![\"DaoXue-wht\"](\"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/DaoXue-wht-300x225.jpg\")
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This essay is a transcription of a recorded talk from our Wuweidao Cultivation Group; you can listen to the talk here:<\/p>\n
Daoist Learning<\/a><\/p>\n This is Jacob Newell of Old Oak School of Dao, and I want to say something about Daoist learning.<\/p>\n Dao De Jing Chapter 48 says, \u201cIn learning daily accumulate.\u00a0 In Dao, daily diminish. \u00a0Diminish & again diminish \u2013 that\u2019s wuwei\u201d.<\/p>\n So, when we enter the path of Daoist practice, in the beginning maybe we don’t know too much (or maybe we do know too much), but there\u2019s a broad array of information and practices – protocols –\u00a0that are part of the Daoist tradition. \u00a0If we are not careful, we will approach our path as a Daoist practitioner from a largely accumulative view.<\/p>\n Laozi, the pith teaching of wuweidao, clearly says Dao is not at the end of a path of learning.\u00a0 So this teaching should moderate our appetite and the kind of aggressive, compulsive, aspirational acquisition of information about Daoist concepts and Daoist practice methods. \u00a0That\u2019s a scholar\u2019s path – that’s a scholar’s path, it\u2019s a different direction from Dao, according to Laozi.<\/p>\n Laozi does not say don’t study, don’t learn, don’t grow, don’t develop. \u00a0He does, however, say that is one direction, and Dao is the opposite direction.\u00a0 So, diminish & again diminish. \u00a0We should also understand that this diminishing direction, sometimes called alchemy (learning is what my teacher sometimes called chemistry \u2013 generation, moving in one direction, alchemy is moving in reverse) so, diminishing is removing something \u2013 we say forgetting.<\/p>\n Zuowang is our formal practice method. \u00a0It means to sit & forget \u2013 not to practice techniques, not to engage concepts \u2013 just forget. \u00a0So simple, non-accumulative \u2013 it is diminutive.\u00a0 But Laozi goes on to say, \u201cdiminish & then diminish again\u201d \u2013 so diminish even diminishing. \u00a0So this is where Laozi reveals what we call “sudden-path”. \u00a0So our practice of forgetting is letting go of concepts, letting go of methods, and this letting go, releasing \u2013 there\u2019s a gradual aspect to it \u2013 a qi-aspect<\/em> that takes time to release and grow and stabilize. \u00a0But Laozi moderates that view as well. \u00a0Diminish & then diminish diminishing.<\/p>\n So also relaxing this idea that Dao is hidden away behind all of the stuff that we have accumulated.\u00a0 So, his teaching is kind of multi-dimensional here, so in one respect he certainly says, yes we need to release and let go \u2013 we already have too much. \u00a0But then he goes farther and says this does not mean that we need to get rid of everything, and at the end of that process then we will arrive. \u00a0Actually, all of this stuff that we have accumulated is not really \u2013 not in fact obstructing anything. \u00a0If we open up into this field \u2013 we call Dao \u2013 then all this stuff is just like content in a wide-open field.<\/p>\n So the path of learning is, \u201cgive me more content, give me more content, give me more content.\u201d \u00a0We should not be lazy learners \u2013 we should be driven, even some aggression is okay in learning. \u00a0Organized, consistent, persistent. \u00a0Learn, learn, learn. \u00a0But in this sitting practice it is \u201crelaxing learning, relaxing learning, relaxing learning, relaxing learning.\u201d \u00a0Both of those have a qi-direction, right?\u00a0 Accumulative & diminutive. \u00a0But this diminutive path of Daoist meditation \u2013 we call it method \u2013 again, it opens\u00a0this field which is actually neither generative nor alchemical, neither accumulative nor diminutive \u2013 it is constant<\/em>. \u00a0Constant.\u00a0 This is the way Laozi describes Dao \u2013 as constancy. \u00a0Unbroken, uninterrupted presence. \u00a0This field is the context in which we appear & disappear, grow & decline. \u00a0It is not a fruit of learning.<\/p>\n – Transcribed by Joshua Laurenzi<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This essay is a transcription of a recorded talk from our Wuweidao Cultivation Group; you can listen to the talk here: Daoist Learning This is Jacob Newell of Old Oak School of Dao, and I want to say something about Daoist learning. Dao De Jing Chapter 48 says, \u201cIn learning daily accumulate.\u00a0 In Dao, daily … Continue reading “Daoist Learning (d\u00e0oxu\u00e9, \u9053\u5b78)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,23,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1119"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1127,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119\/revisions\/1127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}