About nature
Delft : Holland
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Photo : Hugolorent
Genesis 3:19:
"For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return".
In Taoism the goal of life is to make your heartbeat
match the beat of the universe,
to match your nature with Nature.
Lao Tse (Lao Zi)
Since the time of Lao Tse Taoists have always followed what is natural.
Today most humans must learn to see themselves as
not separate from nature.
Culture is culture, nature is nature.
Even on a beautiful day like this nature is not kind.
Nature is moral indifferent,
it treats all things impartially.
Fisherman:
"Even within this beautiful landscape, in the water,
in the trees, in the air,
under the leaves insects, birds and fishes are eating each other".
Violence is a part of life and dead is nature's way of saying
Your table is ready.
Nature is nature. We all belong to nature.
Neanderthalians, Neo-Humeans, Humeans or Necessitarians:
welcome to Planet Earth.
The laws of nature are our natural laws.
Taoism is the religion of Heaven and Earth.
Man follows the laws (the way) of Earth
Earth follows the laws (the way) of Heaven.
(Tao Te Ching)
The birth of man is at the same time
the birth of his sorrows and his joys.
Heaven, Earth, Man:
a more realistic (Taoistic) point of view.
Being not a Taoist, just a 'micro friend' of Tao
Taoists believe that the way of man is to be in accord with nature.
Man must harmonize his true nature with the nature of heaven and earth.
He must harmonize his own microcosmos with the macrocosmos.
Taoists recognized body/mind as one unified energy field within the larger heaven/earth unified energy field.
Heaven-Man-Earth
Before Heaven and Earth came into being, Tao existed by itself from all time.
Heaven is eternal but Earth is everlasting.
Man is contained (immanent) within the boundaries of the Earth.
The trinity between Heaven (tian), Earth (di), Human (ren)
describes the unique relationship that Man has within his surroundings.
Heaven was seen as an eternal and an omnipotent entity.
Therefore Man only comes to existence
"after the information of Heaven and Earth".
Man is the mediator situated between Heaven and Earth
Man is both, eternal and everlasting at the same time.
He is in compliance to Earth, Earth to Heaven, Heaven to the great Tao.
In some legends animals perform heroic deeds or act as mediators between Heaven and Earth.
Wudang mountains: Taoist Master of Heaven and Earth.
Man must harmonize his microcosmos with the macrocosmos.
Taoists recognized his body/mind energy field as an
unified energy field within the larger unified energy field of
Heaven and Earth.
Taoism is a Chinese study of the forces and processes that
create, produce and control all the phenomena in nature.
Taoism is a participating study of all the phenomena
in this material world.
Animals, plants, air and water are food and medicine as both.
Food is medicine and medicine is food.
Lives of Taoists are not in the lap of the Gods but in the lap of our cooks.
But Taoists also look at the nature in a broader sense,
such as 'spirituality in nature'.
Taoist painters convey the Taoist belief of the primary importance
of nature and of man's small, yet harmonious existence
within this (orderly) universe.
The contrasts with the empty unpainted areas are visual references to
the flow of the opposing forces of yin and yang.
They refer to the contrasts 'full/empty, dry/wet, dark/ light, small/ large'
young/ old, warm/ cold, soft/ hard,
the begin/ the end, open/ close
found in nature.
Brush painting.
Tai Chi Chuan is called "the supreme ultimate".
All of the traditional Chinese arts,
such as brush painting, calligraphy, literature,
poetry, cooking, feng shui
and all of Chinese fighting arts emphasized
the Yin/ Yang contrasts found in nature as the means of
reaching the supreme ultimate.
Nature is silence in motion.
Tai Chi is silence in motion, it refers to the contrasts
full/empty ,dark/light, small/large, soft/hard,
the begin/the end, open/close found in nature
Heaven on Earth is a choice we must make,
not a place we must find.
Traditional taiko in a Japanese Garden (Hasselt- Belgium).
(Feniks Taiko)
Chinese gardens refer to the five elements
and to all the contrasts found in nature.
Chinese gardens are views of nature
change with the rhythm of the seasons
They refer to the relationship between heaven and earth.
They refer to man's small yet harmonious existence
within this orderly universe.
JINGSHEN
A human being is seen as a garden in miniature, a microcosmos within the macrocomos. Garden design has a long tradition.
