Taoist path and genuine selfhood
Taoism remarks that it is the self that organically becomes one with tao. Becoming virtuous through time and experience. No directions nor list is cosigned. It is merely instructed by letting go of the external impulsion. Lending autonomy for the individual to embrace the tao over the governmental precepts. Despite the lack of numbering virtues to follow, the tao provides a cosmic order metric that promises a transpiring life and tranquility in its vestiges.
The tao has an obvious metaphysical reflection to other religious edifices. Yet the difference here is that the tao is an illustrative guide not a narrational command. The tao does suggest a hierarchical order of following the mast. The way to reach the tao is to listen and mimic the master. He has already reached the tao but like any teacher he assists others to attain such peace. In this construction the tao is foreign and mystically laced. There is no direction in its preemptive indulgence. The will of the newbie is to be a good student and attend all the visual lectures. The master’s non-reactive nature is blissful in his idleness. Passive and relaxed. It is the flow of the universe. No need to intervene to change but follow the current. There are precepts but those are more abstract messages instead of concrete actions to avoid. The metaphysical alignment is sacred in its cosmic force. There is a supernal-like property but it is less divine servitude and more decorated adherence.
Yet it also defends against secular rationality and virtues. There is no categorical imperative. Its religious-ish nature precludes the rational plunge. It does not seek to rationalise a list nor a corridor of misfits. It is enlightenment not through reason but through entering the flow. Similarly it is akin to diving into a pool and feeling the water cover the entire body. The cool water freezing the body, the body responding to warm up and the breathing carefully to concentrate the mind. Entering the pool shifts the paradigm. In a moment the entire frame has switched and the power of the pool water controls the narrative. The pool water is a part of the scientific nexus, it is the individual who reacts effectively to the situation. Maintaining his cool and overcoming the bottomless horrors. Immersing in the moment. The same can be said of entering a foreign country. Shame and discomfort resent the outlandish style but it is through consistent integration that the foreign country becomes hospitable. The immigrant does not feel of his origin home but of his new home adopting the new narrative and expressing it openly.
The rational void may insert its instinctive response to a certain station but the tao does not devise deductive reasoning into moral precepts. While detective skills are intuited for challenging abstractions, the tao does not admit to categorising the expanse of human action. The goal is not chronicle the exhaustive element but to integrate the element in the internal train. Even virtue signalling is off the table. The same goes to the internal matrix. The virtue compulsion is slimmer and categorically higher it still attempts to demand a central behavioural style beyond the goal. Focusing on the intent instead of the result. Though the latter could be dangerous in coercing individuals to convert or die. Still such ideological markers exclude the taoist harmony. Virtues are profitable but they a step beyond the simplistic result. They force man into a bubble to be of this virtue but not of another. Proclaiming certain expressions good and others evil. An arbitrary utilitarian motive to ensure the desired outcome.
The consequence of liberty holds back all other external creations. The tao does stand just beyond the darwinian track. Nietzschean superman to do as he pleases in light of the animalistic behaviour. The good and evil are constructions of external foundations. Follow the self desire and concede to urges at the behest of other’s considerations. Alternatively, mimic the scientific neurosis. The intuitive mind to act good or bad based on self reason and feeling. The emotional sensation after aiding a helpless other. Yet this lacks stability. The autonomous ethic is deranged and unstable. The lack of order tracks chaos. A world more disastrous than the apparent wild jungle. The need for an external ethic does mark a swing in ensuring the collective is on the same page. An element of communal agreement that does breech the individualistic surge with communal containment. A unified bond that measures in uniform commitment.
Transitioning from the autonomous to the heteronomous begins with zero specific demands other than a result. There is no training. A goal is subscribed and the seeker is prized to figure out how to reach the end. Unlike the autonomous ethic which plays on doubt and risk, this provides a second layer of support. Filtering the chaotic asymmetry needing a correction. The golden rule is to be inactive (wu wei). To allow the flow of the world to guide you. The irony of such a position is its insistence of human innate goodness. The goal of inactiveness is to not fall prey of desires. An external ethic of autonomous capabilities. No codified bullet points of logistical obscurities. Simply put, frame lifestyle around passivity. This does not mean to bum around but to live according to the true self or in to Heideggerian being. Though speaking of Heidegger may well prove his point concerning the loss of being. Inactivity is itself a shedding of the externalities for the pure self expression.
