The Way of Heaven
- Towards approaching the politics of enlightenment
--by Paul Zabwodski--unrevised edition.1994
TOWARDS THE POLITICS OF ENLIGHTENMENT a brief glance.............(ESSAY)
C O N T E N T S -overview
-PREFACE.- It is bound to change.
- C H A P T E R O N E -
THE WAY OF WISDOM. Ball on a Mountain Stream.
An Introduction.
- C H A P T E R T W O -
THE WAY OF BEING MAN. Difficulties and Roots.
- C H A P T E R T H R E E -
CHARACTER, ENLIGHTENMENT AND THE WAY OF HEAVEN.
- C H A P T E R F O U R -
STRATEGY, TIMING AND CHANGE - THE WAY OF THE SAGE.
- C H A P T E R F I V E -
CONSCIOUSNESS, IDENTITY AND DEATH - THE WAY OF IMMORTALITY.
- C H A P T E R S I X -
HARMONY AND THE WAY OF LONGEVITY.
The Preface -It is bound to change.
THE POLITICS OF ENLIGHTENMENT,,, a note.
One question which has captured the attention of both child and thinker alike falls within the domain of struggle for personal form and meaning. What can we shape out of this undertaking, tangibly called Life? The Politics of Enlightenment addresses some of the common questions stemming from this human but deeply existential root. I have chosen a form of reflection which I hope is accessible to the reader who has some interest in the insights of Classical Oriental Wisdom in relation to the forces and perspectives of today's world, this Modernity. No knowledge is presupposed on your part. Naturally, to accept any change in position entails the will to open the arenas of your own questioning in a way that promotes creative fluidity and change in the simplest of everyday thoughts.
By this method (in my madness) I trust we will make something of a multifaceted journey through the politics of our enlightenment, touching the highs and the lows, and, in doing so, embrace the nature of humanheartedness through the call of Wisdom. May some force be with you.
A First Preface. Experience is bound to change.
Generally speaking, our logical minds are sufficient for the simple problems of life, but they are limited when it comes to larger problems. There is, within each of us, a sense of resolve and vision that transcends the need for proof or definitive truth values. Experience is felt within to be "just suchness", in Zen. For the Zennist, the appreciation of Beauty is an experience which occurs *"just so", for it is felt through our totality.
Such experience is unique precisely because it has felt subjectivity. Strong life experience has this unique quality of being of Being - of simple "suchness", while a civic life is frequently a declaration of facts and objectivity which may offer little of the quality of Being, of real life within it. Many of Life's truths hold special meaning for our Being which are more than an adherence to just personal positions. We have a sense of a world enduring beyond a set of beliefs.
The call of our favourite truths have in most of us been seen to fade through due to the shocks of everyday life and being. Such truths then become decrepit and badly used for they have lost the purpose which a truth calls of Wise Disposition. Here we have a choice to be of the present or adhere to a past.
The ethos of today, this Modernity, has misplaced much of this inner call to Wisdom. The ancients indicated that the way to achieve a meeting of what is both hidden and clear is to face the essential nature of the self. To enable this "Way to Heaven", as we may call it, is to throw light on Modernity's face, to show its character upon our lives and demonstrate the drama of its face. It is a face that brings difficulty to a reflective and a contemplative existence. We are never far from grappling with these "difficulties" no matter who we are, for this is our heritage. This is Modernity fully grown and the bearer of disturbed hearts. It is a world of probability where the inhabitants are living a life that is humorous, torn and frayed, one which is struggling to find maturity in vision and certainty of purpose. My feelings, like others, towards this world are to a certain extent reactions towards the insight that the modern gambit of social and physical science offers. Theirs is a new explanation of what is. The classical call to enlightenment is to approach Heaven by uncovering our relationships to modern attachment and belief. It is here that we may call upon the old teachings with relevant perspectives to give balance and context, to describe something of the human context of modern life-think. A walk towards enlightenment.
I cite the three streams of thought developed within ancient China under the broad heading of Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. By no means do I suggest that these three streams are coherent systems of thought, if such things can exist rather, they are the efforts of humanity extending past the limits imposed by the forms of conventional knowledge, which take us somewhat bumperly from A to B. That the three have proven influence is enough to demonstrate their depth of value, through their appeal to approach Life as a Divine and Joyous affair. For many, this is simply to cross over the self-made bridges of hesitation and find simple signs of Wisdom. However, such a crossing is difficult without Wisdom's bridge's and possessed by Modernity's range of traumas of self and ego.
