The Tao is the Trail of Context--The Great Background Page of Reality!

Words are part of language which is a creature of social convention and shared meaning. Anything and everything put into words is packed into objective cargo containers which are never exact so that they can be understood by just about everyone.

The context of the Tao is the result of deep meditation upon the nature of human perception and understanding in its most absolute, subjective reality. The line often quoted goes, "As a fish swims in water, Man lives in the TAO"

This is a statement based upon observing fish in water and meditating upon what we each carrying with us as our ground of being and our implicit background which we never notice objectively.

A spoken statement is a clear focus, upon a background of one's living breath. Only the extreme situation allows us to notice the breath underlying and shaping the spoken word. The scream, the whisper, the dying breath is more noticed than the precise rhetoric of those speeches.

The background page to a printed book never enters our attention unless it has somehow stepped out of the pure white plane and taken up its own focus through a stain that obscures an important or now ambiguous word. The background portion of a gestalt is difficult to focus upon at all.

The fundamental insight is that we can only notice part of what we see. We must have a background which is ignored in order to allow the gestalt object of attention to stand out from it. This realization that we can not see everything we look at is a profound indictment of dwelling solely in the objective.

The objective is all about objects of perception. That necessarily implies that there must be also an ignored background to every object. Needless to say, much mischief lurks in the unnoticed background. In science this has become the norm since the background is thus the realm of the assumed Divine being praised and not mentioned (or taken in vain).

Far too easily this required background of the ignored or ignorant becomes an opportunity for those in the Know to deceive their observers. If you are focused upon what others are taking for background, it is much, much easier to to take them in any way you wish.

The essence of all deception, trickery and audience manipulation is to lead others to focus where you direct them so that they cannot see what you personally are truly doing. This misdirection can take all sorts of forms, but the intent and the result is always the same. You have a private space open up for your invisible activity while a crowd watches intently something else.

The Tao is the word to describe that invisible background. So what is the exact nature of this Tao context? It has a double reality. One reality is that it is the prior context and background of whatever is being seen or done. In order for those activities to be noticeable there must be a prior blank page upon which they are highlighted.

As anything is seen or done or lived or whatever active verb that is your focus of the moment, this gestalt background tracks it and becomes also its record and the index of its aftermath. The word aftermath refers to the straw and stubble left in the fields after the crop is harvested. This is also the Tao.

The consequences of Karma, the facts of history, the results of anything are also very much part of their Tao. Background is not only ahead and all-around us it is also following after us.This has led to many references to the Tao as some sort of water course. That is referring to the mapping of the local Planet Earth topography by the flow of rain water into rivulets, streams and rivers as the common lowest local paths of more and more land overlap in that way.

It has become common to speak of the Tao of this or that: The Tao of Physics, the Tao of Pooh (the A.A. Milne bear)etc. to focus upon the context and background of some subject of interest and focus. The Tao of something speaks about what makes it important rather than its specific content.

The Tao is often left untranslated on the ground that it is too elusive, too unknowable to be rendered into any other term in any other language. That elusive quality is not part of the concept or the insight of Tao, it is simply a reference to its being gestalt background. To focus upon it is like taking a sample of the fish's surrounding water.

The water sample is no longer part of the fish's environment and buoyancy, however it is the same chemical substance as it was before. To describe the Tao is to analyze its nature at the cost of removing it from being background to other things.

I had discovered that the old,simple, basic American English word Flux had the dictionary meanings of change, and making easy, and flowing along which would describe the various meanings of Yi or I as in the I Ching or Book of Yi. It was not just "Changes" but the entire process of ongoing Flux of perceived reality.

A scholarly friend remarked to my insight saying, "Oh yes, you have found the insight that Chinese and Anglo-Saxon English share the same cultural roots. Both maintain their original expression of the common people without being forced into the formal structures of their conquerors."

This was the first I had heard of English and Chinese being similar languages, but it turned out to be a fascinating insight. Knowing their should be a simple American English word to vocalize the ancient Chinese concept gave me a goal to pursue.

