>>4080166read tao te ching. it is short.
http://thetaoteching.com/the essence is that the dao is an unspeakable concept. we all know it but at the same time the second we try to see that knowledge it is gone. i hate to use the tired trope but it is somewhat like quantum mechanics where a wave function collapses; in trying to see this knowledge it changes, or merely isn't there.
it is much like ourselves. it even is ourselves. i know and exist, but when i think upon what i am, or where i am -- as in what specific point am i? the brain? well where in the brain? the left side? the right side? what is this consciousness talking to you... i know i am not where you are, or atleast i think not, as an example, and i believe i have myself squared down to about a cubic foot... but wherein that cubic foot can i be said to be seeing this text...
despite the insanity of this i type. i know i exist even though upon peering backwards i see nothing. so is the dao. i know it without thinking, but upon thinking i lose it... though the dao is there too, much like how even when i look backwards my self still exists. upon contemplation of my own consciousness i do not disappear, despite my apparent lack of sense dominating.
in this way daoism says nothing and everything. that has been a constant critique, that is sophism, but it does not ask you to be anything but yourself. daoism is said to be, according to it's author, a concept far before him and one far after him. being told of it is merely an act within the dao which makes it neither more real or less real. one can live a full life without ever hearing the word "dao" but it is nice to hear words in life.
whatever happens is the dao. what makes the dao special is it's ordinariness -- all alternate history could never be and will never be. there is only one life and it is this; that is the essense of the dao. to be in awe. no matter what happens next you lived and nobody can take that from you or change that your soul, or whatever you call it, acted it's part. take comfort in knowing that the dao exists and you cannot be erased... whatever happens you are real and of the dao, an ever continuing absurdity defying all comprehension.
that may also be said to be daoism, at least to me, the nature of irrational reality. we may pull back as many layers as we want of life, but despite the nihlism behind every answer we find we continue on. for some it may feel as though the entire universe, and then some, is screaming at you to kill yourself and that you do not exist. yet we smile back, against all sense, and continue in a line almost everybody intrinsically understands as doomed. irrationality ironically will defeat rationality despite knowing it can't.
in my darkest moments i have to remind myself of the dao by pulling back all layers until i finally reach the question my inner cynic can never answer, why i am here. i may find life meaningless or find rationality suited to answer everything -- but that question pulls me back to reality.
>A monk told Joshu, "I have just entered the monastery. Please teach me.">Joshu asked, "Have you eaten your rice porridge?>The monk replied, "I have eaten.">Joshu said, "Then you had better wash your bowl.">At that moment the monk was enlightened.or, in other words, it can also be summed up by this statement refuting the idea that anything can provide answers to that most basic question with words or physical form:
>if you meet the buddha on the road kill himessentially enjoy life. enjoyment may seem to have no meaning but that in itself is meaning, doing something despite all logic screaming at you not to -- much like that consciousness you are now which would make the rationalist's life a lot easier if it did not exist. enjoy crying and all else, you'll find that even death is perfect because it cannot be taken from you. everything you do is yours without any buts or ifs or anything else limiting it.
