tao and logos
TAO AND LOGOS - HERACLEITOS AND LAO TSU
A small journey to Tao with Logos as a guide
Prolegomena as an introduction to Tao and to Logos
Notation: Hegel in his “Science of Logic” and the chapter about the “Critic Philosophy”, claimed that "Thing, (the essence of the world), should not carry the weakness of contradiction; that should be granted to the logic capacity (the essence of spirit)". Therefore his “Science of Logic” from the beginning was considered by himself not to be in correspondence with the material reality, being neither science nor logic; yet being idealistic can not be really dialectic also. So after the appearance of Hegel’s “Science of Logic” and the anti-dialectic use of dialectics from the leaders of the former “socialistic” countries, dialectics was so much disdain that considered to be a curse of thinking. Therefore many brilliant thinkers who could really understand the Heracletian Logos and Laotian Tao have been trapped in mysticism. The "Hegelian logic" is rather the "phenomenal evolution course of the Idea", which departing from "Nothing Itself" reaches by a transcendental way to the "Absolute Being" which rather is God. So it does not concern Logic but Theology. Theology though, is the most arrogant process because theologists undervalue God, putting God's speech in their mouth. They also undervalue the simplicity of the new testimony, which is the Son of the God's Logos, trying to overpass mentally Christ himself, as being naive. However all "dialectics" about God, because God do not exist, roll down to the inexistent mystic path of nihilness. I consider faith and mysticism to emit a mental stench, because they are nourished where dialectics goes to stool.
Therefore speaking about Heracleitos we must remember his claim: "this world, which is the same for everyone was not created by human or god, but it was, it is, and it will be, eternal fire which kindle-extinguished in Metron (in balance)"; as well his claim that: "infidellity-unbilief leads to the real knowledge".
Since 500 b.C. the ancient Greek “bards of logic” Heracleitos for Dialectics and Parmenides for Rationalism, formal logic and determinism, crossed their swords in a battle about which logic describes precisly the world. I consider Heracleitos, Anaximander and Zeno to be the philosophers who established the dialectic logic in ancient Greece, but along with them, Lao-Tsu must not be forgotten as a great far away “bard” of dialectic logic also. For all these reasons the reader will notice during the unfolding of my preposition that i consider Lao-Tsu and Heracleitos to be far from mysticism, being the first thinkers who proposed a dialectic (contradictive) logico-lingual syntax. That, according to them, was the only way the evolving world really to be spoken. Logos is the logico-lingual syntax of Heracleitos, being the one pillar of dialectics. The other pillar of dialectics, according to Lao-Tsu was Tao, which means the Path of action and thinking. Those two pillars though, are inseparable being the two faces of dialectics. That is why Logos as well as Tao is speech and simultaneously action.
About Tao and Logos:
The meaning of Tao is very cloudy; there is not any interpretation being the same to an other. That is rather due to the cloudy nature of the Lao-Tsu dialectics, but at the poetic syndrome of his frugal aphorisms also;. Another reason of its cloudiness is that Tao has been transformed in modern languages, from an archaic symbolic-iconic codex. An iconic codex can never be absolutely transformed to modern languages, therefore it will always be violated by the necessary personal intervention of the translator. Yet the ambiguity of the dialectic thinking and the poetic syndrome of the frugal dialectic aphorisms, disturbs the Logic Formality we have been taught and have been accepted as the Logic itself. That is why, many interpreters, who don’t understand or being untrained to the dialectic logic discipline, gallop violently to mysticism. In spite of all these difficulties though, Tao continuous to stimulate the human imagination. Its uncertainty is the reason of a “creative” approach, which gave birth to more uncertainty and mystery. It is so, that every reader found in Tao’s verses, whatever their soul disired, since they could be seen from many points of view. Nevertheless we must accept that its purpose was not poetry, but philosophy and ethics.
Because all iconic cods were indefinite and since antiquity were used in many and defferent physical languages, the central meaning of Tao, in these existing vertions, was revoking eachother. It is said that for that reason, the famous imperor Kublai Chan, about 1300 a. D. destroyed all versions and kept the one he believed genuine. Therefore Tao has been under intervantion since antiquity, which continuous nowadays and that fact shows its deep dynamics. Ancient wise sages used frugal languages, which having the syndrome but not the intention of poetry, confuse us considering them to be poets. In the present approach to Tao, i will use as a guide the Heracleitian Logos; this, to my opinion, is the only way to walk in the “cloudy” landscape of Tao. If Lao-Tsu is the Cloudy one, Heracleitos is the Obscure one. His dark langskape has emotionally touched for two and a half thousand years the majority of the philosophers, the vanguard scientists and thinkers. We must not though hesitate to accept that neither for Heracleitos nor for Lao-Tsu, there is any agreement for the interpretation of their aphorisms.
