Taoism (World Religions: A Whirlwind Tour)

there was a moment a century actually but in the bigger scheme of things of moment in human history that changed everything one might argue that every moment changes but one in particular is singled out by scholars not just a religion but of anthropology of history across many disciplines and it has been described as the first axial age the first axial age and age when things shifted in a major way and we've already spent some time in that particular century it's the sixth century BCE who was born during that century do we remember from last week excuse me was it two weeks ago three weeks ago what a winter Siddhartha Gautama as far as we can tell there's some uncertainty some controversy was born during that century not just the Buddha though Lao Tzu about whom we will have more to say today the consider to be the historical founder of Taoism Lao Tzu that to see spelled differently but we'll go with Lao Tzu Confucius you might have heard of him who else Varda mana the great soul of India who founded a smaller religion similar to Hinduism but different in other ways called Jainism or Jainism some of the greatest of the Jewish prophets lived in the sixth century BCE Plato as far as we know lived in the sixth century BCE what on earth was going on was there something in the water I mean that is an incredible group is it not I mean the thought that has formed so much of modern human history particularly in the West as well as the East right I mean it's just incredible is it a co-inky-dink right or was something that when the aliens visited I mean where did this come from right where did this come from it makes you wonder well again Lao Tzu is usually said to have been born during this sixth century others date him at different times remember we talked last time about the title Buddha that it isn't his name it is actually a title well the same might well be true of Lao Tzu it may not be his name it may not be mr. and mrs. su and their little son Lao it means something translated it means something like old master old master which I think is very telling it it could well be a title of endearment and respect it will not surprise you to learn as with the Buddha we have very little well what is the term I'm looking for here uncontroversial factual data about Lao Tzu when you go back that far in history it is very difficult to know what actually happened and what might well be let us say embellishment right in other words we're not talking about history so much as we are talking about the four-letter word thank you yeah yeah exactly that's calling a quilt if you will of perhaps historical and certainly legendary material it is said that Lao Tzu was immaculately conceived you ever heard that term oh my Roman Catholic brethren and sistren what does it mean to be immaculately conceived come on we know each other we can talk right well it means that he well actually that is a very much Catholic well Christian interpretation that to be immaculate could conceive means you have no sin but I wonder if something similar is not going on here what does it mean come on a virgin earth alright to have been born if you will without the blessing or the burden depending on how you look at it of sexual intercourse alright yes it is said that he was immaculately conceived by a shooting star fireworks right oh it gets better it gets I love this story it is so telling right it is so telling and I cannot only imagine in this context that there are other stories that are you know moving around in your head it is said brace yourselves okay that he was in his mother's womb for 82 years I heard a visible grow someone could have been there well all of us have been there but yeah on the other end of that thing 80 I mean imagine if nine months is not long enough to have another being residing within your body eighty-two years now how old was his mother well she was older than 82 but here's our question okay here's our question think back to what we've been talking about before did that really happen well did it it doesn't really matter whether or not it happened I mean if your is let's just say if you're a scientific fundamentalist of course it didn't happen all right of course it didn't happen so what isn't a better question to ask why did Alice tell this story what do you think they're trying to say about this man well said on both counts right first of all the Immaculate Conception he's not like the rest of us right but that 82 years to have been born at 82 what kind of special is implied mature I think that is exactly the point that's happening here right that he was born already wise already wise and let me make a comparison okay of course if you know anything about Christianity you know some of those stories right the Immaculate Conception for instance right but you get those birth stories and then you get Jesus at 30 years of age get retag right again the historical certainty is somewhat fuzzy as we shall see in a few weeks but we really only have one story in between birth and 30 and I know I'm ahead of myself here but I think it's parallel okay it's only one story is anybody remember that story he was 12 years old where is he he's in the temple and what is he doing in the temple besides disobeying his parents well he says he's doing his father's work but what does that work what is he doing in the in that context he's teaching the elders did that really happen say on a Tuesday in Jerusalem in the year 12 did it well well well here's here's where we need to be fair if we're gonna claim historical accuracy for that one why can't we claim historical accuracy for this one oh now we're in the bigger context now it's beginning to come home a little bit okay yes whether or not it happened okay we don't even need to address that in this context right if you're a person of faith you might feel like you need to but in this context what is the more