Covid-19 crisis and The Way of Tao

Coronavirus spread has devastated the entire globe. The devastation has not just created a healthcare crisis but also economic and existential. But most horrific thing about this crisis is that it has, with its global spread at fast pace, turned much adorable “globalization” into a curse. This curse is not limited to the spread of virus across borders but with the closure of international boundaries it has stopped the flow of goods across the globe because globalization has resulted into vast distances in demand centers and supply centers like USA is facing extreme troubles in procurements because China is its main supplier although many supply centers in china are in fact owned by American companies. It is not that these products can’t be manufactured in USA or something near but these are being manufactured in china and then travelled to thousand kilometers just because of profit or lower costs. But all this has really rendered our world an extremely complex place.

But amid all this chaos, one day I happened to remember one great piece of wisdom about state of utopia…the ideal place to live life and it describes Utopian state is a small country of few people who love their homes so much that they do not like to travel, they are content with healthy food and useful clothes, they enjoy the labor of their hands. These words are from the great Chinese mystic Lao Tzu (Laozi) and are taken from verse 80 of his book “Tao Te Ching”. His words continued to come into my mind all the time recently. It is strange that I am missing this great man now in most difficult times but the wisdom of Lao Tzu was never more relevant than it is now. It is quite ironic that china is the epicenter of current covid crisis which is the birth place of Lao Tzu and Taoism. Let me reproduce this great Verse:

Imagine a small country with few people:
they have weapons and do not employ them;
they enjoy the labour of their hands and
do not waste time inventing labor-saving machines.

They take death seriously and do not travel far.
Since they dearly love their homes, they are not interested in travel.
Although they have boats and carriages, no one uses them.

They are content with healthy food, pleased with useful clothing,
satisfied in snug homes, and protective of their way of life.

Although they live within sight of their neighbours,
and crowing cocks and barking dogs can be heard across the way,
they leave each other in peace while they grow old and die.

Actually Utopia is not a physical state (and quite possible that it may never be created but going near is possible) but it is related to mental state first. So Utopia is not a place of vast flashy palaces, no work, vast variety of food…not at all. But Utopia is when we live our lives in simplicity (without striving too hard for everything and thus missing the present moment of bliss), harmony with nature (No over exploitation of natural resources) and contentment with what we have.

But let me clear some things about Lao Tzu. People often take him as supporter of laziness (doing nothing and sitting silently). But when I read him I did not find anything like this. In fact, Lao Tzu does not talk about fixed dogmas…fixed rules to live life. He feels everyone shall find his own path. In my view, this misunderstanding of Lao tzu is due to our misunderstanding of simplicity and contentment. We think simplicity happens when someone wears plain white clothes (not costly), eats vegetables and rice and no meat, and rides on a cycle. But this is not the meaning. Simplicity and contentment happens when we do not strive madly for achieving and getting something because in this madness we’ll miss the present moment which we can enjoy. So we are simple when we enjoy what we have or can have without resorting to “over-doing” because this “over-doing” is going to break the balance of our lives and natural resources.

Many authors have accused Lao Tzu for supporting backwardness and boring life. But I think there is tremendous amount of misunderstanding of this great man mainly because Lao Tzu was way ahead of us in the understanding of subtle forces of life and then cryptic language of his book has made people to interpret it as per their level of consciousness and wisdom. But Lao Tzu was not backward or anti-growth. In this verse, he is not asking to not to produce weapons and boats. He is asking for having these but people shall not feel the need of using these. There is no doubt about the weapon use. About boats, Lao Tzu is not asking for abandoning (doing) them because he is not a person to enforce doing something. He is a believer of the happening. Actually in this verse, he is mentioning the signs of an ideal state. First, state does not exist on its own i.e. it does not have any consciousness or collective consciousness. So contentment and enjoyment at individual level of what one is having is the first pre-condition of an ideal state. Hence, people should first enjoy their current state. If they do not like their home, their city then there is no value in going for a vacation travelling afar. Lao Tzu does not see any value in this…for him this is not ideal. He is not abstaining from travelling but first one should make his home an ideal place for living.

 I know many people who have left farming for a job in big cities where they are living a very nasty life…in crowded places, terrible pollution and traffic. And then they go back to their villages or hill stations for taking a break for this nasty life. Lao Tzu does not advocate this nonsense life just to earn more money. We can enjoy 10-20 days vacations in our village but we can enjoy this forever if we leave our greed for money and name. If we can see, we all want to go to Switzerland, hills, sea shore and forests because we do not derive happiness from our present way of life. We show other people that we are successful with all our money but deep inside only we feel the void…there is no real happiness. Lau Tzu knows that happiness is not relative just like most of our things (truths) are…happiness is not relative to the views of other people about me. Lao Tzu knows that it originates from our within…from our actions only for ourselves. So Lao Tzu wants people not to be guided and motivated by money and social success because there is no end to this greed.

