Being and Non-Being in Lao-zi's Concept - Coursework Example

Laozi was a curator in the royal archive in the capital of Zhou. This Chinese philosopher was best-known to the western world through his short treatise the Laozi or Daodejing, consisting of some 5,000 Chinese characters. From him came the words Daoism/Taoism which literally means the Way or the proper path in life. You and Wu represent being and non-being in Laozi’s philosophy. You behaves roughly like an existential quantifier and Wu like the negation. Hence You X implies that X exists while Wu denies it. LaoZi – the Tao of reality believed that there is a thing, formless yet complete, which existed even before heaven and earth. Since nobody knew the name, they called it Tao – the mystery of mysteries. According to the Western culture there is a division between subject and object and prevents the subject from realizing the inner self. Material desires keep mounting and this affects efficiency leading to social problems. LaoZi’s idea of non-being can lessen such desires and enable people to develop with equilibrium. According to this philosophy, ‘being’ is not normal whereas ‘non-being’ is normal. ‘Being’ is not constant; there is continuous movement. ‘Non-being; is actually the denial of ‘being’. ‘Being’ is not limited to concrete material forms but includes abstract ideas and theories. The cosmic process consists of first by giving birth to all things by Dao and then the process of returning all things to Dao. Nonbeing (wu) and being (you) can be seen as the two ontological moments through which the dao manifests itself. From the state of nothingness, from the state of non-being, some forms are realized in the form of being. Hence to become being is to take the form of body. The realm of being comes rarely but the realm of non-being is much richer (Shen, n.d.). Human beings have great potential. Laozi says they should cherish what they have but always remain open to the unfathomable possibilities because the origin is the non-being. In the realm of being, all beings are constituted of opposites, you and wu being one such pair of opposites. You and wu can be analyzed on three different levels of meaning. In the first level, ontologically, you means the real, the actual, the being; wu means non-being, the potential or the possible. Spiritually you means fulfillment and constraint whereas wu means transcendence and freedom. Thirdly, you also means full, presence, whereas wu means void or absence. Non-being or nothingness is the natural state. This state is simply Dao to LaoZi. LaoZi says “Dao produced the One, the One produced the two. The two produced the three. And the three produced the ten thousand things” (Liu, n.d.). This is the cosmic process of giving birth to all things. In this there is an attempt to explain how something came about. All Laozi’s cosmological explanations end in non-being. Laozi further says “All things in the world come from being, and being comes from non-being.” He describes the beginning of the universe as something, inaudible, invisible and subtle. The universe itself is infinite and boundless. It cannot be given a name or encased in a boundary. It is basically a state of nothingness. It is without any form and contains no object. He says that all things come into ‘being’ but eventually return to a state of non-being or nothingness. This is through the method of reduction or reversal. Laozi wants that human beings come to that state of nothingness when desires cease to exist within them. This is the state of non-being. He also emphasizes that being come from non-being. Here the philosophy emphasize that the ‘one’ cam from the beginning of being. The terms ‘reversal’ and ‘return’ gives a complete vision of the cosmogenesis and the complete cosmic process. The dao manifests itself and moves itself through the pairs of opposites like you and wu or being and non-being. The process of becoming all beings leads the being finally back to dao – in essence it means returning to the dao itself. That means the being comes from the non-being and returns back to the non-being. The words, ‘Dao produced the One, the One produced the two. The two produced the three. And the three produced the ten thousand things,’ reveal the cosmological vision and it becomes very clear that the origin of inception is also the finality of becoming. It has been further clarified that dao, the state of non-being, the existence follows no laws. Its transcendent and unlimited nature sets it apart from all beings possessing form, matter and a specific place in space-time. Concrete beings or the forms follow laws, not the non-beings, as dao or the non-beings is formless. Laozi describes dao as nameless and the Ancestor of Heaven and Earth. Dao is imageless; you can look at it but cannot see it. Similarly, it is soundless because you can listen to it but cannot hear it. These words have great depth in it as they pertain to the non-being, something that is, was and will always be there – the existence; it has not arisen but gives birth. That what arises from the non-being returns and merges with the non-being. That which comes from the non-being is the being, with a form, and hence is matter. Non-being or dao is formless because you can