Paradox, Science, and Taoism

The Tao gives birth to one

one gives birth to two

two gives birth to three

three gives birth to ten thousand things

-- Lao-Tzu, Tao Te Ching, verse 42

This first part of the 42nd verse of the Tao Te Ching is absolutely remarkable to me. It is such a precise picture of the universe and yet completely abstract at the same thing.

If you look at it in terms of classic teachings, the Tao can be understood to be the nothingness beyond anything we know with our mind, beyond anything we understand. The one can be understood to be the source energy, the single energy underlying, cradling everything; from everything derives from. The two paints the vision of the polarities that exist in this world – masculine and feminine, light and dark, north and south, sun and moon. Yin and yang in all its amazing forms. It’s also all the paradox that is all around, with each paradox falling apart and settling back into the one the two births from. The three is stepping stone to ten thousand, or the metaphorical infinite. That is everything that exists, in all its forms.

As in any birth, or any definition of birth we understand as humans, there is a lineage and connection back to the parents, grandparents, and so on. In one sense, the Tao is how we can understand that everything remains one and connected, even as there are distinct forms. There is one of those great paradoxes – the distinct forms of each of us or the distinct idea of each rock, plant, and so on, and still it’s connected to everything else.

The word connect, or interconnect, is one of the resolvers of the paradox. To be connected, or interconnected, implies both that there are at least two objects or people that are distinct and yet by being connected they become one! Try to wrap your head around that one – or better not to and just let it be.

If you are more of a scientific bent, you might understand the universe as born from a Big Bang. The Big Bang Theory implies a nothingness before anything (the Tao). Then there is a single entity, a single energy that explodes; the single energy is similar to the one. And as in human conception, cells splits, and that one energy has split apart into two, now we’re at the two above. As the Big Bang progress, then three, then ten thousand, or infinite.

The scientific bent also has wonderful paradoxes, like the dual-nature of light. Depending on what experiment that’s set up, light can either be detected as a wave or as a particle. Wow, that’s wild. Or consider Eintein’s famous equation E=mc2 which says that energy (E) and matter (m) are different forms of the same thing! Then there’s electromagnetic waves which are everywhere being released and absorbed by atoms all the time. Those waves the connection between everything. All atoms, and subatomic particles within, are constantly connecting and interacting.

Reality, as we know it in this universe, can be described in so many ways, from the sublime description of the Tao Te Ching from thousands of years ago which contains so much in so few words, to the deep and philosophical scientific inquiry to understand something of what we experience and put equations to that.

Just some of my random musings about science and philosophy and how they may not be as difference as we like to believe.

Brushing Teeth and Meditation

This weekend I went to a talk by Lisa Wimberger, founder of The NeuroScultping Institute. The NSI is an evolution of Lisa's work with neuroscience, trauma, and stress and helping people heal. From the NSI website, 'Her mission to share practical and powerful stress management techniques to those in need caused Lisa to develop her Neurosculpting™ programs combining neuroscience principles with mindfulness and energetic modalities."

Lisa's talk was an introduction to NeuroScuplting, or the idea of how we can as individual change our patterns of belief and therefore our patterns of response. Since this was the very beginnings of her talks, I will describe the technique she uses as a form of meditation. She also referred to these personal journeys as meditation.

Towards the end of the talk, Lisa compared brushing your teeth to meditation. On the surface this may seem like an extraordinary comparison of two seemingly very different experiences. Most of us think of brushing our teeth as a fairly, normal everyday occurrence. Meditation is more commonly thought of in terms of raising awareness and consciousness. It's often thought of as a ritualized experience, even the imagery commonly associated with meditation shows the same.

What Lisa did by comparing brushing your teeth to meditation is bringing them to the same level, with a similar purpose. She brings the ritualized form of meditation to brushing your teeth. For many it truly is a ritual, a common pattern and flow which makes us feel better. It is ordinary in many ways and yet it is important.

Likewise, this brings an ordinary, everyday experience to meditation. We can choose to make time for meditation every day like we do for brushing our teeth. It doesn't take long and it has long-term beneefits.

Lisa talked about brushing our teeth as a daily maintenance. After all brushing our teeth helps to keep a healthy mouth. It takes a daily commitment, even just a few minutes, of brushing our teeth to maintain our health. Meditation has a similar feel - by setting aside a few minutes every day to meditate we bring peace, we strength our mind, we keep our brain and attitude healthy. Meditation also helps maintain our health, albeit in a very different way.

I truly appreciate the reminders of how the ordinary is extraordinary, whether it's brushing your teeth, or being mindful while eating, or any daily experience. It's something I forget still. In this case, I really like bringing an ordinary quality to something even I consider somewhat ritualized and outside an everyday experience.

Thanks Lisa for such a profound comparison! I'm off for my daily brushing, flossing, and rinsing of my mind.

The Paradox of Responsibility

The title of this post comes from a section of another blog called Revealing Wisdom written by Anne-Marie Marron. In particular it comes from a post titled Human Heartbreak and Longing.

Here’s the section:
The Paradox of Responsibility:

How do I take responsibility and then let go of responsibility all at the same time?

There is a fine edge between being responsible for creating our life circumstances and surrendering any sense of responsibility. I’m exploring this edge right now as I find my way into creating work that inspires and sustains me. It’s so compelling to be responsible and take every action known to mankind to ‘make things happen’.

The worker part of me just wants to work even if it’s not in alignment with the bigger vision. This keeps me disconnected from the rhythmic flow that appears below the radar and at the center of my heart.

How do we each find our particular edge of balance between taking action and let letting go to see what appears?

I love paradox, and not just paradox, but polarities, apparent opposites that flow into one another. Yin and Yang, Daylight into Night, the Masculine and Feminine. I love the question Anne-Marie puts forth – how to be in that balance of being and doing, resting and working, waiting and pushing forward.

I find myself at this edge, this balance, all the time. Knowing when act and move and progress and push forward; and when to rest, be still, watch, wait, listen. Like a tide or a breath there are stillpoints on either end of the acting and resting. After the inhale is a pause … feel that pause now. Then there’s an exhale and another pause … and soak that one in too. In those pauses is the potential. What will happen next?

In life, it’s the same. After the action and moving, there often comes a natural pause which we must recognize. In that natural pause we look around and using our best judgment, intuition, and listening we decide what’s next, or maybe life decides for us if we don’t listen well. Maybe what’s next is to rest, or maybe it’s to change course. Rest has its own pause, where movement just begins to happen and we decide what’s next. To let the movement grow, or to let it fade.

We need both – the inhale and the exhale – and we need the pauses to invite new possibilities. It’s a lifelong practice of listening and experimenting in every moment.

What choice will we make now?