Daos become obscured through minor achievements teachings become
道隱於小成 , 言隱於榮華. Daos become obscured through minor achievements; teachings become obscured through flowery speech. (Zhuangzi, Ch. 2 Sec. 5) The Treatise on Making Things Equal 1. Overview 2. Language analysis – – – Pronouns Relativity Noun delineation 3. Daos and speech – – Inauthenticity Self and other 4. The alternative path – Throwing things open to the light 1
Dao daos • Paths • The Way • Teachings • Formulas • “ways” • To speak • The Way • “formulas of speech and step” formulas of step 2
Valid teachings are daos (formulas of speech + step) daos do not imply ontologies daos are taught with words do imply ontologies we tend to use them to formulate statements daos give access to Truth (the Dao) words create ontologies Doctrines [Ontologies cannot give access to Truth] Doctrine destroys daos (the DAO that you DAO is not the enduring DAO) 3
A Major Conclusion Suggested by the “Treatise” Daos are skill-knowledge systems Doctrines are fact/theory-knowledge systems Skills are real & give access to what is so Doctrines are non-natural [like words] & obscure what is so 4
The “Treatise” on Language 1. Relativity of demonstrative pronouns (this/that) 2. 7 A this is a that; a that is a this. That implies one set of assertions and denials; this implies another set of assertions and denials. After all, is there this and that or, after all, is there no this and that? When neither this nor that possesses its double it is called the pivot of the Dao. 5
• The relative "this" & "that" are analogized to assertion & denial • -- From a "this-perspective" we assert "this-is-so" • -- From a "that-perspective" we assert "that-is-so" & deny "this -is-so" Extend: • This / That • Beautiful / Ugly • Horse / Not-Horse 6
For Zhuangzi, ordinary intellect gives us: 1) assertions "this-is-so" } 2) denials "that-is-not" } These are same act to say "x" is to say "not not-x" every denotation an exclusion (assertions as bian: distinctions) every assertion a denial 7
Words (nouns) are ontologies Naming creates categories : : speaking confirms them In using language we create & confirm a set of assertions about the world --- a set of categories through which we experience the world -- shape our "direct" perception (mediated by language) We judge statements to be true if they conform to our asserted categories, false otherwise These divisions blind us to the unitary nature of existence (Dao) 8
2. 10 The knowledge of the ancients reached the limit. What was the limit? There were those who believed that no thing had yet begun to be. The limit! Exhausted! Nothing to add! The next believed there was something, but there had not yet begun to be boundaries. The next believed there were boundaries, but there had not yet begun to be an affirmable “this” or deniable “that. ” It is in the patterns of affirmation and denial that a dao becomes imperfect. The source of this imperfection is what brings to perfection attachment. But after all, is there perfection and imperfection or is there not? 9
The alternative path -- bypassing assertion 2. 8 When the One is divided, things are brought to completion, and in being brought to completion, the One is destroyed. When things are not subject to completion or destruction, they are once again comprehended as one. Only the man of attainment knows how to comprehend them as one. He asserts no “this is so. ” His assertion is lodged in ordinary practice. Ordinary practice means use; use is comprehension; to comprehend is to grasp – once you grasp it, you’re nearly there! Reliance on assertion ends, and when it ends and you do not even know it is so – that is called dao. 10
Words and daos Theories (ontologies) spring from the divisions they imply The action that leads to Dao can be formulated in teachings (Daos), or skill system training programs These can be taught through words but those words say nothing of the world Once a Dao becomes self-conscious -- self-celebrating choices of action competing with others the words take on a rationalizing function -- show value of this Dao vs. that Dao 11
2. 5 Pronounced sayings are not just puffs of wind – sayings consist of things said – it is only that what their words refer to has not been fixed. Do they really say anything? Have they never said anything? We think our speech is different from the chirping of baby birds, but is there a real distinction, or is there none? How do daos come to be obscured, such that they are subject to judgments of “authentic” or “inauthentic? ” How do spoken words come to be obscured, such that they are subject to judgments of “true” or “false? ” How can a dao be walked and not really exist? How can words exist and be “unallowable? ” 12