Remember Lao Tzu belonged to a period which is almost dated back 2700 years so one just can’t juxtapose his words into present physical world and declare him anti-growth. His physical world was different from our world but much advanced from Stone Age. So Lao Tzu could have told to go back to Stone Age nomadic life but he had not. He had not asked people to wear clothes made of skin or tree leaves. He was saddened not by the growth in physical world but by the moral decay of humans at that time due to excessive greed and longing for physical life avoiding simplicity and natural harmony. So when he tells for doing labor with hands in farms, one can’t conclude that Lao Tzu would have wanted the same thing at present. He just wants people to involve in physical work because even now we all have realized how our sedentary life style has created havoc with our health by giving rise to dreaded life style diseases like Diabetes and BP.

In our quest for physical growth, we have destroyed and polluted nature and natural resources at massive scale. And without any further explanations, we all know that we are over-doing our lives for long time and we have destroyed everything which can turn this earth into a Utopia.

Lao Tzu- The wise old man

Lao Tzu was the greatest thing that happened with China but drifting away from the path of Lao Tzu was the biggest mistake committed by China. Lao Tzu (which means wise old man in Chinese) was the father of Taoism (Daoism in Chinese) in china. He summarized his experiences and views on how to live a perfect balanced life in harmony with nature in his book “Tao Te Ching”. If you ask me, Lao Tzu was rare among all the mystics ever born onto this earth. Quite unlike most others, Lao Tzu found that the life on earth can really be worthy, having purpose and true happiness. He did not denounce this life by regarding it as worthless but a chance to experience blissfulness during this short journey on this earth. But what we regard as happiness is the first on the list of Lao Tzu which according to him makes our life miserable and worthless. Main reason- our happiness is in the eyes of others and to make matter worst these eyes value gold more than the experience. We value what others think about ourselves not what we want to do for ourselves and as this is happening for ages we take this as part of our life…we never question this nonsense. We think that this is the only “way” to live this life- the way which only makes our life miserable…it is only about for how long our bodies can tolerate this nonsense which we regard as life. That’s why the likes of Lao Tzu had to come forward to show us the correct path, the Tao. Tao means “the way”.

As per the legends, Lao Tzu was eighty years old when he retired feeling extreme sadness by seeing people living life full of corruption, hatred and misery in complete isolation from the path of natural goodness. Lao Tzu lived in modern day Tibet around 606 to 530 B.C and before leaving the place forever he was requested by one of his friend who was the custom officer to write his teachings which resulted in this wonderful book- Tao Te Ching and perhaps this has been the most translated book after The Bible and The Gita. But still I think that most of these efforts have still failed to catch the glimpse of the soul of Lao Tzu, the Tao. I think he is one of the least understood mystics. I often hear that he was a great philosopher. But I do not think that he was a Philosopher…Philosophy does not require experience…it is the vision of the mind….contemplation. And Spiritualism begins at the fall of mind. Lao Tzu was a spiritual man (not religious)…a true mystic who felt the divine forces governing life and most of all been able to express it in most subtle way.

I think this misinformation about Lao Tzu stems from the fact that his masterpiece “Tao Te Ching” does not talk about God, his personality or his reasons for creating this world. But that’s exactly why I found this book rare…a true masterpiece. The Great Lao Tzu talks of life on this earth. Tao Te Ching is about man not superman (God). Lao Tzu was able to observe the universal law behind all the forces of nature and this book talks of this law with reference to man’s life not about the nature and origin of this universal law. It just accepts the presence of this law and then moves forward to assess its relationship with the happiness of human beings.

But the language used by Lao Tzu is pure magic. It is unimaginable that he could understand the nature of universe with such perfection 2700 years ago and most of it he could express the same in human language in most perfect way. When you read this book…in every Verse you can feel the presence of quantum mechanics. Derivation of non-dualism from dualism (Yin and Yang) is unimaginable. Lao Tzu looks like a person living for thousand years…fought countless wars and recognizes every grain of sand on this earth.  Most people take China as a land devoid of any religion but if you ask me then Taoism is the most advanced religion in the world. Buddhism is very similar to Taoism and that’s why it could spread to Far East after it left India.

