Christ the Eternal Tao

Contents

Read in October 2022.

I was surprised to find that it had lots of helpful advice for praying the Jesus Prayer, and the importance of metanoia while praying, of rejecting one’s ego and seeking God’s will. There was some overlap here with the contemplative practice described in Into the Silent Land.

I found this Chinese Text Project a useful site with a bilingual version of the Tao-te Ching.

Divine Grace and “Uncreated Energy” are often equated, which I guess is Palamism. I believe Palamism was historically rejected by Catholic theologians, but has gained more acceptance recently, e.g. with John Paul II. I suppose it’s similar to equating 德 with Grace.

Gi-ming Shien, 鮮紀明?

There is very little information about Gi-ming Shien on the internet. His Chinese name is probably 鮮紀明. He may have been a journalist at an earlier point in his life. See this blog post about Chinese immigrants to America:

Shien Gi-Ming 34 MS Journalist，新闻工作者，网上搜Shien Gi-Ming，有一条提到一位Eugene Rose， 此人后来名叫Seraphim Rose，他研究道家哲学，此人在Pomona College学习时的导师是Shien Gi-Ming， 说Shien是一位unique and fascinating的道家哲学家。另外好象是豆瓣上有Shien Gi-Ming， 说他中文名是鲜纪明，但是点进去却说此文不存在了。但是从中文介绍来看，应该就是上面那个人， “美国加州铂山道院开祖之一，蒙福塞拉芬神父（愿主赐他灵魂安息），青年时曾师从中国学者鲜纪明（Gi-ming Shien） 学习中国古典哲学，师生之情甚笃”，这个塞拉芬，应该就是Seraphim。但是网上搜不到鲜纪明的资料， 到底是新闻人还是学者或者跨界或者转行，都不清楚。

There is also a book called Neo-Confucianism: Metaphysics, Mind, and Morality (“宋明理學：形而上學、心靈與道德”) by a Liu JeeLoo (劉紀璐) which quotes from a 1951 work of Shien Gi-ming’s. That book is given in its bibliography as:

Shien G M, 1951. Being and Nothingness in Greek and Ancient Chinese Philosophy [J]. Philosophy East and West, 1 (2): 16–24.

In the quote, Gi-ming Shien describes how Being (存有) is eternal, transcends space and time, and is the source of all things (萬物之源):

存有本身超越時間和空間，因為它是永恆的，是萬物之源。我們甚至不能想像存有或太一（the One）有開始或結束。…… 存有也超越空間，在數量上是無限的。它不為任何事物所限制，而是沒有邊界的。在這一意義上，它是無限的。 這兩種屬性，永恆與無限，代表著最高的存有，是絕對完美的頂點。因此，存有可以是萬物之源。（Shien 1951, 22）

The context here is explaining how the tʻai-chi (太極), the Supreme Ultimate, as understood by Chou Tun-i (周敦頤, a Sung dynasty Neo-Confucian), is Being itself, and the Gi-ming Shien quote is meant to illustrate how Being has all the same properties as the Supreme Ultimate.

Before contents

Quote from St. Seraphim of Sarov:

Though not with the same power as in the people of God [the Hebrews], nevertheless the presence of the Spirit of God also acted in the pagans who did not know the true God, because even among them God found for Himself chosen people. Such, for instance, were the virgin prophetesses called Sibyls who vowed virginity to an unknown God, but still to God the Creator of the universe, the all-powerful ruler of the world, as He was conceived by the pagans. Though the pagan philosophers also wandered in the darkness of ignorance of God, yet they sought the Truth which is beloved by God; and on account of this God-pleasing seeking, they could partake of the Spirit of God, for it is said that the nations who do not know God practice by nature the demands of the law and do what is pleasing to God [cf. Romans ii, 14]….

