distinct from the dominant family of Western understandings of these topics.
I have found that the Daode jing is helpful in making all of these im- portant cultural comparisons. In what follows I wish merely to highlight a few of these issues as a means of demonstrating the value of the Daode jing as a text in comparative philosophy.
The first topic permits a contrast of Chinese and Western treatments of ''Being'' and the sources of world-order. The second involves the general treatment of the person construed in terms of the tripartite structure of the psyche originating in Plato, a model of ''personality'' that has been central to our tradition since that time. These two issues allow for a general under- standing of some striking differences among concepts of ''self and world'' found in Chinese and Western cultures.
This approach is relevant beyond the efforts merely to train philosophers. Issues fundamental to the way we commonsensically think about the world are sedimented in the patterns of thought and expression of every reasonably ed- ucated person. Unless we seek to uncover at least some of our ''uncommon assumptions,'' we shall err in our interpretation of alternative cultural sensi- bilities through the unthinking presumption that our common sense is uni- versal.
the daode jing and comparative philosophy 53
Ontological and Cosmological Issues
In the Western metaphysical tradition, ''Being'' is most generally thought to be either a common property of things, in the sense of a universal applying to all things, or a container that relates things by placing them within its own structure. Metaphysical notions of Being are generally associated with the concept of ground; the relation of Being and beings, then, is thought to be that of indeterminate ground and determinate things. Nonbeing is characterized as the negation of Being either in a simple, logical sense, or as the Nihil, the Void, the experience of which, as in Heidegger's philosophy, evokes a sense of existential angst or dread.
The disposition of the Chinese from the beginning to the present is highly inhospitable to fixed forms of asymmetrical relations such as is ex- pressed by the relation of Being and nonbeing. The Chinese existential verb you (''being'') overlaps with the sense of ''having'' rather than the copula, and therefore you, ''to be,'' means ''to be present,'' ''to be around,'' while wu, ''not to be,'' means ''not to be present,'' ''not to be around. '' This means that wu does not indicate strict opposition or contradiction, but absence. Thus, the you/wu distinction suggests mere contrast in the sense of either the presence or absence of x, rather than an assertion of the existence or nonexistence of x.
Thus, if one translates you and wu in chapter 40 of the Daode jing as being and nonbeing, respectively, the following translation might result: ''The things of the world originate in Being. And Being originates in Nonbeing. '' Such language can be most misleading if taken in the classical Western senses of Being and Nonbeing. Following the general preference of the Daode jing for reversing certain classical contrasts, wu appears to be given preference over you, as is yin (''passive,'') over yang (''active''). Interpreting wu as ''Nonbeing'' would, then, suggest a preference for Nonbeing over Being, and this has led to some rather ridiculous mystical speculations to the effect that the Nihil or the Void, as Nonexistence, has priority over Being-Itself. Such an assumption of the senses of being and nonbeing deriving from the metaphysical contexts of Western philosophy can lead to total misunderstanding of the text. For, as a Chinese saying has it: ''If one is off an inch at the bow, then one will be off several feet at the target. '' Thus in place of the claim that, for the Daoist, nonbeing is superior to being, it would be best to claim that nothing takes precedence over some- thing. An alternative translation--ironically, with strong Marxist overtones-- would be: ''not having'' is superior to ''having. ''
The distinctive character of the you/wu problematic in the Daode jing allows for an interesting discussion of the presently topical postmodern critiques of
54 approaching the daode jing
reason. For one of the implications of the absence in that work of any notion of Being as existence per se is that there is no notion of Being as ontological ground and no need for a metaphysical contrast between Being and beings. There is no need to overcome the logocentrism of a language of presence grounded in ontological difference if no distinction between Being and beings, or beings and their ground, is urged by the classical Chinese language and its philosophical employment. A Chinese language of presence is a language of making present the item itself, not its essence.
Language that does not lead one to posit ontological difference between Being and beings, but only a difference between one being and another, sug- gests a decentered world whose centers and circumferences are always defined in an ad hoc manner. The mass of classical Chinese philosophical discourse, then, is in no need of deconstruction since the senses of you and wu within the Chinese sensibility do not lead to the creation of texts that could legitimately be targets of the deconstructor.
One may gain greater insight into this rather unusual sense of the being/ nonbeing relation in Chinese thought through an interpretation of the fa- mous first lines of the Daode jing:
The Way that can be spoken of is not the constant Way. The name that can be named is not the constant name. The nameless is the beginning of the ten-thousand things. 1
Nameless Dao is best construed here, not as ontological ground, but merely as the noncoherent sum of all possible orders. The natural cosmology of classical China does not entail a single-ordered cosmos, but invokes an understanding of a world constituted by myriad unique particulars: ''the ten thousand things. ''
An important implication of the you/wu relationship in Chinese intellec- tual culture is that the relevant contrast is not, as in the West, between the cosmological whatness of things and the ontological thatness of things; rather, it is a contrast between the cosmos as the sum of all orders and the world as construed from some particular perspective--that is, any particular one of the orders.
