We may call it as “a mystical intuition of the unity and multiplicity of existence”. It is a philosophy of undifferentiation which is a natural product of a metaphysical experience of Reality. In this kind of experience, Reality is directley witnessed as it unfold and diversities itself unto myriad of things, and than goes back again to the Original Unity (Tao).

Lao Tze, too, looks at the apparent destruction, opposition and contradictions from the point of view of the metaphysical one. From this point of view. All things lose their sharp edges conceptual discrimination and become blended and harmonized.

According to Laop Tze, people tend to imagine that things are essentially distinguishable from one another. They seem to be conceived that these distinctions are all permanent and unalterable. In reality, however, they are simply being deceived by the external and phenomenal aspects of Being.

Everything, in short, is relative, nothing as absolute. We live in a world of relative distinction and relative antitheses. But the majority of men do not realize that these are relative.

This kind of relativism is equalization of opposite and based on a very remarkable intuition of the ontological structure of world. It leads to the chaotic view of things, the essential undifferentiation of things, which are in its dynamic aspect is conceived as “Transmutation of things”.

Key-word : Hua = transmutation (Chuang Tze)
Fan or fu = return (Lao Tze)

The cosmic significance of the Fan (return) has direct relevance to the problem of relativism.

Fan or fu is a dynamic concept. Lao Tze explicates this concept in a verse form in the following passage, which may in fact be considered an epitome of the whole of his ontology.

Returning is how the Tao moves
And being weak is how the Tao works
The ten thousands things under heaven
Are born from Being
And Being is from Non-Being

Tthis verse refer to two different meaning or aspects of returning:

1. The first aspects is suggested by the first line of the verse.
2. The second is suggested by the second line of the verse.

The first line:

‘Returning is how the Tao moves’ -- Everythings that exists
contains in itself a possibility or natural tendency to return, i. e.
to be transform into its opposite.

The second line:

‘And being weak is how the Tao works’ -- the same possibility
of ‘returning’ to the opposites, namely, the original state from
which it has come.

ALL THINGS, ON THE DEEPER LEVEL OF REALITY, ARE
‘ESSENCE’ LESS.

In this contex – the world itself is chaotic.

This is not only true of the external world in which we exist. But it is equally true of the world within us, the internal world of concepts of judgments.

All things are constantly in the process of a circular movement
(tung).

Tung is a dynamic aspects of reality
It is the rule of the ontological movement of everythings in the
world.

True man (t’en ni or t’ien chin) is the one who understand the meaning of the ‘Tung’ as the rule of of the ontological movement of everythings in the world.

The meaning of third and four line of the quoted verse:

‘Ten thousand things under Heaven/ Are born from Being’

All things in the world come into actual being from the Tao
at its stage of existence which is nothing other than
a stage in the process of self-manifestation of the Tao.
Tao = Being. Tao itself is comes into being from the stage
Of ‘non-existence’ (Non –Being).

The stage of non-existence is the abysmal depth of the
absolutely unknown-unknowable Way itself.

Compare with the concepts of Nirvana in Buddhism and
al-`alam al-Hahut in the Sufism of Ibn `Arabi.

Chuang Tze:

The real Reality is the One which comprehends all these opposites in itself, that the divisions of this original One into ‘life’ and ‘death’, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ etc., is due to various points of view taken by man.

The real Reality is the absolute One.
It is, of course, the Way (Tao) which pervades the world world
of Being., rather it is the whole world of Being.

Tao Te Ching IV:

Tao is all-pervading
And its use inexhaustible!
Fathomless
Like the fountain head of all things.

Wisdom:

Thirty spokes unite-around the nave;
From their ‘not-being’ (losing of their individuality)
Arises the utility of the wheel.
Mould clay into a vessel;
From its not-being (in the vessel’s hollow)
Arises the utility of the vessel.
Cut out the doors and windows in the house (-wall)
From their not-being (empty space)
Arises the utility of the house
Therefore by the existence of things we profit
And by the non-existence of things we are served.

1. (TTC XI – The Utility of Not Being)

Chuang Tze:

“If we want to affirm (Being on a higher level) what both parties regard as ‘wrong’, and to deny what they regard as ‘right’, we have no better means than ‘illumination’ (ming).

2. THE EGO AND THE MIND

According Chuang Tze:

Ordinary man believes that he himself has an ‘ego’, a self-subsistent entity in endowd with an absolute ontological independence.
He tends to forget that the ‘ego’ which he believes to indepencence and absolute is in reality something relative and dependence.
Relative to what? Relative to you and them and all other things that exist around himself.