I found my American term for Tao in the simple word "TRAIL" which is both a natural path that one follows along as well as what is loosely towed behind. My 1947 Webster's Collegiate Dictionary lists many definitions of trail all of which also describe Tao, though not in the same order of importance:

A track worn by passage through a wilderness or wild region; also a blazed or otherwise marked path through such a region;in the names of highways, a road approximately following the trail or series of trails left as by Indians or pioneers,to form a trail or wake behind; as smoke trailed from the chimney; to follow a trail as hounds, to track game; a track left by something that has passed; a scent left by man or beast; To drag along...as something loosely held; even the military position of placing your firearm so that your commander reviewing the troops could take it by the muzzle and trail it away. The soldier surrendering to the Superior's Tao.

The Tao of something is its Trail, not the thing itself but the natural path that it follows and that follows from it. Q.E.D.

Taoism: Native Chinese indigenous religion and its mystical expressions

Taoism refers to the various traditional native Chinese philosophies and associated religions that grew independently. It was considered an important part of every properly educated Chinese training.

In traditional China there was only one occupation worthy of formal notice--being an employee of the Emperor in his official administrative bureaucracy. Everyone else was just laboring away to feed themselves and their families. Most Chinese always including today work in the fields tending crops.

The general rule was that if you were employed, that means if you worked in the Imperial bureaucracy you should be a Confucian.This meant following the rules of proper relations and appropriate formal interactions. If you were not employed, you should be a Taoist. This meant following the mystical, subjective path toward self-understanding and personal enlightenment.

The formally recognized Taoist sages, in works such as the Chuang Tzu, were either gentlemen of leisure or tradesmen of great wisdom. One such simple worker is the Taoist sage cook who knew the open spaces in the meat he cut so well his blade never required sharpening.

He simply followed those open spaces, separating the meat pieces as needed without ever hacking or even cutting anything that would dull his blade. This is the objective description of the method of the Tao or Taoism--to know the structure and background of a situation so you can follow the easy path through tough situations.

A philosophy of such subtlety and abstract sophistication could not be expected to be understood by the indigenous folks who mostly just tilled the fields and tried to survive the difficulties of their lives.

A folk religion form of Taoism grew up with appropriate rituals, superstitions, moral principles, and a general respect for the ways of nature over the artificial demands and structures of human construction. This generally did pretty well to serve the need of the general populace without getting too out of hand.

Taoist ethics emphasizes compassion, moderation, and humility. In this way it is very similar to the moral direction set in Buddhism, so Taoism and Chinese Buddhism found themselves melded together. Both have monks that meditate often and the rest of their theology is tucked under their robes in inner reflexion.

Certainly there are differences, the is no particular notion of rebirth in Taoism and Lao Tzu was a very different fellow from the Buddha. However, in terms of seeking that folks be calm, generous, and gentle they are close enough for popular work.

Taoist philosophy includes Wu Wei ("non-action")which I experienced in the Summer of 1973 when I first went out to Gia-Fu Feng's Stillpoint Foundation which is explained under Taoist I Ching.

In general, Non-Action is avoiding direct intervention and meddling. Whatever you do that can be seen as a direct action caused by YOU interfering in what else is going on, will cause folks to feel pushed out of the way. This will have unknown consequences as folks react and project and interact with what they feel that they observed and what they attribute was done by you.

Non-action is operating in the background, doing things that no one sees as as being some direct forceful intervention. Thus there is a Taoist saying, "Sipping green tea I ended War and brought peace to the world." Literally this would mean that by not getting involved in the war hysteria, gently sipping one's own cup of green tea one let the war play itself out and end.

The saying can also be seen as saying if you are calming sipping your green tea at home, then in your home the war raging elsewhere outside your home is stilled in your heart and in your home. This is non-action in the sense you aren't directly trying to interfere with the warring factions.

Doing Nothing, or doing nothing that objectively appears direct action is the easy part of Wu Wei. The tougher part is the final result--Leave Nothing Undone. That is have the results of your changes in the Yin or background bring about the completion of what needs to happen.

This is more sophisticated and requires a deep understanding of the whole situation and what it is that is keeping things from developing along their lines of process to something better. To extend our green tea example, this would be inviting the folks who see the war as the only solution to their deeply felt injustices and hurts to sit, drink green tea, relax and let their feeling express and exhaust themselves more peaceably.

Taoist philosophy emphasizes the connection of humans with their natural environment and natural processes. This is a simple way to notice that natural systems have tended to continue cycling for millions of years. Human action tends to be linear strikes and personal thrusts that make more sense to the person striking than to the rest of the world who is being struck.

Taoism as an indigenous religion seeking understanding and emulation of natural systems of Sunshine interacting with Planet Earth topography is part of the general global awareness of flow with natural cycles rather than linear construction of fossil-fuel powered engines and machine technology.