important question why do Christians tell themselves that story I think that is exactly the point is it not that he's special right that he's wise even in his youth I think maybe that is what is going on here well there are some things about Lao Tzu that might be more possible shall we say more historically accurate unlike other founders of religion he did not lead a public life as far as we can tell he didn't teach he didn't preach he didn't gather followers in fact he as far as we can tell worked as a keeper of the archives records a keeper of the archives in a western state in China what is today known as China right who is a keeper of the archives I think we might have some representatives here today the keepers of the archives right apparently he was a librarian he was a librarian and so well we don't really know much about this guy alcohol what we have from him aside from this you know bare bones material is a book it's called the daodejing ta o te CH ing the down de Qi and I would highly recommend that you get a copy of this book right and it's it's I'm not a Taoist but I have been influenced by the ayahs and I keep a copy around at all times just to pick up every one so long and look through it bears repeating it is the kind of text that you can think about and think about and there is so much wisdom there the daodejing I would recommend a particular translation there are many and when you are translating from a language different from English as Chinese is right two different translations might read very differently and most of them do Stephen Mitchell happens to be my favorite translation Stephen with a pH not a V Stephen Mitchell's translation the dabba chain and oh what a book what about here's the thing it may well be that Lao Tzu was not the author of the book it might be we're not sure but it might be that this book is actually a collection of the wisdom to which he would have had access as a librarian as a keeper of the archives in western China what we do know is that many of the concepts that he presents in in the text were already around in his day and that should not be surprising either one of the things that I wish we had time to go into each week and we've done a little bit of with the Buddha particularly none of these founders just drops out of the sky right like popping out of the head of Zeus they come from somewhere right and in their teachings you can see if you study them in their historical context come from somewhere else basically from their own cultural background with the Buddha we saw what was it that he recommended that we do in order to achieve nirvana well he went back into his Hindu roots and of course what he came up with was meditation is the way yoga is the line well you see the same thing here with Lao Tzu and we're gonna talk about if we have time today and I hope that we do another figure major figure in Lao Tzu in Taoism changsu is his name and he does very much the same thing the Dow itself ta oh the Dow okay was already in Chinese philosophy it's what Lao Tzu does with it and I would say the same about right it's not that what he came up with was original it's this particular spin that he puts on it that somehow catches on with people and eventually spreads to the point where these movements they turn into movements and eventually become major religious traditions the Dow for lao-tzu was a kind of unifying principle now the question one question we need to ask was the Dow a god is is the dow god well it depends on what you mean by the g word and i think we you know if you've been here in the past weeks you know what one particular image of the divine looks like we've talked about this right Gandalf okay in the West that tends to be the way that God is portrayed in again I think for special reasons right older wiser powerful right male authority all that comes with that with that particular personification well we need to lose that in this context I'm gonna try not to even use the word God let's say divine the dow is the divine okay but again we're in the east not in the west we've talked about in the past how in the West we tend to think of the divine right as being more powerful from us having created us that makes us separate from the divine and causes the problem of disconnection we need to figure out a way to get back to God whatever that might be following the teachers of Moses or Mohammed or through Jesus all right but in the East you have the concentric circles right so if this is us that would be the DAO well you're in the now we're a part of the DAO it's not unlike Brahman in Hinduism you are always a part of the Dao and it's not just you and it's not just me it is all things this beautiful day is an expression of the Dao in less the same way that the ice storm was right it's all a part of the dow and we'll have more to say about that in a moment here's there's another story that I really appreciate after this long librarians life rather quiet living in almost anonymity it's sort of a miracle that we even know who Lao Tzu is he retired and rather than going south to Florida or North Carolina or elsewhere he went west he was headed west he's riding off into the sunset tomorrow an American truck right and he gets to the Great Wall of China where he is stopped by a guard they engage in a brief conversation and it doesn't take this garden wanting to figure out this is a man of unusual wisdom and so he tells him sir I'm sorry but I will not allow you to pass until you sit down and write out your wisdom and that is the story the myth if you if you will of the origin of the daodejing did it happen that way we don't know does it matter not in this context okay the down a chain it's translated in different ways it means something like the way and its power the way and its power it is a it is as much a book of philosophy as it is of theology basically a meditation if you will a contemplation remember we