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The 4 Discourses of the Dao: Zhuangzi Meets Lacan

Shunyamurti speaks:

So tonight, let’s explore more deeply: how does a Taoist sage deal with the end of the world? And how does one relate to those who are either in denial or wanting to resist or trying to prematurely bring about a before the end of this one? The Taoist understands the order of things and what must be eliminated and cleansed before a new creation can take place, but that must happen microcosmically within the sage’s mind and heart.

So in 5, that was sung very beautifully by the Daughters of Nothingness, Lao Tzu says:

“For the to function fully, both heaven and earth must separate from duality.”

This is a very subtle point: heaven and earth seem to be two, but they’re not, they’re only one. So we have to understand the difference between a distinction and a duality. In the same way we can see two sides of a coin as actually being one: , samsara—heaven and earth—must be realized as a single whole. The sage doesn’t simply leave the world and enter into the transcendent Nothingness and have nothing to do with the samsara, but acts in the samsara, seeing it as nirvana, realizing its perfection, and not being fooled by the apparent events that are occurring in the simulation, but understanding their true significance.

So heaven and earth are indifferent to each other because each is nondifferent from the One. The transcendent One is also the immanent One, but that One from which the world and the transcendent derive is present in each. This is very difficult for the ego-mind—if not impossible for the ego-mind—to grasp: that the One and the many are the same. They have a distinction, but they are not actually different.

“Neither one can have any sentimentality.”

So, the sage has no sentimentality towards the world. And the world has no sentimentality or for the sage, or for , or heaven, or for the higher truths. In fact, the sage will be laughed at, if not worse—some get crucified, some get burned at the stake, right? So, there’s no love, and yet love is exactly all that there really is, and the two express the oneness despite the shocking way in which it seems to be brought into manifestation.

“So the world is but a worthless simulation, if you take the world to be a world separate from the Source of its . Then it has no worth.” Its worth comes because it is an expression of the Tao. “All of its characters are expendable, you know.”

The actual word used in the Chinese is that all the characters, all the people in the world are “straw dogs”—that’s the phrase that’s used. And what was a straw dog? I think it’s actually a cliché, even now, but in ancient China they were characters used in —much like they would make clay idols in and then throw them into the ocean when they were done—the straw dogs were then trampled on and the straw was fed to the animals, but they were, for the period of the , they were valued, but then after that, worthless. So, in the same way, the

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human being is not actually considered being worth very much, especially at the end of the Kali Yuga period when there is a massive depopulation, a culling of the herd which is now occurring.

“But the space between heaven and earth, the symbolic sphere, functions like a bellows.”

You know, the bellows, that produces the wind—it is empty but not vacuous. The bellows works because of its emptiness, but it is filled with wind, which is a symbol of . So in the same way our minds, when we are attuned to the of the transcendent within the mundane, are able to download many valuable insights, many ideas, many understandings about the of reality that can keep us from being sentimental, or suffering, or in some inaccurate state. So if you pump it hard, more and more information comes out. The more that you meditate, and you begin to pump from the intelligence of God- through your own attunement to it, you can translate that into knowledge.

But then the warning of Lao Tzu, which I think is an extremely significant one, is that:

“It is better safeguard what you have within already than to learn a great deal that goes nowhere.”

So it’s very easy to be on a path wanting to have more and more knowledge of the transcendent, but that knowledge becomes a substitute for transcending. So, there’s a point where you want to stop downloading the knowledge and start uploading your Self. And if you keep downloading without uploading into that supreme level of Being, then you’re going nowhere—literally. So knowledge has to be put into its proper place and perspective. And then finally:

“You can’t be both a character in this great game and try to change it, try to affect it, and still be a master of the Tao.”

So, if you take the world as a chess game, or a Go game, the pieces on the board seem to have particular qualities and attributes, or positions and purposes and functions. But when the game is over, all the pieces get thrown in the bag—and they have no more value, right? So, the Taoist sage is already seeing the game over, and being a character in the game, even if you’re a queen or a king or whatever, has no more value—no more value than being a pawn. They’re all going in the bag. All the bodies are going in body bags and they’re not going to be worth anything. So, since you already know that, why expend your life energy trying to get somewhere in a futile game rather than getting out of the game and not being thrown into the bag at the end even though your body may?

