Dao Cool

By Poo Noname

As a Chinese saying goes, a stone from a remote mountain can compete with jade. The West build all knowledge on logic while the concept of logic does not even exist in Chinese culture. In lieu of logic, the Chinese way of thinking is Dao.

Dao is the key to understand Chinese culture. Exploring Dao is the lifetime mission of every Chinese. To westerners, without the knowledge of Dao, Chinese can be as foreign as aliens.

Then, what is Dao? Dao is a paradox.

Dao asserts that the ten thousand things are neutralizing themselves. If we assume Dao is true, because Dao is also a member of the ten thousand things, it needs to follow the rule of Dao by neutralizing itself, therefore Dao is false. However, if we assume that Dao is false, this means that there is, at least, one thing that will not be neutralized. Is it humanity, the earth, the sun, the galaxy or the universe? Apparently, none of them can withstand the test of time Since, in the sensible sphere, even if we exhausted all samples, nothing is really constant and eternal, we realize that the only candidate that can pass the test of time is the statement that "the ten thousand things are neutralizing themselves". Therefore, Dao is true. In short, if Dao is true, Dao is false, while if Dao is false, Dao is true. Dao is a paradox.

However, Dao is not the kind of paradox that people normally run into because it is a self-consistent and self-explanatory paradox. If you ask why "if Dao is true, Dao is false", it is because the assumption of Dao being true is neutralizing itself making Dao false and meanwhile, if you ask why "if Dao is false, Dao is true", the same rule applies. Since Dao is capable of justifying its own behavior, Dao is the origin of the universe and the ultimate Truth in the world. As a reason and result, we can use Dao to explain all existing phenomena and predict the evolution of any existent.

For example, we can use Dao to rationalize the God paradox that even God himself will feel headache of: if God is almighty, can God create a mountain that he cannot lift? If God answers "no", apparently God is not almighty. However, if God answers "yes", he will be proven to be not almighty either, but why does God constantly reject his own identity? With logic, it becomes a paradox that we cannot sort out but, with Dao, we know that it is because God also follows the rule of Dao and therefore needs to neutralize himself.

As logic is incapable of dealing with paradox, Dao is sharp enough to pierce through any paradox.

Moreover, application of logic can be convoluted as there are many rules to follow and it usually takes many steps to reach a conclusion, but application of Dao is simple. Conclusions can be drawn from Dao directly without any superfluous steps. For example, if you want freedom, discipline yourself. If you want peace, prepare for fight. If you want an easy life, face the difficulties and overcome them. Dao tells people to always seek solutions from the opposite side of what you want and Dao will reverse your action and make reality meet your desire. This is called "Wu Wei", or to achieve the goal without relying on the action.

More importantly, logical conclusions, although supposedly to be true, are often proven otherwise and therefore unreliable. However, you can always trust conclusions directly drawn from Dao because Dao has reached self-consistency.

Of course, it is not because a statement is concluded from Dao that it can be exempt from the rule of Dao. Dao does not hold a double standard. The rule of Dao is truly universal because even Dao itself needs to follow the rule of Dao. This phenomenon is called "Dao that can be described is not the constant Dao", which is the first, and the most famous, sentence in the Classic of .

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1777379717
• ISBN13: 9781777379711
• Release Date: October 2020
• Publisher: Epochise Anchor Inc.
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.8" x 8.3"