Dialogue ~ 9

My previous blog closed with: “Language for how we perceive the world is inadequate; language provides structure to our thoughts and is how we arrive at and experience clarity, but at the same time it obfuscates what is simply known.”

I had also written, “What if truth, just like meaning, is not something which can be defined or put into words? Like trying to grasp a slippery bar of soap, what if it is attempts to take hold of truth as a mental construct or as if it were a tangible thing or an object, which accounts for an experience of despair?” I could interchange the word despair for confusion or even of collapse.

Many ancient texts have been translated into Western languages, some by scholars who have tried to render the original meaning of the text as faithfully as possible, even as particular cultural nuances are inevitable, particularly on occasion whereby original words had been ambiguous or where is no punctuation, as in the case of classical Chinese; other translations have purposefully included an author’s interpretation or appropriation. 

Laozi (literally ‘Old Master’) or Lao Tzu, a Chinese philosopher and writer, who lived around 601 – 530 BC, is believed to be the author of the text known as the Tao Te Ching and founder of Taoism. Many of the words and concepts of the text strongly influenced other schools of Chinese philosophy and religion, including Confucianism and Buddhism. Some say that Laozi travelled to India and taught the Buddha, or that he was the Buddha himself. Tao Te Ching has been translated as ‘the way’ and of ‘potency, virtue, character, integrity’; of what might today be interpreted as ‘moral excellence’ or ‘goodness’. 

The text is generally understood as referring to a process of the universe or as a metaphysical account of reality. It describes the Dao (or Tao) as the source and ideal of all existence; provides that it is unseen but not transcendent; that people have desires and free will which can lead them to act unnaturally and to upset their balance with the Tao. An objective of the Tao Te Ching is to lead students into their natural state and to be in harmony with the Tao; to be in a non-acting or calm state of flow and free from a torrent of desires.

The Tao Te Ching and tenets of Buddhism are clear as to what constitutes rightful power and of how right relationship with nature and conduct both arise. Lord Acton had shared a similar perspective through his view that authority (power) must be in service of liberty (which has to do with morals rather than politics) and that liberty arises from self-control, religious and spiritual influences, education, knowledge and well-being. He pointed out the correlation between an individual’s liberty and of prevention of control by others; that as authority ceases to be in service of liberty does it move into force. 

Clearly there is more to the human experience and nature of relationship than of it simply being a closed system of reciprocal action. Otherwise, any attempts to ‘tilt the scales’ would mean only that the whole would re-adjust and begin to swing in a different pattern or feedback loop, as can be seen in chaos theory. 

Various political theorists have suggested that Laozi’s ideas are similar to Friedrich Hayek’s theory of spontaneous order and that he was the first libertarian. There has been occasion when the text of the Tao Te Ching has been appropriated as a tactical tool, whereby fingers have been pointed and blame has been attributed. Recommendations have been given for various counter-measures to be taken or for the role of government to be minimised and to allow individuals to develop spontaneously with an aim of bringing about social and economic harmony.

Co-operation is when a group of people freely determine that it is in all of their best interests to work together to achieve a particular result. The social contract is an example of this in that a group of people living in the same area agree to follow certain rules and expectations in order for their society to remain stable. 

If an individual or group believes that all others should accommodate for their self-interest, rules or beliefs, attempts may be made to use force or conquest to become dominant over the others and to try and bring about a new state or experience. This can include intimidation and coercion as well as actual physical harm.

If an individual or group authority (power) is in pursuit of liberty and is exercising without the constraint of virtue ethics that is tied into practical wisdom then it will disrupt the natural order of society. Spontaneous order has been defined as the spontaneous emergence of order out of seeming chaos. It is typically used to describe the emergence of various kinds of social orders from a combination of self-interested individuals who are not intentionally trying to create order through planning. The end game of an unfettered pursuit of liberty in a system of self-interested individuals who are in themselves not hindered by any given moral code is an ultimate collapse of that society. Freedom of growth is only made possible when it is sustainable from within a whole. 

Let us revisit what has been said earlier in that, “In Buddhism, conscience is associated with compassion for those who must endure craving and suffering until such time as right conduct brings about a natural state of mindfulness and contemplation; this can in turn open into a state of being-ness which is aware of itself as a single whole.”

The will to power or of ‘do what you will’ and of being able to exercise freedom to pursue an activity that is without social constraint is not a ticket towards hedonism that is without consequence. In chaos theory, the ‘butterfly effect’ has been defined as ‘the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large difference in a later stage’. 

As the tensions of social co-operation begin to weaken and the conditions of collapse are created, an underbelly is revealed and tribal bonds are increasingly relevant. Leadership will move from a platform of consolidated power to one of placating the strongest; power is literally moving back into the hands of the many with a voice: ‘What do you want? We the people…’ Right conduct and mindfulness can position the individuals of a society into an authentic experience of their being, but so too can populism be a demonstration of collective power that has not yet located its true origin.