Analog2Digital

From a posting on a Taoist mailing list:

Hi Meg,

I was raised Catholic also, went to Catholic grade school, and gradually fell out of a belief in "God" through high school and college. In college I discovered Taoism, and have grown more solid in my recognition of the Tao every day.

I think the situation you pose is one of the several big reasons I couldn't continue to follow Catholicism. I knew many people who attributed every good thing they worked for and earned to God, and left every difficult decision and problem in the hands of God. A Catholic would pray to God and ask that the gas they had left last long enough to reach another gas station. A Taoist would check his gas before he ran out, and, if he couldn't avoid running out of gas, would do what he could once he ran out to get more gas, or find another means of transportation.

I think the difference is in accepting the reality of reality as it is, rather than believing in an idealized version of reality that will repeatedly disappoint. I think the difference is trying to attribute every situation to someone, whether human or God, rather than attributing situations to their actual causes and substance. I think the difference is, at root, whether or not you take life to be as you see and feel it, or something other than what you see and feel.

Taoism is not as narrow a philosophy as Rationalism or Objectivism, which believe that our human capacity to reason is all we can rely on, because the world has an order and energy all its own which reason often fights against or thinks it can contradict. Taoism also doesn't posit humanity as paramount or unique among the universe, because although our brains give us certain advantages, they also create as many problems; and other plants, animals, and elements have other advantages that make them better equipped for their own spaces (for example, would you say that a human is superior to a fish, if a human being would die from drowning by attempting to live one day as a fish? or would you say that a human is superior to a bird, if a human can't even fly?).

Taoism is also not as limiting as modern Psychology or Post-Structuralism, which believe that we only have access to the world through ideology, language and perception, and therefore can never experience reality as it is. Taoism recognizes that language and perception are the way we usually interact with the universe ("The Tao that can be named is not the true Tao" "... for convenience I have called it Tao"), but proposes that if we quiet, "still", our rational minds, we can come to understand the unity and complexity of reality on an almost intuitive level, and understanding that makes everything else clear.

Meg, and others reading, I don't mean to dismiss Catholicism, and I think coming from a background of Catholicism can help you in undertstanding the Tao. But there are certain beliefs I believe you do have to overcome (that our access to God comes through the church, that God will provide or make true what nature doesn't, that heaven exists only after we die) before you can really understand the teachings of the Tao. These are realizations that you have to come to yourself, in your own way, but the more you read and talk about Taoism, and relate them to your own life and reality as you see it around you, the deeper your connection to the universe, and the easier you'll be able to answer a question like what to do when you run out of gas.

Have fun with it, though. Life is ultimately a wonderful gift given by no one, a fortuitous state of events that makes us aware of itself, and you should laugh and enjoy it.

-Bill Pena


> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 12:25:04 -0000
> From: "meg"
> Subject: kinda talkin to myself here....
>
> keep in mind that i was brought up catholic ;-)
>
> im driving down the road and i think to myself, what if i suddenly
> realized i have NO gas left in my car. as a catholic, i would say a
> prayer that i "PLEASE dont run out of gas and just make it safely to
> the next gas station".
>
> so then i wonder, as a taoist, what would i do/say/think?
>
> then i remember that a taoist "goes with the flow" and trusts in the
> tao and the natural progression of things. so i may run out of gas,
> or i may not, but either way i flow along easily and be content. and
>
> in a way, this reminds me of the catholic teaching of letting god's
> will be done.
>
> what do you guys think?
>
> meg

posted by creon @ 10:17:24 AM