In the absence of a sense of Being as a common property or a relational structure, the world is not coherent in the sense that a single pattern or telos could be said to characterize its processes. It is not a whole, but many such wholes. It is not the superordinate One to which the Many reduce. Its order is not rational or logical, but aesthetic; that is, there is no transcending pattern determining the existence or efficacy of the order. The order is a consequence of the particulars comprising the totality of existing things.
the daode jing and comparative philosophy 55
This interpretation of being of the world makes of it a totality not in the sense of a single-ordered cosmos, but in the sense of the sum of all cosmo- logical orders. Any given order is an existing world that is construed from the perspective of a particular element within the totality. But, as a single world, it is a selective abstraction from the totality of possible orders that are presently not around. The being of this order is not ontological in a foundational sense, but ''cosmological'' in the sense that it concerns, not Being-Itself, but the ''beings'' of the world and their relational order. Such an abstracted, selected order cannot serve as fundament or ground. Thus, the Chinese sense of being entails the notion, rather striking from our Western perspective, that all differences are cosmological differences.
The Chinese understanding of the you/wu relationship has profound im- plications for the manner in which philosophic discourse is shaped throughout the Chinese tradition. Without recourse to the senses of ''Being'' associated with Western speculative philosophies, assumptions we take for granted as conditions for philosophizing are simply not present. The proper under- standing of ''being'' in the Chinese tradition helps us to account for the fact that there is no real ''metaphysical'' tradition in China if we mean by metaphysics anything like a universal science of first principles or a study of Being-Itself. In fact, within the strictly Chinese philosophical tradition there is little interest in asking about what makes something real or why things exist.
When we address distinctly cosmological issues--such as ''What kinds of things are there? '' or ''What are the basic categories that make up the world as we know it? ''--the situation is the same. Although it is true that Chinese thinkers, particularly the Daoists, ask about things, they do not ask about ca- tegories or kinds in any manner that would suggest that things have logical essences or constitute natural kinds. Because there is nothing like ''Being'' that shines through the beings of the world--because there are only the beings of the world--there is no effective impulse to handle cosmological issues by asking after the logos of the cosmos.
The principal reason Chinese thinkers are not apt to ask after the logos of the cosmos is that they lack a dominant concern for approaching what we term the ''cosmos'' as a single-ordered Whole. The term, often used in the Daode jing, that qualifies the Chinese understanding of what we term the ''cosmos'' is wan wu, ''the ten thousand things,'' or, as D. C. Lau often renders the term, ''the myriad creatures. '' Thus, ''the nameless is the beginning of the ten thousand things. The named is the mother of the ten thousand things. ''
The Chinese stress on locutions such as ''ten thousand things'' suggests the same insight we encountered in terms of our discussion of the you/wu relationship. Without a viable notion of Being as ground, there is no basis on
56 approaching the daode jing
which one can presume the existence of a single-ordered world, a cosmos. Thus the testimony of the Daode jing is that the world is to be seen as a plurality: a many, not a one. Such an understanding of the world precludes the no- tion of cosmos, insofar as that notion entails either a coherent, single-ordered world or a congeries of entities with essential features or essential modes of connection.
The Wu-forms of Daoism
One of the more fascinating aspects of the discussions of the Daode jing is the doctrine of wuwei, literally ''no-action. '' ''Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail'' (3). ''The Way never acts yet nothing is left undone'' (37). Sentiments such as these express a doctrine of the art of rulership in which the ''the best of rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects'' (17). But from the perspective of the comparative philosopher, it is interesting to note that it is not only Western understandings of ''action'' that are pro- blematized by the Daode jing, but the allied notions of knowledge and desire also receive a ''reversed'' interpretation in the forms of wuzhi (''no knowledge'') and wuyu (''no desire'').
The reason this is especially interesting with respect to Chinese/Western comparisons is that the understandings of knowing, acting, and desiring in the Western tradition have been strongly influenced by the tripartite model of the psyche deriving from Plato and perpetuated subsequently in various forms in the Western tradition. Contrasting understandings of the modalities of knowledge, action, and desire in the Daode jing with the manner in which they are construed in the philosophical traditions influenced by the Platonic psyche can provide a host of productive insights into the differences of Chinese and Western cultures.
The first thing to say about the general approach to philosophical anthro- pology in the West is that dominant theories of the self are shaped in accor- dance with a model of personality in which the self is seen as internally conflicted, that is, at war with itself. In Plato, the primary conflict is between reason and the passionate and volitional elements of the soul. This conflict is ramified with the confluence of Hebraic and Hellenic sensibilities, coming to be expressed in the words of St. Paul: ''The good that I would do, I do not do; the evil that I would not do, that I do. '' This understanding of the soul in conflict receives a famous modern interpretation with Hume's claim that ''reason al- ways shall be a slave to the passions. '' The Humean interpretation is in turn reflected in the traditional conception of Freud's personality theory as based on the conflictual dynamics of id, ego, and superego.
the daode jing and comparative philosophy 57
The tripartite model of the self undergirds the institutionalization of the division between theory and practice that has characterized so much of our intellectual culture; it has influenced, for example, the search for scientific objectivity which has urged a separation of reason and the passions. In addi- tion, conflict between the dynamics of power and justice in political culture is a consequence of writing large the tensions between volitional and rational components of the soul.
One can readily see from this that making comparisons between Chinese and Western understandings of knowledge, action, and desire might lead to extremely important insights into these contrasting cultures. The general les- son is that it is of some benefit to be aware of the uncommon assumptions on this issue of ''the soul at war. '' Otherwise, we shall surely misconstrue Chinese understandings of the self and the relevance of those understandings to larger social and cultural contexts.
