( The following is a
reflection and does not serve in any way as a judgment on the
existence or the validity of other religious beliefs. The
essay merely hopes to stimulate dialogue and thoughts about what
Taoism is and its practice. I fully acknowledge my depth of
ignorance regarding the oceanic profundity of Taoism and the 300
sects of Taoist practice as well as its 2,500 years of
history. This text merely serves as a stepping stone to
entice others to give and contribute their valuable insight into
the spirit and truth of Taoism. Sat Hon)
It's like the unpredictable reaction of a chemical on a piece of
dark metal.
It is based on
relationship. It rides the pure energy that is the result
of natural forces,
surging up and out of their interaction.
Taoism is neither
about explanation, nor about rationalization nor
justification. It is
about pure experience. It is about experiencing the
moment (the context)
regardless of the specifics of the event (the content).
Unlike Buddhism, it
is not about cause and effect (karma). Rather, it is
about dealing
directly with the energy of nature that is generated, taking
it in and releasing
it. Explanation is the antithesis of experience and
therefore it is
avoided in Taoism because it diffuses the charge built up by the
interaction.
For example, the current case concerning the death of JFK Jr. is
an excellent
example of a
tremendous charge of energy that has rippled through the
collective
unconscious of humanity as a whole. The death of JFK Jr. is,
in fact, the
culmination of a trio of deaths, including those of JFK and
Robert Kennedy, in
effect releasing a charge that has been building up since 1963.
The death of the
father set the process in motion, the death of the uncle
furthered it and the
death of the son/nephew has brought it full circle.
The result of the
reaction is a ripple throughout the universe that can,
if one listens deeply
enough, be experienced directly.
This is a very Taoist way of responding to such an event. A
Taoist sees this
as an opportunity to
experience reality in a very direct and powerful
manner. However, this
is generally the exact opposite of what most people
do. In this case,
there seem to be two types of reaction that people are
having.
The first is to explain it away. This approach, in turn,
generally takes one of
three forms. First,
the fundamentalist religious view, which holds that
the event was God's
will, that it was actually preordained. This
perspective, which
essentially denies the possibility of free will and is
quite immature, is
taken in order to try and construct a sense of order and
certainty into a
seemingly random universe. The second way is to engage in
armchair psychiatry,
and start proffering opinions of irresponsibility and
death wish theories.
Not only cynical and callous, this viewpoint is
predicated on the
theories of an intellectual heritage whose primary
proponents, Freud and
Jung, were mentally unhinged. The third way is to
take the New Age
approach and start going on about karma, but using the term
with a very
superficial degree of understanding, implying that karma
involves retribution
for sin, rather than cause and effect.
The second reaction is that of grief, especially public
demonstrations of
it. This has nothing
to do with the victims, but rather with the mourners
themselves, who,
threatened by the reality of life's transience and
fragility, act out
their suffering in order to make themselves feel better and
more stable. Feeling
sorry and grieving for someone therefore often stems
from one's own states
of self-absorbtion and uncertainty.
What both of these reactions have in common is that they
apprehend the
vividness of the
moment, a sort of energetic averting of ones eyes.
Therefore, the
opportunity to experience directly is diminished or lost,
because the reality
is too great for most people to bear. It is very much
in the vein of the
story of Chuang Tzu's wife dying, and of him sitting on
the floor, banging a
pot, and singing. From the outside, it looked like he
was acting
frivolously, but he was actually deeply appreciating the
situation
for what it was,
basking in the tremendous energy released by her passing.
It is not surprising,
then, that Taoism, though very up front and direct,
remains largely
hidden. This is because true practitioners understand that
the public reaction
to their practicing openly would be one of outrage.
Imagine what would
have happened if someone had begun dancing a jig
at JFK Jr.'s funeral.
Taoists remain, out of necessity, unpopular, and are
slow to "spill
the beans" about their practice.
So, what is the Taoist approach to something like grief or
depression? Very
simply, it is to
move. That is because movement releases the excessive pent
up energy which, like
too much gas flooding an engine, causes the body to be
overwhelmed with
energy, thus shutting it down. Physical activity, whether
Taoist movement or
simple labor, drains off this excess, rebalancing the
system, releasing the
pent up force.
So, in regards to the event of JFK Jr.'s death, rather than
trying to
rationalize it, or
becoming mired down in self-absorbtion, one can think of it from
the perspective of
pure energy, energy that has been released, reverberating
throughout the
universe for all to experience. Ironically, it is in this
simple act of being
that the true meaning of such an event is discovered,
not through the
mechanics of the mind, but through the directly lived experience.