talked about the the interrogative mode of the Eastern religions as opposed to the declarative mode of the Western religious a pondering of the meaning of existence why are we here what do we do while we're here what is the way to live a good life oh and from the very first lines from the very first lines it is not necessarily an easy book to understand I don't know if you have ever read Deuteronomy or Leviticus I'm sure that was just as clear as yeah no it's difficult right it's difficult any philosophy for the most part can be let me just okay go ahead and roll up your britches legs cuz we're about to get in the deep water here okay I'm gonna read you the first chapter of the daodejing and it goes like this okay work with me here okay the Dow that can be told is not the eternal Dow the name that can be named is not the eternal name the unnameable is the eternally real but naming is the origin of all particular things free from desire you realize the mystery caught in desire you see only the manifestations yet mystery and manifestations arise from the same source the same source now whoever wrote this one of the things that they are doing I would suggest is they are asking those basic religious questions and again I want to say it transcends religion those basic human questions who are we where did we come from where are we going right he's looking for the source of everything where did that all come from all right what's it all about and this is his answer this source is called darkness not like this source is called darkness darkness within darkness the Gateway to all understanding darkness within darkness the Gateway to all understand I don't think I need to tell you that that is a rather mysterious chapter right and I don't want to exotic eyes it right I don't want to do that and it's it's gonna take us a few lifetimes to completely unpack it I would imagine but here's the tribal deal and this goes for everybody including those watching elsewhere the first one to figure it out would you please met the rest of us no you can go on YouTube and leave your comment okay I mean seriously I think we're all trying to figure it out it's it's that elephant and we're the blind people and we're trying to figure out what this thing is okay a couple of things I can say about that though it's so Taoist and and and it in its own way very different I think from the traditions I assume most of us are more familiar with for us here and the way in and all about the light I am you walking the light and God is light right and in the beginning right but right there in the first few verses of Genesis what is the first thing that God creates it's the light right it's the white and it's so human all the way back into our very origins right the dark is frightening it's scary being like whoever the first one was to master fire don't you know they were the richest one and probably in the world very quickly oh not in terms of money but certainly in terms of goods but here it's darkness here is darkness what does that mean what does it mean well let's see if we can figure that out okay here we go the first thing that the howís will tell you about the dow is that there's no way to define what it is so she would just pack it in and go home no I have missed you all I'm glad you're back oh you can't explain it you you can't in fact that's the very first verse the Dow that can be named the Dow that can be explained is not the real Tower if you can explain it you're talking about something else if it's the real down no way you're gonna get into words all right that is just the very heartbeat of mystical experience and I guarantee you every one of yous had one it's that thing when you're trying to NEC they're so awesome right awesomely good or awesomely terrifying right when you're trying to explain it somebody even somebody who's really closer to you perhaps even someone who's there with you you can't get any worse you don't want to talk about that's it and that's and isn't it just like English to have a word for that which cannot be put into words right and the word is ineffable the Dow is ineffable it's uncapturable in human language in human understanding so again do we give up no Shelby we don't do we no you keep pushing you keep pushing and that's exactly what Dallas - what can we figure out right what can we figure out and where are we gonna find out about it well we have to look out there but if you're an Easterner you also know you have to look in here because those two are one and the same so let me quickly give you here I am talking about the ineffable but you know what am I gonna do right let's talk about the dow in terms of three different layers if you will three different ways of looking at the dow and see what we can unpack okay the first level believe me I'm gonna start as wide as possible right basically beyond the known universe okay which is truly the deep end of the pool and I'm gonna work my way in okay so if you feel yourself treading water a little bit it's gonna be all right I hope okay first level the Dow of ultimate reality the Dow as broadly defined imagine as possible beyond anything that we know or dream or even since okay it's big as they say around here it's mighty big it cannot be perceived it exceeds the reach of the senses the Dow which can be told is not the real down right another thing I like about Daoism is it is it offers some different ways of understanding the divine well we've already seen a couple of them but one of them in the West I think because we picture consciously or otherwise the relationship with the divine in the way that we do don't we tend to think of God in terms of height or does God live for instance in heaven with the Angels of course alright and where is heaven yes in terms of height well that is certainly one way of understanding the divine but it's not the only way Taoism they talk about God as the ground of all being Paul