The Chinese Taoist Master Chuang-Tzu, born 369 BC, wrote:
“The knowledge of the ancients was perfect. How perfect? At first, they did not know that there were things. This is the most perfect knowledge; nothing can be added. Next, they knew there were things, but did not yet make distinctions between them. Next, they made distinctions between them, but they did not yet pass judgment upon them. When judgments were passed, Tao was destroyed.”
He saw directly into the way the mind works and how it separates us from our real being, the Tao, or Life Itself.
“At first, they did not know that there were things.”
This was where we were before the development of the minds capacity to differentiate between objects. We saw directly what was before us, but there was no us. We were simply aware of what was taking place. Without the mind telling us what something was, there was just the suchness of what presented itself. Life was in perfect balance. We were whole and complete as Life Itself.
“Next, they knew there were things, but did not yet make distinctions between them.”
The brain was evolving. We were beginning to be able to abstract objects from the wholeness, which was needed for the further evolution of our specie. Things are just names, symbols for objects, etc.
Something Master Chuang-Tzu did not point out is that this was also the beginning of the idea of “me”, which was just another thought turned into an object, the beginning of the ego dream. It takes an object to objectify things apart from itself. But this was still at the stage of the innocent.
The steps from the state of direct Being into the ego process took thousands of years to refine. It was so subtle that few knew it was happening and now accept it as reality.
“Next, they made distinctions between them, but they did not yet pass judgment upon them.”
We could name objects, processes, feelings, and along with memory we could know the past and project thoughts into the future. Which are always just ideas and concepts. Yet we did not judge what was seen or thought. That would come with the deepening of the idea of ego.
A tree is a tree. A human is a human. Just as animals do today, we just saw and responded in whatever way was needed. No need for judgment.
“When judgments were passed, Tao was destroyed.”
In time we became so lost in the idea of being a separate ego we saw so subtly that we could make judgments as to whether something was good or bad, not realizing it was only an idea.
Master Chuang-Tzu would have been more helpful if he had also pointed out that with the development of ego came insecurity. Our judgments are mostly based in support of the ego dream and the need to feel secure within ourselves. We have not lost sight of what we truly are, but we are not conscious of it. The ego is fearful of anything that points to the fact that it really does not exist. Judgments are just another way for the ego to project itself. The ego will identify with anything that makes if feel real. If we make a judgment about another person, etc., it makes us feel a little more secure; thinking we are the one making judgment.
The Tao, as wholeness, completeness, balance, purity of being is lost the moment we think we are something separate. But in Reality the Tao is never destroyed, nor can it be. We are the Tao. All the ego is is passing thoughts, which form beliefs, concepts, and judgments, which bring about the feeling of a separate being in opposition to the wholeness of that which Is. Tao is Life. Ego is dream. Ego cannot know the completeness of Life; no matter how hard it tries or how long it is on one path or another in search of what already is the fact.
There are many seekers and teachers who say that nothing is real. They have read or heard people before them say that there are no things. They take that as meaning there is nothing. But that is not what is meant by saying there are no things. Things are thoughts. We name some un-nameable and it becomes a thing. We, as ego, from then on only see the name, not the reality from which it came. This planet is real, it is not nothing, only thoughts are nothing.
Enlightenment is really a return, a realization of what really is. People have all kinds of experiences and take them as being enlightenment, few are. In most cases it is still the mind playing games with itself. If we don’t see very clearly what the whole process is, then we do not know what enlightenment is.
In Master Chuang-Tzu’s time, life was very simple. Compared to today they had few problems that needed any kind of judgment, yet they still faced the same ego problems we do today. When the process of being human is understood, even judgment has its role. If one understands what is going on, then they see clearly what needs to be done to change things. If we see that the major problem facing the world today is ego, some may call that judgment, but it is just a fact. Judgment has its place and can be used without the ego process.
As the brain evolved, it became mind, created by the thinking process, but it was still a needed tool to survive on this planet. If we know that a certain pool of water is poison we won’t drink form it. This is not judgment, it is intelligence. For us to seemingly judge what is going on in the world as insanity leading to death, that is not being judgmental, it is intelligence.
When one is awakened, there is a balance of what seems to be the normal life of all humans, and yet be beyond that state it is the Tao. One no longer fears death. It is only the ego that fears ending, which is its insecurity. Without that insecurity, one knows themselves to be the wholeness of Life, the Tao and nothing can be lost. This is a state of poise.
Of course, Master Chuang-Tzu must have known all this and all that has been printed here is one paragraph of his thoughts. We all have the same Mind within us, or we within It, to see the facts of Being and Awaken to Life as It Is. You do not need to turn to another for understanding. You just need to face every fact that comes your way and in time it will unfold in such a way that the ego cannot go on and a breakthrough can explode within your mind and free you from your dream.
