At the beginning of the year, Mr. Benton's 3rd block Multicultural Poetry class decided to study ancient Taoist, Hebrew, and Islamic poetry. After we did some research of our own, Mr. Benton invited his friend Professor Bryan Feille (of TCU's Brite Divinity School) to speak to the entire class about Taoism. He and Mr. Benton exchanged embarassing stories, and then Professor Feille began to tell us about his personal experiences in China and his understanding of Taoism.
Taoism is a Chinese philosophy/religion. One of its main principles is Tao, or "The Way". He provided us with one of the most important Taoist poems, which attempts to explain the principle of Tao ( but it doesn't try too hard because that would defeat the purpose of Taoism).
The Tao that can be walked is not the enduring and unchanging Tao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name. Conceived of as having no name, it is the Originator of heaven and earth; Conceived of as having nature, it is the Mother of all things.
Always without desire we must be found,
If its deep mystery we would sound;
But if desire always within us be,
Its outer fringe is all that we shall see.
Under these two aspects, it is really the same;
But as development takes place,
it receives the different names.
Together we call them the Mystery.
Where the Mystery is the deepest
is the gate of all that is subtle and wonderful.
He also descibed the Yin-Yang and how it incorporates the principle of Wu-Wei (non- action). The Yin-Yang represents natural balance: light, dark, male, female, strength and weakness, etc. To follow the principle of Wu-Wei, you must do without doing- follow the natural flow of things and therefore keep the balance.
We read more poems he provided us (See the resource blog.), and he told us Taoist poets were considered a threat to the Chinese govenment because they spoke the truth. He also briefly dicussed the difference between Eastern and Western medicine. Western medicine focuses on getting rid of the current problem, while Eastern medicine focuses on getting the rest of the body healthy and whole. I thought it was interesting that whenever he said disease he pronounced it "dis-ease". (Did anyone else notice that?)
This was a very interesting and informative lesson, and I really enjoyed it. So, thank you Mr. Benton for arranging this for us, and thank you to Professor Feille for coming to speak.
2 comments:
I really enjoyed having Professor Feille come in and talk to our class. Especially since it's hard to learn about other cultures in our school system.
All we learn is basically when America fought a war with another country. Which gets kinda repetitive.
By the way what ever happened to that author that was supposed to come to the library and speak with us? Did we miss that? If we did I'm dissapointed because I was
looking forward to it.
I enjoyed it, too. Trying to get a hold on a slippery ideology (or way?) like Taoism is no easy task. So, when a well-travelled, well-read professor affirms that it's a slippery prospect and should be, there's comfort in that. If you can define the Way, it is not the Way. If you could easily and clearly explain Taoism, it would not be Taoism.
And, by the way, someone asked if others had noticed that Professor Feille often said "dis-ease" instead of "disease." It's something lots of academic intellectuals do (one of their secret identity signals). It's not just a pronunciation thing, though. When they say "dis-ease" they are meaning something like "uneasiness" or "discomfort" though not exactly. And they are recognizing the connection of disease and illness to not being at ease. Maybe dis-ease = notathomeness.
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