Tillich now German who escaped Hitler's terror came to the United States learn the English language became he was already a philosopher there at theologian but he came it became quite accomplished here especially considering he's living in a different culture not voluntarily and speaking a second language but he talks about God as the ground being i used a term from him i think it was the last time we met not being as in a being separate from us as beings but being itself anything that is is a part of the divine that's the territory we're in now right the ground of that out of which we all come and into which we all eventually return that's the dow of alternate reality and it is indeed a mystery we live in mystery and again as Westerners and now what science is all about we want to dispel the mystery yeah just give me some clarity up in here cuz life is foggy sometimes what do we do how do we know what we're doing is it okay do we are we doing the right thing and so often when we think we are no didn't turn out that way did it some you know what I'm talking about we want we want light we need light right because of the mystery but I love I think there's some courage here in recognizing mystery and just letting it be what it is being willing to sit in the face of what we do not understand because Buddhism and Taoism will tell you as long as you are trying to solve the mystery of life only with your rational mind never gonna do it oh you'll make some progress and look at the accomplishments that we have made in the West right but what have we missed what did we miss that certain ineffable uncapturable certainly untamable nature of nature itself oh we've tried haven't we tried the same nature oh yeah and done a pretty good job of it we split the atom what could possibly go wrong oh the video footage and I hope this doesn't traumatize anyone that the video footage of the tsunami in Japan nature untamed and one of those moments where you know and part of the reason it freaks us out is we want to live in safety and when that safety feels violated we start looking for certainty right I mean it's just part of what we do as human beings but here it seems it's okay sometimes to sit with that mystery and let it be what it is right to ride the wave and not feel like you have to swim somewhere more or less directly one of my favorite sayings from Taoism I try to practice it but I can't always those who know do not say those who say do not know you might want to use that at a cocktail party so it's up or at the breakfast table okay so the Dow of ultimate reality are you with me so far I noticed it's deep water well let's take it down a notch okay let's bring a little closer to home you'll be happy to know we can narrow it down at least to the universe now okay the Dow the way and I didn't mention that the word down means way it means path or Road okay where have we heard that metaphor out of all the ways of describing life where who gave us the Noble Eightfold Path absolutely from the Buddha here it is again right the way of the universe the the road the path of the universe well if at the level of ultimate reality the Dow is transcendent which is to say it is bigger than anything and everything that we can possibly imagine when we talk about the Dow of the universe we're also saying that that the Dow is imminent under before you write that down or type that okay imminent this is where my English major background is going to come out of why spelling is so important imminent several different ways of spelling that word now when Christians talk about the imminent return of Christ I am I in ent the imminent return try what do they say immediate right soon and very soon right around the corner it's a temporal reference right a temporal reference it's coming soon right that's not what I mean here if I had said eminent as in His Eminence Pope Francis who has a certain eminence about him doesn't he what he's doing that is am I in Eaton CET that's not what we're talking about again that it implies hi again like the mountain of the imminence of the mountains now it's I mm a in e int a that sounds so picky but it's important I am 8 and ent in man and it's not a temporal reference it's a spatial reference all right what it means is the Dow is bigger than anything you have ever known or ever will know but it is also as close to you as your very own heartbeat in fact it is your heartbeat right your heartbeat is the very heartbeat of the universe again you can think about this scientifically right the same energy that drives the stars themselves that keeps that Sun learning to warn us right it's the same energy that keeps us breathing it keeps us alive it's all one in the same it's all one of the same Dow ultimate reality right and the Dow of the universe again here we go it's that ancient concept where the universe itself the cosmos is understood in human terms its answerable anthropomorphize right the universe is a living being and the soul the spirit or shall we say the breath and when we talk about breath the breath of that universal being that is the down that is the down right it's what brings life to life we come forth from it we return to it eventually right and I appreciate the fact I don't think it will surprise you in you know knowing what we know now that Dallas tend more than some of the other religions to use feminine metaphors for the divine not just our Father right the Dow is the indescribable womb right that births the universe and that supports it that nurtures it right remember we talked about what you gain by saying our Father what you might lose if you if you say our father right well you might gain if you say our mother that somehow that could be perhaps a recognition of both of those aspects of the divine here I think is a good balance for that I have heard that it's Dow described as the the law the governing principle of the universe the law of the