So the Tao song is a warning to not waste your time, either on political kinds of energy, efforts to improve situations or to attempt to be an intellectual who has an understanding of an academic sort but has not transcended into real sagehood. And even that transcendence must be completed by the integration of the transcendent and the immanent. Nirvana is samsara. If you try to make a difference, a separation from them as if they are two, then you are still not in nonduality, and you’ll still have to come back to reach that point where you realize that not only is there nowhere to go, but there is nowhere that you have been. It is that realization. The world doesn’t really exist as a world, but you can only realize that in the world, and through the vision of the oneness,

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realize that it’s all simply light and the simulation is a reflection of the Source from which the light comes.

So then in Song 6:

“The lifeforce of the field never dies.”

The lifeforce of it. What dies are all the creatures in the dream field, but the Dreamer that gives life to the cosmic dream does not die. But She is yin, the dark goddess—She is not known and luminous within the world—She is unknowable. But She is that feminine power that’s “the Mother of the ten thousand things”, and She is the root of the world. And so you don’t get out by being yang—you get out by surrendering to the yin. And then there is the integration between the yin and the ultimate yang that becomes a single whole, the , the Absolute, the Tao.

So the feminine power is wispy and delicate, but She only seems to be in the world—She’s not really here—She’s on her lotus throne in that realm of the light, but you can see Her if you can see through the darkness into the light that is the source of this world of darkness and to know Her power to create is limitless.

So from the perspective of the goddess who has both forms of, let’s say, Lakshmi and Durga, or Kali, there’s the goddess as She appears as the Mother of creation, and then as the Mother of destruction. And then along the way She’s Saraswati, as the Mother of cultural sustenance, and She is all the different goddesses who keep the world in a form that is evolving and devolving simultaneously. All the different aspects of the goddess. The goddess is one, regardless of the names, but with different functions at different moments in the historic process of cyclical revolution of the illusion.

So, Song 40 which we read before, but again:

“The Tao is returning you to Nothingness.”

That’s Its function. If you want to get on the train of the Tao, you’re going into Nothingness. You’re not going to a new world—you are going to the Singularity now. That might be the next stop if you want it, but right now we’re going to the light, into the disappearance from the world. The Tao functions not by force but by yielding, so, there’s no benefit in trying to resist what’s happening. Flow with it to the Nothingness. Yield. And in that you will gain the power that the Tao will give you as you accept the process that is underway.

“All things emerge from Being.”

Yes, the Being, that is the Mother:

“But Being arises out of Nothingness.”

So that is the place to which the world is now heading.

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If we continue with a few more of these songs about the Taoist sage, we get more insight into the character and the psychology of one who has realized the Tao.

So in Song 50, Lao Tzu writes,

“What is life? What is death? Some exist without even wondering about that. And nearly all die without knowing the Tao.”

So there’s the question: are you willing to die without knowing the Tao? Most people want to know anything else but the Tao, because the Tao is the death of the ego. But without knowing that, you have to come back into the cycle of life and death. But many don’t wonder, and they don’t care or even believe there’s anything to know.

“Some cling to existence that has no value. All crave life but they shun truth. One who attains the Tao will not fall prey to the beast.”

I think that we can understand that is not just simply the animals—the tigers and the snakes in the jungle—but the beast of prey that is culling the herd today.

“In the battlefield of life, the wise do not fear.”

The beast cannot harm those surrendered to the Tao. A sage is not subject to the fantasy of death. So, that’s the stage that we must reach. But the realization that there is no death does not mean that one is careless. This is very important—you remember in another song, I think it was 15, we described the Taoist sage as infinitely cautious—like crossing a frozen stream with thin ice in the middle of the winter. So, there’s great care for life. The sage isn’t out to throw life away, but to preserve life in order to serve the Tao. Not to preserve it and cling to it simply as an ego out of fear, but because life and death are both gifts of the Tao, to treat them both as priceless. And to use life in order to serve the Tao’s own purposes.

