Christ the Eternal Tao

[Suaidan]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingjiao_Documents

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(Aristotle’s golden mean is useful here – define the two extremes and the truth is somewhere in the middle.)

In Christ the Eternal Tao, Hieromonk Damascene states:

“If we concede that the pre-Christian philosophers did seek the truth, and that they did catch glimpses of it, it only stands to reason that their teachings should bear some similarities, like a broken reflection of the moon in water, to the fullness of Truth in Jesus Christ. Therefore, these similarities need not appear as a threat to Christianity; instead, they offer one more proof of Christ as universal Truth.”

“Fr. Seraphim falls into neither
"fundamentalism" nor syncretism. Religious fundamentalism (believing 
that anything from a tradition outside one's own must be wrong) is
 intellectually satisfying to narrow minds, while religious syncretism
(believing that all traditions are equal) is satisfying to broad
minds. In avoiding both extremes, Fr. Seraphim followed a path that 
was not intellectually satisfying at all, for such is the path of 
Truth.“

"With all our strength and with all our effort we must strive by humility to acquire for ourselves the good gift of sober-mindedness, which can preserve us unharmed by excess from both sides. For, as the Fathers say, the extremes from both sides are equally harmful—both excess of fasting and filling the belly, excess of vigil and excessive sleep, and other excesses." Sobermindedness "teaches a man to go on the royal path, avoiding the extremes on both sides: on the right side it does not allow him to be deceived by excessive abstinence, on the left side to be drawn into carelessness and relaxation." And the temptation on the "right side" is even more dangerous than that on the "left": "Excessive abstinence is more harmful than satiating oneself; because, with the cooperation of repentance, one may go over from the latter to a correct understanding, but from the former one cannot" (i.e., because pride over one's "virtue" stands in the way of the repentant humility that could save one). (Conferences, II, chs. 16, 2, 17.)

“Seek the royal path!”

Fr. Seraphim often repeated: “Never fall into extremes! You must live carefully, choosing the middle path, the royal path, avoiding extremes. On the one hand, don’t fall into fanaticism and judgment. On the other hand, don’t allow yourselves to relax too much and become lukewarm. To follow the royal path you must have spiritual discernment, which is considered one of the highest spiritual gifts. It is difficult to achieve this, but we must try not to fall into extremism. His favorite words were: Seek the royal path!”

https://socratesjourney.org/lao-tzu-and-the-tao/

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“Father Seraphim Rose once wrote that nothingness, in the meaning that Lao-Tzu gives it, is the point of convergence, or axis, of the universe. This recalls Lao Tzu’s words in the Tao Te Ching, “Thirty spokes join in a single hub. It is the center hole that is the space where there is nothing, that makes the wheel useful.” If nothingness, or self-emptying, is the axis of the universe, then the cross of Christ, the greatest sign of man of the self-emptying of God, now becomes that axis. Christ stands at the axis, and there in the space where there is nothing, we find not an impersonal void, but the personal heart of the selfless, self-forgetting God.”— Hieromonk Damascene Christensen

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“In His last talk with his disciples before His crucifixion, Christ told them, “In my father’s house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also, and where I go, you know, and the way, you know.” When Christ said this, his disciple, Thomas, asked Him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way?” Christ replied, “I am the way.” And thus, the Way of heaven, as he had been called by Lao Tzu, became the way to heaven.
That which the ancient Greeks called the Logos, and the ancient Chinese called the Tao, came to earth to open heaven to us. He became man so that we could forever dwell in Him, and He in us. He became man so that we could experience, throughout eternity, a full participation in Him through His uncreated energy. The final end of man is eternal union with God through Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the unoriginate Father, the Way and Word of God, who became man for our sake. Amen.”— Hieromonk Damascene

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“Lao Tzu said, “All things arise from Tao.” Not quite the same as created and creating. But as Gi Ming Shien said, we could say that the Tao produces all things. So for Lao Tzu, the Tao existed prior to all things and all things came from Him, and all things were ordered by Him, or It. Lao Tzu might say It, but we would say Him, because we have a fuller understanding of God.
As I said, Lao Tzu did not fully understand God, or the Tao, as a person, but he described the Tao in ways that showed that he saw that the Tao had qualities like that of a person. The Tao was benevolent. The Tao only gave, never took. He cares for, shelters, nourishes, protects all things, but never seeks anything for Itself. So, as Gi Ming Shien said, the Tao of Lao Tzu is in the realm of being. The Tao is a being, the Tao is not just nothingness. The Tao has a quality of nothingness, the quality of nothingness, meaning spontaneity or selflessness, forgetting Itself.”— Hieromonk Damascene

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The Chinese Mind

Hieromonk Seraphim Rose

The following is a tape transcript of an informal class which Fr. Seraphim gave to young men at the St. Herman Monastery in 1981, a year or so before his death. Because he was speaking to young people who had little or no prior knowledge of Chinese culture, he kept his talk on a practical level and did not go deeply into the more subtle aspects of Chinese thought. Nevertheless, this talk is valuable in that it gives an overview of Fr. Seraphim's later views on the world of ancient China, whose wholesome values of tradition, orthodoxy, honesty, respect and love helped him to return to Jesus Christ in the Orthodox faith.

End Notes from The Chinese Mind
1) For more about these classes which Fr. Seraphim gave to youth, see the chapter "Forming Young Souls" in Not of This World, pp. 894-909.-ED.

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道

Being and Nothingness in Greek and Ancient Chinese Philosophy
Gi-Ming Shien
Philosophy East and West, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Jul., 1951) pp. 16-24 (9 pages)

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道

Nothingness in the Philosophy of Lao-tzù
Gi-Ming Shien
Philosophy East and West
Vol. 1, No. 3 (Oct., 1951), pp. 58-63 (6 pages)

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Nothingness, Being, and Dao: Ontology and Cosmology in the Zhuangzi" by David Chai , 2012

Abstract

The following dissertation is a philosophical exploration of the cosmology of the Zhuangzi,

arguing it is meontological due to the prominence afforded the Chinese word wu 無, rendered as both nothingness and nonbeing. It puts forth the argument that the Zhuangzi’s cosmology creates a relationship whereby nonbeing and being are intertwined under the purview of Dao 道. As a result, the text’s axiology is unique in that it states cosmological freedom is attainable via uniting with primal nothingness.

Chapter one seeks to disprove the notion that nonbeing cannot be anything but a transcendental other by arguing that Dao is a negatively creative source that simultaneously gives birth to nonbeing and being, making it impossible for nonbeing to be nihilistic or seen as an absolute void.

Chapter two delves into the manifestation of things and how the sage, as an epitome of the naturalness of Dao, follows the becoming and returning of things to the One, darkening himself in nothingness in order to cultivate his life.

Chapter three poses the question of whether or not the ontological movement of things is temporal and how temporality can even be possible considering the meontological nature of the universe.

The next two chapters focus on the arts of useful uselessness and forgetting, the two principal means by which the sage achieves harmony with the oneness of things.

Chapter six concludes by arguing that freedom attained by perfecting the arts of uselessness and forgetfulness is not rooted in ethical virtue but is the pinnacle of one’s cosmological relationship with Dao and is embodied in the act of carefree wandering.

Zhuangzi’s cosmology is thus rooted in the life force of nothingness and doing away with ontic distinctions so as to return to natural equanimity and stillness of spirit.