After Lao Tzu, it was the great Chuang-tzu (Zhuang Zhou) who carried forward the Taoism to great heights. People doubt on the existence of Lao Tzu but Chuang Tzu did happen and he was the man of massive wisdom. It was because of Chuang Tzu that Buddhism is transformed into another unique religion in China/japan- Zen.

What is the Path of Lao Tzu-The TAO

But what is this Tao? Lao Tzu was a very keen observer of the nature. He watched trees, breeze blowing, the warmth of sun, flowing river. Very soon he realized that except human beings nothing strives (please note strive is more aggressive than doing or wanting) for power and fame. Things are just “are”…there is no attempt to break the natural harmony. Lao Tzu was quick to understand that this madness and hunger for power and money is the root cause of all the misery of humanity. Instead of being happy at what we have naturally; human beings want to grasp more and more just to earn the jealousy (not praise and value as we think) of others. Like when i compose music or draw a painting I do not feel happiness at this great piece of creation because I want to create a great noise for my creation…to earn money and name…nothing else. It was a shock for the people like Lao Tzu that how someone can’t feel happiness at his creation and quite contrary he feels happy only when his creation is rewarded with money and fame…otherwise he feels miserable.

I have seen many creative persons who are always full of despair and emptiness because they could not earn name, fame and money with their art. They were always taught the value of money and name since their birth and they believed this to such an extent that they just can’t enjoy the gift of creativity given by Mother Nature to them. If they have the eyes they should see that they are the chosen ones because I have always felt that creativity is the best way to feel happiness….in fact extreme happiness. In fact not just happiness but feeling close to Almighty because if you ask any creative person how he creates music or draw a great painting or a great story then he can vouch that in some sacred moments these creations unfold onto them from somewhere. But it is shocking that these fellows can’t value and feel the bliss at these rare moments when Mother Nature visits them.

I know a person who has been blessed with a great voice (for singing) by Mother Nature but due to some reasons that he couldn’t touch the heights of name and fame and I have always seen him miserable in all his life. He could not enjoy his own singing because he strived for name in the society…the only aim was to rise high in the eyes of others. So in place of feeling bliss at this amazing capability he has wasted his life so far in grief. And if you ask me singing and music is amazing…it is the language of emotions…best way to express joy and pain. When you sing or hear music the sound resonates with something in you (Vedas say “Shabdaikagunamakasham” which means that Shabad (Sound) is the guna (Property) of Akasha) and you become a sound only….time disappears…eyes stand still…hours pass like minutes. I told him to start teaching a small group and enjoy but he does not want a small group of people to know him, value him…he wants the entire sky.

For Lao Tzu, this is not the way to live life…this is not natural. Happiness and peace for Lao Tzu come from one’s within and do not depend upon worldly success and wealth. Lao Tzu wants people to observe nature to understand how all the things in nature follows the natural path…natural law which guides all the things in this entire universe…the Tao.

Taoism: A cosmic interplay of opposites

Lao Tzu’s Tao is about the universal law…the nature of reality…the regulation which holds together entire universe…all the existence…and everything. That’s why lao Tzu tells that Tao existed before everything. The most remarkable thing about Taoism is that there is not personified God…they just talk about the universal regulation. And this is why Taoism is so special. Almost all mystics have talked about, described the Supreme Being called God in their writings or teachings. They have tried to personified him for our understandings and if we can see this has created so much of religious anarchism among humans because all have tried to declare that their God (personification) is most authentic.

But if you ask me then this non-personification is the biggest contribution of Taoism to the mankind. But why non-personification? Just see what Lao Tzu says:

Verse1: The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. (Just look at the poetic beauty of this…wisdom…just incredible…I read this and I have teary eyes)

Verse 2: All can see beauty as beauty only because there is ugliness.

All can know good as good only because there is evil.

Being and nonbeing produce each other. The difficult is born in the easy.

Long is defined by short, the high by the low. Before and after go along with each other.

So the sage lives openly with apparent duality and paradoxical unity.

The sage can act without effort and teach without words.

Lao Tzu understands the inherent limitations of our language and senses. That’s why he refrains from using words for the ultimate doctrine because of the limitations of our language this can lead to very wrong interpretations. Our words/truths are relative…relative to the point of reference and they are defined by opposites. Truth is not defined or confined by time and space…truth is absolute When we say good then this points towards existence of bad also.

The great PD Ouspensky in his book “The Tertium Organum” (one of the best books I have ever read and will ever read) explains:

“We cannot define one unknown by means of another unknown. The result is nothing but the identity of two unknowns: x = y, y = x.

Matter is that in which the changes called motion take place: and motion is those changes which take place in matter”.