So you see, both in the holy Hebrew people, a people beloved by God, and in the pagans who did not know God, there was preserved a knowledge of God—that is, a clear and rational comprehension of how our Lord God the Holy Spirit acts in man, and by means of what inner and outer feelings one can be sure that this is really the action of our Lord God the Holy Spirit and not a delusion of the enemy. That is how it was from Adam’s fall until the coming in the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ into the world.

Introduction

• Remarkable “spirit of the times” when the first Greek philosophers, Buddha, and Confucius all lived at the same time (6th–5th centuries BC)
• p. 31, the λόγος of Heraclitus = word, measure, proportion, pattern, “the first principle of knowledge”, the pattern of the world, often hidden, because the world on the surface is a place of diversity and opposites, but the λόγος is their hidden unity
• p. 35, St. John’s λόγος is not merely using the by then well-known Greek philosophical idea, “he was transforming it, bringing it into the light”, no longer in riddles, because it has now become flesh!
  • Heraclitus’ λόγος and 老子道 = the highest intuition
  • St. John’s λόγος = the highest revelation, God making himself known and tangible
• p. 37, Fr. Seraphim Rose was taught Chinese language and philosophy by a man named “Gi-ming Shien” (鮮紀明? See above), who had himself studied under sages in China, “Ju-yang Ching-wu” and “Ma Yei-fu”, (馬一浮, 1883–1976). Gi-ming Shien told Fr. Seraphim that the Greek λόγος and the Chinese 道 were the same.
  • Fr. Seraphim also read René Guénon who stressed the necessity of adhering to the traditional and orthodox from of a religion; Gi-ming Shien was a representative of orthodox and traditional Chinese philosophy (probably quite rare now!)
  • p. 39, Gi-ming Shien disappeared mysteriously
• p. 40, syncretism = all paths have equal truth simultaneously
  • ancient Christian teaching is rather the “unfolding of wisdom through the ages”, foreshadowing and prophecies of Christ in many traditions
  • The pagans practised the law by nature, cf. Romans 2:14, “For when the Gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature those things that are of the law; these having not the law are a law to themselves:”

Part II - 道顯示在人類的歷史上 - The Unfolding Revelation of the Tao in Human History

Ch. 1 - Departure from the Way

• p. 221, the further back in time we go, the more pure was mankind’s knowledge/remembrance of God
  • E.g. Egyptian 1st dynasty more pure, more philosophical, less polytheistic
  • Ptah creates by his heart/mind, and his word/tongue, perhaps something comparable to the λόγος
• p. 222, the oldest Chinese history, 書經, tells of the Chinese 1st dynasty (夏, ca. 2300–1700 BC)
  • The people at this time believed in one supreme deity known as 天, sometimes interchangeable with 上帝
  • The emperor had to possess 天命 or 上帝命, which he earned by living and ruling virtuously (he would lose his power otherwise)
• 道德經15: the ancients are described as “微妙玄通，深不可識”, “subtle, mysterious, fathomless, penetrating”

