I was recently asked whether I consider our tradition to be old-school or new-school Daoism.\u00a0 Interesting question.\u00a0 Here\u2019s my response.<\/p>\n
One of the names I\u2019ve taken for our school is \u201cOriginal Root Order\u201d (\u6e90\u6839\u6d3e).\u00a0 Let there be no mistake: we trace our lineage-inspiration to the old-school original Daoist teaching as expressed by Laozi.\u00a0 And yet, as we enter into Laozi\u2019s teaching, we come to realize there is in fact no authentic Daoist expression except that which spontaneously arises moment-by-moment.<\/p>\n
What is often referred to as old-school Daoism can also be referred to as Daoist traditionalism.\u00a0 Traditionalist schools may be brimming with millennia of accoutrements that may deeply inspire and support or, from the perspective of our tradition, may in fact weigh us down and inhibit authentic cultivation, depending on how we engage them.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, a casual, free-wheeling approach to Daoism (which, beware, lends itself to the individualistic and self-assured nature of the Western mind), may in fact be nothing but a branch broken from its root \u2013 destined to wither and die before it bears fruit.<\/p>\n
As it turns out, \u201cLaozi\u201d translates as \u201cold-new\u201d.\u00a0 Lao (\u8001) means elder \u2013 those who have come before us.\u00a0 Laoshi means teacher.\u00a0 Dao (\u9053) itself is the ultimate lao \u2013 \u201cthat which precedes the gods\u201d.\u00a0 Zi (\u5b50) means baby or child \u2013 that which recently emerged, or perhaps that which is arising this very moment \u2013 fresh, with no accumulated merit or baggage.\u00a0 We use the term De (\u5fb7) to denote the moment-to-moment expression of Dao.\u00a0 So Laozi means Dao-De.\u00a0 The term also suggests “ripening the seed” as the text includes instructions for bringing forth a direct experience of Dao-De.<\/p>\n
The authentic Daoist experience is rooted in the unborn Dao and spontaneously expresses itself moment-by-moment.\u00a0 To the extent that we lose touch with this experience, let\u2019s take a cue from Confucius and bow to those ancients who wrote down guidelines and passed along methods to return us to this experience.\u00a0 As we bow, we give reverence and receive inspiration.\u00a0 But let\u2019s not overly rely on provisional teachings and methods and thus overlook the direct, uncontrived experience of our own nature.<\/p>\n
The training I received from my root-Daoist teacher was centered on Daoist \u201cview\u201d and the proper method of contemplative non-conceptual meditation (zuowang, \u5750\u5fd8).\u00a0 This approach was present in both the early Tian-Shi and Quan-Zhen traditions and has continued alongside various ritual and alchemy traditions throughout Daoist history.\u00a0 Its presence however always tends to be overshadowed by the more remarkable aspects of those traditions.<\/p>\n
Daoism is steeped in numerous cultural elements and social dynamics that may or may not be inspired by wuweidao. \u00a0There were few accoutrements in my training.\u00a0 My teacher actively discouraged Westerners from taking on the cultural elements of Chinese Daoism.\u00a0 He focused on view-transmission and playfully and adeptly shared his extensive knowledge of numerous Daoist arts \u2013 always emphasizing the essence of the art above the form.\u00a0 There may be something contrived about Westerners adopting too much Chinese tradition.\u00a0 We need to attend to our own ancestors.\u00a0 Wuweidao is the way things are \u2013 our tradition is to stay with reality as it is and not necessarily hold to traditional forms of expression.<\/p>\n
When his teacher, \u201cold Master Liu\u201d, fled from northern China during the Japanese invasion, he wasn\u2019t able to bring much with him.\u00a0 His family had perished; his temple had been destroyed.\u00a0 Eventually he made his way into a cave outside Taipei, where he stayed on retreat for 20 years until he was visited by a young Euro-American savant.\u00a0 After a year of training, he passed on his thousand-year old family lineage, trusting that the root of his tradition of \u201cwuweidao\u201d would effectively transmit to the West without the old cultural accoutrements.<\/p>\n
Daoism in general suffered severely during the 20th<\/sup> century \u2013 in the civil war, the Japanese invasion, and the Cultural Revolution.\u00a0 In the past 25 years, the traditions have been opening up quite a bit, and now Daoism is becoming robust once again.\u00a0 That\u2019s wonderful \u2013 it\u2019s tempting to rejoice, but nothing in Laozi\u2019s teaching supports us getting too excited about the waxing or waning of traditions.\u00a0 Just continue.<\/p>\n As far as our tradition, we are carrying forward the fundamental view & method of Laozi\u2019s wuweidao.\u00a0 We\u2019re exploring different elements of Chinese hygiene, alchemy, ritual, and more, but we are centered totally on Laozi\u2019s non-conceptual meditation and a thorough steeping in the Dao De Jing.\u00a0 My teacher opened up this text for me, as old Master Liu did for him.<\/p>\n So are we old-school or new-school?\u00a0 All I know is: we\u2019re keeping the cauldron warm, and sweet dew falls from above.<\/p>\n I hope you have enjoyed this blog.\u00a0 Please contact me with any questions or if you would like to discuss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was recently asked whether I consider our tradition to be old-school or new-school Daoism.\u00a0 Interesting question.\u00a0 Here\u2019s my response. One of the names I\u2019ve taken for our school is \u201cOriginal Root Order\u201d (\u6e90\u6839\u6d3e).\u00a0 Let there be no mistake: we trace our lineage-inspiration to the old-school original Daoist teaching as expressed by Laozi.\u00a0 And yet, … Continue reading “Old-School or New-School Daoism?”<\/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],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35"}],"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=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":435,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions\/435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldoakdao.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}