TAOIST ETHICS

Chinese thinking vs Indian thinking

- talk about heavens -mostly directed
- how we are going towards life
to live our lives here hereafter
- “here-worldly” -ultimate goal is not
in this world
-“other-worldly”

Taoism

- following nature
- how to live in society
- (Confucianism, meanwhile focuses on following virtues)
- According to some traditional accounts: Lao Tzu (a scholar/philosopher) was the founder of
Taoism.
 Lao Tzu was born in the Chu-Jan in the village of Li in the state of Chu. He was assigned as the
keeper of the archives for the royal court of Chu; had access to the work of the Yellow Emperor
and other classical works.
 It’s Lao Tzu that Confucius refers to in his teachings.

Taoism and the Tae Te Ching

 The masters of Taoism are Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, and Yang Chu
 The doctrines of Taoism are contained in the book, “Tao Te Ching” which is attributed to Lao
Tzu.

Reality – is holistic and encompasses the totality of the cosmos

 The universe expresses harmony, purpose, order, and calm power. But when we attempt to
separate things just to understand the parts without understanding the whole, what results are
error, suffering, and happiness.

Doctrines of Taoism

 Preservation of life and avoidance of injury

 Discovery of law underlying the changes of things in the universe
 Transcendence of the world- seeing things from a higher point of view

Tao

- “Dao”, like the Brahman of Hinduism

- The primordial principle from which all things emanate and which underlies all that is
- Operates in all that is and which provides the natural way of being and acting
- Provides norm of reality
- Path; way; power
- Encompasses everything; principle
- All-embracing origin of all things
 - Sets nature of everything
- Everything has a “dao”

 Tao denotes the way of man or an outline of moral behavior (and is used by some Western
philosophical ad religious traditions).
 Taoism has a distinctive metaphysical meaning. It is the all-embracing origin of all things; the
first principle.
 Tao is the ground of all things and can be equated with the Greek concept “logos” or the Hindu
“brahman” as the ground of all beings.
 In the oriental thinking, there is no “theos” or divine being.

The Invariables

- Cosmic laws are permanent

- The laws that govern the change in the universe are inchangeable
- Chinese word “ch’ang” (eternal or abiding; to show what is always so and it can be considered
as a rule)

 To know the Invariables is enlightenment.

 “Reversion is the action of the Tao.” “When a thing reaches one extreme, it reverts from it.”
 To resist this process or rule would be to go against the law.
 The opposites are not only mutually casual; they are of merely relative value in comparison with
on another.
 When the highest type of men hear the Tao, they diligently practice it. When the average type
of men hear Tao, they believe it. When the lowest type of men hear Tao, they laugh heartily at
it.
 To know the Invariables is to be liberal. The Tao is “all pervading and unfailing.” The man who
relies on and comprehends the Invariables may likewise become all pervading and unfailing as
well.

Tao and Te

 The manifestation of the Tao is its power called Te.

 The Te is the power of the Tao revealed in the world of phenomena, together with the ‘virtue’
that this power brings in anyone or anything that follows the ‘way.’
 In Taoism, the ultimate remains mysterious and unknowable, its very being can be divined only
because of the forces and consequences to which it gives rise.
 Strictly speaking, the Tao and its power Te cannot even be regarded as the origin of the universe
because the origin of the universe is Ch’i, the primeval breath and the Tao is the origin of Ch’i,
The Yin and Yang

 It the Tao is the “one” the ‘two’ are the twin forces of yin and yang.
 The whole of nature consists of the continual interaction of these two opposing forces: yin – the
passive element and yang – active element.
 The yin is weak, negative dark and destructive; the yang is strong, positive, light and
constructive.
 The yin and yang are always thought of together, each is an expression of the other, they
operate together in a never-ending cycle of coming together and falling apart, birth and death,
wet and dry, day and night, good and evil, male and female, full and empty.
 The most traditional view is that 'yin' represents aspects of the feminine: being soft, cool, calm,
introspective, and healing... and "yang" the masculine: being hard, hot, energetic, moving, and
sometimes aggressive.
 The ceaseless interplay of yin and yang is manifest in the natural order of things.
 Things cannot be understood separate from others, everything is part of a seamless cycle.
 Therefore the wise person realizes that noting is absolutely permanent, conditions call up
opposite conditions, the bad produces the good, today’s unfortunate circumstances will change
into something good in the future.