And then in Song 56:

“Those who know the Tao do not engage in excess talk. Those who talk too much, don’t know. Seal the leaks. Shut the gate. Untie the knots. Soften the light. Merge with the Ground of Being. Be one with the Tao. Tao cannot be reached, nor can it be abandoned. The Tao needs no help, nor could be harmed. The Tao is within you. Neither flattery nor shame will affect the Tao endowed. Thus is Tao exalted by the wise.”

So, seal the leaks. I think we’ve heard that before. Don’t let your energies leak out, especially lower energies. Don’t create . Don’t leak out with gossip and leak out with attachments and enmeshments and with projections. And shut all the gates that would cause your ego to externalize its energies in conflicts, or desirous relations with another icon in the simulation. But keep the energies within and keep them burning—keep them hermetically sealed. This is an alchemical process that’s being described here, and you have to keep the furnace closed and the heat rising to its highest level. The fire of must always be burning. Don’t let the mind carry you off into futile or worthless kinds of thoughts, especially not thoughts that

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create desire or that produce anxiety. Don’t let that happen. Control your mind. Claim your power over the mind by realizing that you’re not the ego. And it’s only through that realization that gives you any power to abide in the silence of the Real Self.

So this is the work of the sage, to reach that level of consciousness in which there is naturally and effortlessly no leakage, no loss, but a continuing accumulation of shakti, we could say, of spiritual power. And the more spiritual power that has been accumulated, the more influence the sage has upon the phenomenal . This is one of the paradoxes: the less you’re interested in being a character in the world, and accomplishing something or making a difference, the more difference you actually make in it—because the more different from the simulation you have become, and the higher your vibrational frequency that enables the nirvanic energies to enter into samsara that accelerates the transformation and produces islands of luminosity within the darkness that then have effects of awakening many others to the Truth of what is happening, and to freedom from suffering and fear and despair at the feeling of being hopeless in the grip of evil that many people feel today.

But there is no evil going on, and it’s very important to understand that—even though from a certain perspective yes, mass murder seems to be evil—but on another perspective, the end of the world is the end of suffering. And even those who want to, you know, cull the herd and depopulate the world—who seem to be succeeding in their plan—are doing it out of a sense that there are too many—there’s nine billion or something like that? Some say ten, some say only eight; I don’t think there’s actually an accurate census of the world population—but it is unsustainable. And so, from their perspective, it’s probably better to do it the way it’s happening now than through nuclear war which is probably plan B, but nonetheless it’s a process that is underway in a global movement in which the majority of people who are being culled are volunteering for it. And so, we have to accept that the lower death drive is voting with this act of taking the hemlock in its most high-tech form and allowing the system to collapse.

So the process that is underway needs to be understood from a perspective of God- consciousness. And you don’t see God coming down to stop it—you don’t see Christ’s Second Coming happening and putting the beast in the dungeon; you don’t see any of that. What you see is the process underway and accelerating.

And so, we have to understand that the Tao works in mysterious ways—the Mystery of mysteries—and to be able to roll with it and recognize that one way or another it’s going to happen. And even if it weren’t to happen by human hands, it’s happening by geophysical means in any case. There is a great die-off of species. Nearly all of the species are extinct. There’s a food shortage. There are water shortages. There are going to be major tsunamis and earthquakes of a kind that are unprecedented.

So, these things are occurring, not simply by accident, but as a response to the vibrational frequency of the inaccuracy in relation to the Tao that is causing a rebalancing. There is a Great Reset happening, not simply at the level of those from Davos who think that they are running the show but also by a much higher power. So everything fractally, from the macro to the microcosm, is in accord with this. In the same way, to be in accord with it as a yogi, we must die to the ego. If we aren’t willing to do that, then that becomes part of the problem rather than the

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solution. So, this is the only way that we can actually be of help and bring peace into the process that is under way. Rather than to encounter it with terror and with sorrow and horror of what is being wrought on our planet right now.