The perspectives of our modern day lives impel us to deal with our many needs as well as provide a moral sense and meaning for the everyday world. Here it is that we find the individual in a struggle as a *Spiritual Entity, as a medium for human vitalness which has a mindfulness engaged to a large and worldly sense of being.
Zen feels life simply to be. Such a sense of clear feeling is something we would all wish others to have, and in our struggle to be O.K., or whatever, find it hard to maintain within ourselves. Life is a torrential drama where, often, things just seem to slip away as circumstance, old or new.
I shall press home, here, a simple point; a necessary and, also, obvious point. In addressing our lives we can, and must, put aside the mind of everyday doingness and be concerned with the Wisdom in Life in a fresh way : Heaven's Way. This will aid a grand feeling of joy and reverence directed towards Life as it can be. It is a path where we meet ourselves, the world and others. A path which is calm and stormy, tranquil and energetic. A path by which we will meet our best and worst aspects.
In doing this, The Way of Heaven Way presents something of a meeting with the three streams of thought of Taoism, Chan/Zen Buddhism and Confucianism, and Modernity's meanings: to Roar the Lion's Roar. We have need to Roar this Lion's Roar - to choose to be open or aversive to change and so evolve a feeling for the flux and flow of all change. *Modern day change demands of consciousness that we estimate our lives in terms of difference, between what the Buddhists would say is a largely already defined world of objects: of this thing and that. +Issues are generated in this conscience-orientated world where, in the struggle to define a world of material proportions, we have produced a conscious struggle towards a human and spiritual base. You may ask: why be concerned with all this Philosophy of experience? Simply, that consciousness is feeling. A passionate life is imbued with such clarity of feeling because it is true. It is conscious. True feelings are too easily pushed aside or confused in the hubble bubble of all the many "important trials" of a modern life and modern desires. We are too rushed to see Modernity's face; a face which evokes many conflicting emotions is not an easy face to comprehend. There is much wasted energy. People find their lives in crisis over issues of personal being. Some have convenient solutions that fit every movement of their lives. This book is not for them, but for the many who hold a sense of unease. They will find that to think well is to be well. Such a sense of presence is easily lost when we are subjected to the strong and circumstantial face of Modernity and its adherents.
Whether winner or loser, victim or vanquisher, there are, for those with searching curiosity, some Gods to be met. Life is such a meeting, where we find meaning through sense and feeling, rights and power.
*The issues of Wisdom are problems over what is of the essence - what is of use, and - what is the how of an explanation. The multi-folded world is at stake. There are no tomorrows but today, in the world that gives birth to our being. We ask ourselves: are we of today? Or have we deferred the greater meaning of Life to some other time, some wished-for ideal?
I ask that you do not take on your beliefs as Gods or Monsters,
but rather make friends and view them as personal companions on the road to become a simple being. It is a road as sculptured as difference, where women and men can self-realize as they make a zig-zag course. In this, I do not offer the truth, as it is not mine to give. I only point to its calling. It is a strong and personal calling.
Philosophy and metaphor enable our expression if we engage our consciences in the process of asking questions of questions and feelings of feeling. These questions and feelings may be uniquely framed, or so mundanely placed as to be obvious. In this, let us not be too concerned with pace of progress so much as whether our steps are solid ones. Life has to uncover meaning as it does Love, or else we will have no real marks as to our human passing. Does not everyday life hurt with futility if it is sensed to be such an affair?
I offer a journey in which you have already well prepared grounds for expression. Shall we take a little or a lot? *How can we graft the personal issues of everyday life onto a present estimation of the meaning of our lives?
In such forms of questioning, Oriental teachings are so well ripened, bearing the mark of Wisdom and Beauty, that I, for one, cannot resist the temptation to make a variety of sublime dishes. Eat well, leave that which is unpalatable, remembering that, perhaps, tastes can change.
I drink to your health with a liberal cup of Bamboo Spirit, which I recommend for many a malady, and trust that you enjoy the Way of Heaven and perhaps it will "clear your Way" as a traveling Sage of Modernity..................
The great path has no gates,
Thousands of roads enter it.
When one walks through this gateless gate
They walk freely between Heaven and Earth.
Mumon Ekai. The Gateless Gate. 1183 - 1260.
