COMPASSIONATE TAOIST

A little blog comment discussion over at Rambling Taoist got me to thinking about a topic that also is a feature at another of my blog-0-pals, Tao 1776.

The blog subject was the indifferent "shit-happens-ness" of the Haiti earthquake, a common enough natural disaster but terrible human tragedy.  I recalled a couple years ago, when my trip to Chengdu/Qingshenshan to do Tao things was cancelled when all the schools fell on the children, to say nothing of the temple's destruction on the holy mountain.

A friend asked me then how a Taoist interprets these things and I replied, "It just happens, but we do what we can to help those who are suffering."  I said then, and now, that it was important to not only feel but express our compassion (by which I mean providing material assistance to people in need, a compassionate act, but as Tao 1776 is attempting to show, perhaps less directly, through meditation, a spiritual deed as well).

However, some people seem to think acting out of compassion is false and futile, to which I responded that I feel there is a human obligation to act with compassion.  The concept of  "obligation" seemed to bother another commenter (not self-identified as a Taoist) who asks, quite validly, "Whence comes this obligation?"

Too often I find that for some attracted to Taoism, there is such a focus on the fun parts -- the Tao verses in the TTC, the clever Chuang Tzu, the tao of surfing and tree-hugging -- and not enough attention to the Te (virtue) parts.  Taoism gives some a convenient way to avoid the trials of modern life and to focus on self-help without seeming to focus on the self, to say nothing of others.  Looking to animals and trees as sources of wisdom and truth (which they are), while discounting or ignoring the human wisdom available from living sages of various traditions and the voice of experience of your grandmother, who usually says things like, "be nice, be kind, do good."

Still the TTC has much to say regarding the responsibilities of the rulers of the world --who, today, is really anyone in the privileged, over-developed part (e.g., those of us who have computers and the leisure to blog) --who have the imperial power to affect the lives of disadvantaged people in earth-shaken places like Sichuan, Iran, Samoa, or Haiti.  You can of course correctly say that those people are disadvantaged because of the actions of the "rulers," but by the same token, there are good rulers and bad ones.  A good emperor cares for his people.  All of them.

Verse 79 of the TTC suggests: "One with true virtue always seeks a way to give." (trans: Dyer; Star.)

Possibly I feel this illogical obligation of my heart to be compassionate as a result of being raised in the Judeo-Christian milieu, but the same imperatives are expressed by Confucius, Mo Zi, the Buddha, and Thomas Merton (a cultural bridge kind of guy).  I think the concepts of the Tao are the most pure explanation of how the universe works, but these other sages, certainly acquainted with these (or similar, in the case of the Buddha) ancient ideas, offer wise counsel on how to function rightly in it as well.  Of course, one outward looking interpretation of the three treasures of Taoism points to compassion, moderation and humility.  (Another interpretation of the three treasures is the-inward looking alchemy concepts of jing, qi and shen--essence, vitality and spirit.)

I remember the scene in "Short Circuit," when the Steve Gutenberg character, Crosby, Ph.D.,  is surprised at his "malfunctioning" robot's announcement that killing--"making dead"-- is wrong:

Crosby: "Of course I know it's wrong to kill, but who told you?"

Number 5: "I told me."  The robot, programmed with all the data and information of the world, had developed a heart, apparently. Probably as a result of the electrocution of its circuits.  The spark of life.

If being a "Taoist" (or any persuasion really) means having no compassion, then remember this when you are in line for a bottle of water or an antibiotic after the disaster that strikes your area.  I would still give you the water and the medicine, but I would also suggest you share it with your neighbor.