When we turn to the Daode jing to discover Daoist contributions to these issues, we see that there are terms such as zhi, wei, and yu that initially seem to correlate rather closely with what we call knowing, acting, and desiring. But it is important to realize that the understanding of knowledge, action, and desire found in the Daode jing is by no means based on a model of the self that presumes an internal struggle of reason against the obstreperous passions or will. The Daoists do not ''slice the pie,'' as is done in the West; effectively, there are no faculties of knowing, doing, and feeling that can be distinguished one from the other, and there is no division between the modalities of reason on the one hand and appetite and will on the other.
If the Daoist self is not divided in the manner of the Western model of the tripartite soul, how are we to account for these three modalities? The wu-forms must be thought of simply as activities that establish the deferential relations that give rise to the self at any given moment. They are not faculties; they form no coherent psyche.
In discussing the wu-forms of Daoism it is essential that we call attention to the absence of a mind/body dualism in classical Chinese thought. It is this dualism, after all, that determines the principal conflict within the self between reason and the affective and volitional components.
In the absence of a mind/body dichotomy in Daoist understandings of the self, the basis for the conflictual dynamics of the psyche is not present. Further, because the distinctions among the affective, volitional, and rational compo- nents are not made in terms of a unified model of the self, the idea of a self at war with itself doesn't make much sense to the Chinese.
The best way of understanding the Daoist self is as a function of its rela- tions with its world shaped by wuzhi, wuwei, and wuyou. To see this in the most
58 approaching the daode jing
productive manner, however, it is necessary to provide interpretations of the wu-forms that take account of the philosophical significance of the terms. Doing so has led me to translate these terms in the following manner: I render wuwei as ''nonassertive action,'' wuzhi as ''unprincipled knowing,'' and wuyu as ''objectless desire. ''
Wuwei, often translated as ''no action'' or ''nonaction,'' involves the ab- sence of any action that interferes with the particularity of those things within one's field of influence. Actions untainted by stored knowledge or ingrained habits are unmediated, unstructured, unprincipled, and spontaneous. As such, they are consequences of deferential responses to the item or event in accordance with which, or in relation to which, one is acting. They are non- assertive actions.
It would be a mistake to interpret the modes of disposition named by the wu-forms as passive. The deferential activities underlying these modes are shaped by the intrinsic excellences of those things calling forth deference. Deference is deference to recognized excellence. The assumption must be that the Daoist sage sees beneath the layers of artifice that mask the naturalness of persons and things and responds to the excellence so advertised. Further, deference is a two-way street. The excellence of the realized Daoist calls forth deference from others. The wu-forms operate within a context of yielding and being yielded to. The model of the sage-ruler in the Daode jing is described in terms of wuwei. Thus the sage says, ''I am non-assertive [wuwei] and the people are transformed of themselves'' (57). Further, the sage-ruler ''constantly causes the people to seek 'unprincipled knowing' [wuzhi] and to be objectless in their desires [wuyu]. In simply acting non-assertively [wuwei], everything is properly ordered'' (3).
An interesting illustration of wuwei is found in the ''push-hands'' (duishou) exercise associated with the Chinese exercise form known as taijiquan. Two individuals facing one another perform various circular movements of the arms while maintaining minimal hand contact. The movement of each individual mirrors that of the other. Wuwei is realized when the movements of each are sensed, by both parties, to be uninitiated and effortless. I often attempt to demonstrate the notion of wuwei by leading my students in a brief set of ''push- hands'' exercises.
Wuzhi, as ''no-knowledge,'' means the absence of a certain kind of knowledge, the sort dependent on ontological presence. Knowledge grounded in a denial of ontological presence involves the sort of acosmotic thinking that does not presuppose a single-ordered world and its intellectual accoutre- ments. It is, therefore, unprincipled knowing. Such knowing does not appeal
the daode jing and comparative philosophy 59
to rules or principles determining the existence, meaning, or activity of a phenomenon. Wuzhi provides one with a sense of the particularity of a thing rather than what that thing is as a member of a class or an instance of a concept.
Wuzhi, or ''knowing without principles,'' is tacit and, though inexpress- ible in literal terms, may be communicated though parabolic and imagistic language. The story alluded to at the very outset of this essay concerning the Confucian critic's challenge to Laozi's attempting to speak of the Way that rightfully cannot be spoken of indicates that he has missed the fact that one must approach parabolic language through wuzhi--that is, through a refusal to shape one's understanding by appeal to categories and principles of that which is to be known. Such parabolic language is distinctive in an acosmotic context since metaphor and imagery do not presuppose a literal ground. The parabolic language of the Daode jing is, from the beginning, a language of difference and particularity. It is this language that permits the communi- cation of the results of wuzhi.
The best characterization of the term wuyu is ''objectless desire. '' Since neither unprincipled knowing nor nonassertive action can in the strict sense objectify a world or any element in it, the desiring associated with the Daoist sensibility is objectless. Thus, wuyu, rather than involving the cessation of desire through possession and consummation, represents the achievement of deferential desire. Desire based on a mirroring understanding (wuzhi) and a nonassertive relationship (wuwei) is not shaped by the need to own, control, or consume, but simply to celebrate and to enjoy.