Because I feel to be aware of the Heracleitian Dialectico, i take the risk to make a personal approach to Tao by Logos, far away from any mysticism and theolody. This approach is not to be consider as a translation, because i do not speak chineese. My contact to Tao has been done from trarslations of translations, so my approach is definitely “creative” and not scholar. That is, being aware of some “translations” but having not an immediate knowledge of the genuine text, i maid an approach to Tao from the point of view of the Heracleitian and Zenonian dialectic thinking.
In the creation of this work, i also have included aphorisms of Heracleitos (the way i have interpreted them) in the same fraceology of Tao and prepositions of my own, so that it is definitely a violated and arbitrary preposition; as arbitrary is my effort to “purify” Tao from its mystic syndrome. Yet my choice to isolated verses of Tao and Logos from the main body of these scripts for use in my work is also arbitrary. I have choose that dialogic technic trying to epicentre my efforts in the dialectic meaning of these aphorisms, though this practice undervalues their poetic syndrome. Yet i believe that the poetry of an iconic symbolic codex cannot realy be seized but created every time in a new approach again and again.
The frugality and ambiguity that characterizes both Heracleitos and Lao-Tsu, beside of their poetic syndrome, make them as the Heracleitian Sybilla “tο spell unelegantly and frugally the words of new meanings, -neither to hide nor to reveal, but to mean”. (Their languages though seem elegant it are far from elegancy and rhetoric virtues of reveletions or concealments; they frugally spell an other language of a new syntactic form and meaning).
Lao-Tsu was chief-superviser of the autocrate’s library. It is said that in a very old age he abandoned the palace and departed for the west. The guard who escorted him till the borders, requested to leave something and Lao-Tse gave him the script of Tao.
That little story, may not be so innocent if we take off its poetic uncertainty; that he abadoned the palace in a very old age, that he was escorted by a guard, create a suspicion of exile.
An explicative note about dialectics:
Dialectic Logic, oppositly to the Formal one, is the Logic of the “Infinite Universal Evolving Process”. That Εvolving Process (was called since the 6th century b.C. by Anaximander Γίγνεσθαι), to be infinite presupposes the contradictive nature of the events, things and the world itself.
Objectivity, determinism and formal logic accept opposites to have a dialogue each-other without violating the limits in between them, being in the state of opposition. On the contrary, dialectics accepts the opposits to interact entering inbetween each-other during their dialogue, without leaving any unviolated limits and any space of independence in between them. This way they create contradictive unities. Formal logic and determinism is ruled by opposition and objectivity, since dialectics by contradiction.
Dialectics accepts the “Principal of Identity” as “Principal of Contradictive Identity” and the “Principal of Ratio” and therefore the “Chain of Ration” to be at least amphidromic (both ways acting). Moreover motion is considered differently by dialectics from rationalism. To be more specific, i will give an example about motion: Hegel said that "something moves not because once exists in one place and onother time to another place, but because something |Is-BeingNot| simultaneously in the same place at the same moment", and he pointed that: "motion is contradictive". Zeno would reply to him that: the moving one, moves neither to the space it is, nor in the space it is not. According to Hegel, although motion contradicts, the moving one continuous to maintain its identity. The scholastics, Hegel and us together with them, have being trapped thinking that Zeno did not accept the real existence of motion. Yet Zeno speaks about a “moving one”, therefore he accepts motion but he refutes the way and the place upon where motion proceeds. The presocratic "bards" of Dialectic Logic consider identity to be in the state of “collapsing-composition”, therefore, a moving event is actualized because other elements pass inside this. For the presocratic dialectics the moving event “Exists-NotExisting”, being "Another-Different" from position to position and this way do not deserve to move as "Itself" being Other; motion this way is innate to the to variance and interformation of the moving event, being the evolution process itself.
According to Heracleitos every collapsing-compositive event emits-receiving elementary units of Fire ("pyritia" of energy) (transmiting to universe and receiving from universe). So these transmited elements once return to the position they have departed. (Because, the universe of Heracleitos is open and infinite, the elements which have been emited to universe from the event, returning, do not accomplish a perfect cycle but a thick helicoid course. So the returning elements do not verify absolutely the event in the position they had departed, but they verify-falsifying it. That is, they pass not absolutely upon that specific position, but they pass touching it in a scale of a little by little gradual more verification. Therefore the event is verified a little farther from the position it was. This way, the event moves from position to position, changing simultaneously as a Being its identity also.