Doctrines assert "this-is-so" frameworks -- create perception-reinforcement We live our lives relying on such frameworks Futility of entire enterprise emerges in argument 13
Now let’s say that you and I debate. If you prevail over me and I do not prevail over you, does that mean that what you say is so and what I say is not? If I prevail over you and you do not prevail over me, does that mean that what I say is so and what you say is not? Or is it that one of us is right and one of us wrong? Or are both of us right or both of us wrong? If you and I are both unable to know, then others will become muddled as we are. Whom shall we call upon to put it right? Shall we call upon one who agrees with you? But if he agrees with you, how can he put it right? Shall we call upon one who agrees with me? But if he agrees with me, how can he put it right? . . . 14 2. 14
Boundaries between people create self/other and obscure the whole. Ultimately, boundaries within the person creates the notion of self -Words are non-Natural -- NOT Truth-tools an 2. 3 attribute of a part, or the whole, or illusion -- it cannot be located by“Without ‘other’ there is no ‘me’; without ‘me’ there is no reference boundary drawing. point” 2. 13 The Dao has never begun to possess boundaries and – This certainly comes close to it, but we don’t yet know words have never begun to possess constancy. Once a "this-iswhat brings ‘me’ about. It appears that there is something truly in so" has been contrived, there are boundaries. control, but we just can’t find a trace of it. It can act itself out, true enough, but we cannot see its form – it possesses a true nature but Words used in action--imperatives--assert nothing. lacks form. The hundred joints; the nine orifices, the six organs, all these Statements destroy clarity. are complete within – which do we take as closest kin? Are you Create boundaries & the real thing disappears pleased with them all, or partial to one? Do they all take parts as -- as in creation of inner Self: servants and consorts? But they would be unable to rule one another in this way. Do they take turns acting as ruler and subject or is there one who abides as a true ruler? Though we may fail to seek out its true nature, that has no bearing on whether it truly is there or not. 15
Similarly, to be "other-directed" in skills (to perform skills for others) is a category error & fragments Dao Skill systems lead towards "completion, " but "playing to an audience" -- using one's Dao for end-directed goals leads it towards decay 16
2. 10 Let us say that there is perfection and imperfection. This is like the master lute player Zhao Wen playing the lute. Let us say that there is truly neither perfection nor imperfection. This would be like the master lute player Zhao not playing the lute. Thus the Sage sees by the glimmer of chaos Zhao Wen playing the lute, Music Master Kuang beating the and doubt. He does not affirm of anything: time, Hui Shi leaning on the wutong tree: the knowledge of “this is it”; his affirmation is lodged in these three men was close to perfection. . But they ordinary practice. enlightened others by means of that which was not the means This is to view things in the light. of enlightenment, and thus Hui Shi ended with the darkness of logical disputations, and in the case of Zhao Wen, in the end his own son was left with merely the strings of the lute. And so, in the end, these masters achieved no perfection after all. If what they achieved was perfection, then even I have perfection. And if such as they cannot be said to have achieved perfection, then neither have I nor has any thing. 17
When neither “this” nor “that” possesses its double it is called the pivot of the Dao. The pivot first grasps the center of the ring and thereby responds without end. Asserting “this” is one endlessness; denying it is another endlessness. That is why I say, “Nothing is better than opening to the light. ” 18
2. 6 However, “The instant one is born one is dying” – and the instant one dies one is being born; the instant we allow we prohibit; the instant we prohibit we allow; to rely on what we assert is to rely on what we deny; to rely on what we deny is to rely on what we assert. So the Sage does not proceed by this path. He lays all open to the light of heaven – and yet saying this is also to assert a “this is so. ” 19
KEY: Finding a stance for response without the mediating (blinding) medium of the intellect Next Time: Cook Ding 20
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