The goal of inactivity is the skill-filled majestic flow of action. Effortless in expressing like a coordinated dance rhythm. Concentrating on the process as the fluidity carries to the result. An individualised honest path that readies the self to the highest form of self-actualisation. A way of maximising one’s attributes and prowess. Yet this also fits into the necessity to follow one’s passion. The difficulty is that passion does not always mean capability. Desiring to be a doctor but afraid of needles or blood is not a good start. Seamlessly searching for a calling is more a fluid encounter with the outside world. Much of the impassioned results derive from cinematic inspiration. Little to do with self measures. Ridding the garments of external exploitation will drive internal destination. Away from all the coercive tactics of others. Forcing their way into your life. Demanding or encouraging a specific strand to follow. Shut them out and focus on the self’s calling. Meditate on self growth and ambition.
A mild mannered individual seeking his own greatness focuses on ensuring the self proves himself. Shedding the social attire for the true self. The social construction eating at his selfhood. Attempting to bind his self to the externalities imprinted in the contemporary realistic frame. Tao does not bend a knee to societal implications nor dogmas of the enterprise. The wavelength of the self’s accordance with its relation to the universe. The Buberian I to the eternal thou. Stripped of all the incumbent notoriety. The social constructs that hinge on necessitated exposure. Coercively pressuring the self to wear the clothes for the Galla. To fit into the frame instead of living according to the true self. Jeopardising the social experiment for persona tranquillity. The mantra of self actualisation instead of peer pressured aggrandisement. This is a proactive withdrawal from the lurking poison of handouts. Trying to be that which one is not. Step back and direct towards the rightful ledger.
Inactivity maintains allusiveness. The purpose is not to be seen in the centre. The ego trip to magnify the self as a part of the people. While eventually his isolation and socialised rejection will be exposed, his under the radar attitude is fully immersive in his own life. To allow the offenders to muster their way to one’s stronghold. To be ready to use defence against offensive might. To conceal oneself is to be imaginative in the presence of social suffocating. Paranoia at the exception is dangerous and disrupting to the social order. Yet the taoist is at peace with the universe. It is his relation to the world more than to the local country club that embarks a calmness to the directional manifestation. The crusaders will attempt to monopolise an echo chamber to preach their ideal. Their activity will be their downfall. Spreading their wings thin and unable to fully recognise the instability of the core. Too much force forward will inevitably topple over. True to oneself against the crusaders will martyr the impassioned souls to heaven.
The ethic is a natural grind of seeking to align the self with nature. To look past the commotion of inquiries and live life to a positive end. Feeling oneness and allowing that liberty to spring forth. The optimism and joyous affirmation follows the world’s fate. The self meditates on the cyclical order. There is a time for everything but it is critical to authentically connect to reality. The social fabric deceives and the preoccupation with necessities misaligns the I-thou linkage. Withdrawing to the self is an assertion of private fluidity to concentrate on the wonders of the world awe-filled In the sublime character of nature and human interaction. It is not passive observance but conscious action of the genuine self. Taking oneself seriously in a principled manner. Honest reflection in the pursuit of verified individuality. The self is not to be trifled with. The social fabric inquires demands and the self retreats to the tao’s instructions. Finding solace in the routine circle of life’s order.
Taoism does not insert a moral high ground in the reasoned efforts to disseminate an orderly construction. Instead the personal meaning derives from authenticity. From living according to one’s personal ordeal not the social denigration. The constructs seeking to eternal shape the individual are weakened by the tao. A generous metaphysic that provides lessons to follow. Short spurts of energy cultivate into an ideological frame. A model of security and serenity. A non-western motif of inactivity. A model that reduces the power of shame and control. Freedom lays awake the open door for the construction for the self. The principled aura meets a subjective process. A semi-relativistic paradigm that begins from the self to the world.
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