Lao-Tsu uses perfectly the dialectic logic principal of the “supreme quantity transformation to a new quality” and the dialectic logic principal of the “unity and fight of the opposits”. The heracteitian Logos and the laotian Tao, complement eachother composing an archaic dialectic process, which is more revolutionary from the Hegelian one and more according to the demands of the contemporary science.
The aphorism of Lao-Tse that: “the great straightness owes to be curve” astonishes the user of typical logic and determinism, because curvedness and straightness typically are opposites which revoke eachother; dialectically though being contradictive complement eachother. (Einstein claims that a moving straightly and normally object in space, once will return in the position it departed, because of the space rotation). From the viewpoint of dialectics, everything is innate with its opposite, composing a contradictive unity and therefore it coincides with the universal evolution process, interacting eachother and being in a continuous variation and motion.
In Eukleidian Geometry, the point, the straight line and the space are divine meanings in an ideal situation, being everyone of them separate and immobile. There, Space is immobile and its three dimensions expand to infinity. It is something separate and unique, which contains all the others, but its existence do not depent on these. Space could exist and be conceived as empty and without all these it could contain, being an idea.
Straight line expanding to infinite never meets itself and parallel straight lines never meet.
The point has no dimensions being ideal.
Whatever happens to one of them nothing is necessary to happen to the others. All these obey to the principal of Identity and objectivity.
On the contrary, a Contradictive Geometry has the characteristic of innate motion and interdependence of the elements it consist of. Point, straight line, space and time, due to their innate motion, compose altogether an event in continuous motion and interdependence. Everyone of them is in a specific condition because the others demand to.
Dialecticaly the point “in the state of rest” is accepted as moving straightly and normally. Yet from the straight and normal motion of a point, the straight line is composed. That is not the one we have ideally in our mind but real, having the related (revelant) to the others curvedness. That is, the straight course of the moving point is transforming to curve, because space being real and not ideal, is not stable but rotating around itself.
Let's suppose that a point moving straightly and normally “intends” to straighten its course. Therefore it begins to accelerate trying to overtake the rotation of space. Yet its course could be straiten up, but it can be an absolute straight course, only in its instantaneous speed. At that speed though, the moving point exists simultaneously everywhere in universe, being in the departure and the arrival at the same time. It has been expanded to universe and simultaneously has coincides to zero point. Dialectically the absolute straight course of the point moving “straightly and normally” in universe, is an instantaneous and continuous palpitation of this point to universe and return in the departure position, which coincides to its instantaneous explosion of change to universe and return back to its former position.
My opinion is, that the aphorisms of Lao-Tsu reveal the contradictive nature of the world as the heracleitian aphorisms do. Their relation is complementary and if we understand their meaning and their unity, we could compose a contemporary Dialectic Logic instrument.
Notation: The so called symbol of Tao’s “unity of the opposites”, being finally in a perfect cycle, expresses the acceptance of a closed universal system; on the contrary to that, the ancient Greek symbol of tragedy (the contradictive nature of world and things), is the dithyramb, the simultaneous passing by two opposite doors, (the door of death and the door of life). The symbol of Dithyramb is the double meander, which indicates an open and contradictive universal system.
TAO AND LOGOS
Anonymous, fluid, abstruct, Being-NotBeing,
every-where and no-where, one and many,
immobile and instantaneous, face of no face,
there is where everything comes from and goes to
their life and death, make eternal to be Itself, Being always Other.
Beauty relates to ugliness, the bad to the good also
the eazy to the difficult, the big to the small
all compose a unity and not, they Are-BeingNot in a continuous change
melody will be composed by strong and week sounds
Wisdom demands to take and give
not to dominate
success do not pair with arrogance
the world being inexhoustible, has neither beginning nor end
it is always in a continuous alternation of birth and death
it is always a changing balance
being itself, is always other
Wisdom is above persons and faces
human beings born and die to maintain and support it
the world is eternal not because of being itself
unconstrain beings and faces are born and die to keep it alive
it is the eternal vanishment that gives birth to the eternal creation
so the wise is not for himself
he does not show himself in front to be honoured
being not for himself, he exist eternally by the others
Too many parts of something tending to zero
compose the infinite unity,
in the absolute fulness we find emptiness
in the very small we find great ,
the opposits cannot be separated
their differences are ballanced by the Metron
ego and the other (the infinite), are the limits of the world
in between exist the unconstrain specific things
if we live in prudence these would be gifts for us
Wisdom and kindness approach silently, as the water does
like something shy and scorn
neither it is taken nor it is given by force
it interwinds with love, passionate and care
it will though take its violent face when it is needed
its object will be the wise
who never looses his self control
If people were indifferent for ranks
officials would be contempt
if people didn’t accumoulate wealth
there would not exist theives and robbers
treasures disturb the minds of people.
