Click to download the entire September issue as a PDF - Yang-Sheng
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Faith: Having been raised Catholic, I w<strong>as</strong> taught that unknowing is not a problem so long <strong>as</strong> we live a moral life and<br />
accept Jesus <strong>as</strong> our savior. Then all will be revealed when we are granted a glorious everl<strong>as</strong>ting life. We’ll go <strong>to</strong><br />
heaven and meet God, Jesus, and all of our friends and family who also were moral believers. While this path of faith<br />
(or o<strong>the</strong>r similar paths) seems <strong>to</strong> satisfy many people, it didn’t work for me because I felt <strong>the</strong> people who were<br />
preaching it didn’t really ―know‖.<br />
Philosophy: And so I started actively questioning, outside <strong>the</strong> realm of religious faith, ruminating on my own and<br />
studying <strong>the</strong> great philosophers and spiritual teachers, picking apart <strong>the</strong>ir teachings and looking for gems of<br />
truth. This is also <strong>the</strong> path of science. While deeply engaging, this path <strong>to</strong>o w<strong>as</strong> ultimately unable <strong>to</strong> pacify my discomfort<br />
with unknowing; it only drove me crazy, going round and round, raising more questions than answers.<br />
Enlightenment: And so I turned <strong>to</strong> Zen, with <strong>the</strong> hope that if I practiced hard enough I would eventually come <strong>to</strong> experience<br />
a grand enlightenment in which all mystery is revealed. Ahh, at l<strong>as</strong>t I had found <strong>the</strong> way <strong>to</strong> direct experience<br />
– true gnosis. But <strong>the</strong>n Zen M<strong>as</strong>ter Seung Sahn <strong>to</strong>ld me: ―wanting enlightenment is a big mistake.‖<br />
What <strong>the</strong> heck?<br />
Laozi: There’s ano<strong>the</strong>r way we can approach our unknowing, o<strong>the</strong>r than turning away from it, pacifying it with faith,<br />
attacking it with re<strong>as</strong>on, or seeking <strong>to</strong> cure it with enlightenment: we can just let it be what it is, look in<strong>to</strong> it, be with<br />
it, come <strong>to</strong> know it and appreciate it. Zen M<strong>as</strong>ter Seung Sahn called this ―don’t-know mind.‖ This of course is <strong>the</strong><br />
mind of Laozi.<br />
Knowing not-knowing: value!<br />
Not knowing knowing: sickness!<br />
(Laozi Ch. 71)<br />
In scholarship, daily incre<strong>as</strong>e<br />
In Dao, daily decre<strong>as</strong>e<br />
Decre<strong>as</strong>e and decre<strong>as</strong>e until wuwei<br />
(Laozi, Ch. 48)<br />
Laozi is inviting us <strong>to</strong> appreciate this unknowing in its bare reality – not supporting it with faith, not attacking it with<br />
philosophy, and not betraying it with <strong>the</strong> <strong>as</strong>piration of enlightenment. This is <strong>the</strong> gnosis of agnosis, ―knowing not<br />
knowing.‖ Herein lies indescribable satisfaction; herein lies our greatest tre<strong>as</strong>ure.<br />
Jacob Newell (Daoshi Gu Shen Yu) is an ordained Daoist priest and founder of Old Oak<br />
School of Dao. He practices and teaches Taijiquan and Daoist cultivation in Sonoma<br />
County, California. His book of poetry, These Daoist Bones, is available from his website,<br />
www.oldoakdao.org.<br />
<strong>September</strong>, 2011 <strong>Yang</strong>-<strong>Sheng</strong> (Nurturing Life) 37
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