EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
Chinese Thought: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Science
Edward Slingerland, University of British Columbia
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E The Concept of Reversion Notes taken on November 25, 2016 by Edward Tanguay |
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Samsara
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the concept of reversion, or turning back
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from the Daodejing
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4th century BC
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chapter 9
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"To hold the vessel upright in order to fill it is not as good as to stop in time."
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"If you make your blade too keen, it will not hold its edge."
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"When gold and jade fill the hall, none hold on to them."
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"To be haughty when wealth and honor come your way is to bring disaster upon yourself."
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"To withdraw when the work is done is the Way of Heaven."
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tilting vessel
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the vessel was for wine in the Zhou dynasty
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had a round base
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self-emptying: if you poured water in it to the top, it would tip over and empty itself out
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being used as a metaphor
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anything taken too far is going to lead to the oppose
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don't follow something too far
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"fan"
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reversion, or turning back
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anything taken too far turns into its opposite
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presented in the Daodejing as a metaphysical principle of the universe
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chapter 40
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"Turning back is how the Way moves. Weakness is how the Way operates. The world and all its creatures arise from what is there. What is there arises from what is not there."
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concept of something comes out of nothing and then turns back to nothing again
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a metaphysical cycle of the universe
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Yin/Yang
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the prototypical opposites
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dark/light, male/female
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when the colors reach their ultimate level, they have their opposite in them
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the seed of the other is in the original
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high turns into low, low turns into high
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the pictorial representation of the principle of reversion
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anything that reaches its extreme, turns into its opposite
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it's odd that this symbol is viewed today as a positive symbol of spirituality
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it's painted on surfboards and people get it tattooed to their butt
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it's not a positive concept for the authors of the Daodejing
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this cycle of reversion is bad
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it's something we want to get out of
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similar to Buddhist concept
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trapped in a cycle of craving and we don't get what we want
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therefore we experience dukkha
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suffering and impermanence
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nothing lasts
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strength does not remain strength, it always turns into weakness
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symbolizes human being chasing supposedly positive values but never getting them because as soon as they get them they turn into the opposite
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it's a very negative, pessimistic view of life
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if you pursue happiness, you will become sad
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if you pursue strength, you will become weak
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what we need to do is stop pursuing
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the ironic effects of effort
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pursuing something is something the worst strategy
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actively pursuing some goal can often lead to the opposite effect
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the effects of where conscious effect causes you to get the opposite of what you want
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e.g. if someone tells you to not think of a white bear, you immediately think of a white bear
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trying to be happy can make you depressed
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trying to be relaxed can make you tense
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trying to suppress a thought usually makes the thought more prominent
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in studies, telling people when they put that, no matter what they do, don't overshoot the hole, will overshoot the hole more often
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hold a pendulum but don't move it along a certain axis, this is often what they ended up doing
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Viktor Frankl
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paradoxical intention therapy
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for patients who can't fall asleep, an effective therapy is to try to stay awake
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the Daodejing has this insight
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the conscious pursuit of a particular goal is the worse way to reach that goal
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especially things that you have to experience spontaneously
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consciously trying to pursue them can actually prevent you from attaining them
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if you are pursuing some moral virtue as a conscious goal, you are often going to end up with the vice
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escaping this cycle
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aim for the thing we don't want
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people tend to want strength instead of weakness
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Laozi: The Way goals are the lower part of these dichotomies, e.g. weakness
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if you observe the Dao, it's dark, you can't seem to see it
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it's weak, it doesn't see to have any power
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the Dao takes no credit
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you don't see the Dao
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and yet everything follows the Dao
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it's a ruler that runs the universe but can't be observed
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dyads
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male/female
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light/dark
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strong/weak
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hard/soft
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the upper part of the dyads is what people want, these are what humans value: male, light, strong, hard
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the Dao is dark, weak, invisible, but it's how you get things done
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everything follows the Dao
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a principle that runs the universe but can't be observed
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we should value weakness, darkness, the lower part of the dyads
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the paradoxical aspect is that if you embrace the lower part of the dyad, you end up getting both
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embrace weakness means embrace the thing that society views as weakness