For an ordinary man, ego is the very basis and the core of man’s existence without which he would lose his personality, his personal unity, and be nothing.
The ‘ego’ is the point of coordination, the point of synthesis, of which all the disparate elements of his personality, whether physical or mental become united. The ‘ego’ thus understood is called ‘the mind’ (Hsin).

The Nature of Hsin:

a. Tso-ch’ih, literally mean ‘sitting-galloping’
b. Tso-wang, literally mean ‘sitting-forgetting’

Tso-ch`ih refer to the situation in which the mind of an ordinary person finds itself, in constant movement, going this was at this moment and that way at the next, in response to the myriad impressions coming from outside to attract its attention and to rouse its curiously, never ceasing, to stop and rest for a moment, even when the body is quietly seated.
It is the exact opposite of the mind in a state of calm peaceful consentration.

TAO TE CHING XLVII (Pursuit of Knowledge)

Without stepping outside one’s doors,
One can know what is happening in the world,
Without looking out of one’s windows
One can see the Tao of Heaven

The farther one pursue knowledge,
The less one knows.
Therefore the Sage knows without running about,
Understands without seeing,
Accomplishes without doing

It is easy to understand conceptually this opposite of the two states of mind, one ‘galloping around’ and the other ‘sitting still and void’. But is is difficult for ordinary men to free themselves the latter.

The tyranny of the mind is nothing else than the tyranny of the ‘ego’, that is is the false ego. The false ego creates for himself as the ontological center of his personality.

Chuang Tze called it shih hsin or making the mind one’s own teacher.

Ego is man own creation. But man clings to it, as if it never can imagine himself existing without it.

In the intelectual level this ‘mind’ (hsin) appear as Reason, the faculty of discursive thinking and reasoning.

Chuang Tze calls the ‘reason’ as ch’eng hsin or ‘finished mind’. With it man tends to discriminates between things and passed judgments on them, saying, ‘this is right’ and ‘that is wrong’, etc. So then he goes on falling ever deeper into the limitless swamp of absurdities.

Lao Tze calls it as ch’ang hsin or constant or unchangeable mind. He designates it as a rigidly fixed state of the mind deprived of all natural flexibility , as he likes to say, the state of mind which perceives everywhere ‘good’ and ‘bad’ and regards these categories as something objective and absolute.

The kind of ‘knowing; which is wrong in the view of Lao Tze is the same distingushing and discriminating activity of intelligence as one which have seen so bitterly denounced by Chuang Tze.

The problem of ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ is not a logical problem. It is a matter of practical evaluation. This evaluation directly connected with the concrete facts of life. It is wrong and detrimental ti human existence because it tempts it away from its real nature, and ultimately from Tao itself.

The ‘knowing’, when its usual tendency of turning toward the outside and seeking after external objects is curbed and brought back toward the inside, transforms itself into the highest form of intuition. Illumination (ming).

TTC XXXIII

He who knows other is learned;
He who knows himself is wise.
He who conquers others has power of muscles;
He who conquers himself is strong.
He who is contenced is rich.
He who is determined has strength of will.
He who does not lose his center endures,
He who dies yet (his power) remains has long life.

Illumination is directly connected with man’s knwoledge of himself. It is evidently refers to the immediate and intuitive knowledge of the Tao.

It is described as man’s ‘self-knowledge’ or ‘self-knowing’ because the immediate intuitive grasp of the Way is only obtainable throught man’s turning into himself.

Remember the line, “Tao is all-pervading, and its use is inexhaustible! Fathomless! Like the fountain head of all things.” (TTC IV)

TTC XXXIV

The Great Tao flows everywhere
(Like a flood) it may go left or right.
The myriad things derive their life from it.
And it does not deny them.
...

Being the home of all things, yet claiming not,
It may be considered great.
Because to the end it does not claim greatness,
Its greatness is achieved.

THE INTUITIVE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TAO

The immediate intuitive grasp of Tao (the Way) is only obstainable through man’s ‘turning into himself’.
Only man alone in the whole world of Being is self-conscious, and man alone is in position to grasp the Way from inside.
At least in the first subjective personal encounter with the Way must be made within himself. That is by comtemplation and meditation.
But the existential core of himself which he finds in the depth of his mind may not be the Way per se, because after all it is an individualized the Way. But on other hand, there is no real distinction between the two.
Lao Tze expresses this state of affairs symbolically by calling the Way per se the Mother, and the Way in indvidualized form the Child.

TTC LII

There was a beginning of the universe
Which may regarded as the Mother of Universe
From the Mother, we may know her sons,
After knowing the sons, keep the Mother.
Thus one’s whole life may be preserved from harm.

Stop its apertures
Close its doors
And one’s whole life is without toil.

Open its apertures,
Be busy about it affairs,
And one’s whole life is beyond redemption.

