Once upon a time in a book... ΙΙ

Each book, once written and out in the open, begins a peculiar journey... It spreads out, finding a warm place to call its home, known as a library and a bookstore. From there, each in its own right, will conquer the minds of its readers and by doing so, it will write its own history, whether great or small...

But the book I would like to mention here, goes beyond comparison in all of its historical dimensions... It is, maybe, the most important philosophical book ever... I am trying to write “in my view of course” but in some mysterious way that I cannot understand my computer is continuously deleting the phrase!
Ironically enough, “Tao Te Ching” is a gathering of only few chapters, but once you “fall in it” it sucks you up like a black hole...

“Tao Te Ching”
There are many uncertainties about this book, but since philosophy is not an exact science, it only adds a form of beautiful mystery to it.
To begin with, it was written about 2.500 years ago. But this is just an estimate, because nobody knows for sure...
Its author was named Lao Tzu, but then again, nobody knows for sure if this person even existed...
The book itself had so many different editions through time, that at some point one of the Emperors of China issued an order for all copies to be burned to ashes, in order to preserve the original...
We could go on like this for pages, since the more one digs into this for findings, the more he ends up finding himself in a crazy Indiana Jones jungle hunt. Nothing is for sure, and yet, the book is ever present!

“Tao Te Ching” is the most sold and circulated book ever in the entire history of mankind... One should take into account that this is no easy book, it is a philosophy book!
(Note: From this statistical number, of being the most sold book ever, you will please allow me to exclude those books which are deliberately and systematically in constant printing and free distribution, for the sole propaganda purpose of being on top of that statistic! And I will name no names either, I leave this to your guessing...)

For those interested in having this book, I might have a rather interesting personal note here. I had/have this book in three different languages (English, German, Greek) and more than one edition on each of those languages. If fact I have been after this damn book my entire life and there are indeed differences between them... Not as important for the general reader, but important enough for those who like to study a book and not simply read it...
That been said, my conclusion is leading me to one edition in English, translated by William Scott Wilson, which is by far the best work ever done. Therefore I very strongly recommend it...

Tao Te Ching
An All-New Translation
Lao Tzu
Translated by William Scott Wilson
Kodansha International
First Edition 2010

Since this is a personal testimony I have to add that I did read “Tao Te Ching” for the first time in my late teens. At that point, I was dedicated in practicing The Arts. Specifically, having left everything else behind, I was in the middle of living as an inside student.

Philosophy failing its point
-Give Jean-Michel Jarre any great city of this world and tell him to gather as many people into a rendezvous for an open concert. What will happen is that people will gather at a single place and time by the hundreds of thousands!
He has done so in the past and could do so again, anytime...

Now take a modern philosopher, have him write a book for people to read and follow his advice. What will happen is that people will read his book by the millions!
But if you try to gather those people’s “thinking” in accord to the philosopher’s book, not even two people will meet at the same “time and place” Nobody will show up for that rendezvous and it fact they will (mentally) run around like crazy ants, not even bumping accidently into each other! You know what I mean?!

-In most philosophical systems, to put it as simply as I can, there is a “catch” You are called to understand something that is above you, beyond you, behind you... You are called to understand something that did escape you, was lost by you and you somehow must go find... You are called to understand something that proves you are an idiot, were and idiot and probably remain an idiot if you don’t go along with the catch! And somehow again, if you don’t get to catch this, it is your fault, failure and incompetence.

One thing is for sure and it comforts me. That according to most philosophies, I didn’t catch it either, but at least I know where I am not! Still, all those people I knew (and I know plenty of them) who did follow a philosopher or his book or his movement or his non-movement or whatever... are at the end of the day more confused than they were at the beginning! I preferred them better, like they were before! You know what I mean?!

-Every time when someone includes in his talk the phrase “our philosophy is...” I feel like running away. And since I hear it a lot I always wear shoes comfortable to run with. Because philosophy of that kind has little or none principles, it is loosely based on words. In other words, thin air!
Philosophies usually lack a practical application that is actually theirs and not adapted “by force” or stolen.
It is actually the other way round! A practical application can produce philosophy...   