universe and I think that could perhaps be helpful but in a Western context it's dangerous I think they're talking those terms the law of the universe because in the West you know it's scientifically speaking don't we talk about the laws of nature the laws of nature right Sir Isaac Newton sitting under that apple tree minding his own business told wait did that really happen say on a Thursday mmm does it really matter not so much right no there's a greater point at hand here um the law of nature I tend to resist that because it implies so much okay the scientific approach itself implies so much and I would argue that it is very much based on this Western religious background right the first universities if you will coming right out of monasteries back in the day it implies that we as subjects are separate from the divine as an object right in this much the same way we as subjects are separate from nature which means we can study it and the more objectively we study it the better our chances of coming up with of understanding the rules of nature the very idea that nature works according to certain rules right for instance gravity well do you know where that whole subject-object thing came from have we talked about Descartes Rene Descartes Rene Descartes French philosopher several centuries ago you've heard of this guy whether you realize it or not okay so just give me a minute here Rene Descartes in his day studied the philosophy before him right oh the philosophy of leading up to his day and what he saw and I think you know in some ways rightfully so is that each generation of philosophers would come up with a particular understanding of the universe and it's working right all well and good but what would happen is the next generation of philosophers would come and dismantle it and create their own only to be followed by the next generation and the next and the next well Descartes said oh no no no the buck stops here I'm going to devise a philosophical system that will stand the test of time and the way I'm going to go about it is exactly the opposite way that everyone has done it so far in the past philosophers have looked what look for what can we know the car says no I'm gonna ask what can we not know in other words he decided he was gonna doubt everything in the world until he encountered one indubitable undeniable fact and when he did he could build that philosophical system that would last forever okay you with me so far well in other words Descartes is doing what we have been talking about is he not he's looking for how life works what is the meaning of it where did it come from how can we know for sure so he's going to look for the meaning of life where do you think he meant do you think he went outside into the world of nature oh that would be so Eastern of him no I'm not making this up this one this one's more historical he climbed into his of it and now don't worry it was not a microwave oven okay 16th 17th century Europe it's more like in a pizza oven you might have seen right he gets into the has a kind of perhaps sensory deprivation I think right if I could cut off all distractions I can do some thinking but think about that for a moment he goes looking for the meaning of life sever's himself completely from the natural world and when he comes out of that oven you know what he says not in so many words guess what we're separate from nature hence we can study nature right well you might know the words they came up with well I'll give you the Latin first cuz that's how you wrote it cogito ergo sum what is it I think therefore I am confused no wait a minute that's an extrapolation I think therefore I am in other words the one thing in this world that I cannot doubt it's that I am sitting here in this oven doubting right and that was the linchpin if you will the Stackpole around which he built his philosophical system what do you know what happened to that philosophical system in the next generation of course all right and he goes on even today goes on even today that may help explain the laws of nature but I don't think it explains the Dow the Dow is more organic than that if you will and shall we say mysterious mysterious now so the the weight of ultimate reality the way of the universe lastly the way of humanity the way of humanity maybe this will be a little more familiar to us at this level the Dow becomes a way of life a way of being in the world what does it mean to be human how do we live that life right how do we live it will and here's weird thou offers imagery you know metaphors again it's all metaphorical it seems to me at some level or another the main metaphor perhaps would be that life is a river life is a river and think about that for a while which means it is dynamic it is moving it is changing what isn't that saying you never step into the same river twice right and if you've spent any time near one you know how much it can change especially when it begins coming into your home right I mean rivers rivers and I suppose if you were going to sum up that was I mean while we're generalizing we might as well go all in the way if you were going to sum up Taoism in a single expression you know we talked about Hinduism taught to vom I see you are that Buddhism maybe life is suffering is long as you remember the other three of the four Great noble truths here it would be something like go with the flow go with the flow now I asked if you've spent any time around rivers have you ever been to being you know what I mean tubing you know you get in the inner tube it's the point up to you being to go upstream it sounds a little like work to me that's kind of the opposite oh boy of tubing right isn't the point of tubing to go with the flow to go with foot to let the river carry you all thank you now and because of this dualism oftentimes gets the reputation for being an utterly passive religion and utterly and that makes me nervous any religion