fluidity. diversity: general #516

The way I practice for myself, as well as teach movements is now a blend of what I have been learning from my human teachers, from the texts of Taoist philosophy, and from my own personal experiences over the decades. In the process of learning on a Taoist path, the relevance of your own observations of the natural world with all its phenomena increases over time, just as you have spent a considerable amount of time probing the teachings of your human teachers.

Regarding Taoist philosophy (老子, 莊子): Ancient Taoists regarded animals, plants, inanimate matter, and natural phenomena as their elders and teachers. They thought of the earth as “nourishing mother” (食母). Ancient Taoists avoided a narrow focus on roaming in the conscious intellectual realm. They were instead particularly adept at absorbing knowledge from and learning with the natural world. They then translated their observations and profound experiences with the natural world into human language, into concepts that were later also put into writing—the Tao Te Ching being the text that I personally am mainly focusing on.

Unfortunately, too many of the concepts expressed in Taoist philosophy get later trivialized, misunderstood, and misinterpreted into something anthropocentric and individualistic. The idea of longevity is one of them. The longevity (死而不亡者壽, 長久, 常/恆) of the “whole” (天地) is suddenly narrowly interpreted, and deviates into the idea of the immortality of an individual person. This leads to experiments with and practices in inner and outer alchemy. The same holds true for the concept of interconnectivity (通) in internal and external Chinese practices (內功, 外功, 功夫, 氣功) which originally refers to much more than a mere opening of the meridians in the body allowing for special skills.

Concepts like the microcosmic and macrocosmic orbits (小周天, 大周天), and the metaphors they are using are—like the map of inner landscapes (內景圖)—also all too often framed in a mindset of mystification and exclusivity. This distracts you from what these concepts originally stood for, namely, an understanding of the unity of all things, of the interconnection of microcosm and macrocosm.  

Practices in line with Taoist philosophy do not focus on attaining special, exclusive skills. They do not foster such a mindset. The mind, if not balanced and integrated, is a dangerous tool. Practices in line with Taoist philosophy are not about setting yourself apart from the crowd. Practices of Taoist philosophy are, first and foremost, unifying practices—on conscious, subconscious, and physical levels. The concepts of Taoist philosophy and their practices are not “sold” as special. They are simply presented and practiced as practices in unity.

The Lao-tzu warns about the search for power, hubris, and a too exclusive focus on intellectual learning and knowledge—plenty of examples in the Lao-tzu (老子) and Chuang-tzu (莊子). The Lao-tzu (= Tao Te Ching 老子 道德經) is clear about the allure and corruptibility of intellectual (conscious and voluntary) abilities. Ancient Taoists knew how limited, limiting, and also destabilizing a narrow focus on human intellectual capabilities is. They knew that education and socialization therefore need systemic approaches. They knew that conscious processes—intellectual processes among them—need to be balanced by subconscious and preconscious processes and approaches. They knew that a deep integration with the emotions and all kinds of other bodily functions is needed. This is why, for ancient Taoists sitting meditation (坐忘) and naturally flowing movements are practices in daily life. Ancient Taoists have no one-dimensional anthropocentric understanding of health. Systemic health is their guide for individual health. Though I can not talk with my body as I can with other human beings, I can, however, communicate with my own body in very complex ways, nevertheless. The communication and interaction with autonomic and voluntary body functions, with all the inner workings of the body in Nei-kung practices, support the communication with the whole, and the dissolving of the borders between inside and outside (內景圖). This helps to “digest” what we have perceived with all of our senses and further enables us to interact more adequately.

Sleep is another topic in this regard. Sleep does play such an important role in our lives. It is clear that with such a large pool of subconscious experiences, sleep also needs to be fully included in the “multilogue”. Multidimensional communication is a key focus in Taoist philosophy. How would ancient Taoists, therefore, have a narrow focus on and idolize human language (不言之教)!

I am so fixated on Taoist philosophy, particularly one tiny text that was put together possibly more than 2300 years ago because it is the foundation of my research. I am not presenting it as the one and only solution. It is an inspiration.

In our current world, we focus too much on technological fixes that, more often than not, are commercial solutions looking at issues within a very narrow framework. Instead, technological approaches need a systemic framework in order not to backfire.

With respect to systemic frameworks, there are so many indigenous peoples and worldviews adapted perfectly to the different parts of the world they inhabit. There is so much we can learn from and with them because they are specialists in interspecies communication and preservation of their environments. An important way forward is looking backward.