Everything and Nothing: The Tao of Understanding

There have been many a time throughout my wanderings on this forum that my understandings of the Way have been questioned man. I thought perhaps it was time to share my experience. After all who can be understood without first understanding? This will be my first time trying to verbally state my entire knowledge and I will not take it to it's deepest wanderings because if I do that then I will be unable to speak with any true knowledge. The Way is indescribable, unknowable, unteachable, and yet it is perfectly known, easily heard, and often teaching.

The first thing that I should say man, is that my path is one that is based in rationality and mysticism, I will never claim that it is 100% Science or that it is 50% Philosophy, or even so much as 10% reality. This is my Way and the paths are only fully knowable to me....and can only be found within my unknowing.

Let us begin brothers and sisters.
In the beginning there was nothing and there was everything. This is because the Tao is all things and yet it is nothing too. It is a mighty hurricane and yet it is quiet like the whispering wind in the trees. This understanding then brings understanding of the beginning being akin to this. The beginning is akin to all things that now exist because all things that could exist were there. Still at the same time nothing exists. All things that we perceive about the universe is Tao. We are, as it is.
In science the Tao can be akin to energy, even as matter and antimatter. It is the perfect balance that is our universe. It is both Chaos and Order. So since all matter, antimatter and energy is the Tao you see where I am going. If all things we can perceive is the Way then we naturally can follow the path.

Entities are all slivers of the Tao, which is why all entities are not alike completely. All deities are the Tao, and yet the Tao cannot be found in any of them. All knowledge is the Way but the Way cannot be found in knowledge. I cannot speak, It does not care, it does not know, It is form within formlessness. Science knows It yet the Tao is undetectable by it. Yet still none of that is true, for when we speak of the Way we do not know the Way.

All dualities are the Tao. Good and Evil, right and wrong, matter and antimatter, God and Satan, all trinities, all singularities.
We are the Tao, hence reincarnation. Sometimes the Way is new paths, therefore ghosts, understanding, and incarnation, are possible. It may seem simple to some, and that is because we cannot know what we speak of.

Matter and Energy: A false dichotomy
True Tao
Taoism: Basic Fundamentals
Matter and Antimatter
Remember each of these links are understanding. They do not even come close to the Tao.

I do not worship, I am in awe, I do not know, I am knowing, I do nothing, everything is done with me.

I hope that this small breakdown helps others to know me and my Way.
Know but Know Nothing
IH

 

very well said!!

I have been reading up on Taoism lately.

 

What is your Way?

 

my own way is the nalanuthu. that is in a language of another world that might exist only in my mind. it means way or path in the mountains.

like all words, its meaning is redundant.

 

Very good post---but I think in modern times people have become too wrapped up in a dualistic interpretation of Taoism. In fact, they become too wrapped up in a Westernized version of Taoism that suits our Western sensibilities of a universe that is rationally ruled over by ab absolute that is a clean and simple singularity. But Taoism is handed down to us directly from a Ural-Altaic shamanistic belief system that is directly tied back to archaic paleolithic understandings of the universe. This means that in its heart, Taoism is multiplistic, a concept that is hard to understand from a Western perspective. True Taoism is what we in the West differentiate as folk Taoism, and just about any Western Taoist would be lost in a real Taoist temple.

Here is something I posted on this subject in this Taoist corner of Hipforums a few years ago. (My post here is revised a bit from the original one you would find in that thread.) The title of the thread was, 'Can there be good without evil?'

 

it just makes me giggly... Tao.. tao.. hahaha Puts a smile on my face every time

 

The way that can be named is not the true way.

:beatnik:

 

The only Way that can be shown is the one you Walk - and don't talk about. True Intent leads to action so that the intent may be manifest - not that as we Grow so also might our perception of our Intent.
Often the Way of Growth comes from mistakes that became tranmuted through openness and willingness to Learn into Lessons that we in this Now use to help guide our Way amidst distractions and others energy fields.

To make any attempt to make one's Path anothers is to mitigate the unfolment of All.
The pathos of ego serves to separate - from whence the dichotomy of learning and changing and growing can proceed.
Each has their own perception - and each polishes their own facet into the One gem of the All in which the sum is greater than the parts.....my perception

May we all Grow

Namaste (my spirit bow to your spirit)

 

My understanding over the past few years has been like water flowing yet remaining still, accepting when to yield and when to stand firm, sometimes silent as the touch of oblivion oft times as loud as the thunder heralding the storm. Within I am me yet not me for within and without all is the Nameless and the Named. Acknowledge my returning understanding let it flow through your Self if you so desire. Only you can determine its fruit within your own.

When I began my Way of Self I only perceived it to be my Self. I did not conceptualize balance for I was like a jug full of water. To flow I needed left out in the rain to become fulfilled and to accept the loss of fulfilment. I didn't acknowledge the Way of No-Self therefore I could not understand it. I understood the words but not the writer. Much of this will seem pre acknowledged yet it is more akin to a flowing river than a stagnant pond.

Before everything and nothing there is spontaneity and due to its nature it accepts unspontaneity and order,chaos, and all the pregnancy they entail are understood. From this balance arises all origination and therefore no origination. From origination comes existence. From no origination comes non-existence and flowing amidst them comes harmony. From this spontaneous realization comes the wheel of life and it's unknowable counterpart.

The wheels water the fertile ground and the myriad branches of each pregnant moment are born. Self and No-Self, being and non-being, acceptance and denial, perceiving and not perceiving, and anything or nothing else you understand or do not. The tree grows robust and yet frail.

At any given moment the balance shifts yet harmony never ceases. Just as the light is delimited by the dark so to is Self delimited by No-Self. As the wheels turn and the branches wither and die so too must they blossom anew. Never ceasing yet always ceased.

To clarify for the Self I state words yet in the naming of the myriad branches they flower and wither. Each concept is proven and yet found false each flowing closer and yet further away. I accept and therefore spontaneity accepts and denies. Balance is assured yet always there is no balance only the harmony of spontaneity.

Too often we accept our understanding yet refuse to acknowledge it's turning. We grasp tightly at our stagnation and cannot see it flowing through our fingers. This is good and evil, right and wrong, birth and oblivion yet never is it any of these things for spontaneous harmony is maintained.

it has been a long hard trip yet I trust the Way of Self has bore fruit.
Understand with me if you will I seek to accept.

I understand yet are not words simply the pregnancy of spontaneity given form? Your soil has bore it's fruit and I thank you for sharing the seeds of Self with me.

Your concept of the myriad branches bore fruit within brother and I thank you for it.

Nor is the Way that is unnamed the true way brother. Each relies upon the other in spontaneous harmony

I understand and thank you for your understanding. Look we are in the harmony of No-Self even in the midst of Self.

 

We are all climbing the same mountain gaining new and greater insights on our adventurous way to the top. There are many paths to choose from and our feet shape the path as the way shapes our feet and, in harmony with the way, the two become much greater than any mere sum of their parts. Yet, knowing we know nothing, the worst possible tragedy is to become afraid of the light, the worst possible tyranny is to deny the evidence of our own senses and sensibilities, and the worst possible failure is losing faith in our own journey. To be aware we must first accept our ignorance, to have a friend we must first desire to be a friend, to appreciate more of the humor and beauty in life we must first discover them in ourselves, to actualize more of our potential we must first be willing to face our flaws, and to truly live we must first allow ourselves to embrace life more fully. For no man is an island nor can he be the measure of all things lest he first embrace virtue as its own reward and wonder as the beginning of wisdom.