Hold On Loosely

Hold on loosely

Don’t let go

If you cling too tightly

You’re gonna lose control -38 Special

I love this song. If you’re ever wondering about the philosophy of Taoism, just recall these lyrics – might as well be the Taoist Rock Anthem. Sure, the song is about relationships – romantic ones – but Taoism is about relationships, too – our relationships to nature, to each other, to ourselves, and to the way things are. Instead of constructing our identities as individual billiard balls knocking against others, Taoism rightly, I believe, offers a more nature-oriented, realistic picture of a person as consisting of a meshed web of relationships, a paradigm that meets up nicely with similar anti-Cartesian (dualistic, mechanistic, oppositional) ideas developed out of quantum mechanics theory and remembered from Native American worldviews.

Yes, that was a mouthful. Which is why I happen to be so appreciative of this song – it so simply touts an idea that an academic-prone philosopher-wanna be like myself can so easily and eagerly turn into a complicated spaghetti-tangled mess, getting high off eating up the pasta-carbs of Deep Thoughts. Which is kind of antithetical to Taoism’s simple style.

For instance, my girlfriend asked me the other day how Taoism differs from Buddhism, and these lyrics have a possible answer. I wouldn’t say Taoism and Buddhism are starkly different or at all opposing, more that they strive for the same things and work within the same universe but with a slightly differing emphasis. So, while Buddhism – and I’m being overly reductive here, I know – emphasizes letting go of desire, for instance, Taoism is more about holding on, but loosely.

Life is a Highway…
If you are a rider on a horse, Buddhism would suggest that you let go of the reins and get off the horse and go meditate, give up trying to get anywhere, the effort of expending your energy toward a goal is pointless, you can’t reach enlightenment by riding your horse.

Taoism, on the other hand, would say that you should keep riding the horse and holding on the reins, but you should try to ride with the horse, not on the horse, directing and guiding, not forcefully, but in a flow that matches the pace and rhythm of the horse’s gait as well as your own heartbeat, within the context of the landscape around you. Taoism would say, sure, ride the horse, but do so knowing that it is what it is, don’t make it more than it is. The Buddhists are right, you’re not going to escape death or reach eternity, but hey, you’re alive, might as well have a good time riding the horse… (And yes, so many ancient Chinese poets were also winos…)

And that’s what I like about Taoism vs. other religions. It embraces the philosophical stance of realizing that we as individuals are not at the center of the universe and that clinging to materialistic desires is futile; at the same time – and that’s the key, at the same time - both/and - Taoism encourages the acceptance of reality as it is, with all its transience, pain, and joy.

For many Christians and Buddhists, this life on Earth is something to grit your teeth through till you get on the elevator of salvation or zapped in the microwave of enlightenment. Taoists aren’t looking to the next life or the erasing of life; they look to this life with the ease of someone who has accepted that she belongs here, that this is home.

Do You Realize?
All is sacred; all is mundane. We are made of starlight; we are made of mud. When we can hold both views of reality – seemingly opposing views – in our heads at the same time, when we can take the importance of things lightly, while at the same time understanding everything as valued and significant, then we can fully be alive, with all of our senses, with all of our hearts. This is Taoist enlightenment.

Keep on Moving
When you try to hold onto something, squeeze it to fix it in place, keep it from changing – an idea, a relationship, a person, a situation, a feeling – you kill it. Which is why the Taoist meditation is Tai Chi or Qi Gong – a moving through the world, not sitting it out. It is also why the yin-yang symbol intends to show fluidity of opposites merging into one another. They are not static categories, mutually exclusive pieces, but part of each other, in constant motion.

Finally

a) If you can correctly identify the song titles in my headings, you win a free yin-yang symbol drawn on your arm with a Sharpie.

b) Later I will actually quote the Tao te Ching, discuss the Vinegar Tasters, and rant about Niels Bohr. So watch out.

c) I’m truly not trying to bash the Buddhists.