Ch. 2 - Seeking the Way of Return

• Both 老子 and 孔子 lived in the 6th century BC and both were nostalgic for an earlier “golden age” when men had been more pure
• 孔子 pored over the classics and attempted to unlock, preserve, and hand on their wisdom, and thereby reform his corrupt society. At the end of his life he felt he had not succeeded.
• 老子 wished to return to an earlier, original age of innocence, not by study but by direct intuition
• 孔子 was able to teach, “do unto others as you’d have them do to you”, i.e. human perfection
• 老子 was able to reach beyond this and teach, “render good for evil”, i.e. divine perfection
• 老子 taught that we should act according to nature, but he meant the original, pre-Fall nature, when being spontaneous would accord with the natural law and God’s will
• p. 235, according to the 道德經 man is able to return to some extent to that state of primordial many, “through the cultivation of objective awareness”
• p. 237, 德
  • = the Uncreated Energy with which Adam was robed
  • = “Mysterious Power” (玄德), realizing, manifesting of the 道
  • = virtue, more in the sense of “power” or “grace”, than “morals”
  • 道德經 = “The Book of the Way and its Power”
  • A strange correspondence between the parallel double meaning of 德 and virtus and δύναμις
• p. 240–241, 無 is frequently associated with the 道 in the 道德經
  • Many interpreters, both Chinese and Western have misinterpreted this, seen as a kind of nihilism here, understood the 道 to be nothingness, non-being, perhaps influenced by their meditations (and in some cases drug use) in which they aw the non-being out of which God created them and the universe
  • Gi-ming Shien insists that the real meaning of 無 is something like “spontaneity”, “self-forgetfulness”, “self-emptying”
  • “In other words, because the 道 is self-existent, self-sufficient, and conscious of no wants, it can create, give, and sustain life and at the same time seek nothing of its own. As Gi-ming Shien says, the 道 ‘forgets itself and its own existence,’ being totally spontaneous and selfless.”
  • Primordial man had this quality of 無
  • Self-forgetfulness is not letting your left hand know what your right is doing (Matthew 6:3)
• p. 242, 老子 understood the 道’s oneness and selflessness, but didn’t quite make it to understanding that the 道 is a person, the other primary ontological fact about it; this required revelation
• p. 243, it is clear from 老子’s quotes of earlier Chinese works that he considered the 道 to be synonymous with 天, the Chinese supreme deity
• p. 247, Moses could be said to have been the first to bring humanity to a closer understanding than the philosophers, as he brought the name of God, “I AM THAT I AM,” as a revelation of God’s personhood
  • His skin then shone, albeit temporarily, with the “clothing of light”, the Uncreated Energy, the 德
• p. 248
  • οὐσία, “common essence”, e.g. for humans the human essence common to all humans
  • ὑπόστασις, “personal essence”, what makes someone uniquely that person and not someone else
• p. 248–249, due to 老子’s incomplete understanding of God, even those personal qualities that 老子 was aware of (benevolence) had disappeared by the Warring States (戰國, 475 – 221 BC) period in Taoist understanding; the 道 became a neutral concept
• p. 250, God’s nature
  • As given by revelation to the Hebrews: One, Personal, Absolute, but also vengeful? Lacking self-emptying?
  • According to the realization of 老子: One, Selfless, Absolute, but also impersonal
  • A seeming contradiction resolved only by the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity
  • “The 道 did share its unknowable, formless Essence with other Persons equal to itself”, three separate persons sharing one divine οὐσία, common essence, each Person having his being in the Others, forgetting Himself before the Others, emptying Himself in perfect love
  • this circular movement of love is God’s oneness
• p. 252, God is not a Binity because exclusive love between two persons can be self-absorbed and subjective
  • “Perfect Love must pass on to a Third, whose existence represents the transcendence of self-absorbed duality.”
• p. 253, despite our knowledge of the Trinity there remains something incomprehensible about God, called “namelessness” (無名) by 老子
• p. 255, 道德經42: “道生一，一生二，二生三，三生萬物”, “The Three produced all things.”
  • According to Gi-ming Shien, the Three represents the “reconciliation of opposites”
  • According to St. Gregory Nazianzen, “surpasses the composition of the Dyad” -> perfection
• p. 259, 靈, “spirit”, contains 3 mouths, even in its ancient seal form, 3 mouths bearing witness to each other

Ch. 3 - When the Way became Flesh

• p. 264, Christ’s humility arguably resembled more 老子’s conception of the 道 than the 1st century AD Hebrew conceptions, i.e. that God dwells in solitude, an inexorable cosmic judge
  • 道德經8: “善若水。水善利萬物而不爭，處衆人之所惡，故幾於道”, Christ is “like water which greatly benefits all things but does not compete with them, dwelling in lowly places that all disdain.”
  • 道德經11: “三十輻，共一轂，當其無，有車之用”, “Thirty spokes join in a single hub; It is the centre hole (the space where there is nothing) that makes the wheel useful.”

