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bananana-boat · 2 months

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Dewy and the Tao

In recent readings I’ve found a connection I’d like to remember here.

While reading my way through the Tao Te Ching, a surprisingly enlightening and frustrating experience that I should cover in depth in some other post, I just finished verse 21 when I was reminded of something. The verse goes as follows, translation by Ralph Alan Dale-

The Great Integrity (Tao) is a paradox.

It is inherent in the universe,

yet its form is so illusive.

It is the Vital Essence of every entity,

yet nothing announces its essential character.

The Great Integrity was apparent

before time, space and matter appeared to separate.

How can we re-mind and re-infuse ourselves

with this very touchstone of all essentialities and connections?

By re-fusing time, space and matter

with the spiritualization of our materiality,

and with the materialization of our spirituality.

Then, when our dualities and numeralities

become blurred and forgotten,

the Great Integrity will re-emerge in forms

of such incredible depths and dimensions of enlightenment,

precisely because our temporary fragmentary consciousness

created a multi-millennial amnesia.

The last stanza is what I want to focus on here. In class the other day, my professor assigned a reading by Steven Simpson titled "Dewy, Democracy, and Experiential Education," a short writing in which Simpson introduces John Dewey, the late American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer. One paragraph in particular addresses Dewey's views on individualism, which I'll summarize here.

John Dewey lived during the turn of the 20th century, when the kickoff of industrialization resulted in many folks leaving their quaint, independent lives in the country to pursue factory jobs in big(ger) cities. By and large, these jobs were boring, repetitive, soul-sucking tasks, and the only benefit of the situation was the consistent paycheck. Simpson writes, "Dewey saw this transition in the American lifestyle as a threat to democracy. The combined impacts of urbanization, industrialization, corporatization, and government focused economic development were chipping away at the democratic ideal." He then goes on to say that this describes what Dewey coined as the lost individual, "the confused and bewildered people who recognized an attack upon democracy and individual freedom, but had no idea what to do about it."

Here we can draw a line, albeit one that's a little shaky, between Dewey's beliefs surrounding the lost, no longer democratic or independent individual and Lao Tzu's understanding of the forgotten (or maybe misunderstood/misplaced) Tao. Maybe there are more connections between these ideologies?

Tzu, Lao. Tao Te Ching. Translated by Ralph Alan Dale, Barnes & Noble, 2004, p. 43.

Simpson, Steven . “Dewey, Democracy, and Experiential Education.” Association of Outdoor Recreation & Education Conference Proceedings. Accessed 19 Feb. 2024.

#john dewey #ralph alan dale #tao #tao te ching #philosophy #experiential education #democracy

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bananana-boat · 2 months

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You don’t have to like unsweetened tea.

It’s ok to drink hot tea and dislike the taste.

Where’s the flavor? Some honey would make this worlds better.

But I insist, for one cup, try to drink it with just the tea.

It tastes like leaves and water.

Yes. But, take another sip and tell me where the line blurs between leaf and water. Smell the warm ceramic and feel the wetness on your tongue. Tell me what about this you don’t like and where it could be better.

Now let me add some honey. Can you taste the golden color of it. Can you imagine, there’s bees somewhere that made this honey. These tea leaves grew on a tree and were harvested and dried and we bought them. I pulled this water from the tap and warmed it up and all of it has come together.

Like us here, now.

Ps- I, too, prefer tea with honey

#tea #honey #philosophy

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