The element that tends to get lost in most Western explanation of Taoism is that of the inner state of individuals. One turns inwards, meditates, becomes gentle in one's dealings as part of a process of connecting with Your inner Self as part of Cosmic Source.

There is also the belief that as you turn inward and release direct action in reaction to the way the world has treated you or your family raised you the result will be a resumption of the natural process of psychological growth. This is the process where you increasingly integrate elements of your personality, ever less being them and more being an independent Self that has these facets available for use as you choose.

This is another aspect of the fundamental subjective growth and maturation which is also called Occult Initiation. The basic belief is that everything will grow through the natural sets of 6-stage cycles becoming more and more integrated within and connected to an ever larger circle in the world around.

The 81 poems of Lao Tzu (Tsu) known as the TAO TE CHING

The newspaper man I met in Chicago who turned out to be a sleeper Taoist Sage made a copy of his personal calligraphy notebook of the first few poems of the Tao Te Ching and gave it to me. It was a true primer of the simple Chinese ideograms which make up this classic text.

He had painstakingly drawn each character in a large, clear copy of the strokes involved. With each character he placed a footnote number that explained underneath the dictionary translation of that character. It was an ideal primer to learn to understand Chinese Ideograms or Characters and also the first poems of Lao Tzu's classic.

He called his work,"REVERENT OLD BOY An Introduction to Lao Tsi and the Chinese Language-- a Word-for-Character Translation of Twelve Poems From The Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsi"

Each page has in a left-hand column the Chinese character in a large, block calligraphy. Then its name and his dictionary reference in the next two columns and the component radicals and the definitions of them all, and finally in the far-right hand column the word he chose to translate the character.

In this note book his research on Tao, Te, and Ching shows:

Tao--road, way, right way... from the radicals walking and head.

Teh-- Virtue, goodness, behavior,power from the radicalsheart, step with the left foot forward, straight upright (examined by ten eyes-- see no defect)

Ching-- Classic book... from the radical for silk (the material used for making revered books.

Thus my Flux Tome Tao rendering in American English pronunciation of the ancient Chinese radical elements combination would be: Tao--The prime process moving along--the walking path and its results--TRAIL.

Teh or Te--The pure heart's expression stepping forward into the world--SPIRIT.

Ching the book made with fine silk binding-- TOME

The first lines of Poem One he gives character by character as:Tao could be Tao not always Tao.Name could be Name not always name.Without Name heaven [and] Earth of from the beginning.Having Name myriad things from mother.[the term for beginning has radicals of woman and birth mouth. The term for mother has radicals for nursing breasts.]Therefore always without [a fire burning wood, thus negating its existence] desire [radicals for being wanting and a hollow ravine]in order to behold this beauty [scarce woman].Always have desire desire in order to behold this going-around [radicals for stepping out with the left foot, strike, white and square].These two one together coming forth but differently named. Together said to be of the dark [dark, somber, black, the dark garden or Taoist paradise]Dark of yet another dark. All beauty fro that door[radical is a drawing of a pair of swinging doors].

Studying this notebook was my introduction to dealing with Chinese ideograms, their composition radicals and the Tao Te Ching.For all 81 poems (in Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English translation with the option to either enter a poem number or have one offered to you... For the 81 poems of the Tao Te Ching with bells and whistles

Before I left my II-U community in Chicago, I gave a sermon one Sunday on Poem 11 of the Tao Te Ching which is almost the last one in the notebook. It is a meditation upon what is truly important, or how open space is what makes things useful although their structure makes them profitable. The first line goes[Gia-Fu Feng translation]--Thirty spokes share the wheel's hub; It is the center hole that makes it useful.

The structure of the wheel and the workmanship of the outer part of the hub that holds thirty spokes yet still maintains its perfect roundness is what makes a good wheel. However, it is the inner open space that makes it possible to fit the wheel to the axle so it can be used.

In this simple example is a complete essay upon co-operation, structural integrity and the need to plan for various other options not just your own hard structure in order to have a total product which will bring all the elements together and get the job done.

The Tao Te Ching is a work of simple examples illustrating deep insights and important rules for ideal success in living.

Jane English added her nature photography to Gia-Fu's translation and Chinese calligraphy which made the Tao Te Ching available as a coffee table book for the general public. Her work is now available on line.

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