So the Taoists understood that it would come to this, and now that it has, our response has to be one of , of a Bodhisattva, of one who the whole of reality which includes life and death. And death is nirvana—it’s not something evil. And the world as a simulation, through our willingness to raise our vibrational frequency, will enable the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven out of this darkness. But the darkness, the dark feminine goddess, must first be honored, and if you see the pictures of Kali with all the skulls hanging right around her neck and blood coming out of her mouth and she has a spear with elephants and all kinds of other beings on it that she seems to be eating for lunch—this is the time when Kali is showing off her stuff. So, we have to honor the goddess in that aspect of her being and that her light form will come soon and give us a new possibility of joy.

So, I want to move now into the way that a Taoist sage speaks to others who are in different modes of consciousness, like anger or fear or denial, and how does one relate to them if one is a sage. One isn’t going to try to persuade people, you know, get out your guns or go to the hills and be a prepper, or whatever—no. Those things may be part of someone’s Tao, but it’s not for everyone, and you certainly aren’t going to wake people up through any kind of a forcible process. You’ll probably make them all the more angry at you and determined in their own viewpoint.

So the Taoist sages, particularly Zhuangzi in his book, develops what I will call The Four Te Tiscourses [Discourses]:

(Well since they use a t for a d, we can do it too, right?)

So the first discourse that the sage describes is the most primitive discourse that egos engage in. So, I say, “This is right, and this is left.” But if you’re sitting facing me, you’re going to say, “No, no no! That’s left and this is right.” That’s the kind of arguments that most people have. They’re both right and they’re both wrong, and this is what is generally called “Zhuangzi’s Perspectivism”. But really he’s pointing out that the ego can only see from its own perspective.

Do you remember Robert Anton Wilson used to call these “reality tunnels”—but they’re really delusion tunnels. But every ego is in a delusion tunnel, and anything that doesn’t fit in its tunnel vision is insane to the ego—totally wrong, totally crazy. So, you can’t reach a person with information beyond that delusion tunnel if they don’t want to come out of their tunnel. And most people are in the tunnel because they want to be in the tunnel, because it’s terrifying to be outside of the tunnel. There’s too much information. It’s an overload. They can’t make sense of it. They would feel lost, so they would rather have a fixed belief and a fixed way of living and never allow that to be challenged. So, if people are in that level of consciousness—of the left, right—don’t even bother talking to them. OK? That’s what Zhuangzi says. Stay away from them. “Yes, left is right, right is left. Whatever you say.”

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This is what a modern semi-sage—we’ll call him Lacan-zi—he called it Masters Discourse, meaning, “whatever I say goes and don’t try to confuse me with evidence to the contrary.” So that’s the closed-mindedness of somebody who’s in a delusional tunnel and is too frightened to come out of it. So, you know, some people believe there’s no such thing as a nefarious scheme that would harm us. “Our governments are all there to serve us and support our welfare. They would never do anything to harm us.” If you have that belief that anything else is a conspiracy theory that must not be believed, then to approach them with any other idea is going to seem insane. And that’s really what’s happening in the world. It’s being divided between those see left and those who see right. Some see there’s a horrible conspiracy going on. Some say no, that’s impossible. And it doesn’t matter what evidence one gives to the other side. No one is going to change their opinions about this. So, if someone’s in that level of discourse, leave them alone and wish them luck.

Then Zhuangzi says, there are actually some people who are open to discussion, to learning new things, but you don’t want to get into a debate with them. If someone is open enough to discuss evidence, not on an ad hominem basis, attacking the people who say this because they are the “disinformation dozen”, or whatever people are being called out there, not because an attack ,but a discussion of actual rational evidence, then you can have a conversation with those people. But very soon, in general, it will turn into a debate—that one side will show that they have a fixed opinion, that they were only open to discussion up to a certain point at which they felt they were losing at the level of evidence, and then they will debate with much more of a closed mind and determination to win, to prove that they’re right, rather than to learn something new. So Zhuangzi says, “You can discuss but never debate.” Because, as soon you debate, you’re going to create a situation of anger and, again, conflict, and the sage wants to avoid conflict at all cost. It doesn’t get you anywhere. Many people win debates, but they’re completely wrong, and so the winning of a debate is not the proof that one’s belief was correct.

So, if the evidence doesn’t convince you, that is openly discussed without censorship, then there’s no point in continuing that attempt to bring reason to bear. But the sage does use critical thinking in those situations in which logical argument can have an effect on someone. But as soon as you recognize that there’s a point in which logic is not being accepted, and there’s an emotional response that wants to maintain a position, regardless, then the process has to stop and yes, you wish someone and you head back to the mountain cave that you were in.