and in each one of them you will find some who become so passive that they really it's almost as if they themselves have disconnected from the rest of the world right I'm so busy finding my own bliss I'm really sorry that you're hungry it's not my problem right I got my own path to follow I'm not sure that's what these founders are talking about all seems to be a part of what's going on as we shall see when we get to changsu and I think we might have time I would suggest that this is the this religious teachings are not as declarative right you're gonna get your Ten Commandments in Judaism and Christianity and meaning shall we say Commandments in Islam right we know God so well that we know what he wants from us right now isn't you'd be lucky to find 10 suggestions right and perhaps the only one is this go with the flow go with the flow right and I don't know about you but in my own life when I have tried to live by those Ten Commandments oh not so easy well here's one thou shalt not kill thou shalt not kill simple right black of wine well maybe so maybe not right who does that include is it just humans what'd you have for lunch how many chickens have given their lives for us come on people we're all guilty except the vegetarians and thank you very much how many vegetables have come to hide for you we're all in this thing together right we're all in this thing thou shalt not kill what you can't kill a murderer what to whom does it apply does it apply to everybody we like but not to the people we don't home right you know that's all black and white thinking right black and white thank you well here it seems to me to be a recognition of the complexity of living the human it is not easy we want it to be and we struggle to make it so and sometimes we succeed but life just has that way of slipping through the cracks right the cracks that it itself created in the first place right so seems to be some flexibility here that we don't necessarily find in the other traditions oh there's so much I wish I could say but we don't have time all right so this has all been very philosophical so far okay well let me give you a story what better way to explain it right it's a myth if you will from Taoism called the seven sages of the bamboo grove you know sage being a wise person right and these men and they are men seven sages of the bamboo grove they are said to be quintessential Taoist if you don't know what a Taoist is you know look you look to these guys and there are many stories about them but there's one that I think is very illustrative of what talking about today we will not have time to deal with the religion of Confucianism but if you know anything about it you know that it is very different from Taoism for instance in many ways Confucianism is all about telling you what you should be doing right it's the right thing to do in the right place at the right time very different hours they make really good partners if you will because some people need rules others people not so much right but if you have some combination of both there's a little something for everybody well one of the favorite themes in these stories is discussions shall we say debates between Dallas and Confucius and I think you'll know as this one goes on that it's told from the Dallas perspective if you got the Confucian perspective might go a little differently in the eyes of Dallas Confucian asar uptight moralistic in the eyes of Confucian as' Dallas are slovenly they're lazy amoral right well there's a particular Dallas Luling don't worry buddy's name just get the point here Luling a group of Confucian it's Confucian excuse me Confucian as' come to see Lou Lane to do their favorite thing which is to debate him about life right and so they knock on Lily's door and he answers it as was his way and how can I say this in polite company oh natural in the buff okay and as you can imagine those Confucian aswer quite appalled but Luling very politely invites them in has them seated surfs them tea and there they sit just I just can't even believe this is happening right until finally one of them says kind sir how is it that you can scandalize your neighbors by walking around your house in the nude and loujain looks at them for a moment and says this home is my universe my clothing is my world so what are you doing in my pants a religion with a sense of humor with a sense of humor alright turning it on it's a year a little jab at the Confucian is and I'm sure that would go both ways I mentioned Chun soo I have a few minutes to talk about him this is where that wasn't might become a little more familiar to you do you know the yin-yang symbol right it's the circle with the wiggly line right and two little circles with in black and white you it's usually portrayed but it could be other colors as well okay if Lao Tzu gave us the Dow and don't you know as all things and don't forget that was already in Chinese thought before his time he just he's the one who put it in that formulation changsu and we know even less about him and then we do about Lao Tzu if that's possible right it's the one who comes up with the end and the yang with the enemy okay the end excuse me here's where it is important to read religions in religious traditions and religious teachings in terms of gender and gender politics okay the yin why I in not young but you know some of you know that's my pet peeve yang yang don't ever say that unless you're referring to the yin yang twins so musical group came out a few years ago who will forever be known for getting the name wrong but that's okay with them I'm sure right yin yang the yin is said to be the feminine aspect of the dow and of all reality it's it symbolizes the feminine it symbolizes coal it symbolizes winter it symbolizes ice it symbolizes bad don't shoot the messenger I'm just a reporter here okay I guess who came up with this I don't think it was mrs. Lao Tzu mrs. Chung sir