Union of Relative Opposites

 Taoism believes that if there is one ultimate reality and that there is one way things really are,
then strict distinctions are in a sense arbitrary and misleading.
 Nothing is purely matter or purely spirit, nothing is completely female or male, bad or good.
 The good and bad both exist in an everlasting exchange. Rain for example is good in time of
drought and bad in time of flood

Wu-Wei: The Doctrine of Inaction and “Te”

 The Wu-Wei Theory is the theory of nonaction, “doing things by doing nothing.”
 The literal meaning of wu wei is "without action.“ It is often expressed by the paradox wei wu
wei, meaning "action without action" or "effortless doing."
 The wu-wei theory is an offshoot of the general theory that “reversing” is the movement of the
Tao.”
 According to the wu-wei everything is the universe originated from the ultimate “wu” or
“nothing.”
 “Nothing” should not be interpreted as absence or privation but as the “unnamed” or the
“invisible”. The Tao is the “unnamed” and it acts by “non-acting.”
 Wu-wei as non-action is interpreted as lesser activity or doing less or acting without artificiality
or arbitrariness.
 The goal of wu wei is to achieve a state of perfect equilibrium, or alignment with Tao, revealing
the soft and invisible power within all things and, as a result, obtain an irresistible form of "soft
and invisible" power.
 The main idea is that we must do things without excess and nature shows us how to do it. Hence
the wu-wei theory is telling us that things are accomplished when done naturally, that is without
artificiality.
 Too much of activities become harmful rather than good. The purpose of doing something is to
have something done or accomplished, but if there is overdoing, if there is excessive activity,
then, we do not accomplish the task and worse than not doing anything at all.
 To be guided by wu-wei therefore is to follow nature, that is, to act naturally and spontaneously.
 Artificiality and arbitrariness are the opposites of naturalness and spontaneity.
 Man should restrict his activities to what is necessary and what is natural. Necessary means
what is just enough to achieve a certain purpose and not over-doing.
 Natural means following one’s Te with no arbitrary effort. In doing this one must take simplicity
as the guiding principle of life.
 The Te is the Tao revealed in the world of phenomena, together with the ‘virtue’ that this power
brings in anyone or anything that follows the ‘way.’
 Virtue is genuineness or being true to one’s own nature that is, avoiding artificiality and
pretense.
 When man has too many desires and too much knowledge he tries to satisfy his many desires
and in the process he does not attain his ends and obtains the opposite results. Consequently he
loses his original virtue or Te.
 The wise man on the other hand is very conscious of the work of the Te in everything, so he
allows things to develop according to their own nature.
 He does not interfere, he just let things be. He is guided by the wu-wei, but this does not mean
passivity but conformity with the law of Nature which is the law of the Tao working through its
powers.
 The man who is enlightened in the Tao and practicing enlightenment in his life embodies the
Taoist ethical ideal; he is the sage.
 The sage is different from the ordinary man. The sage knows the Invariables, the laws of nature
and conducts his activities in accordance with them.
 He knows the general rule that if he wants to achieve anything, he must start from the opposite,
and if he wants to preserve anything he admits in its something of its opposite,
 In the sage, the paradoxical qualities of the Tao: being through non-being, action through non-
action and strength through softness all are present.
 The sage understands that to yield is to be preserved whole, to be bent is to become straight, to
be empty is to be full, to be worn out is to be renewed, to have little is to possess, to be plenty is
to be perplexed. Therefore the sage embraces the One, and becomes model of the world.
 Human conduct must characterized by spontaneity, humility, simplicity, noninterference and
contentment.
 Spontaneity best captures in a positive value what Lao Tzu meant by non-action.
 The man who lives prudently must be meek, humble and easily content. To be meek is the way
to preserve ones strength and to be strong.
 Humility is the direct opposite of arrogance, so that if arrogance is a sign that a man’s
advancement has reached its extreme limit, humility is a contrary sign that limit is far from
reached
 To be content safeguards one from going too far and therefore from reaching the extreme.
Therefore Lao Tzu writes, “To know to be content is to avoid humiliation; to know where to stop
is to avoid injury.
 The sage therefore discards the excessive, the extravagant, the extreme. The sage learns from
the reversal motion of the Tao when to stop.
 The most important point to realize is that, in order to live in any specified manner, one must
begin by living in a manner exactly the opposite. If we want to be strong we have to be weak
because by being weak one is strong,
 Humility is the best attitude of a sage. It keeps man from reaching the extreme. By being
humble, one never reaches the limit.
 When things are done and one doing them humbly relinquishes all claims to merit, is far from
the limit and he has mastered the natural way.
 Non-interference is also an attitude of the sage.
 Water symbolizes the behavior of the sage because it does not compete, but rather takes the
path of least resistance.
 The goal of wu wei is to achieve a state of perfect equilibrium, or alignment with Tao, revealing
the soft and invisible power within all things and, as a result, obtain an irresistible form of "soft
and invisible" power.
 Taoist philosophy proposes that the universe works harmoniously according to its own ways.
When someone exerts his will against the world, he disrupts that harmony.