Sermons

February 3, 2008
Taoism, The Great Way of the Universe

Daoism, the Great Way of the Universe
a sermon for Chinese New Year by the Rev. Mark Worth

READINGS:
1. From the Dao de Jing (it is Tao te Ching in the familiar but less accurate Wade-Giles transliteration system; Dao de Jing in the more modern and more accurate pinyin system); the little book is attributed to Lao-zi (again, Lao-tzu in Wade-Giles, Lao-zi or Laozi in pinyin). This translation is Tao te Ching: A New English Version translated by Stephen Mitchell HarperPerennial paperback, 1991.
"Fill your bowl to the brim, and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife, and it will be blunt.
Chase after money and security, and your heart will never unclench.
Care about people’s approval, and you will be their prisoner.
Do your work, and then step back: the only path to serenity."

2. From Dr. Wayne Dyer, from a talk on his web site, discussing the Dao de Jing:
"Many people call this a manual for achieving a way of life that literally guarantees integrity, joy, peace and balance in our lives. Change your thoughts – based upon the wisdom of the Tao – and your life will change.
There’s many principles to live by in the Tao. First, remind yourself that there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. Bring happiness to all that you do.
You accomplish much by trying less.
See yourself, the Dao says, in everyone you encounter – a great lesson – every single being, especially the ones that we read about who we are told are our enemies. See yourself in them. Know that whoever they are, wherever they live, they want what we want... they want to be at peace.
Live without attachment, and be generous.
Be strong by bending. By bending. We need to learn this in our lives. We need to learn this in the world. It’s not so important to be right. It’s so much more important, when you have a choice to be right or to be kind, always pick kind. Always pick kind.
Practice radical humility. Live low. Live low, like the ocean, stay low, and all the streams will come to it. That’s why it’s so powerful! Because it doesn’t lord anything over anyone.
And rather than looking for miracles, see everything as miraculous. Everything in your life."

THE SERMON
It is Chinese New Year, a time for people of Chinese ancestry all over the world to be with their families to celebrate the turning of the year. We are leaving the year of the fire pig and entering the year of the earth rat.
By the way, I was born in 1948, which was also a year of the earth rat. Perhaps you already knew that I am a rat. I’m told that in the Chinese zodiac, rats are leaders, pioneers, and conquerors. We tend to be charming and passionate, practical and hardworking. We can be intelligent and cunning at the same time, but watch out because we also tend to be strong-willed, and keen promoters of our own agendas. Besides smiles and charm, we rats can be obstinate and controlling, insisting on having things our own way no matter what. To the extant that some of those things might be true of me, I have some issues to work on, wouldn’t you say?
But I want to talk today, not about us rats, but about another Chinese subject, Daoism.
As a way of introducing the subject, you may have noticed that in the Parish House, on the wall directly behind me, there is a portrait of the Rev. Dr. Harry Meserve. I’ve sometimes been asked if it was a picture of me, but I’m not quite that old yet (although I’m getting there), and my hair isn’t that white. Harry was a Unitarian Universalist minister who served some large UU churches in San Francisco, and in Grosse Point, Michigan, and who retired to Maine. He lived with his wife Kay in Southwest Harbor, with an exceptionally beautiful view of the harbor, and he was a thoughtful, wise, and kind man. As a colleague in the ministry, he was always willing to help, but he never interfered. He was a thoughtful preacher, and he became a frequent guest speaker in this church. When he wasn’t guest preaching here or in Ellsworth he generally attended the Quaker silent meeting in Northeast Harbor.
He once told me that his favorite book was the Dao de Jing (or Tao te Ching ), and more and more as he got older he considered himself to be a Daoist. I say this as a way of introduction to Daoism, because if you knew Harry, you’ve already known a Daoist.