Part III - 結合自身與降生爲俗人的道 - Uniting Oneself to Incarnate Tao

Ch. 1 - Changing the Eye of the Soul

• 老子 sought the primordial pre-Fall state of man
  • Christ not only restores this but exceeds it in filling man with his Divinizing, Uncreated Energy, i.e. Grace or 德
• p. 277, Terminology regarding man’s spirit, the image of God in us:
  • Νοῦς, intellectus, higher mind, spirit
    • In 老子’s followers called 元神, “original spirit”
    • Intellect is a common but misleading translation in this context since it makes us moderns think of abstract, deductive reasoning
    • Therefore “spirit” is preferred here
    • Unique to man, seeks God, knows God through intuitive perception
  • Lower consciousness, i.e. our thoughts, fantasies, emotions, “soul” or lower aspect of the soul
    • In 老子’s followers called 識神, “knowledge spirit”, “conscious spirit”
    • Shaped by culture and circumstances, similar to the soul of other animals, seeks earthly things, part of man’s fallen nature
  • p. 279, 道德經10, the superior and inferior soul are called 營 and 魄 respectively
  • According to Gi-ming Shien, 營 is the same as 魂, the superior soul
  • In the ancient Chinese conception, 魂 is what passes to the other world at death
• Spirit > soul > body, the correct hierarchy, but we usually get these wrong in our fallen state
  • The soul tries to hide the spirit by constantly distracting us, pretending it doesn’t exist, pretending it is the master, being an “ego” as we would call it today, or pretending it is self-sufficient, a “problem-solver”
  • Μετάνοια is “being transformed by the renewing of your mind " (τοῦ νοός, Romans 12:2), putting the soul in its proper place as subject of the spirit, realigning oneself away from love of self and other created things
• 氣 is the created energy of our bodies and the universe

Ch. 2 - Nurturing the Seed of Uncreated Teh

• By Baptism we received God’s grace or Uncreated Energy in seed-like form, the “insitum verbum”, “implanted word” (James 1:21)
  • It then gets buried under layers of desires and ego
  • Requires the work of μετάνοια to dig and cultivate it, to activate this grace

Ch. 3 - Watchfulness

• Νίψις (hand/foot washing), a Christian ascetical term often translated as watchfulness, the state of inner vigilance, attention, sobriety, continuous μετάνοια
  • 道德經15: “豫兮若冬涉川；猶兮若畏四鄰”, “watchful like men crossing a winter stream, alter like men aware of danger” (describing the old masters, “古之善為士者”, “the skillful masters [of the Way] in old times”)
  • Our Lord frequently counselled watchfulness, e.g. Luke 21:34, “And take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly.”
  • Also parables of the Wise and Unwise Virgins, and of the Unwise Steward who fell asleep
• p. 302, watchfulness/attention/awareness (corresponding to the pre-Christian era) is an indispensable part of prayer (awareness taking flesh, the Christian era)
• p. 304, “the vast majority of people never reach deep levels of interior, noetic prayer, simply because they have not followed the 1st half of Christ’s injunction to “Watch and pray,” (Mark 14:38, “vigilate et orate” to Apostles in Gethsemane)
• p. 305, distraction i s man’s fallen state; to watch we must restore our primordial attention
• p. 306, the practice from “Into the Silent Land” described, “As we repeatedly catch ourselves descending to the level of thought (the realm of action in time), we can call ourselves back to the level of the spirit (the realm of stillness in eternity). Later, through continual practice, we will be able to watch the thoughts coming, trying to gain admittance into our minds by stealing our attention.”
• 道德經52: “塞其兌，閉其門”, “block the passages, shut the doors [of the senses]”
• 道德經16: “守靜篤”, “observe true quiet”
• p. 304, St. John Climacus talks about ascending the watchtower and observing how, when, and whence the robbers come to break in and steal your grapes
• p. 308, St. John Climacus again: struggle against the distracting thoughts is futile; ;you should instead observe when they arise, then let them go without reacting or following; each time return your attention to thwart is above; this cuts off the thought without struggle
• p. 312, the demonic nature of distraction thoughts
• 鬼 = δαίμων
• As you get experienced at the practice, you become more aware of compulsive thought patterns and faults in your life, leading to repentance
• p. 314, watchfulness is not for having spiritual experiences, or “finding peace”, it si for knowing right, being better
• p. 322, 無爲 does not mean “doing nothing at all”, “inaction”, rather it means not acting from one’s own selfish passion or desire
  • “Success” can only be achieved by following the order already inherent in the universe, the 道
• 道德經64:
  • “為者敗之，執者失之。是以聖人無為故無敗；無執故無失”, “To make is to mar; to grasp is to lose. The sage practises non-action, hence he never fails; he never grasps, hence he never loses”
  • “是以聖人欲不欲 … 以輔萬物之自然，而不敢為”, “The sage desires non-desire … in this way he assists the natural development of all things even though he does not venture to interfere.”
• p. 327, misuse of watchfulness: if one’s intention (conscious or unconscious) is not to face one’s sins, repent, and be reconciled with God, but instead to “be spiritual” and continue to worship oneself, then one can—upon becoming aware of the light of one’s spirit—begin to worship it as God
• p. 330, we do not practise watchfulness to become silent and peaceful, rather to know the unpleasant truth about ourselves, and to hear the 道/λόγος speak inside our inward being