if the erudite bureaucrats, the speculators and
the dealers will be dismissed
people will leave in peace
let us be frugal and plain, that is enough
If the leader satisfies his desires
against the benefit of the people
acts against himself
bitterness will be a violent torrent
the arrogance of wealth and power will bring disasters
the opposition will be solved by the sword and blood
Wisdom looks indifferent and plain
gives without to be seen
it opens roads without forcing
the wise is neither a master nor a slave
he is really free
he trusts to be trusted
his ideas become of everyone
Many colors disturb the icon
as many sounds do to melody
many spices make the meal not to be eaten
peoples who suffer too much become hard and tough
their sentiment is diturbed
the less we are pleased to get something
the less we are sad when loose it
the higher we climb, the worse we fall
Knowledge is innate to nature
do not provokes, it just exists
it is not tangible being fluid and dymanic
it is the face without a face
its form is cloudy
it is itself, being simultaneously other
When wisdom is dark and obscure
the wise keeps it with dignity
he gives as much as it is necessary
no more no less
he is careful
“dogs bark them don’t recognize”
Nowadays world is the one of order not of wisdom
there are lows, ruls of ethics, erudition and scholasticism
there is hypocrisy, quarrel, distinction
strangle for power
nature balances oppositions, smooths the surfaces
the lakes empty but they will fill again
once the poor will not be poor, the rich will not be rich
there will be neither rich nor poor
The wise is solitary, isolated, lonely
he is not pleased with all his joy
he does not desire whatever the others wish
he is in a desturbed peace, that is the price of knowledge
the wise regards, he has the duty to tell the truth
he is neither arrogant nor humble
he is neither harry nor slow
he finds the balance
the one being given to his passions
is the drunker on a untamed horse
he is not reliable, he should not govern
Wisdom springs from the soul of the world
it was before the earth and the sky
silent, distant and alone
neither vanishes nor decades
being inside everything it is their soul
universe dives into zero
zero spreads into universe
The worth of the wheel exists in the hole in its center
the worth of the pot in the vacant existing inside
the worth of the house also
the worth of completion exists to the vacancy
The great storm will stop soon
nature is plain, frugal, brief
radical changes happen violently and suddenly
the perfect runner does not touch the earth
the good speech is frugal, the best is without words
the best accountant does not calculate
the most secure door does not have a lock
the best tying has not a knot
the wise enlightens both good and bad, like the sun does
the worth of the teacher derives from the existence of studens
the student of the good mast be the bad
Things looking forword may be back
things looking powerfull may be weak
the wise knows: power exists in weaknes
and weakness in power
The wise does not eternize the war, does not celebrate victory
where armies pass thorns grow
for the warior victory is the great slaughter
this is not a matter of honours but for a funeral grief
Whatever spreads comes back again
the weak will find its strength
let the powerfull know:
the terror of violence will bring rebellion
Whatever is shown up is untrue, falsh, fake
the real do not show itself up
spreads its benefactions kindly, humbly and silently
it does not need to convince no one, it is what it is
the wise do not expect any profit, he does what he does
the sceptic has a program, he has intentions
then will exist oppositions, distinctions, agitations
this wil demand a balance of justice and lows,
there will be no justice
the great derives from the small
the small is fed from the great
the leader should be honest and just
his power are the poor and the despised
the arrogant leads using violance
he is the learner carpenter pretending the master
finally he will cut his fingers
The arrogant is the empty jar
the more empty the more serious sound produces
truth can not be spoken, because it is the action itself
the more silent the more successful
The more cruell the ruler is
the more terrifies the people with death
finally the people will stop to be frightened
wherever oppration is, resistance arises
grudge is fighted with kindness, superstition with logic
ignorance with knowledge, hate with love
some times though war is love and punishment is kindness
In the ultimate vacancy there is completeness
in the ultimate orgasm there is peace
abstract and fluit is the sourse of everything
the sceptic recognizes there chaos, the wise harmony
listening the great truth, the wise is affected
the logical searches, the sceptic will laugh ironically
if he does not laugh, this may be not a great truth
The world do not accomplishes a perfect cycle
that is its weakness, that is the power of motion
never repeats itself, it verify-falsifying itself, departs-returning
everything changes rupidly and violently,
collapses-composing, exists-not existing
nothing is touched twice, nothing is seen again
great harmony looks like chaos, great kidness hypocrisy
great power weakness
the great squere has no corners
the great sound can not be listened