The Daoist problematic does not concern what is desired but the manner of the desiring. Objectless desire always allows for letting be and letting go. Enjoyment for the Daoist is realized not in spite of the fact that one might lose what is desired, but because of this fact. The world is a complex set of pro- cesses of transformation, never at rest. In Plato, the desire for knowledge (eros) is the only thing that can define both embodied and disembodied ex- istence; it is the only desire that can be permanent, eternal. In Daoism, transient desire is the only desire that lets things be, that does not construe the world in a certain manner, that does not seek to render static a world of changing things.
The mirroring activity associated with the Daoist wu-forms is a form of activity that allows things to be themselves both in their transitoriness and their particularity. It is the things themselves as individual events and pro- cesses, and the orders construed from their particular perspectives, that are reflected in the mirroring process.
60 approaching the daode jing
Summary
It has been my experience that the discussion of the Daode jing in an under- graduate class is remarkably beneficial in helping students gain insights into these and many other ''uncommon assumptions'' that highlight differences between Chinese and Western philosophical perspectives. By juxtaposing them in the way I've described, aspects of each tradition become clearer. Once stu- dents who have already been introduced to Western philosophy come to un- derstand the cosmology implicit in the Daode jing, they can more easily recognize how Western cosmologies and ontologies are strategic choices rather than revelations of things as they are. At the same time, those students who are grappling with Chinese texts like the Daode jing can see its distinctiveness more clearly once they contrast it with Western ontological choices.
In closing I should note that the above notwithstanding, I certainly do recognize that the philosophical import of this work by no means exhausts its significance. Its poetic value, for example, is clearly as significant as its philosophical worth. Nonetheless, as a comparative philosopher of culture I have found the Daode jing--more than any other single work--to be well-nigh indispensable as an introduction to Chinese and Western thought.
note
1. All citations are from Tao Te Ching, trans. by D. C. Lau (New York: Penguin Books, 1963).
? Mysticism In the Daode Jing Gary D. DeAngelis
Years ago, at another college, as I began a section of an Asian reli- gions course on Daoism, one of my students stood up and an- nounced rather irreverently that ''talking about the Dao is total bullshit and a waste of f----ing time. '' He then proceeded to pack up his things and march out of the classroom, heading off, I pre- sumed, into the existential void. While students sat in stunned dis- belief I took this rather opportune moment to inform them that, though undoubtedly apocryphal, nearly 2,500 years ago the great sage Laozi enacted this exact same performance, albeit a bit more eloquently, at the Western Gate of China, renouncing both society and philosophical speculation as hopeless. Unlike the legendary Laozi, this student did return at the next class session, and we went on to explore and, in fact, talk about conceptions of the Dao.
That particular performance was so effective in jump-starting that section of the course on Daoism that, in subsequent semes- ters, I've considered paying a student to repeat it with, I hoped, the same effect. I have refrained from following through on such a plan, not wanting to violate the Daoist call for spontaneity, but I have often recounted that story to new students; though undoubtedly
not having the same impact as the original performance, they gen- erally have found it quite amusing. Having taught for over thirty years I must admit to being rather shameless about reusing stories or jokes that students still find amusing.
62 approaching the daode jing
During my own career as a smug undergraduate, in reading the Daode jing for the first time I was struck by the fact that this supposed great Chinese sage claimed that one can never really define or even discuss the Dao, and yet he did discuss it. While others were enthralled by Laozi I was convinced (like my misinformed student) that I alone had unmasked this itinerant guru for the obvious charlatan that he was. Couldn't anyone see that after that classic opening refrain he would have been extremely wise to abide by his own maxim that ''those who know don't say and those who don't know say''--a refrain that I continue to caution students against using on exams.
Now, considerably older and perhaps a bit wiser, I have come to appreciate the insight of the many Laozis of the Daode jing. The initial caveat in the opening lines is followed by subtle hints, suggestions, whispers, and allusions as to the nature of the Dao, which do provide glimpses for our rational mind to understand something about the Dao. If, in fact, the Dao is everything (as is claimed), it is, in part, rational mind. However, it is also true that these spec- ulative glimpses are things about the Dao. To truly know the Dao it is strongly implied that one must go beyond intellect to intuition, where the knower, in a sense, becomes the known, that is, where one becomes the Dao.
What I would like to delineate in this essay is how I have explored and used the Daode jing as a mystical text over the years, primarily in the context of a course called ''Comparative Mysticism,'' and how that particular perspective has helped both my students and me to better understand the nature, meaning, and basic principles of the Daode jing in whatever context it may be used. Unlike some of the other contributors to this volume, I am not a specialist in Chinese religions. My field is the comparative study of religions with a focus on Asian religions and a specific interest in sacred space, pilgrimage, and ritual. Al- though I have done fieldwork in China I do not read classical Chinese. So my use of the Daode jing has been dependent on the use of translations, which are identified at a later point in the essay.
