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by Dylan Charles
September 10, 2020
from
WakingTimes Website
The lessons of 2020 just keep rolling in.
Everything is being
challenged, and so much that had been in the shadows forever is
being illuminated by truth.
Our system is totally
unsustainable.
It's collapsing under
the weight of its own hubris, and all of the things we thought
brought us security and convenience are turning against us.
It's time to rethink
all of it.
My sense is that we have
drifted far from the true nature of life, and have grown dangerously
out of balance, divided, and fragmented.
Over time we have lost
our ability to perceive life in its wholeness, and now, in the
actual reality of living in a masked, socially distanced,
self-isolating world of almost 8 billion people, this truth is
unavoidably right in front of our faces.
Humans aren't as mysterious as we'd like to believe.
We're creatures of habit,
predictability and pattern, and we love to follow programs. By
carefully observing the patterns in life, the sages and wisdom
keepers of generations long gone were able to envision our current
predicament.
I came across a passage from
Lao Tzu's the
Hua Hu Ching, in which the
venerable Lao Tzu seems to speak directly to us today in this time
of great crisis.
In an oration with a
student, Lao Tzu explains how the human mind of the future will
deteriorate into fragmentation, specifically noting that the
intellectual element of the mind will take over.
"Kind prince, there
is great power in an integrated and sincere mind.
By keeping their
minds whole and untouched, the ancient sages evolved profound
mental and spiritual abilities. They understood that
intellectual development by itself fragments the mind and can
lead a person far from the true nature of life.
In the future,
humanity will overemphasize the intellectual element of the
mind. Instead of recognizing the wholeness of life, people will
perceive life as having a worldly aspect and a spiritual aspect
that are separate and unrelated to each other.
People will also lose
themselves in isolated fragments of conceptual information and
become the victims rather than the masters of their knowledge."
The
Complete Works of Lao Tzu:
Tao Teh Ching and
Hua Hu Ching
translated by Master Hua-Ching Ni
This sounds remarkably
similar to the
prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor
which,
sees the people of
North America becoming dominated by the masculine, logical,
intellectual mind, as represented by the eagle.
The remedy for this
is a reunification with the condor of South America, which
represents the feminine, intuitive and empathetic qualities of
the mind.
Lao Tzu goes on to
comment on,
how we, 'the people
of the future,' can rectify this situation, noting that we will
become dependent on modern ideas which don't serve us well,
while shunning holistic knowledge which may be of great
benefit to the times.
He offers the following
insight.
"The remedy for
people of the future age of great confusion, lies in the ancient
knowledge of the integral way of life that has been passed down
from generation to generation.
The holistic way of
life, practiced by the ancient sages incorporated body, mind and
spirit as a whole in all activities.
Their clothing,
diet and dwellings were in accordance with nature.
They relied on
their limbs for transportation.
Their education
was broad and comprehensive; it did not emphasize one
element of their being while neglecting the others.
They did not seek
out special activities for recreation; their work and
recreation were one and the same.
Their forms of
exercise developed not only the body, but the mind and
spirit as well, through the harmonization of internal
energies.
Their music
functioned as a bridge between mind and spirit and was not
just an emotional release.
Their leaders
were chosen because they were outstanding models of virtue,
not for their financial or military capabilities.
Philosophy, science
and spiritual practice were incorporated as one whole..."
The
Complete Works of Lao Tzu: Tao Teh Ching and Hua Hu Ching
translated by Master Hua-Ching Ni
Life is whole. We don't
live forever, we die. In horrible, tragic, sad, frightening and
lonely ways...
But we also live, and our
disrupted connection from the nature of life is literally physically
cutting us off from experiencing life.
In this state, all we
can see is the end, there is no longer a capacity to see life as
a journey.
The intellectual mind
has framed life as something that must be protected by killing
it.
In the passage from the
Hua Hu Ching, the student asks Lao Tzu the very
question that is on all of our minds today.
The prince replied,
"Venerable
Teacher, how can people in the future era of confusion deal
with their greatly troubled times?
"Kind prince, the people of the future should not blindly
accept the new nor reject the old.
Things that were
developed long ago may still have great value if they have
been proven safe and effective by the test of time.
The new
inventions that appear may seem like shortcuts, but things
of temporal convenience will bring hidden troubles later.
Future
generations will need to evaluate all old and new
discoveries and inventions to insure that they are useful
and healthy, according to the standards of a holistic way of
life."
The
Complete Works of Lao Tzu: Tao Teh Ching and Hua Hu Ching
translated by Master Hua-Ching Ni
I interpret this as a
call to rethink the way in which technology and
centralized control are affecting our lives.
Things that seem like
good ideas always end up being used to enslave or control us,
and at present, there is no pathway to review or to backtrack on any
of the so-called great inventions of the time.
It's all coming at us at
light speed, and the more complex the physical world becomes, the
more confused and disconnected the inner world becomes...
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