Take any Art form you like: Aikido, Tai Chi, Yoga, Meditation... Then strip it entirely from any kind of philosophy and just preserve the techniques. It will be “there” Can you do this the other way round? It’s a simple thought and guess what? There is nothing for you to catch!
Philosophies have no ground to step on, and with the first dire straits, with the first crisis, with the first red alert, they are what they are. Hot air... I would prefer any Art-form of practice (that ironically enough produces philosophy) over any philosophy of well put words and hollow ideas...

What was Lao Tzu after all?!
...we will never know!
But at the time I was through reading his book for the first time, I was imagining that he must sure have been some kind of Kung Fu Master. He never said so in his writing, yet, everything from page one to the last implied that or something close to that. Philosophy is not an exact science, did I mention that before? So, for a turn, I could imagine “my” Lao Tzu as I wanted!

His philosophy is one of a kind and it is also kind to its readers...
There is a sense of calm in his book... Not the calm of a fulfilled day or the calm of a nature’s landscape. Not the calm that follows a discovery or the calm of a personal realization. It is something much bigger than that.
In reading those few chapters you get the peaceful feeling that, whatever has happened, whatever happens and whatever will ever happen (one breath here...) the universe will unfold as is should! Period-

It would be fair enough to ask at this point and it’s also natural to do “yes okay with the universe, but what about me, personally me?”
But good old Lao has that covered, too.
Because one feels assured from beginning to end, that no matter who he is, no matter what he is, no matter when he is “his true nature is already there where it should be” and that there is no catch to comprehend, treasure hunt for findings, sausage to run after...

I will have to open here a parenthesis in order to give a practical Aikido example:
Once you find yourself practicing Aikido you come to realize that it will take you far longer than ten full years in order to learn some Aikido. And then still, you envy to become like those practitioners who you don’t dare ask how many years they have been practicing, in order to achieve their level of Mastery. It is only natural to feel a sense of disappointment. The equivalent to philosophy is like a clumsy teen beginner who stands in front of the old-age sage Master.
You wonder when will I ever know, when will I ever become, when will I ever get there?
But there is a point where all becomes one, even between the Beginner and the Master. And this is not said like some promise of nice words as it happens in philosophies...
In Aikido, even on day one, a beginner should be introduced and taught to execute specific principle techniques (Ki and Kokyu is the basis of Aikido). “Internal power” tests techniques are the proof of possibilities which we do have, but don’t know of. Of course it takes a long time to control them. But, feeling them for ourselves, knowing them by our own experience, brings up the sense that “we are already there”.
What remains is a journey of which you don’t think of as distance, but as being present every given “here and now”
End of parenthesis....

Usually philosophical wisdom is like a kind of heavy poetry... It is sad, grey and melancholic. On the contrary, Tao Te Ching’s wisdom is one of the most “happy” philosophical approaches. Something like a careless day on a beach...
Because there is nowhere to see any kind of obligation, propaganda, dogma or “you must or mustn’t do this or that” attitude...
But above it all, the freedom that is given/proposed to us goes beyond our capacity to handle it. Would you not read that last sentence twice?!
Lao Tzu even denies calling Tao as Tao. This is how it all starts in his book. So, if we call his philosophy Tao-ism and its followers Tao-ists it is like we failed to read his book in the first place.

There is a certain cliché, for most people, of how a follower of the Tao looks like and acts like... It is an iconic retainer, living on the top of a mountain alone, with a long white beard. And though I admit, that this is a nice picture to imagine, it is far from being true. Because even if there are or were such people in reality, this doesn’t guaranty at all for them to be in accord with Tao. With no exception all people have their share of being in accord with themselves, even if it is for a while or even just for a moment.  
This kind of perfect balance is our natural standpoint and not something to run after or something to strive to achieve.
That is maybe why, the simplest thing of all, is so easily lost...

There is a connection between the Chinese Tao and the Japanese Zen, in fact, historical sources suggest that the latter sprang from the former… We all know the famous kneeling position of the Samurai, which is in its turn deeply connected with the practice of Za-Zen (seated meditation).
The calm manners and reserved behavior, as ideals of the Samurai, were a warrior’s necessity, in order to understand human nature and its connection to the way the universe functions…

This is why Aikido (and a number of other classical Martial Arts) include practical applications and techniques, which deepen our understanding on life and replace the senseless fear of death with bravery, self-knowledge and an ability to overcome real or imaginary obstacles…    

July 13, 2016