The Yin and the Yang
The Yin and the Yang
There is one final connection I want to make here. Many other systems of belief have been brought to bear that have influenced the body of thought in the New Spirituality and could be brought into the discussion, including the doctrine of dependent origination.6 But I think that if we ignore the Taoist link, we do injustice to the total landscape of the New Spirituality.
Taoism really can and should be understood in the context of China’s struggle to find harmony and moral reasoning. Between the extremes of using “law” and “love” and the political turmoil ever punctuating its history, it seemed that Confucianism would have the last word in Chinese ethical thought. Confucianism sought to place morality beyond a utilitarian and motive-driven base to doing things because they are right in and of themselves. That was key in Confucianism. What you do, you do because it is the right thing to do. It is almost Kantian in that sense of the ethical imperative and sense of duty. The debates regarding various descriptions of what is essentially good make up a significant part of Chinese philosophy.
Taoism was one of the major schools and differed from Confucianism significantly on how to get society back on an orderly track. There is much that can be said here about Taoism, but I want to just underscore a handful of Taoist ideas that have carried over to the New Spirituality.
One key idea of Taoism is that words do not have absolute meaning. They are considered to be misleading, limited, and, in fact, deceptive. Every word can be understood only in the context of other words, and every concept is understood only in the context of other concepts. In other words, words are word-related endlessly, cyclically. They cannot portray a comprehensive picture and are therefore relative. Language ends up as a game and can be a good side excursion but not the mainspring of communicating reality. (Of course, that very thought is expressed in words.) This is a little bit like what Nietzsche proposed but at the end had to concede that he, too, worshipped at the altar whose name is “Truth.”
A second major concept of Taoism that has been added to the mix of the New Spirituality is that life does not have any clear purpose. Events may have causes, but they do not have immediate purpose. This has led to clever stories of whether man is the measure of all things or if there is some transcendent order behind it all. The food chain cycle reveals an endless cyclical nature. Man eats the beast, and then the beast eats the man, somewhat like what Voltaire opined when he said that the misery of each makes up the good of all. Self-realization, a skepticism of language, and the agnosticism of any final purpose made for a worldview that believed that finding the “Way” to interpret life, or the Tao, is like balancing on the trapeze rope of life.
Skepticism about language, morals, and government emerges from a view that the Way (the Tao) cannot be grasped by the intellect. The universe proceeds, it moves, it does what it does. But it cannot be grasped intellectually or expressed in words. It cannot be described. The way of nature, then, should be the model for proper living. Laws, government, and institutions are all unnatural creations that put unnatural demands upon people. The universe is not a machine; it is an organic whole.
The Tao Te Ching goes on to teach that the two forces that run the universe are the yin and the yang: Yin expresses itself through femininity and earthiness; yang through masculinity and activity. The yin is represented by water; the yang by fire.
When all is said and read, several conclusions are drawn:
There is a fascinating Taoist story that illustrates these conclusions. It is about a farmer whose horse bolted from the barn and took off. He went to his neighbor, who said, “Oh, that’s too bad.” The farmer stoically replied, “Who knows what’s good or bad?”
But the next day, the horse returned and brought six wild horses with it. The farmer went to his neighbor again, who said, “Oh, that’s so good!” “Who knows what’s good or bad?” the farmer drily responded.
The third day, the farmer’s son tried to ride one of the wild horses and broke his leg in the process. The neighbor, hearing this, shook his head and muttered, “Oh, that’s bad.” The farmer shook his head and responded: “Who knows what’s good or bad?”
The following day, soldiers of the landlord prince came around looking for able-bodied men to join their ranks. They ignored the farmer’s son because of his broken leg. “That’s so good,” said the neighbor. “Who knows what is good or bad?” sighed the farmer.
Notice carefully that though none of these are moral events, they are given a moral value… good or bad. Here, too, there is a muddying of the waters and a confusion of categories. What moral reasoning caused the horse to run off? The events happened apart from any morality, but a moral explanation for them is demanded. It could have been put to just good fortune or a blessing. Instead, the events are given moral significance and demand a moral response.
Whatever answers are lacking are left to koans. What the spiritual books cannot explain, the poets are left to expound upon… When hard reason fails, leave it to the poets. Two poems sum up the resignation within Taoism toward whatever life brings; the first, from the Tao Te Ching, says it all:
First there was Tao
Then there was Yin and Yang.
And then there were words.
Oh that men would have left it alone.7
The other poem is from a former Confucian scholar who left the ranks of teaching to go and live in the countryside:
I pluck chrysanthemums from the eastern hedge,
Then I gaze long at the distant summer hills,
The mountain air is fresh at the dawn of day;
The flying birds two by two return.
In these things there lies deep meaning;
Yet when we would express it, words suddenly fail…
What folly to spend life like a dropped leaf
Snared under the dust of streets!
For a long time I have lived in a cage;
Now I have returned.
For one must return
To fulfill one’s nature.8
One would think this was written in the sixties by a professor turned hippie in the United States. Or that it was the foreshadowing of books like The Celestine Prophecy. These ideas came into the melting pot of the New Spirituality. Terms like “yin and yang,” meaningless ontic referents9 in language, birds flying in a pattern as an omen, life itself harnessing the way of nature, fit well into the mix of “May the force be with you.”
As the old adage goes, “and yet… and yet…” Somehow, while all these may provide an anesthetic for simpler situations, the complexities of life ride hard on the shoulders of reality. The average person knows he or she needs help with finding hope in the midst of the tragedies and disappointments of life, and these ideas provide no hope.