And you realize the relativity of our facts and concepts. Our words are incomplete and hollow. Like health…we do not have any positive or independent definition of health. It says health is when we do not have any disease/illness so health is defined by the opposite (although I feel health is when we do not feel our bodies…so light). So when we say someone is healthy then that also means illness.

That’s why lord Buddha became silent when asked about God. Some says he denied God but he had not…he was silent and silence does not mean denial. He was silent because of stupidity of human beings. This earth has seen countless enlightened beings who have tried hard to make us understand the nature of supreme existence so that we can see the meaninglessness and worthlessness of life we are living. But just look at the following what we have understood so far about the supreme existence or God:

Our God wants us to acknowledge his gratitude for giving us this life and so he seeks submission and continuous songs/reciting of praise. And when we drift away or avoid his pre-described path or directions he cursed us with sufferings in hell.

This is what we have made of him…only in the image of human  being…and this is what precisely the essence of religion for most of the humanity. To be a follower of this type of religion one only needs one thing- Low IQ. It is not surprising that most of these so called religious people have low IQ. These are the religious people who feel content just by offering a thing or words as prayer, who feel being religious will end all their worldly problems, who feel just by listening verses, by fasting they are touching the supreme divine. You will not see any sort of religion in their eyes, their actions…they indulge in all type of nonsense but they think they are religious. In fact, they do not have their religion by their choice. They are born into it.

But this happens when we have a personified God who is kind and desires for our happiness. So I can offer one coconut or flowers or fasting for twice a week and I will be delighted that I have made God aware of my religiousness and he’ll take care of me. It is shameful that we still seek the world from religion. But if you go near a person like Buddha or Lao Tzu they will first of all destroy the world for you so that you can see the real world beyond. They will not do this in most pleasing way; in fact they will kill you and your ego.

If you ask me about God and religion, then creativity is the thing which takes us near to the supreme divinity. When Supreme created this universe, he had done the greatest piece of creativity. So when we create something- a new music, new piece of an art, new invention...every new creation is his mirror image, his idea of being in bliss, his idea of purpose, happiness and Joy. We are moving ahead the wave started by him...the realm of creation. That’s why creative people are rare. That’s why creative people always feel that in their creation they are guided by the divine. Every new song, new painting, new story, new idea is an addition to this world.every song is unique...not created before.That’s why the world value creativity so dearly. So being creative and by creating something new we are worshiping the Supreme in reality. At times, creative people looks eccentric but they are the happiest if guided properly to not to seek money and fame. That’s why I have always felt that an ideal society will motivate and support the creativity.

That’s why I feel for today’s world, Lao Tzu is the person to follow.

Lao Tzu sees the perfect harmony in opposites…it is the inherent design of nature….unity of opposites. It shows that the visible separate or opposite systems are united and one can’t exist without the other. Universe is one single cosmic event or existence but it is human who differentiates between life and death, old and young, good and bad, male and female energy, light and darkness, joy and sorrow because they can’t see the oneness of the existence. The opposite forces do not kill each other but they are complementary forces balancing the life for its nurturing. So those who understand the Tao and paradoxical forces of life they know that due to very nature of life being balanced out by opposing forces so there will be good and bad times but the follower of Tao does not try to avoid this but he accepts this as part of life and by doing so he transcends this. This is most basic teaching of Taoism- the Yin and Yang symbol.

Lao Tzu observes that this unity of opposites exist in both natural and human world. Love and hate coexists. Happiness and grief coexists. For example, I love my beloved and this feeling of love gives me great happiness and joy but in the end one day she will be dead or she would leave me for someone else and this will turn all the happiness into pain and all the love into hatred (if she leaves me). But Lao Tzu tells us to accept this as nature of phenomenon as it follows the universal Tao of balance in opposites.

(Yin and Yang)

One day, a young man was telling me about himself and he claimed that he is very brave and has no fear. I told him that actually a brave man does not know that he is brave. He is just “what he is” and when someone says he is brave than that means he also has his share of fear. I asked him a question about three persons who on a dark night visited a haunted graveyard. One person believes in Ghosts but still he went to the graveyard. Second fellow does not believe in ghosts (but he knows the concept) but still he went and the third does not even know the concept of ghosts and he also went to the graveyard. Now tell me who among three is brave or bravest of three? This is paradoxical life. And if we can see the first & second fellows are brave but they have the element of fear in them but the third fellow is not having any fear at all but whether he is brave or not?? I leave this to readers. But if we can see nature- the lion who is the king is very brave but still he also has the element of fear in himself. Sometimes an angry buffalo makes him run. This fear is necessary for his survival. So if we can see then fear is the Yin and courage is the yang. Courage is not the “absence of fear” but acting on the face of your fear. But a lion is never good or bad, a human being is. So the courage can make a good human die for the cause of highest good.