The Old Master ~
All Daoism begins with the little book, the Dao de Jing. The title can be translated as “The Book of the Way and How It Manifests Itself in the World,” or simply, “The Book of the Way.” It is attributed to Lao-zi, who (according to tradition) lived in China in the 6th century B.C.E., making him contemporary with Kong-zi (or Kong Fu-tse, known in the West as Confucius).
Some historians believe Lao-zi was a synthesis of multiple figures, or that he was entirely mythical, or that he lived in the 4th century B.C.E. concurrent with the “Hundred Schools of Thought.” His name, Lao-zi, means “Old Master,” but he has also been called “Old Boy.” He was given this name because his mother was made pregnant by a shooting star, and she carried him in her womb for sixty-two years. When he was born he was already old, had white hair, a grey beard, and long earlobes (a sign of wisdom and long life), and began teaching philosophy right away, and so he was an “Old Boy.”
He was the Keeper of the Archives for the Royal Court of Chou. This allowed him broad access to the works of the Yellow Emperor and other Chinese classics of the time. He never opened a formal school, but nonetheless attracted a large number of students and disciples.
We are told that Lao-zi became weary of the moral decay of the great imperial city, and so at the age of 160 he set out for the frontier to become a hermit. At the western gate of the city he was recognized by a guard, who asked him to not leave until he produced a record of his wisdom. So Lao-zi wrote the little book, the Dao de Jing, gave it to the guard, and left, never to be heard from again.

The Dao, the Way of the Universe ~
The Dao de Jing is considered to be one of the great works of Chinese philosophy. As with most other Chinese philosophers, Lao-zi explains his ideas by using paradox, analogy, repetition, symmetry, rhythm and rhyme. The book emphasizes the Dao (or Tao), the way of the universe, as the source and ideal of all existence. It is the unknowable, unseeable realm where everything originates. At the same time, the Dao is invisibly within everything – and the mystery itself is the doorway to all understanding:
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The Name that can be named is not the eternal Name.
We cannot name the Dao, we cannot pin it down with a definition, for to name it is to lose it – just as sophisticated Jews, Muslims and Christians would say that God is not an old man in the sky, but is really beyond the limits of human definition. The Mediaeval Christian mystic Meister Eckhart wrote, “God is a being beyond being, and a nothingness beyond being. God is nothing. No thing. God is nothingness. And yet God is something”
We are taught in school to put labels on things. Yet there is no title, degree, or distinguishing label that truly defines you or I. Or consider water. Water is not the word “water,” or “agua” – and God is not the word “God.” So it is with the Dao.
According to the Dao de Jing, humans have no special place in the Dao – we are simply one of many things. People have desires and we also have free will, so we are able to alter our behavior, which means that some of us choose to behave “unnaturally.” That is, we sometimes upset the balance of the Dao. The Dao de Jing suggests that we would be better off if we return to the natural state, in harmony with the Dao.

Wu wei, “the Pooh Way” ~
What does it mean to be in harmony with the Dao? We should return to “nature” rather than action. Wu wei, literally “non-action,” or “action without doing, causing or making,” involves knowing when to act and when not to act. Benjamin Hoff, author of The Tao of Pooh, a book that compares Winnie the Pooh to Daoism, calls Wu wei “the Pooh Way.” “While Eeyore frets, and Piglet hesitates, and Rabbit calculates, and Owl pontificates, Pooh just is. And that’s a clue to the secret wisdom of the Taoists,” writes Hoff.
One day Kong Fu-tse was at the Gorge of Lu, where a great waterfall plunges for thousands of feet, and the spray is visible for miles. In the great waters churning below the falls an old man was being tossed about in the turbulent waters. Kong Fu-tse called for his disciples to come quickly, but as they were preparing to try to rescue the old man, they saw that the man had climbed up out of the water and was walking along and singing to himself.
Kung Fu-tse hurried to the man and said, “You must be a ghost. No man could survive in those waters. What secret power do you have?” The man said, “It is nothing special. I began to learn when I was very young, and grew up practicing it. I go down with the water and come up with the water. I don’t fight the water. I follow it and forget myself. I survive because I don’t struggle against the water’s superior power. That’s all.”
The man in the water was Lao-zi, and he was engaging in wu wei, to do without doing. It is working with the natural order of things, and operating on the principle of minimal effort. A river doesn’t fight the rocks in its path, but flows around and over them. An elm tree, standing strong and stiff, may be blown down in a storm, while the grasses that bend with the wind can stand back up when the wind stops blowing.
Like a cork floating in water, wu wei does not expend energy. The harder you hit that floating cork, the more yields, and yet it bounces right back. Without expending energy, the cork can wear you out. Wu wei overcomes force by neutralizing its power, rather than by adding to the conflict. In the West we say, “fight fire with fire.” But wu wei would rather fight fire with water.
The master acts without doing anything, and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise, and she lets them come. Things disappear, and she lets them go.
She has but doesn’t possess; acts, but doesn’t expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it. That is why it lasts forever.

