Published on
April 12, 2007 in
Life and 道 (Dao).
Tags: butterfly, constant, emotionless, essence, everlasting, Life, nature, one, physical, truth, universe, zhuang zi, 道 (Dao).
A while back, I wrote about this idea of becoming “one” with the universe. Before I go on, I need to first establish the idea that, throughout time, the basic principles of the Universe, as a whole, have never changed. Even when the world undergoes cycles of big bangs and shrinkages, even when solar systems collapse and reform, even when seasons change, the Universe, as a whole, remains unmoved.
Pi can always be described as the ratio 3.14. A circle’s circumference will always, just helplessly, be a little greater than three times its diameter. An equilateral triangle will always have equal sides and three angles of 60º. The three angles of all triangles will always add up to 180º. A wave’s frequency will always be inversely proportional to its wavelength. Gravity will always be proportional to the masses of the two objects. A physicist would be able to give you a whole slew of constants and physical relationships that most people haven’t even heard of. These are all bits and pieces of what I like to call the “definition” of nature.
Of course, these numbers are only mere representations of nature. I hope my main idea isn’t obscured by this. The important thing is that there exist (∃) features in the universe that are constant and everlasting. Continue reading ‘The Universe, yourself included’
Published on
March 18, 2007 in
道 (Dao).
Tags: absolute, change, daoism, ddj1, ephemeral, essence, everlasting, language, lao zi, omnipresent, philosophy, physical, qjj, relative, Science, truth, waterbottle, 道 (Dao).
You might want me to start by explaining the motto at the top of the page. But I can’t start there, because it wouldn’t make sense to anyone, not without first discussing some fundamentals. What I
can do is give some grammatical clues. Here’s the same thing again, ignoring grammatical capitalizations, where only proper nouns are capitalized:
real is Nothing
nothing is real
what’s real is what’s Not
Capitalized words include “Nothing” and “Not.” This site is based upon the idea of an “infinite zero.” ‘kay, enough of that for now — let’s move on.
What is this Dao that you hear about? 何謂道？ (For my spiel on my preference for “Dao” instead of “Taoism,” see the FAQs.) 老子 (Lao zi, also “Lao tze” or “Lao tse”) opens the 清靜經 (Qing jing jing) with:
大道無形，生育天地；
大道無情，運行日月；
大道無名，長養萬物。
吾不知其名，強名曰道。
The great Dao has no shape, yet gives birth and nourishes heaven and earth.
The great Dao has no emotion, yet moves all heavenly objects.
The great Dao has no name, yet cultivates all things.
I know not its name; I am forced to call it “Dao.”
and 道德經 (Dao de jing, Tao te ching) with the following:
道可道，非常道。名可名，非常名。
The Dao that can be put into language is not the enduring and unchanging Dao.
The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.
Dao is in everything. It is the universal Truth. A waterbottle works because it has its own Dao. A knife and fork can coordinate together on your plate because of the Dao they share. You need to use the bathroom every few hours because of an intrinsic reason behind the way your body works, Dao. Some of us are attracted to movies and TV shows because of a Dao behind it all. Continue reading ‘So what’s this whole Dao (道) thing?’
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