China is known for the age-old art of planning painterly gardens which look like their (3-dimentional) paintings. Using the
serenity of calming water, traditional Chinese gardens are metaphors for the harmony between Heaven, Man and Earth.
Within Chinese cosmology, all of creation is born from the mariage of two polar principles : Yin and Yang. Heaven and Earth,
land and water, wet and dry, cold and hot, inner and outer, night and day are born from the marriage between Yin and Yang.
Harmony of this union means good health, good fortune, while disharmony leads to disease and disaster. The strategy of all
Chinese arts is to recover and sustain the balance between Heaven and Earth, to restore harmony and to adjust Yin-Yang
harmony between wet and dry, cold and warm, inner and outer, light and shadow, shadow and reflection. Each tree is a cosmic
axis that connect Heaven and Earth (the same thing is happening to our spinal column).
The wrestling match between man and nature
The wrestling match between man and nature is the old story of 'man against nature'. At Versailles Louis XIV, the Sun King,
created a perfectly trimmed, geometric garden to show his control not simply over his subjects but over nature itself.
Versailles sets the standard with its rigidly linear cartesian perspectives, baroque fountains and cherubs. Western
cartesian thinking leads to the note that nature, which owes its beauty to the Gods, is subjected to improvements and
arrangements at the hand of mortals. Nature must distrust caprices of the human mind expressed by the concept of culture.
We should remember that the term "natural environment" covers in large measure an artificial environment described as
natural, but shaped and tranformed by the hand of man. Renaissance artists used the Golden Spiral to determine proportion
in gardens, even the proportion of land to sky in landscapes and gardens was figured using the Golden Ratio (rectangle
1 to 1,16803). The beautiful proportions of the Golden Ratio are still used today. Even then, Western gardens are
"an enclosure, a rational set aside and cut from the real world of the Tao", they are a human construction in which the
human ratio can shape an own environment. The word 'garden' has an Indio-European root : (ghorto-grad) meaning an enclosure,
a set aside and cut from natural world. Western gardens are described as nature, but shaped by man's imagination.
The European landscape garden is associated with nature's freshness, with 'green grass' from the tradition of the shephard,
the Chinese associate their grass steppes with wildernis which threatens their great civilisation. So, European parks and
landscape gardens are "good for cows and shephards but not suitable for man's intellect", they are "chiken soup for the soul,
nuggets for the brain".
Jingshen and Tai Chi Chuan
Feng shui is the art related to "the law and order of nature and the power of the universe". In Beijing the famous
"Heaven and Earth in one vessel" represents the Chinese perception of the whole Universe. Earth-Man-Heaven, there is a
fusion of spirit and substance which the Chinese call 'Jingshen'. Western gardens "lost their Yingshen". Yingshen means
different things in different contexts, it's a difficult term to translate. It conveys man's dual nature : part Earth
(part animal), part Heaven (part spirit). In this context Earth (body) and Heaven (spirit) come together, body and spirit
become together one. The shen (upper chakra) constitutes our capacity for consious awareness, and the Jing (lower chakra)
constitutes the depth of our awareness. Jingshen illuminates our depths and draws out potential so that it may become
manifest in the world. The act of willing the interpretation of jingshen is a methaphor for introspection and self discovery,
practicing Tai Chi Chuan an understanding of the concept of jingshen will help you. There is only one jingshen but there
are many emotions, so, let it be, let it go, a strong jingshen is free of emotions. The mind must be empty, there is a
direct relationship between the concept of yi (the mind intent) and yingshen. The mind intent (yi) always comes from
jingshen. Therefore when practicing Tai Chi Chuan the spine should be hold vertically, it creates a strong and solid
reunion between Heaven and Earth, it creates your jingshen.
A strong yinshen comes from contemplation and introspection. From ancient times to today, Chinese pavilions have been
associated with parks or gardens, in China there is no famous mountain without a pavilion, no rivers or lakes without
pavilions, and no parks or gardens without pavilions. Garden pavilions are mostly designed for contemplation and
introspection, a pavilion encourages meditation and the deeper awakening of the jingshen. A pavilion is designed for deeper
knowing, maybe you can read a book, "a book is like a garden carried in your pocket". Bamboo, one of the four favorite
plants along with plum, orchid and chrysantum -"the four man of honor"- was used in traditional Chinese garden. Empty
bamboo, as the plant is, as the heart is, so too we are capable of being "empty vessels where the vital life forces from
Heaven and Earth unite and converge". It could be a good definition of 'Jingshen'. Practicing Tai Chi Chuan without an
understanding of jingshen, without the reunion of jing and shen, Tai Chi turns into "chicken soup for the soul". Nuggets
for the brain, better take a walk.