the great picture has not shape
the great structure has no creator and will never ends
the great perfection is not perfect
do not lives after its accomplishment
the complete is the empty
the great rectitude owes to be curve
the great abillity looks uncertain
the great elocution is frugal, the supreme silent
the erudition is ignorance, the very intelligent seems naive
the great speed is motionless
motion is tranquillity, tranquillity is motion
their unity bounds the universe
universality is without face, without start and end
every springs up from that and everything dives in it
The great one knowes the worth of the small
the great tree came from a small branch
the great coutry is not wastfull
its greatness derives from its simplicity
the great leader is humble and frugal
the political power to be eternal and constant
should stop to be power
No one is born wise
the road of wisdom is not unaccomplished
it departs from the eazy and goes to the difficult
the wise does not talk much, he likes to hide, he looks lonely
wisdom is far from gains and losses
dignity or dispute
it gets worth from action
Let justice to excel in politics
let policy to excel in war
let prudence to excel in government
when the lows are constituted by the powerfull
the prohibitions increase
the poor will be more poor,
the smart and rich will find ways to be more rich
when armies increase, chaos predominates
the farther is power the nearest is happiness
everybody knows
when the leaders and the officials live in luxury
the granaries are empty
the working people starve
The wise is not an egoist
he is brave because he is gentle
he is free because he has no passions
he is beloved because he is humple
he is great because he is small
he does not the first step in war
he prefers one step back
that is the possibility for something better
the preparation for something worse
the enemy may thing the losses and withdrow
underestimating the enemy
we have enemy ourself
The general studied war, bravery
he dreems a great slaughter
during the battle he drows on the paper
he makes planes, he gives orders
it is the soldier to be in the bloody slaugther
prudence without bravery is cowrdice
bravery without prudence is madness
The wind cradles the weet ears
but unroots the trees
the wise leans in front the week
raises in front the powerful
We kill to live, we burn to get worm
let this be a sacrifice
The wise says:
approach your victim with respect
its sacrifice do not let without meaning
the dead, being in blood, has nothing to say
the alive has inquiries to answer
the victor should not be arrogant
the defeated should not be coward
even in the worse should be an order
Wisdom is simple
there is inside the people being forgotten,
unnoticed, despised
that looks like the very poor
with a precious jewel hidden under his clothes
the knowledge of ignorance is important
the knowledge that world varies
is more important
it does not give the opportunity
for absolute knowledge
the wise knows-ingnoring
knowledge is a journy in ingnorance
the more we search the less we find
The one looking the sun grows blind
the wise says: the light itself is dark
the one who touches the ice is burned
the wise says: the fire itself is freezing
it passes inside everything not touching them
The wise looked for the one without name
the one without form and face
that is the indefinite
the very great, can not be counted but can be designated
the very small can not be counted but can be designated
he looks for the one being small and big
immobile and instantaneous
the one which verifies-falsifying itself
that we can not touch twice, we can not see it again
it is always itself, being always other,
it contains everything
being contained from everything
Searching deeply inside self
we find the very far away out
the end of the soul do not exist
so the fight against ourself is very difficult
it deals everything with our soul
The wise listens but he prefers to see
he knows very well:
the barbarians neither know how to see nor to listen
and they do not know how to speak
Without hope, the hopless cannot be achieved
knowledge can not be achieved by faith
For the awaken one the world is one-common
for the sleeping, everyone turns to itsown world
Everything is complex and not
agrees-disagreeing to itself, resembles-not resembling
it departs-returning to itself
it continuously collapses-composing,
being unique and not
the one derives from all and all from one
Yesterday do not exist, to morrow do not exist
only now exists, being always other
it is the fading zero edge between the past and future
which exists, not existing
The child asked the respected old man:
did you walk the path of wisdom?
he answered: i am not the wise
i am the lover of wisdom, the philosopher
i have tried but not succeeded
fortunately there are children
wisdom is not the knowledge
it is the path itself, the final trial
it is the course of action.
the one who got inebriate from knowledge
is arrogant
we recognize him very well
he will perish
the one who will not be inebriated
is not recognible
we have not seen him again
he will also be not recognized and vanished
maybe we will recognize him
from his traces on the path of wisdom
where zero contains the infinite
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