Oh, by the way, Lacan-zi called this one University Discourse.

And then the next one, Divide and Dispute. And what Zhuangzi says is there will come times when the world is so polarized, so divided, that you won’t even be able to have a debate with people. If you try, it will turn immediately into a dispute, meaning you can come to fisticuffs, you can come to such a heated argument that it becomes like a war if you even present a contrary opinion. So, when you see that the situation is divided and polarized to that extent, then you don’t even engage. Because the last thing a sage would ever want to do is get into an actual dispute, an argument, where things really get hot, and they become violent. People do get violent at a certain point when they’re challenged in a way that threatens their emotional stability.

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So, if you are debating somebody who’s been injected that it’s poison, they’re probably going to be very angry at you and not feel glad that you gave them some truthful information—from their perspective—and so you can’t really have that kind of an argument. Or, if you’re in the contrary position, and you believe that this is actually necessary to have these very safe vaccinations in order to prevent the public health from being destroyed by Covid, then somebody who is on the other side is going to be very closed-minded and not accept that this is an obvious reality, and there’s going to be a very angry argument that could turn violent. So, when it reaches that point, the sage says, “No, the situation is now becoming a war zone.” And the sage then crosses that thin-iced river and goes to the mountain hermitage and says bye-bye to the world. That’s Zhuangzi and Lao Tzu—both agreed on that and did that.

There was a point—and Zhuangzi talks about it in his book—when he’s standing by the river in his mountain reserve, where he has avoided the social system, and two emissaries come from the Kingdom of to say that the king has appointed him as the prime , and they want him to go with them down there. He doesn’t even look at them. He keeps looking in the water. He’s watching the fish in the water. They’re behind him and saying, “You’ve been appointed. You must come. Your has been appreciated by the king and now you are wanted at the court.”

Zhuangzi says (without even looking at them—he notes that)—he says, “You know, I’ve heard in that kingdom there’s a tortoise that’s been dead for three thousand years and that is honored as a god and is worshipped there. Do you think that tortoise prefers being dead and honored or would it prefer to be alive with its tail dragging through the mud?”

And the emissaries both said, “It would probably prefer being alive.” Zhuangzi said, “That’s correct. Go back and tell that to the King of Chu.” And then he jumps in the water and gets away. He’s not going to go for honor and fame in a time of warring states, and a time when the prime minister will probably lose his head if nothing else, because there will be political conflicts that will end up, usually, in assassination if your opinions aren’t to the liking of the royalty or whoever assassinates the king and takes over.

So that’s the main problem. That is usually referred to as the Hysterics Discourse.

And then, finally, this is the Analyst’s Discourse. The analyst, when the client says something in a session will say, “Uh huh, tell me more.” And you simply accept it with no argument. Or there’ll be a question, “Yes, do you really believe that? Tell me more about why you believe that?” So, you can either accept it or question it, but you won’t try to argue with the person. So that’s the position that the sage will take. He’ll either question somebody who’s coming from a delusional tunnel and trying to convince you to get in the tunnel with them, or you’ll accept it and say, “I’m glad you’re in a beautiful tunnel like that. I’ll consider packing my bags and joining you at some point—bye!” Or you can ask a few questions to bring about a realization, perhaps, in the person that being in that tunnel is not such a happy place to be and may actually end up being self-defeating.

So those are the four discourses.

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And the word Te (pronounced as a d), you know the —Te can mean , it can mean nature, it can mean a type, a form, a level. It can mean any of those things, so this is when you use the Te in order to bring someone to the Tao—this is the way you try to do that. But for the most part, someone that is not in the Tao is not going to be convinced, and the Taoist sage stays in the mountain until a disciple appears that actually wants to learn—and he says that’s very rare, so don’t wait for that to happen. Just keep growing your carrots, or whatever, and just let go of the illusion and be free.

So, this is the strategy that Zhuangzi recommends, and I don’t contend with it. I don’t question it. I accept it.

Namaste,

Shunyamurti

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