Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi on cultivation

Thanks Chris for that lovely collection of Taoit wisdom.

I think these passagess highlight the difference between taoism and other religions like Buddhism and Hinduism. Most religions assume their followers are spiritually ignorant and tell them how to live righteously; this eventually becomes dogma, i.e. your ticket to heaven is doing what we tell you is Good.

The early Taoists, and the later Tao alchemical schools, don’t let the follower be so lazy, and don’t promise anyone heaven by simply following external rules. They make them work internally to unfold and cultivate their te, (de), their personal essence and spiritual power to act on behalf of the Tao.

Taoism has many branches, and some of the later temple branches liek Complete Perfection are no different – they published long lists of how to behave, hundreds of items long. They mgiht even say something like, Don’t ride your horse too fast as a minor sin. Some of them, like the Celestial Masters, introduced various methods of achieving repentance by confession of sins. Very catholic.

This was mostly due to competing for imperial favor and competition with and/or integration of buddhist teachings.

Merit is the religious dogmatic concept, te/spiritual power is a little more organic and intuitive and requires you to decide what is ethical in any given moment. This is called Situational Ethics by philosophy types, where there is no fixed way to determine what is Meritorious by outside standards.

some of this is just language differences – both are trying to achieve the same end, i.e. get people to help each other and realize we are all one.

But I have noticed on my trips to India, and in various buddhist countries I ahve visited – that Merit Teachings tend to arise in the context of religious teachings that focus on the Other World. When the divine good and prayers are mostly focused on divinities that are in heavens or more pure dimensions, they need to ground themselves with physical action and accumulatin of merit here on Earth. It serves as a counter balance to to all that out-of-body focus, the split they have going on between Heaven and Earth. Chrisitanity is not really any different. Its the standard big religion dogma split.

This split arises from denial of the spiritual nature of the physical body, and the divine nature of the earth itself. Once you let go of that,, all the virtue spontaneously arises within your body in the moment, the Life Force guides you as to what serves the greater Balance and Harmony.

Does the ME generation need to be reminded here in the West of their WE natare? Yes, undeniably. Is focus on accumulating Merit as your ticket to Enlightenment the best way to achieve that? If you want to work from the outside in, rather than from the inside out, its a start, much better than focusing on hurting others.

But it doesn’t have an enlightened end, you are going to have to let go of the core idea of doing something for somebody else’s idea of Merit. And let go of your fears of a Judgement Day as to whether you are meritorious and deserve to enter the Heaven of Enlightened Bodisattvas or whatever.

That is all religouis projection, it is not spiritual reality. The reality is you Judge Yourself at the moment of death/transition. You are forced to take responsibilty for all you have denied or accepted about your life. There is only the Day of Self -Judgement. If you can give up judging yourself and let that natural self unfold, there will be no self jdugement at Death, just a natural easy transition to your next phase of life.
m

“working from the outside in” is not misleading. Its merely descriptive. It is not a judgment. The outside merely refers to action in the outer physical world, using it to experience yourself and thus know the self more deeply.

This is essential in fulfilling one’s worldly destiny – but not with a goal towards accumulating merit. One’s merit (de) is abundantly accumulated in the pre-natal realm, and just needs to be released/expressed in the post-natal realm. The merit arises from expression of free will, making a choice, which only your manifest self can do.

>Merit has to do with Prajna wisdom, or True Form Wisdom. You can’t reach it through common knowledge or ideas, reading texts or doing visualizations, or through thinking about it, discussing it or researching it.

You make merit sound very esoteric, very distant from ordinary life. People read about spiritual things and get inspired, it can certainly awaken it.

If it is impossible to open up a space within one self with conscious intention to allow one’s virtuous nature to emerge, what Taoists call cultivating their inner nature (xing), then your view of Merit sounds extremely deterministic, i.e. it is caused by factors totally outside of the self.

Also, If discussing merit doesn’t lead to accumulating more merit or inspiring others to become more meritorious, I am totally confused as to why you keep mentioning it.
m

Doing good deeds:
1.My grandmother gave money for the poor, donated for every organization who claimed to help others. She was very religious and believed that a true Christian had to help others. One could say she was a good woman and did many good deeds.

2.My mother is doing good deeds, she is helping others as much as she can but underlying she wants appreciation for what she is doing for others.
She can’t stop doing it because she is driven to do good deeds and be a good woman.

I saw both my grandmother and mother doing good deeds, giving the best of themselves.
I observed this behavior and I believe many people act from these angles:

1. because their religion/believe is telling them to do so
2. because they hunger for appreciation, attention and love
It is coming from outside in or using their good deeds to fill the gap within…

When coming from inside out…it is an act in that present moment, not because one is told to do so, not because one is hungry for love but because one is totally honest within.

Heya .f –

dual-thread monstrosities on this “merit” business!

Just wanted to say that the use of the word “virtue” reminded me of herbal healing practices and I find the analogy helpful.

Every plant that has a medicinal use has exactly that – a virtue. It is the plant’s own. Its way of singing. It doesn’t need rules. It has a certain thing that it does and, when activated, it does it.

The same is true of us all. What people have forgotten, I would venture to suggest, in the centuries and centuries of being told what to do by authorities that should have known better, is precisely that – at their best, people naturally have virtue and it is a joy to make use of it. It is far more the case that some natural song has to be unstopped to make a virtuous person, I feel, than that some new and alien song has to be learned to “correct” the person. Worrying about how one looks to others cannot produce virtue as I understand – only a kind of paranoid and guilt-ridden simulation thereof.

I really think the natural world – not only plants but animals too of course – repays diligent study here, especially the wild. “No animal falters but knows what it must do” – Denise Levertov

best NN

>>>”If you don’t have desire, my advice is to force yourself to do good deeds until the merit from doing them will open your heart and then you will be doing it from your inner calling.”< (Max)<< Boy, did he really say that? In my opinion that is a very bad idea indeed. If you are "forcing yourself" how can you possibly see the good? You are hating doing it. You are hating it because you "have to". It can only build up resentment. No, firstly comes the impulse, then the courage to follow through. Otherwise you are twisting yourself and losing balance, and you may feel you are "doing good" but the act has no meaning. NN

<'although outwardly many 'helpers' appear to be very humble. '< As my mother I was hungry for appreciation, I became a good nurse, they called my an angel and I felt good, appreciated. But I gave so much my heart became tired, heavy. Whatever I put into those patients it was never enough to heal or to comfort their pain and suffering. I became numb to suffering and dead. So I changed path, started the daoist practice and started a private practice to help others. I gave so much, did my very very best to heal the suffering I faced and realised it was endless, exhausting myself and I would never be able to heal the suffering in this world. Somehow somewhere I realised that whatever I put into the world it would not take away the suffering... it was NOT a humble goal but it made me humble along the way. Realising that those clients were mirroring my inner stories and inner fights made me humble. Today I still have my practice, I still teach but I know that I don't have to be 'superwoman' to be appreciated, the inner pressure to be 'good' is more balanced. If a client is not served as s/he hoped it is ok, if a student is not coming back for a next class it is ok. I don't feel any personal judgment, I tried as honest as I could be in that moment. Sometimes I give to a beggar, and sometimes I don't. I don't try to judge myself why I do for one and not for the other. I do or I don't because that is what I feel in that present moment. I try to be me as a human in process...sometimes I radiate and sometimes I digest, sometimes I give and sometimes I don't.