Did you know all mothers come from heaven? Did you know all fathers came from hell? That is why they're at sixes and sevens. That is why their marriage isn't well... - Tears for Fears, "Raoul and the Kings of Spain"
A World Divided
If it isn't obvious to you now, we live in a world of ever-present division. Since birth, we are inundated with messages of pain and pleasure, dark and light, good and evil. Everything everywhere is divided into two poles. People declare themselves young or old, strong or weak. People identify with male and female, and those who identify with neither sex are further divided (whether by others or even by themselves) as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, or even asexual (no sex). In order to control the overall impulse of the body in which you live, you drink caffeine at work to wake up, and then drink alcohol at home to relax. By day you work in a place filled with artificial lights, and at night you probably sleep in a room filled with darkness. Nations are divided into separate lands, and because of this difference they are rivals somehow. Some are even awash in war.
In times of peace, the warlike man turns upon himself. - Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
Indeed as Neitzsche says here, a person is divided against oneself. All seems divided.
Awareness of the Division
The picture accompanying this post reflects the values of Taoism, an old-world religion whose main tenet claims that everything can be perceived as halves (yin and yang), as a polar opposite of an-other thing or an-other (divided) concept. While the two halves exist as separate entities, they intertwine with each other, overlap, share, kiss, make love, or they struggle, fight or perhaps even make war together. Yet by the very fact that they do so is an acknowledgement of an awareness - an awareness at some level that has agreed to buy into all of this division, and allowed it to become reality.
Unity
Yet the halved symbol that represents Taoism also carries another message: one of unity, or resolution. The figure is a message of atonement (at-one ment). Re-solved, dissolved, blended, accepting and acknowledging the Other Half as an equal by right of the very fact that it exists. By accepting the other half as such, there is a chance at resolution (re-solution).
An "Imperfect" Resolution
Yet those who most adamantly resolve themselves to the concept of division will rely once again on division to explain away this interpretation as illegitimate. They will judge unity without knowing that judgment actually is the comparison of the issue at hand with another (separate and divided) standard by which they perform this judgment. Division ever reigns in the mind of the adversary. As if they perceive themselves as an adversary.
adversary = ad + versary
ad = "to", "toward", or "with presence"
vesary = related to "verse" which means "song", thus literally "one who sings"
From the above etymology, you might say an adversary is "one who sings a song in your presence." Notice: there is no no judgment, no right or wrong in being adversary. An adversary is just someone who (like you) sings their own song. Many will unknowingly fall to using judgment, which once again divides everything under consideration. What they don't know that this judgment, this comparison, is that it is an illusion.
Illusion
Those who adhere to division, those who would judge, are forced to compare the subject of their judgment to their "standard". Yet, when you ask them exactly what this standard is, they are left silent. They cannot define it. Their very own standard does not exist. By this inaction, by this definition, their judgment standard is illusion. At this moment, Those Who Would Judge stand on a precipice.
- A relative few awaken. They would see their position and acknowledge that they have so adamantly propped themselves against is... nothing.
- A daring few would stay awake and run with it. At the cost of personal pride, they will seek what lies Beyond - a Beyond that is no longer limited. A Beyond that is not constrained to the limitations and restrictions of their former world of judgment. No doubt the path is laden with obstacles and the realization of further illusions - but this is the journey of life.
- Sadly, most will realize their position in the light of truth for just an instant, and then choose to revert to the only thing left to them: fear of losing their pride. They have only one path: They revert once again to the bully / victim dynamic (yet another manifestation of division) that will protect their precious pride. The person who so fiercely denounced unity or resolution, when defeated with the truth about their illusion will change from the bully they once were, into a blubbering victim. They will once again shout aloud, and point again at the person who dared caused them pain by showing them the truth.
Unity as a Contradiction
Unity, resolution, peace, whatever you want to call it doesn't need to fall into a category. It neither needs nor desires justification, nor any explanation. As such, it need not be explained as a prefect state of being, nor a qualifying statement of being, such as "bliss". Unity just is. Unity in itself can also be an illusion, for it may be comprised of a multiplicity of separate parts, or "separate wholes". As such, unity is divided internally, and is thus not a state of unity. The living organism is constituted of separate cells, tissues and organs, all fulfilling a separate distinctive roles. Yet as a whole the body is a single unit. Unity is a singularity, yet it isn't. A contradiction of two parts. It applies yet does not apply. A paradox indeed.
Formlessness
Consider that all of the above is mere gibberish, gobbledygook that can be mentally derived through a naturally flowing procession of a train-of-thought. Then consider...
"Perception is containment." - Dolores Cannon
Visual, auditory, tactile, and all other sensory input are a mere multiplicity of the same thing in different forms, then what is the point of all this? Indeed, what is the point of life itself and its many experiences. Something lacking in form, in constraint, lacking in the containment mentioned above?
The title of this essay mentions Taoism, and yet does it even matter then that Taoism has anything to say about this, aside from the unity / polarity dynamic?
So then. What lies beyond all this?
© 2016 John Melendez - All rights reserved worldwide