I have used the Daode jing for the past twenty-six years, for the most part at small undergraduate colleges, in such courses as ''Asian Religions,'' ''Religions of China and Japan,'' and ''Comparative Mysticism. '' My use of the text has changed over that time as both my understanding of it and my own scholarly interests have changed. In spite of the fact that I've been using this text solely with undergraduates and, for the most part, at the introductory level (pre- supposing little or no background in Chinese religions or culture), I am still committed to taking a scholarly approach, making them aware of both the complexity of this text and the necessity and value of examining it within its historical and cultural context. I have resisted the temptation and, at times, desire of students to oversimplify the text, take it out of context, and Westernize
mysticism in the daode jing 63
and romanticize it into what Norm Girardot refers to as ''Pooh Bear Daoism. '' However, the challenge we continue to face, as both scholars and teachers of undergraduates, is how to walk that very fine line between maintaining the integrity of the text while effectively communicating its meaning to an audience of general readers.
I would agree wholeheartedly with numerous China scholars that the Daode jing reflects a particular school (used loosely) of thought, somewhat prevalent in fourth-century b. c. e. China, and that in order to make an attempt to understand the intended meaning of this text it is essential to understand not only Chinese culture and the Chinese religious worldview but also the cultural, religious, and political milieu of the late Zhou period. In addition, it would also be beneficial to have a sense of who was compiling this text and for whom it was being written. I think that this is true in reading any text from any culture. In a sense, the Daode jing reflects its period and culture and can provide us with a window into understanding classical China and perhaps something of the Chinese religious worldview as it has evolved over the past 2,500 years. It is important to note that although this is obviously a classical text, it continues to be widely read in China today.
There is undoubtedly inherent value in studying other cultures and worldviews in and of themselves. I would also argue that there is intrinsic value in discovering particular truths or insights in other cultures which may have a timeless and universal value and may help us to make sense out of life and understand something about the nature of our being and our place in the cosmos. Indeed, there is the danger of Westernizing a text like the Daode jing in order to make the foreign and exotic familiar and comfortable. I would also say, however, that, as scholars and teachers, we must be equally vigilant against being ruled by cultural relativism. Indeed, we want our students to have a true understanding of the Chinese worldview, but that does not mean that a classical text like the Daode jing does not contain basic principles that may inspire them in some ways, enlighten them in others, or may even be applied to their lives. They can be good scholars but also moved by what they discover without going native or surrendering their objectivity. They may be from a different culture and be shaped by different circumstances and forces, but ultimately they are of the same species and have the capacity to respond to certain universal truths. Why are the Japanese so enthralled with Shakespeare and the Chinese with Beethoven?
I am suggesting two distinct orientations or goals in interpreting and understanding the Daode jing: what it meant originally in its historical context and what it means to us now. However, these goals, as Michael LaFargue suggests, ''are not by any means exclusive, and it is possible to combine them. ''1
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The overwhelming majority of us using this text are not preparing students to become China scholars nor to fulfill some spiritual void in their lives. I would reaffirm, however, that we do have a scholarly obligation to use the text as honestly and truthfully as possible to capture its original meaning or intent, which, admittedly, will also be an interpretation based on what sources we choose. Our responsibility is to choose the sources wisely and judiciously and to provide a legitimate context for exploration.
Once again, what I would like to focus on is my use of the Daode jing as a mystical text and why I have used it this way. The particular course that I will be focusing on is called ''Comparative Mysticism,'' which I have taught in nu- merous incarnations over the past twenty years. Initially, this course focused on the comparative study of the mystical dimensions, schools, beliefs, and prac- tices in an assortment of different religious traditions. In its early incarnation the course was called ''Saints and Mystics'' and became affectionately known around campus as S&M. As my own work became more interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary over the years that shift was also reflected in the changing focus of this course. In its present incarnation it examines mysticism from philosophical, anthropological, psychological, religious, and scientific per- spectives. I may vary the types of religious mysticism we look at, but more often than not it has been Sufism (Islamic mysticism) and Chinese mysticism (Daoism). I make it quite clear to students, through discussion and course readings, that there is a rich and complex history to both Islamic and Chinese mysticism and that while neither Ibn' Attar's Conference of the Birds nor the Daode jing are fully representative of either tradition, they do embody some basic principles from each.
For the purposes of this essay I am using the term mysticism to mean religious mysticism, but even then in a fairly general and inclusive way. While the term mysticism is used to cover a broad range of experiences among fairly diverse traditions, there has been general agreement among scholars of mys- ticism and phenomenologists of religion as to the nature of mystical experience and what characterizes mystical states. 2 The term generally covers a wide range of spiritual and religious experience in which one directly experiences that which is perceived to be ultimately real, for example, the transcendent, the sacred, the holy, the divine. This direct experience, which is usually identified as a state of union or oneness, is one that intuitively imparts knowledge of ultimate reality by virtue of the knower becoming the known. It is also con- ceived as a state of consciousness. Mystical experience has often been recog- nized as one of the more powerful and extraordinary aspects of human existence. It is not only a spiritual experience but is conceived by many tradi- tions as the spiritual experience par excellence; it is not only a way of knowledge
mysticism in the daode jing 65
but a direct path to the knowledge of the really real; it is not only a state of consciousness but a consciousness, as Ninian Smart suggests, ''where one acquires a fundamental insight into the nature of reality. ''3 In addition, some have also claimed that it is the highest and most cognitive state of human existence.
