6

Natural Government Born of Tao

Some of the greatest leaps for humankind will be taken when we face the dire dilemma that binds us to a mechanistic world. Drastic measures are needed to reorient our awareness back toward the natural world of the cosmic unfolding. From a sage’s perspective, the answer to humanity’s plight is not, how do we rid ourselves of these unnatural systems, but instead, how radical are we willing to be?

Taoist teaching emphasizes that if we understand the spontaneous function and unfolding of the universe (Tao), then we will not fight this process; if we live effortlessly, with wu-wei, the natural harmony of the cosmos will prevail.

We cannot eradicate the established governmental apparatus by governing more. This was one of the major differences between Confucianism and Taoism: Confucian ideology built a strict system whereby one should govern one’s life both within and without in accord with its philosophy. Lao-tzu, on the other hand, would have deemed this perspective absurd, because the fundamental aspects of any external form of governance—control, force, and a search for power—actually put one out of sync with the natural harmony of the universe. As a result, we feel as if we do not belong here.

To govern is to control, and control is built from the experiences of the past and a plan for the future. Nature in all its glory is locked out, which is why a different system of government cannot be the way out for us. If we can be sincere in living wu-wei, we will allow the course of Tao to run its path back into harmony through our own nonaction in regard to the dilemma at hand. Revolutions and protests do not change anything, because they are still reacting out of human conditioning and seeking to control life. To govern is to control, to control is to destroy life, and this is what needs to be reversed through the way of nature and wu-wei.

Human beings have the intelligence to comprehend the nature of wu-wei. Yet many people do not have the knowledge of wu-wei naturally, through their experience, unlike all other organisms, which would seem to jeopardize our claim to being the most intelligent species on this planet.

THE NATURALNESS OF TZU-JAN

To seek refuge from these unnatural systems, we need to understand nature itself. The organic pattern of the individual (li) is our innate nature driven by te, virtue. Nature, then, has no relationship to force, control, or power. The order and pattern of nature is not a forced order, as nature is not bound by external influence or control. The Taoist term for nature is the Chinese tzu-jan (自然: Wade-Giles tzu-jan, Pinyin ziran, see figure 6.1), which means that which is spontaneously of itself. When a natural organism is in harmony with all life, it grows of itself spontaneously. Tzu-jan can only arise of itself without external compulsion.

Figure 6.1. Tzu-jan—nature spontaneously of itself; naturalness By Dao Stew

Tzu-jan is the essence of the yoking process found within the spiritual core of many religions, and especially in the origins of Chinese and Indian wisdom. When we withdraw from our conditioned perception of reality, we come back into nature and grow spontaneously in harmony with all other components of life. What would happen if we let go of control? When we leave the animal, plant, and mineral kingdoms alone, they continue to grow and prosper without any interference. What would happen, then, if we left people alone?

From the perspective of traditional Taoism, if we left people alone to follow their own passions and interests, harmony would prevail within community, no matter how large or small. If there were no interference from the external world, people would follow their natures, because passive obedience would no longer be a way of life. We would no longer feel the need to obey unnatural organizational patterns, because in following our own nature we would begin to harmonize with other people and the environment. When we leave life alone, Tao runs its natural course, and all aspects of life come into order without seeking order.

Superficially, this perspective may be incorrectly perceived as “anarchy.” But there is a major difference: anarchists’ motives are driven by what they oppose. On the other hand, the sages who understand tzu-jan just follow their own nature without any concern for institutional or organizational power, because they are content to let such things run their course. An anarchist is still distracted by external influences. So if the world is thrown into anarchy, then the motive destroys the project. Nature is as it is and can have no motive, nor is it a project to embark upon. Tao can never be induced, as its principle happens spontaneously of itself—tzu-jan. Anarchy is an attempt to induce Tao so as to bring about a real order through an intellectual, artificial decision to abandon the ways of society.

NATURE’S ANARCHY

Though anarchy in some sense is a step in the right direction, it is not a suitable method for liberating the world, because it cannot avoid having an agenda. The Russian evolutionary theorist Peter Kropotkin understood this subtle difference between anarchy and tzu-jan. Kropotkin postulated that if we were to leave people alone to follow their own nature, a real social order and true government would emerge out of the current system. His theory is almost a carbon copy of the Taoist tzu-jan; its depth is equal to the thought of a sage. Yet his political theory was called anarchism (labeled Kropotkin’s Anarchy) so that many people could conveniently put it in a superficial context and believe they understood it.

As radical as Kropotkin’s theory may appear, it is this trust in people’s nature that will bring about a true, harmonious government out of the ashes of a dying culture. This is in alignment with Lao-tzu’s wisdom. The true government, according to the Taoist perspective, is the communal power that we attain when we trust one another sincerely to live our own lives without interference. This is the te of the collective, or we could say social virtue, because true government is only realized when we have given up the power to govern. In giving away our power, we gain the sort of power that we truly want, which is beyond control. In the same way that we give our power of virtue away to get a real virtue beyond virtue, we give our power to govern away in order to get a real government beyond government. Life is governed when we leave the world alone to be what it will be. This is the paradox of life, although it confuses our linear, logical view.

In the classical Taoist text left behind by Chuang-tzu, known simply as the Chuang-Tzu, he profoundly articulates this teaching:

I have heard of letting the world be, of leaving it alone; I have never heard of governing the world. You let it be for fear of corrupting the inborn nature of the world; you leave it alone for fear of distracting the Virtue of the world. If the nature of the world is not corrupted, if the Virtue of the world is not distracted, why should there be any governing of the world?