no no the yang in its own way stands for light and summer and snakes and snails and puppy dog tails right are the good warmth but here's the thing you know the symbol right some white in the black some black and Hawaiian good in the band bad in the good is that and down shalt not kill no black of white no see it's not just a matter of thinking it's a way of actually living in the world right in a world that is oftentimes more complex I would argue then black and white gender itself right do men have a little bit of female in them do women have a little bit of my own in them I think that is something as a culture we are finally waking up to I know when I was younger and for my dad's generation in my granddad's you're either a man or a woman right and then I don't know Mel Gibson cried in a movie and things changed something and it's okay it's okay and young people to get you you live in a more complex world it's a it's a world of which we're more aware of its complexities in terms of children the choices that you have right there definitely from the way it used to be and good luck it's tough but I think in its own way it will be let in five minutes yes it will be less tough than it might have been for us back in the day because we had those clearly defined roles right and if you you don't even have to break them if you get even near the borderline right you're already suspect and some consequences will ensue oh my gosh well yin and yang the seasons think of the seasons right what here's the other thing the symbol is so different from the cross let me go with the cross okay because that symbol it seems to me stands for the truth right it's the cross is the same yesterday today and forever it too caught the scriptures right it never changes that's what it does this is different right even to think of it as that static symbol is to miss the point some part right because it's always moving like the river like the seasons okay like life itself we're getting older even as we sit here sorry to remind you but there it is right oh it moves and if you take that black and white symbol and you spin it at a high rate of speed it's not like a white anymore it's great just like life just like life right and if you know I mean how many situations have you found yourself in and I think I'm on a mission that's before I can't remember I think it bears repeating how many situations have you found yourself in were you knew exactly the right thing to do or you thought you did and you did that right thing and blew up in your face old baby baby baby I didn't mean that that's not what I mean right how many times have you done that wrong thing what you believe to be wrong right turned out to be one of the best things you ever did how do you know how do you know and the Daoists give us a story and he goes like this there was a farmer who had a horse yeah yeah and he loved that horse so it was his favorite horse right but one day that were surrounding I squeeze me mm-hmm and the neighbor there's always a neighbor in these stories it's kind of a straight guy comes over to offer his farmer slap well you never know what's bad today might be good tomorrow sure enough next day the horse comes back and it's brought with it a whole passel of other horses here comes the neighbor think this is awesome look at all these three horses almost light well you never know what's good today might be bad tomorrow sure enough next day his sons a farmer sign clowns on one of those wild horses right what happens gets kicked off breaks his leg here comes the neighbor sorry right and sure enough the next day soldiers come through that village on their way to war they would have taken the farmers son perhaps to lose its life or be you know traumatized for a lifetime as a broken leg and you could just keep right on going keep in that my client in that life and that in yang symbol and the teachings of Taoism itself I think attempt to recognize the difficulty there it is again the mystery the mystery of ethics how do we know the right thing to do and if we don't do the right thing even though we meant to is there any slack that can be cut for us or is a cut-and-dried man is it cutting right maybe there is some feminists slipping in here after all at least as it is tradition look understood I'm gonna leave you with a story today because I think that would be appropriate um and it's partly a Taoist story but it's also partly an LD story um another of my favorite sayings from Taoism is this once upon a time I Chun soo dreamed I was a butterfly fluttering here and there to all intents and purposes a butterfly but then I woke up and now I am not sure whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly or I'm now a butterfly dreaming I'm a man I have no idea what that story might mean but I like you in fact I liked it so much that I used it back yep don't even you still have landlines have you ever seen a little telephone they're still connected to the wall yeah back in the day right back when I still had a landline and I had the voice machine the voicemail machine you know I come home from me long one day you know and I hit the button cuz I have a message well I had used this saying as my voicemail message yes I'm not a big fan of technology I think you never that about me and the telephone could be such a loser so I figure if you're gonna talk to me you got to get past chums okay so she sure enough I punch the buddy I'm not thinking and my dad's brother uncle B oh he's such a wise guy hey Larry call me Larry Larry you are a man you walk I think it was afraid you know that poor boy went off to college and just they ruined it oh thank you so much for coming next way I'll see you next week

Channel: Elon TLT

Views: 39,119

Rating: 4.7914338 out of 5

Keywords: ld russell, Taoism (Religion), truitt center

Id: DfeMBja6dMA

Length: 55min 54sec (3354 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 02 2014