He who can see the small is clear sighted;
He who stays by gentility is strong
Use the light (illumination)
And return to clear sightedness –
Thus cause not yourself late distress
-- This is to steal the Absolute.

Lao Tze uses metaphor ‘close its door’ to know the form of the individualized Tao (Child or Son).
Man can come to know the Child, and through the Child, he knows the Mother. And the ultimate state thus attained is referred to by the term ‘illumination’ (ming).

The child (tzu) represents an indvidualized duplicate of the Mother (mu), and the Mother is nothing other than virtue (te), or perharps an individual embodiment of the Way as its existensial core of the creative and vital force, which is the Way itself as distributed among ‘the ten thousands of things’.

‘Stop its aperture, close its doors’ means stopping the functioning of all organs of sense perception in the first place, and then purifying the Mind of physical and material desires.

TTC XII

The five colors blind the eyes of man;
The five musical notes deafen the ears of man;
The five flavors dull the taste of man;
Horse-racing, hunting and chasing madden the minds of
man;
Rare, valuable goods keep their owners awake at night.

Therefore the Sage;
Provides for the belly and not for the eye;
Hence, he rejects the one and accepts the other.

SPIRITUAL VALUES IN TAOISM

Taoist mystics, who looked aloof at everything here, felt some fatigue in worldly affairs and sought spiritual quiessence and tranquility, and then, withdrawing their minds from worldly things, were men who had a transcendent mentality.
They taught people to live a way of life which is neither driven by instinctive desires nor moitivated by calculation, forgetting worldly benefits. So, their value of their ideal life is quite beyond the category of the satisfaction of natural desires and utilitarian value.
(1) This ideal of life has its positive side; (2) This positive value
of life can be realized by living in a negative way.
First, if our ordinary way of living is considered of no value or of disvalue, then not living in this way is a positive value. For axample, if the toil of the whole day is considered to be disvalue, is not rest itself a positive value? The important thing is that the negating of disvalue should be presented to the spiritual subject. If this negating of disvalue is presented to a spiritual subject, the value of the negating itself s positively presented to the spiritual subject, immanently exist in the subject, and becomes positive spiritual values.
This ideal spiritual life, corresponding to the metaphysical vision, is identified in oir mind or spirit with the Nothing and is free from all limitations of finite particular worldly things.
Second, in Lao Tze’s teaching, the mind, which is identified with Nothing and is as broad as Heaven or the Void may simply contemplate the ‘coming and going’, ‘birth and death’ and ‘prosperity and decay’ of all things without affection or mercy. It is the mind of a spectator of the universe.
Third, the mind, which knows that what is prosperous shall decay, that what is strong shall become weak, can generalize all these into a principle: Everything moves in a curve which represents the natural law of all things. According to this principle, when a thing reaches the top of the curve it is destined to fall. Therefore, if we do not want to be a victim of this natural law, the only way is never to progress to the top of the curve.

TAO AS THE SUPREME CATEGORY

Ontologically: Tao is the infinite ontic substance which was multifariously characteruized by Lao Tze as:
- as fathomless unity of all being, prior in existene
- as the fundamental root of Heaven and Earth, infinite in nature, invisible in shape, but really great in function because all creatures are begotten from it
- as the primordial One ingression into all forms of beings
- as the unique pattern of all kinds of activities, discursive but wholesome
- as the Great Form. Whereinall creatures are embraced, free of harm, and full of peace

- as the final destiny where to all creatures, after emptyng out every kind of ‘quixotic’ anergetic activities in the course of life, will return for the ease and peace of rest conceived under the form of aternity and achieved in spirit of immortality.

Cosmogenetically: the infinitely great Tao is the all pervasive function with inexhaustible store of powerful energy exerting itself in two ways:

- The Tao is the primordial begetter of all things
- The suplied energy, within the bounds of Being, may be spent and exhausted through dispersion and waste.

Phenomenologically: the atttributes of Tao can be classified under two headings, namely, natural attributes and arbitrary attributes. The natural attributes are discerned as so many properties inherent in the Tao conceived under the form of eternity.

They may be enumerated as follows:

- integrity of Tao revealing itself as substance in the realm of Nothingness and as function in the realm of Being;
- Conformation of non action in which nothing is left undone
- The primordial incentive in the begetting of all things with no claim of origination
- Accomplishment of work on the cosmic scale with detachment;
- Sustenance of all things without domination
- Creation without possesion
- Energizing activity with no egocentric claim of merit

Characterologically, the supreme excellences , manifested as tha naturall attributes, originally pertain to the nature of Tao but will come in ingress into integrity of the sage, who is really the exemplar of the Tao in this world. Tha sage, as an ideal man, has trancended all limitations and weakness by reason of his exalted spirit.