Metaphysics in Ancient China, an Academic Understanding of the Dao

Here I offer an exerpt from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy regarding the Dao. “Explicit metaphysical discussions appeared in China with a turn toward questions of cosmogony in the mid-fourth century BCE. These cosmogonies express a number of views that became fundamental for almost all later metaphysics in China. In these texts, all things are interconnected and constantly changing. They arise spontaneously from an ultimate source (most often called dao 道, the way) that resists objectification but is immanent in the world and accessible to cultivated people. Vitality and growth is the very nature of existence, and nature exhibits consistent patterns that can be observed and followed, in particular patterns of cycles and interaction between polar forces (such as yin 陰 and yang 陽).”https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/chinese-metaphysics

‘The Dao that is written is not the Dao’, is the first line in the Dào Dé Jīng. Simply put, one cannot learn self-cultivation from a book. Self-cultivation is a practice that transforms the ‘mind-body-spirit’ by influencing the levels of ‘jing-qi-shen’, in other words, develops the function of the individuals Qi. One such function is to understand the universe, the Dao; ‘the way’ is thus recognised, understood or sensed. Developing awareness is one of the purposes of high level Qigong training. The purpose of words and books is to imbue or lead the mind, not to train or transform. Therefore a western academic understanding can offer a bridge to the unknown.

The ‘polar forces’ are the fundamental manifestation of the universe. According to one of China’s great minds, Zhang Zai, the Great Void is comprised of Qi, which condenses becoming the myriad things, the myriad things return to the Void upon dissolution.

Thus the cycles of the universe can be expressed as the following:

• condensation and dispersion

• stability and chaos

• material and immaterial

• matter and energy

• tangible and intangible

• form and function

• present and past

• earth and heaven

• ming and xing

• yin and yang

The eastern mindset can be said to be the opposite to the western mindset, the opposition is part of the paradigm of the universe and yet another example of the order of the universe.

• western mindset and eastern mindset