touch it but cannot find it. It is infinite and indistinct; it cannot be imagined; it has to be experienced. It has no color and does not change color depending upon its position. Once it has finished its work in the form of being, it reverts back to the nameless state, the state of nothingness, the non-being. It can be defined as a shape without a shape or image without image. Dao cannot be attained by human sense organs. Laozi also says that all creatures emerge from being but being emerges from non-being. This non-being is dao, which is formless, shapeless, colorless, infinite, and nothingness. It has a divine nature. When the being concentrates on this formless non-being, the being becomes the deity. Man has the ability to cultivate dao and attain dao thus become a deity himself. Deities which originated as people are called immortal and hence every human being has the capability to become immortal through the process of transcendence. Dao grows silently and is exhaustible. It revolves eternally and is the source of all beings. It is independent of all beings and existed before the heaven and earth. It is beyond the limitation of space. This is the state that ultimately all human beings have to attain – become the dao. Non-being hence is the primordial universe that has no limits or shape but leads to the creation of definite shapes and forms in the finite world. All beings depend on the non-being and the non-being does not turn itself away from any being. It clothes and feeds the beings but does not claim credit for such acts. It is devoid of desires and flows in all directions. It is known as subtle because it cannot be touched; it has to be felt. It cannot be seen; it has to be experienced. Anything that can be described can only be the being and not the non-being as the non-being has no shape or form that can be described. Again, it has to be experienced. To understand the non-being, the being is necessary. Ugliness can be understood when beauty is present; when good is recognized, the perception of evil is understood. Dao is limitless and beyond any confines. Beings may mold a pot out of clay to encase the non-being but the non-being cannot be molded into the pot. The same clay or the form of non-being can be molded into any shape for which the pot is required. Hence the utility of the pot depends upon its non-being. No actions are necessary to attain the dao, says Laozi (Harrison, 1996). A sage sits in unaction but still manages affairs. He spreads doctrines without speaking in words. Things are in order without any action. The being with a form cannot do this; the being needs to act to perform, to attain. The non-being is contented whereas the being seeks ever more. The being should know where to stop, the line if fulfillment. The non-being teaches to understand and attain only to the extent necessary. The beings try to attain more and more leading to chaos. Laozi further explains why it is essential for the being to the state of non-being. Only when the being surrenders its qualities and its weakness to the non-being it eventually becomes the non-being; it attains the dao. It attains divinity and becomes the deity. The non-being is empty, devoid of worries and anxieties but it is full of divinity. The being is anxious how to preserve the being. Hence Laozi says ‘to be empty is to be full’. The beings use force to win wars; the non-being remains ever calm. The beings dwell in the pleasure of victory; for the non-being there is no state other than peace and happiness. It does not recognize victory for then it would recognize the instruments of evil; it would differentiate between good and bad. The non-being knows no other state than its own. The non-being treats the goodness in the beings and the evil in the beings as equal because the being understands that all will finally merge into the non-being. To understand this, to know that the path of evil will take longer to reach the state of non-being, it is essential to delve within and understand the inner self. Hatred should always be repaid with virtue. Non-being is one; beings are many. The beings all merge into the one non-being. The beings, the human beings have to understand this great principle that they have come from the non-being and they have to return to their root at the earliest possible. It is only when one becomes fully empty the one attains the state of non-being. Returning to this state of non-being brings inner peace, tranquility. This can come about by embracing simplicity, plainness, desirelessness, and selflessness. One who tries to hoard for future ends up losing in the long run. Contentment brings grace and attainment of dao. Thus, the state of being has to return to non-being and this can come through the regular practice of contentment, concentration on dao, egolessness, and surrender to dao. Greed and lavish desires can be the greatest enemy and keep the being bound in attractions. Laozi urges the beings to attain the dao, the state of non-being and remain in everlasting peace. References: Harrison, P., (1996), Lao Tzu: the Tao of Reality, 09 March 2008 Liu, J., (n.d.), THE STATUS OF COSMIC PRINCIPLE (LI) IN NEO-CONFUCIAN METAPHYSICS, 09 March 2008 Shen, V., (n.d.), Laozi (Lao Tzu), 09 March 2008 Read More