Dao Today - an Opinion Volume 7 - Issue 2

Manfred Doepp*

• Holistic Center 13 Haupt St., Abtwil 9030, Switzerland

Received:April 1, 20223;   Published:May 2, 2023

Corresponding author: Manfred Doepp, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Switzerland

DOI: 10.32474/SJPBS.2023.07.000261

Abstract PDF

All those who want to live more easily learn that it is about letting go. And, that attachments, clinging and accumulating make life difficult, that they may even create a burden in the sense of karma. This is a topic of the present. However, some contemporaries also know that this topic is new only in the western, so-called Christian society, while it has been present in Eastern cultures for almost 3,000 years. It should not be concealed that there since the decline of the own inheritance and the adoption of western conceptions the achievement and the profit principle displaced much good. East Asia repeats the mistakes which in Europe and America have produced the situations from which the earth suffers so unbearably. Capitalism needs constant growth rates for its existence; a dynamic equilibrium as in nature will bring it crashing down. And when the growth rate in China drops to only 6%, there is great uneasiness on the stock exchanges. An absurd situation, since a continuous growth causes an exponential development, which mathematically must end in the infinite, thus in a disaster. Logic: missing. The fixation on growth goes so far that equilibrium is called zero growth. An inflation rate of 2% combined with quantitative growth of significantly more % is considered to be the target and normal.

In principle, too many goods are produced in capitalism, more than mankind would need. Applying the logic, it is therefore inevitable that the continuous overproduction of the economy and industry (for example, the military industry) must be destroyed at regular intervals, in the form of war. China has apparently forgotten a large part of its spiritual heritage, be it Daoism, Buddhism or Confucianism. Many results are precarious: enormous environmental pollution, a spread of civilization diseases such as diabetes and cancer. The Western pharmaceutical industry is cheering, however contrary to all ethics this may be. Lao Dse seems to have foreseen this 2,400 years ago, and he recommended solutions to this problem and its underlying attitude. One must unfortunately state that many have learned nothing in this period. However, a study of the «Dao de King» is of continuing importance, especially today, when not only the fate of individuals, but that of mankind is affected.

Let us take a few quotations from the original text of the «Dao de King», which illuminate abruptly what is wrong today, and how it would be right.

“The called one dwells in action without action, he generates and does not possess, he works and does not retain. When the work is done, he does not remain in it. Because he does not want anything of his own, therefore his own is accomplished. The highest goodness is like water. The goodness of water is to benefit all beings without dispute. When moving, the goodness shows itself in the right time. He who does not assert himself remains free from blame just by this. To want to hold on to something and thereby overfill it: that is not worth the effort. No one can protect a hall filled with gold and precious stones. To be rich and noble and haughty in addition: that attracts misfortune by itself. He who makes his soul simple and humble may become like a child. To produce and not to possess: to work and not to keep, to increase and not to dominate: This is secret life. From the nothingness in the wheel the usefulness of the car is based. From the nothingness in the vessel its usefulness is based. From the nothingness in the house its usefulness is based. Therefore: Being gives possession, non-being gives usefulness. Wanting to conquer the world through action; I have experienced that this fails. The world is a spiritual thing that must not be treated. Whoever acts, spoils it. He who holds on loses it.

Where one wants to take, one must first give properly. The soft triumphs over the hard. The weak triumphs over the strong. The high life does not seek its life, therefore it has life. The low life does not seek to lose its life, so it has no life. The high life is without action and without intention. The lower life acts and has intentions. There is no greater guilt than approval of desires. There is no greater evil than not being satisfied. There is no worse evil than the addiction to gain. He who walks in research increases daily. He who walks in sense decreases daily. He decreases his doing and decreases it more and more until he arrives at doing nothing. In doing nothing, nothing remains undone. To the good I am good, and to the non-good I am also good; for life is goodness. Sense generates. The life nourishes. The being shapes. The force perfects. Generating and not possessing, acting and not retaining, increasing and not dominating: This is secret life. If one is reserved and hesitant in ruling, the people are honest and simple. If one wants to investigate and trace everything in ruling, the people show only shortcomings and mistakes.

In the management of people, in the service of heaven, there is nothing better than restriction. Because only the restriction leads to timely yielding. Through it, one gathers rich treasures of life. A great empire must keep itself below, so it becomes the unification point of the world. It is the feminine of the world. The feminine triumphs over the masculine through its silence. He who asks, receives. He who has sins, they are forgiven. A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. He who acts spoils it. He who holds on loses it. People go about their business: And always, when they are almost ready, they spoil it. I have three treasures: love, frugality and humility. Love makes you able to be brave, frugality makes you able to be generous, humility makes you able to rule. For love conquers in battle, is firm in defense. He who is able to defeat the enemy does not argue with him. Knowing that one knows nothing is the highest. To respect ignorance for knowledge is suffering. Only he who suffers from his suffering becomes free from suffering.

Everyone on earth knows that the weak defeats the strong and the soft defeats the hard, but no one is able to act accordingly. True words are like the other way around.

True words are not beautiful, beautiful words are not true. Efficiency does not persuade, persuasion is not efficient. The wise man is not learned, the learned man is not wise. The one who is called does not accumulate possessions. The more he does for others, the more he possesses. The more he gives to others, the more he has. » [1].

The similarities to Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount are striking. In both cases the content contradicts the usual, the “normal” logic, in both cases the statements appear paradoxical. This in any case for the world in which we lived until now, which was and unfortunately still is characterized by dualism. Dualism always contains the “against”, the fight, the «number one syndrome», the defeating, the winning, the wanting to assert oneself, even if it is by force.

Completely different is the world of Lao Dse, Buddha and Jesus the Christ: the hard male qualities of our world are wrong, the soft female qualities are the right ones. The Pisces age of macho rule, which failed and almost brought the world to ruin, is past, the matriarchy of the Aquarian age will come and replace it. Dualism will be replaced by polarity, the coexistence of apparent opposites, the paradox of values. What counts much in the material reality of illusions counts little in the spiritual, the true world, and vice versa.

But if two value systems coming from very different cultures agree so much, what is the probability that their contents are correct, that they reflect the cosmic laws? Here the left-brained logic has its place once: it is a probability bordering on certainty. But since according to the cosmic laws again cultures and civilizations which stood on such clay feet perished, this is to be expected also for the so-called “Christian Occident” including its worldwide off shoots.

Oswald Spengler with his “Decline of the Occident” was ahead of his time. However, it is catching up with him. As is also true for George Orwell’s “1984”, the contents of which are implemented with hard-hitting consistency. And it is not a subject of discussion that “Das Kapital” by Karl Marx is phenomenally implemented into reality in our present time. It would probably be necessary and to be hoped for a further reformer like Luther, preferably a woman. One can certainly draw a comparison with the situation of the Catholic Church before the Reformation, when it was corrupt and degenerated.

The so-called Christian Occident today impresses anything but Christian. The teachings of Jesus the Christ are not only not implemented, but turned into the opposite. However, if a civilization loses its own foundations, it cannot remain, it will be destroyed by means of the cosmos laws and evolution.

1. Lao Dse Tao te King (2004) The book of the old one of the sense and life. Translated by Richard Wilhelm. Atmosphären-Verlag, Munich.