In many commentaries on Tao Te Ching, I have seen authors explaining this unity in paradoxes (verse 2) that Lao Tzu wants us to see the contradictions in life and wants us to avoid any action on these opposites like Lao Tzu will not take any “action” when he loves somebody; he won’t tell that person that Lao Tzu loves him because love will “lead” to hatred in the end. Lao Tzu will be silent. First, I do not think that telling somebody that I love him is “action” and falling in love is not. Love has already happened but it coexists with hate. But not telling love is not the way of Tao.  Lao Tzu is not denying the opposites that if you say love then hate will come. No. He is just saying that both these coexist just like all the things in our life and nature…they are balanced by opposites. So we should accept them just as they are in whole. No need for any action in denial of this. This is the meaning of Lao Tzu when he says that sage manage affairs without action…it is the innate nature of Tao.

I need to stop here because Taoism is so vast that it is not possible to cover the entire vision here.

Covid-19 has given us a perspective to stop and look back

In our quest for growth in the form of money and power we have wreaked havoc on this earth and destroyed so much of delicate ecosystem. Every country wants GDP growth and so they are just tearing earth for minerals, cutting forests, polluting rivers, making public consume more and more. The end result of this nonsense is our devastated lives and highly polluted cities and rivers. If you ask Lao Tzu then he would say that human has tried to hit the balance of yin and yang and so earth will take its action.

Sometimes back, I was sharing this with my wife that mother earth is a living being and it is not possible that “they” (the creators) will leave the destiny of earth in the hands of foolish human beings so we may see some “cleansing” action from mother earth and that can bring devastation and chaos in our lives. But now with the onslaught of Covid-19, I think nature has given us a chance to sit back and observe the peace prevailing in our lives and at earth these days. Cities are having fresh clear air…pollution levels are reducing greatly. This covid crisis is going to phase out soon but I really hope and pray that this will give us much more in the form of understanding the importance of living in harmony with mother earth and importance of simplicity and contentment in our life.

I hope that this will serve as a perspective for us to bring necessary changes in our view towards growth. First change which I feel we need is to include balance sheet in our calculation of GDP growth. In our GDP calculations we only have profit & loss account where we measure the goods and services produced in a given period of time. But we never account for the damage inflicted by our GDP growth actions on environment i.e. deforestation, soil degradation, air and water pollution. These natural resources are part of natural capital which is most important for any sort of productive activities. We can’t run our factories alone on machines and labor. These factories needs air, water, soil, forests etc….everything we regard as natural resources. All these natural resources are vital for our existence, so if I destroy a forest and extracts iron ore from it we add this iron ore to GDP but we never deduct the damage caused to Natural capital by this activity which is as real as iron ore. So if we inflict any permanent damage to this natural capital then the same should be reduced from the total goods/services produced. Hence our GDP figures are overstated. And unless we design a way to calculate this damage we will never understand the value of Natural capital. So we need to have a balance sheet of an economy comprising Natural Capital (its value will be massive…no doubt) and any diminution in the value of this natural capital should be adjusted against National Income account to present the true state of our economic activities.

I am not surprised to see economists declaring the onslaught of global recession. But I think recession is much more fundamental than fall in GDP rates alone. Recession is about significant misallocation of productive resources whose course correction is not possible in short term. Like a country, where massive resources have been put for manufacture of Automobiles (for local and exports) and then all of a sudden there is global oil scarcity due to peak oil and oil prices shoot up which hit the demand for automobiles very hard. In this situation, it is very hard to do a fast course correction by creating new product manufacturing centers and also absorbing the massive loss of automobile capacity.

If we can see the situation now, after Covid-19 crisis there are high chances that people may not go to cinemas, amusement parks, Tourism, restaurants or even shared taxis (ola/uber)….i mean all public places. But whether this curtailment of demand for these products will be permanent? Actually, the crowd is not only at cinemas or restaurants alone. It is and will be everywhere- whether it is schools/colleges, factories, sports events, hospitals, businessmen going for air and railway travel. So avoidance of crowded means stoppage of all and everything. But deep inside we all understand that this is not going to happen so similarly there is a chance that when factories, schools etc. will be opened first then the same will dissipate the fear of crowded places gradually and this demand curtailment of cinemas etc. may not be permanent. Even at the times of Spanish flu in 1918-20 cinemas etc. were survived. So we’ll see this recession fear in detail in the next post as this post is only for the reverence of the great Lao Tzu.