2005-12-30
Overcoming Fear
After yesterday's post, which may have been seen as off-putting (although realistic) for some who may be considering following Taoist teachings, I decided to post something more positive (before I continue with my own deciphering of the Tao Te Ching).
This is from australiantao. It explains what he understands as the benefits of following the Tao.
It has worked very well for him.
This is an excerpt:
The worst thing about being the animal with the largest brain is that we are cursed with the ability to forecast our own demise. The knowledge that nothing is permanent is the cause of all our anxiety. Therefore, if we could find a way to accept that life is constantly changing, we could free ourselves from all our fears.
Our fear of change stems from two things, ego and clinging. Ego, due to a belief that we only exist inside our skins and have no connection to the eternal world. Clinging, due to our inability to accept that everything we love will one day be swept away. Both ego and clinging are contrary to living in harmony with the Tao and therefore will only bring us misery.
Unlike Western religions, the Taoist sages limited themselves to only what could be observed in Nature and never indulged in the supernatural. They only ever claimed death to be a process of molecular recycling. Their advice was to trust Nature in death as you trust Nature in life. Buddha saw that it was our inability to accept change that was the root cause of all our suffering. He proclaimed that being able to accept change as a part of life was the key to happiness.
All Eastern philosophies tell us that what we believe to be "I", the ego, is a hallucination. It is most likely that this hallucination ends along with our biological processes at death. But the part that is really you, the physical part, never ends. It is merely transformed into other physical forms, just as real as your former self, minus the ego.
We think of death as a malfunction of Nature or some type of inflicted punishment. However, if you have ever been in unbearable pain or knew someone who was, you may have seen death as the ultimate act of kindness. When the body is beyond repair and the pain gets all too much, death can be seen as Nature's most precious gift.
To end the anxiety we have over our futile desire to live eternally, we must learn to bridge this psychological barrier and see death in a different light. Taoism has the teachings to help rid us of the phobia of death and see it rationally. This is done by ridding ourselves of ego, learning detachment and trusting the wisdom of Nature.
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I feel this goes a long way to explaining how we can achieve our own form of 'comfort' through the Tao - it won't comfort us or 'hold our hand', but its teachings will help us to 'go with the flow', and be content to do so.
meyamind at 10:39 p.m.