The story of nature is never finished.
It is always at an interesting point continued in the next.
Tai Chi Chuan is never finished.
It is always at an interesting point continued in the next.
Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do.
Michel Eyquen de Montaigne
The further we move from the way of nature to solve today's problems
the more likely today's solution becomes tomorrow's problem.
Until you value yourself as a part of nature,
you will not value Tai Chi Chuan.
Until you value Tai Chi Chuan,
you will not do anything with it.
Western philosophers: About nature.
Nature understands her business better than we do.
The bees pillage the flowers here and there but they make honey of them witch is all their own.
It is no longer thyme or marjoram.
Michel Eyquen de Montaigne
Taoist classics: about nature.
Nature is not kind
It treats all things impartially.
The sage is not kind
And treats all people impartially.
Lao Tse
Nature is complete because it does not serve itself
The sage places himself after and founds himself before
Ignores his desire and founds himself content
He is complete because he does not serve himself.
Lao Tse
Taoist classics: about nature.
Nature says only a few words
High wind does not last long
Nor does heavy rain.
If nature's words do not last
Why should those of man?
Lao Tse
We live only to discover beauty.
All else is a form of waiting.
(K. Gibran)
"What is good and what is bad and need we someone to tell us such things?" Some students ask: "Why all those martial applications"? "What we need is love and peace, morality, rules of conduct...etc".
In Taoism morality is a non existent problem. Taoism does not see things in terms of moral significance, in terms of good or bad. Issues of morality and rules of behaviour are not part of Taoism because nature is moral indifferent. Tao always moves towards opposites, good and bad always to each other.
Taoists preach simple solutions for serious moral problems. Yin and Yang move always to each other and that's the only theory by which Taoists solve their moral problems.
That way Taoism becomes a mystical path, the way of Tao is found within ourselves. Finally Tao becomes the way of spontaneity of all things. The relation between 'Te' and 'Tao' is the same as that between the river and the water. All water flows to the sea, because all things tend to go in one direction. Taoists call it "The Will of Heaven" and "wise men understand the Will of Heaven". Obeying The Will of Heaven is a safeguard, it serves as an ultimate control over things commonly aliated with luck.
All water flows to the sea; the whole universe is a living system that is creative in nature and the energy of life(chi) is always oriented toward organization. Well then: as the collective sense of what is truly significant grows, the ability to take right action in the right moment expands.
Taoists begin by PURIFYING themselves. Ultimately Taoistic version of morality comes down to two central concerns: CONTROL and CONSCIOUSNESS. Problems of control and consciousness become clear when practicing the martial aspects of Tai Chi Chuan. That 's the first reason why the martial aspects of Tai Chi Chuan are as important. However morally correct we may practice our martial applications, there are always circumstances in which a Tai Chi student has no control over what may seriously influence the outcome of his or her actions. Control means not only control over once actions but also control over the situations we will encounter. Control means control over the circumstances as well as over the outcome of our actions.
"Misfortune tell us what fortune is"(Chinese proverb). Taoist thinks that a serious person will always step into lucky circumstances. Whom fails to follow the Way of Tao, will be haunted by bad luck. Taoists avoid moralizing by preaching simple solutions for serious moral problems, Taoism preaches that the universe is a living system that is creative in nature and life's energy is oriented to organization.
Taoism preaches that if the collective sense of what is truly significant grows, the ability to take right action in the right moment expands. Taoism tends to a philosophical approach of responsibility, while ethical issues are linked with Confucianism. Discusses of morality and rules of conduct are not part of Taoism. Taoists does not see things in terms of good or bad, right or wrong, left or right. They see things in terms of responsibility. "If you are always done it that way, it is probably wrong"? Taoism is a model for authentic development and morality is a non existent problem.
The misunderstanding of our time is that insight will work with people who are unmotivated to challenge. That morality will work with people who are unmotivated to change. People don’t resist changes.
People resist being changed.