Truth, the Tao, and Other Mysteries

For those of you who have missed the flurry of comments on my last entry (or felt disinclined to tackle such an intimidating wall of text), my discussion with Baravis has made me realize a couple of interesting things.  The first is that I haven’t quite represented my thoughts accurately.  The second is that must learn how to express myself more clearly if I am to have a meaningful discussion about anything.  This entry is an attempt to address both of these issues.

 

I previously wrote on two subjects:  absolute Truth and the Tao.  I’ll deal with each one in turn.

 

As far as absolute Truth is concerned, the example I used is fundamentally flawed because, as Baravis pointed out, aversion to killing and eating babies may well be a cultural norm and may have nothing at all to do with the absolute.  Any example I use to illustrate how I understand this concept would fail for similar reasons.  So instead I’ll speak from the abstract…

 

It strikes me as self-evident that, at the deepest possible level of reality, there is something that just is.  Any philosophical argument or question must have an answer, even if that answer is inaccessible to human understanding, and that answer is the Truth.  The old philosophical question of whether a falling tree makes a sound if there is no-one present to hear it must have an answer that is absolutely True, some fundamental fact about the nature of the universe. 

 

There are those who will argue that everything is relative – that what they perceive as blue and call blue someone else will call blue but actually perceive as green.  But even this indicates some kind of absolute Truth – if everything is completely relative, if I am no more than a free-floating consciousness in a void that perceives whatever I want to perceive, then the very fact that I am a mind in empty space is itself the absolute Truth of the matter.  Or, to put it differently, if everything is relative, then relativity is itself the absolute Truth.

 

I’m not saying that this Truth is knowable.  In fact, I’m claiming the opposite – that this kind of absolute Truth about the deepest possible layer of reality is so deep as to be completely beyond human comprehension.  But just because it cannot be understood doesn’t mean that it’s not there.  It is this kind of Truth, the facts of the universe that were there before us and will be there long after we’re gone, the existence of which is required for existence itself to exist, that I believe in.  The Truth simply is, and will be regardless of what we think of it.

 

No, that’s not quite right.  Belief is too limited a word for this.  In the place that exists before belief and before thought, I know that this Truth is.  I just don’t know what it is.

 

(My previous comment on the sum of all religious worldviews is the result of my hope that the totality of human knowledge would lead to a better understanding of Truth than what each of us would be able to reach independently.  I still don’t think that this would lead to a complete picture – it would be more akin to getting a few steps further in a race that has no finish line – but it would still be better than all the senseless bickering and killing that seems to be going on in the name of the world religions.)

 

As for the Tao:  what it represents to me is the Way that a person – indeed, all people – can live a balanced life, in harmony with each other and the universe.  In other words, it is the Way in which I can live according to the Truth without ever knowing fully what the Truth is.  This is no new concept; it has been espoused by Zen Buddhists, meditative Taoist monks, and contemplative Christian mystics alike.  Absolute Truth is the way that the cosmos is, the way in which it remains ever-changing and seemingly chaotic but always against a backdrop of perfect balance.  The Tao is the Way that we can move with this chaos yet maintain a state of fluid balance; it is the Way that defines how we can fulfill our nature and be in harmony with the Truth of Nature.

 

In this sense, it is not the universe that mirrors us, but we who mirror the universe.  What I’m striving for is to polish the mirror, to realize my true nature and more accurately reflect the universe.  It strikes me that the closer I get to being by true self, the less of myself will be seen. 

 

But maybe that’s the point.  I guess I’ll just have to see.