Some Daoist Principles ~
Is Daoism a philosophy or a religion? There are Daoist temples and rituals. In popular Daoism, the gods of ancient Chinese mythology are revered. Yet in the view of some historians, Daoism has never fit the mold of a unified religion. Many prefer to look at Daoist philosophy apart from the religious trappings of popular Daoism.
Would you like to live like a Daoist master? Here are some Daoist principles to keep in mind: Wealth does not enrich the spirit. Glorification of wealth, power, and beauty, beget crime, envy and shame. Self-interest and self-importance are vain and self-destructive; but the one whose needs are simple will find them fulfilled.
Victory in war is not glorious and not to be celebrated, but stems from devastation, and is to be mourned. It is wise to repay kindness with kindness, and to repay evil with kindness. We are our brothers’ keepers.
Skill averts waste. Stupidity leads to force.
Force leads to counter-force. The harder one tries, the more resistance he will create. The more one acts in harmony with the universe, the more she will achieve, and with less effort.
The truly wise make little of their own wisdom, for the more they know, the more they realize how little they know.
The wise are responsible for the foolish. The honest are responsible for the dishonest. The teacher is responsible for the student.
The “feminine” qualities of flexibility and suppleness are superior to the “masculine” qualities of strength and rigidity.
If you can live these principles, you are well on your way to being a Daoist.

Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life ~
The popular self-help author, Dr. Wayne Dyer, has a book, new in 2007, based on the verses of the Dao de Jing titled, Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life. Dyer says, “Perhaps the overriding message of the Tao te Ching is to learn how to luxuriate in the simplicity of what you’re being told throughout this ancient sacred text. As you put its ideas into practice, you’ll discover how profound it all is – but then you’ll find yourself startled by its simplicity and naturalness. The advice of this ancient master is so easy to apply that you mustn’t try to complicate it. Simply allow yourself to stay in harmony with your nature, which can be trusted if you just listen and act accordingly.”
I’m not usually big on self-help books, but I think that Dyer breaks out of the genre with this book, and I recommend it. As Dyer understands, living with the Dao is living beyond ego. The ego is a demanding force that is never satisfied. It always wants more recognition, more adulation, more money, more power, more acquisitions, more prestige to provide the fuel it thinks it must have. And the ego wants to be right, to win. But the more we try to be right, the less kind we are. The more we try to win, the more we lose those things that are really important.
Living a Dao-centered life rather than an ego-driven life removes us from that rat race. After all, even if you win the rat race, you’re still a rat.
The more we pursue our desires, the more they will elude us. So rather than ego, the Dao-centered life offers inner peace and satisfying fulfillment. If we serve the needs of others, we will find our own needs fulfilled. This is what Jesus was talking about when he said that the person who gives up his or her life will find it, that the last will be first, that the peacemakers are blessed, and that the meek will inherit the earth.
If we live the great way of the Dao, then, we learn to practice radical humility. We live low, like the ocean, and yet we find that all streams flow to the ocean. We become strong by bending, like grasses in the wind. We become rich by living without attachment, and by becoming generous. We accomplish more by trying less. We cease trying to force things, and find that things come to us because we don’t force them. We conquer our enemies by turning them into our friends.
And when given a choice between being right and being kind, we choose kind.
And we find that kind is right.
Amen.