If we look at certain qualities that generally characterize mystical states, the picture perhaps becomes clearer. Mystical experiences or states seem to be characterized by the experience of oneness or union, timelessness, transiency, loss of self, ineffability, transformation, passivity-receptiveness, and a noetic quality, that is, the gaining of knowledge. This general definition of mysticism should provide a sufficient frame of reference to consider the Daode jing as a mystical text. It has certainly been argued by Daoist mystics throughout the ages that one can know the Dao only by becoming the Dao. While that may or may not be true, I would suggest that examining this text from a mystical perspective can enable us to acquire a deeper understanding of its inner or essential meaning.
Although I personally consider the case for the Daode jing as a mystical text to be self-evident, I refer the reader to Harold Roth and Livia Kohn (China specialists and scholars of Daoism) for a scholarly deliberation of the mystical nature of the Daode jing. 4 In addition, for a consideration of the case against the Daode jing as a mystical text, see Mark Csikszentmihaly. I am certainly inter- ested in this debate, but the intention of this essay is not to advance a scholarly argument on this issue but to discuss how and why I have used the Daode jing as a mystical text. I would add, parenthetically, that while there have been nu- merous insightful and interesting interpretations and commentaries related to the Daode jing since its inception, both within and outside of China, to the best of my knowledge there has yet to be produced an authoritative exegesis of this rather enigmatic text.
There are numerous texts, in translation, that are an equally important part of the early Chinese mystical tradition, such as Zhuangzi, Liezi, Huainanzi, and Xisheng jing. However, the Daode jing provides a fairly clear basis for a Daoist mystical philosophy of life, naturalistic and quietistic, which has been devel- oped by different schools within China. It is important to note that although the Daode jing may not be the single foundation stone on which Chinese mysticism was built, its value and importance to the tradition is significant. Livia Kohn claims that there may be some question as to whether the Daode jing is obvi- ously a mystical text, yet she does indicate that in the judgment of the later tradition the ''Daode jing is a mystical text of the first import. Together with Zhuangzi it has shaped and influenced Chinese mysticism like no other text. ''5 In addition, the text is accessible to students who lack an extensive background
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in Chinese religion and provides a mystic vision, characterized by certain basic principles and qualities, that can be found in mystical texts in general. This makes it ideal for both a study of mysticism and a comparison to other forms of mysticism. From a course-specific perspective, the Daode jing allows students, in their pursuit of the meaning of the Dao, to deal with issues of union, one- ness, ineffability, timelessness, intuitive understanding, and egolessness. For a phenomenological study of mysticism it is a natural.
Using the Daode jing as a mystical text allows me additionally to raise larger epistemological and pedagogical issues, which, in one sense, are the raison d'^etre of this course. In other words, in pursuing the elusive Dao one comes face-to-face with basic issues of what it means to know, what is known, and how one comes to know. We, along with our students, are clearly immersed in an age of scientism fostered by thinkers like Descartes, Bacon, Hobbes, and Newton, among others, with an emphasis on scientific method and rational and analytical thinking. Although I am hardly antiempiricist or antirationalist, I do fear that in our headlong rush for certainty and intellectual credibility we have, in many areas of inquiry, allowed ourselves to be seduced by the promises of this limited worldview, where scientific knowledge is often considered the only acceptable kind of knowledge. That there can be other ways of knowing, for instance, intuitive reasoning or understanding or through direct experience of the known, that are perhaps equally valid and reliable is generally not recog- nized. Rationalism, in short, is inadequate for an understanding of some of the deeper and more elusive truths of life. In pursuing the scientific path we have forgotten how to use our intuitive faculties and our bodies as agents of know- ing. Working with the Daode jing as a mystical text can serve as a type of Zen koan (enigmatic question or riddle), which may provoke a type of mental crisis, forcing one to go beyond the rational, analytical, ordering mind to intuition.
Ultimately, the significant issue for me becomes how the Daode jing can be used to force us to confront these larger epistemological issues. There is little argument among scholars that this extraordinary text is multilayered and can be read, legitimately, from a number of perspectives: as a philosophical text, a political statement, social commentary, a literary piece, and a mystical text. In my courses dealing with the Chinese religious worldview, where the emphasis is on looking at religion from a cultural perspective, we look at the Daode jing in both its cultural and historical milieux as well as from the aforementioned perspectives. While being aware of the cultural and historical context and the numerous ways that this text can be interpreted, students in the course on mysticism are obviously encouraged to read it as a mystical text. I would argue not only that the Daode jing can clearly be read as a mystical text but that, in fact, employing this perspective will greatly enhance other ways of reading and
mysticism in the daode jing 67
understanding the Daode jing and, again, serve to highlight certain epistemo- logical issues. Although, as previously noted, I consider the case for the Daode jing as a mystical text to be self-evident, I still expect students to make this case in the context of this course. Obviously they assume that it is a mystical text since it is being used in a course on mysticism. However, that does not preclude me from forcing them to establish that case, as they are required to do with texts from other traditions that are being used in the course. The two primary overarching issues that we deal with in this course are: What is the nature of ultimate reality? and How may one experience that reality? With the basic assumption that mysticism and mystical experience encompass those two is- sues, we work on establishing, through the use of numerous sources, what mysticism is and what generally characterizes mystical experiences or states. Our working definition tends to be fairly inclusive of many different types of mysticism and many different perspectives, including philosophical, anthro- pological, psychological, religious, and scientific. Although any model or defi- nition has its obvious limitations, we work at developing a fairly comprehensive and flexible model that, while admittedly far-reaching, still has sufficient structure to allow for a workable schema.