Long ago, when the sage Yao governed the world, he made the world bright and gleeful; men delighted in their nature, and there was no calmness anywhere. When the tyrant Chieh governed the world, he made the world weary and vexed; men found bitterness in their nature and there was no contentment anywhere. To lack calmness, to lack contentment is to go against Virtue, and there has never been anyone in the world who could go against Virtue and survive for long.¹

In going against our nature, tzu-jan, we not only destroy ourselves but we also contribute to the annihilation of the human race. The government we have created out of our insecurity and irresponsibility has to come to an end, or we as a species will succumb to the fate that all parasites experience. The big question we need to ask is, how do we take steps to sincerely trust others and let them live life as they choose? If we can leave people alone, then the world will naturally heal its wounds and begin to grow in harmony with the Tao. But none of this is possible if we have not confirmed the reality of tzu-jan within our own being.

Even though the wisdom of wu-wei and tzu-jan have existed since the time of Lao-tzu, there has always been only a small minority who are sincere in bringing peace into their hearts and the hearts of others. Most humans, on the other hand, resemble a leader of a nation who parades around proclaiming peace through forcing war upon the world.

Such insanity exists because individuals’ versions of peace are built on their own agendas and attuned to their conditioning, which is incorrectly identified as pleasure. Many people will not admit this, because they are still identified with the seals and veils of conditioning. In such a state, we are like a tree that is continually pruned to grow straight and rigid. But our nature can never be straight and rigid, because we are eternally connected to the Tao, which is beyond name and form. Even the hypnotic feeling of straightness and rigidity arises out of the Tao, although temporarily, like a wave in an ocean.

TRUST IN PEOPLE IS REAL GOVERNMENT

We can only leave people alone to live their own lives if we are sincere in our own introspection and willing to discard the conditioning that clouds our unity with our brothers and sisters. When we are sincerely humble and free from agendas, we nourish and secretly transform the world—again, through not seeking to transform it. A sage has no agenda, and this brings spiritual oxygen into the world. We all have undergone various sorts of conditioning and we all have the same physical and emotional states, so we can sympathize with the rest of the world, which suffers as a result of the same hypnosis as ours. On the other hand, if we are all inherently the same, we also possess the same qualities that a sage lives by.

The I Ching (see figure 6.2) demonstrates through a complex system of sixty-four hexagrams how a small piece of the puzzle can transform the whole system when that small piece allows for change, which puts it back in accord with the Tao. This is to be thought of psychologically. The change in the small piece wears away the edges of its rigid hardness and softens its nature, which is a metaphor for a human allowing the ever-changing universe to soften his rigid conditioning into humility. When this process takes place, tzu-jan, nature, and virtue, te, bring the light of Heaven, tian (天: Wade-Giles t’ien, Pinyin tian) in Chinese, into the world through the uniqueness of an individual’s li, organic pattern. The I Ching incorporates Taoist principles to intellectually and spiritually verify the reality that a single drop of water in an ocean causes a ripple effect, especially when that droplet is purely reflective and transparent. Tzu-jan is a predominant principle in the I Ching. For example, when a small piece begins to grow spontaneously of itself, it will have an effect on the whole system, which in time will compel the whole to follow suit.

Figure 6.2. The eight trigrams that build the sixty-four hexagrams of the I Ching By Jason Gregory

All of Taoism is built upon this concept of natural growth, which brings one into accord with the Tao and as a result affects the whole. In observing nature, sages such as Lao-tzu discovered that every organic system grows out of another system whose current state no longer serves its position in life. This is the natural process of growth, death, and rebirth. The organic world does not discard the old but instead grows slowly out of the old into a new state. The organic world builds upon old, because everything in life serves its purpose. Anarchism does not follow this pattern: its method is to oppose the status quo with its own agenda for bringing order to the world.

Contrary to this method is the Way of Lao-tzu, which follows the reality of the natural world. Tzu-jan is exactly the way nature is, and human beings are that as well. When we have retreated from external compulsion, we grow spontaneously as nature does and in turn we affect the whole. We are slowly growing out of civilization in its current state, even though the majority of people are not conscious of this change. The paradox here is that if we continue to fight our current system, no natural change can happen, as we still do not trust in the situation at hand.

For organic life to grow out of the old and into the new, it has to accept the conditions it has been dealt and begin to resonate on a higher level in order to build upon the lower. Our current social and cultural systems have served their purpose. Nevertheless, they are no longer needed, as our lessons have been learned. Problems arise in the growth of our species when we believe that the past was a mistake. This again reveals a hypnotic sense of not belonging. Real trust acknowledges that everything we have gone through, both individually and collectively, is exactly how it was supposed to be. No matter how much senseless bloodshed has occurred on this planet, it has gotten us to where we are now and could have been no other way, because where we are now is exactly where we need to be. Life is always fundamentally right, but we have to get out of concepts of good and bad to realize this. We have to have an inclusive view of reality rather than the exclusive view we are accustomed to.

Tzu-jan can only come to fruition when we trust that everything the universe has produced is fundamentally right and could be no other way. The systems of government, politics, banking, religion, and commerce are unnatural, but they have gotten us to a certain point, and we have learned many lessons from them. It is just that they are no longer needed. The true government of the real world will grow out of the sickness of the old to heal the world from its hypnosis.

If we cannot trust the world and the people in it, we stand no chance for survival, because a species at war with itself is doomed. You, the individual, can begin the process, but it really depends on how sincere your trust is. People often say that they trust the universe, but then they consistently condemn life according to their conditioned perspectives. If we are to assimilate wu-wei, we need to be radical enough to let life go its own way. This will allow us to be seeds of growth, which will change the world without our intention to do so.