At the point in the course where students are dealing with the Daode jing, they usually have a very good understanding of what generally constitutes mystical philosophy and what characterizes mystical experience. A particular piece that is extremely well suited for preparing students to deal with the Daode jing as a mystical text is Erich Neumann's essay ''Mystical Man. ''6 Neumann offers us a mystical anthropology in his basic claim that not only is man capable of mystical experience, but he is mystical by his very nature. In fact, Neumann argues that one does not become fully human, that is, realize one's full po- tential, until the outer self (individual self, ego) becomes fully united with the inner self (numen, numinous, transpersonal self, the creative void), which certainly could be conceived of as the Dao. Like Neumann's creative void, the Dao exists within each of us, whether discovered or not. This creative void and our mystical nature, whether realized or not, can be found in the early psy- chological source of original unity and lives in our psyche as the archetype of paradisal wholeness. For Neumann, one's journey through life is to recapture this lost wholeness (returning to the root, the Dao) in full consciousness and to see, in the transparency of the world, the numinous substratum (Dao) and that the human is an aspect of numinous existence.
With the preparatory background in place, students undertake both exe- getical and hermeneutical analysis. I am fully aware of the limitations of this analysis for students at this level, but I am also convinced that this type of exploration will allow them to come to grips with some of the basic issues of the
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Daode jing in a valuable way. In promoting a hermeneutical methodology I require students not only to think in these terms in preparation for class dis- cussion but also to keep a journal in which they explore and wrestle with these ideas in some detail. The journal is effective preparation for class discussion because it forces students to go into much greater depth in exploring these ideas through interpretation, reflection, and critical analysis.
The beauty of the Daode jing as a mystical text is that it wastes no time hitting the reader right in the face with the critical epistemological issue, which, of course, becomes a significant pedagogical issue as well: How can you de- scribe or talk about the Dao if it is ineffable? The Dao is quickly identified as the Ultimate, the First Principle, the Root of all existence, the Mother of all things, but also as the Nameless (wuming), the Ineffable, the Indescribable:
As for the Way, the Way that can be spoken of is not the con- stant Way:
As for names, the name that can be named is not the constant name. The nameless is the beginning of the ten thousand things;
The named is the mother of the ten thousand things.
Therefore, those constantly without desires, by this means will per-
ceive its subtlety.
Those constantly with desires, by this will see only that which they
yearn for and seek.
These two together emerge;
They have different names yet they're called the same; That which is even more profound than the profound-- The gateway of all subtleties. 7
So we are initially made aware that there is, in fact, an ultimate reality, but it cannot be described. As students continue to search the text for the Dao, the issue of ineffability, common to mystical experience, becomes clear. In their pursuit of this elusive reality they discover within the text that the Dao is un- differentiated, the One, the source of the phenomenal world, change, every- thing that changes, transcendent, immanent, omnipresent, pervasive, and more (see Daode jing chapters 16, 25, 39, and 42). What they begin to perceive is that these are things about the Dao, that is, hints, suggestions, and allusions, but they are not the Dao. Whatever one can say about the Dao is not the Dao. Again, one is faced with one of the primary insights regarding mystical experience: that there is a certain transcendental truth that lies beyond words.
At this point the frustration and anxiety level among students is usually quite high due to their emotional and intellectual attachment to abstract ideas. They want absolutes! This is actually a very advantageous position for them to
mysticism in the daode jing 69
be in if they are patient enough to appreciate several things. First, when dealing with spiritual states and higher states of consciousness, language and abstract ideas are inherently limited. Second, if there is, in fact, a transcendent reality that incorporates all of existence and is a part of everything, including our- selves, there must be some way of apprehending that reality. Generally, their first conclusion is that there is an ultimate reality called Dao but that this reality can never be captured by words or concepts. This is obviously being claimed by the text itself.
After reading the Daode jing students turn to a number of secondary sources to further explore notions of the Dao. However, through their under- standing of mysticism they know that now the challenge becomes one of dis- covering what the path to this reality is: How does one possibly come to know the Dao? While dismayed by the elusiveness of the Dao and the limitation of words in pursuing it, they do begin to sense, in pondering the Dao, that there is something there, just beyond their grasp--a kind of all-inclusive unity which the text suggests but which they can't quite apprehend. This sense of elusive- ness is captured for them in their reading of the fourth-century c. e. poet T'ao Ch'ien:
I gather chrysanthemums at the eastern hedgerow And silently gaze at the southern mountains.
The mountain air is beautiful in the sunset,
And the birds flocking together return home Among all of these things is a real meaning,
Yet when I try to express it, I become lost in ''no words. ''8
This particular poem usually strikes certain chords, stimulating them to draw analogies from experiences, particularly spiritual experiences, in their own lives, for instance, about love, nature, and the sacred. Reflection on these per- sonal experiences allows them to bring the notion of ineffability more clearly into focus. At the same time they begin to appreciate the poetic structure and power of the Daode jing, that is, the value of symbolic language: metaphor, suggestiveness, images, ambiguity. This is a text that can't just be read and taken literally; it must be listened to, heard, and felt. Though we may not be able to fully apprehend the Dao through words or concepts, words can be used symbolically to suggest what cannot be stated and to engage the reader at a more existential or intuitive level. This experience begins to move them in the direction of intuition as a possible way of knowing or coming closer to the Dao.
After reading the Daode jing and the secondary sources we begin to discuss the Daoist notion of not thinking, in a rational sense, as a way of knowing and the Daoist fondness for paradox. To stimulate consideration and discussion of
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the value of not thinking I have them read a rather humorous piece, called ''The Professor,'' which alludes to the limitations of thinking as we generally con- ceive it. The following excerpt captures its flavor:
A few years ago I used to tell myself that I wanted to marry a cowboy. Why shouldn't an English professor say this to herself--living alone, fascinated by a brown landscape, spotting a cowboy in a pickup truck sometimes in her rearview mirror as she drives on the broad high- ways of the West Coast? In fact, I realize I would still like to marry a cowboy, though by now I'm living in the East and married already to someone who is not a cowboy . . .
More important than the clothes a cowboy wore, and the way he wore them, was the fact that a cowboy probably wouldn't know much more than he had to. He would think about his work, and about his family, if he had one, and about having a good time, and not much else. I was tired of so much thinking, which was what I did most in those days. I did other things, but I went on thinking while I did them. I might feel something but I would think about what I was feeling at the same time. I even had to think about what I was thinking and wonder why I was thinking it. When I had the idea of marrying a cowboy I imagined that maybe a cowboy would help me stop thinking so much. 9
This piece may not be heavily philosophical, but it does get them to consider how they generally attempt to know something, that is, to think about it, conceptualize it, and define it. When we discuss spiritual states or religious experience, however, they begin to realize the limits of rational and conceptual thinking and that there are additional powerful and profound ways of knowing at our disposal. Albert Einstein confessed, late in his life, that his deepest understanding of the universe did not come from his rational thought process but from his intuitive awareness.
As we continue to wrestle with the notion of the Dao being the One, students further appreciate the limitations of rational thought or thinking about the Dao as a process that is inherently dualistic. The mind objectifies the Dao by thinking about it, and thus the Dao loses its essential wholeness or oneness. Of course, if the Dao is everything, then it is also rational mind and subsequently can be apprehended, at least in part, by our rational thought processes. At this point they generally begin to realize, more fully, that indeed there are things that they have come to know in their lives intuitively as a result of direct experience, where there has been a sense of becoming the other, that is, the knower becoming the known. It is not necessary for them to become
mysticism in the daode jing 71
aware of the fact that they are the Dao, that is, have had a mystical experience, for them to come to the aforementioned realization. In a sense, their wrestling with this notion is like Zen koan practice, where the rational mind begins to sense its limitations. This raises some of the larger epistemological issues of how we come to know and the value of intuition.
One of the primary issues uncovered at this point, that they are quite familiar with in their study of mysticism and which is an essential part of the Daode jing, is the need to overcome the phenomenal self to acquire com- plete knowledge of the Dao. One needs to attain a state of selflessness and become the Dao. As Chang Chung-yuan suggests, ''The awareness of the identification and inter-penetration of self and non-self is the key that unlocks the mystery of the Dao. ''10 This need to overcome the limitations and restric- tions of the ego is a persistent theme in mysticism universally. It is a theme that forces students to deal directly with notions of self and the relationship of self to some larger, and in this case ultimate, reality. In reading the Daode jing from any perspective, this is an issue that cannot be avoided. Once again, the larger epistemological issue comes to the fore: How does one come to know the Dao? As Livia Kohn points out, the main obstacles to truly knowing the Dao ''are the senses and the intellect, which continuously boost a separate notion of ego through emotions and desires, classifications and conscious knowledge. ''11
At this point in our study students begin to understand that while the Daode jing presents them with a mystical vision of the Cosmos, and their place in it, it remains quite subtle and elusive regarding the path to this vision. In the realization of this mystical vision, one is directed to become the Dao, to be reunited, to return to the root from which one has come: ''The thousands of things all around are active--I give my attention to Turning Back. Things growing wild as weeds, all turn back to the Root. ''12 This idea of returning becomes an additional theme in the Daode jing that generally proves to be a rich and fruitful area of exploration and access for students. We explore this notion of returning to the source by focusing on the persistent universal human psy- chological urge to return to that from which we've come: God, the void, the universe, nature. As they contemplate what it means to return to the Dao this generally gets played out, by analogy, in a nostalgic longing to return to childhood, their hometown, or some spot in nature that they have been at- tracted to. They realize that these attempts to fulfill this urge of returning are ultimately unsatisfying because what they seek to return to is no longer the same--things change. They are not a return to the unchanging, the familiar, the source, the Dao.
Admittedly, the Daode jing, while offering some general guidelines to finding or becoming the Dao, is for the most part devoid of practical instructions.
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Certainly the mystic path, as it is generally defined, can be found within the threads woven through this elusive text, from the necessity to overcome self and ego and the senses to ultimately attaining a state of union with the One. A further exploration of the later Daoist mystical sects points us toward more specific techniques that were, and continue to be, employed as methods to acquire what the Daode jing is calling for: becoming the Dao.