Ch. 4 - Prayer to the Tao

• p. 342, St. Ignatius Brianchaninov (19th century): essential conditions for the Jesus Prayer:
  • Attention, enclosure of the mind in the words of the prayer,
  • Extreme unhurriedness in pronouncing it, and
  • Contrition of spirit
  • These are necessary for the Jesus Prayer and for psalmody due to its repetitive nature, which outwardly seems dry but in practice is very fruitful
• p. 343, the Jesus Prayer originates in the discourse Christ gives to the Apostles after the Last Supper in St. John’s Gospel:
  • “Et quodcumque petieritis Patrem in nomine meo hoc faciam ut glorificetur Pater in Filio. Si quid petieritis me in nomine meo hoc faciam.” (14:13–14)
  • “Usque modo non petistis quidquam in nomine meo : petite et accipietis, ut audium vestrum sit plenum.” (16:24)
• p. 344, warning about saying the Jesus Prayer outside of Orthodoxy
  • Apparently J. D. Salinger’s Franny & Zooey popularized it in the West
  • Some people have the experience of entering an icy void, or weeping fits
• p. 345, above all, one must approach the Jesus Prayer with love, humility, and rigorous self-honesty
• p. 346, the Jesus Prayer is not just saying the words, but praying them
  • Keep in mind you are addressing someone; be careful not to take His name in vain
• p. 349, the marks of true watchfulness and prayer are effortless spontaneity, guilelessness, childlikeness, overflowing inward joy, tenderness of heart, unfeigned humility, courage (lack of doubt), forthrightness, abundant love, a non-judgemental nature, and genuine, active care for people
  • When spirituality is calculated and forced, you have not truly faced yourself and become free of yourself

Ch. 6 - The Union of Mind and Heart

• 心, heart/mind is the seat of spiritual and moral intelligence, of perception, controls the emotions, similar to Socrates’ spirit (his divine sign, δαιμόνιον, e.g. The Apology) which knows good and evil, things as they really are, governs our actions
• 思, thought = head above heart, that is to say, thought originates from the heart, and is more important intuitively than intellectually
• 腹, man’s centre (belly, but not in the gluttonous sense, the middle, man’s “inner things” or “inner spaciousness”
  • 道德經12: “是以聖人為腹不為目，故去彼取此”, “The sage regards not the eye (living for externals), but the belly (living from one’s centre). Therefore, he puts aside the one and takes the other.”
  • cf. John 7:38, “Qui credit in me, sicut dicit Scriptura, flumina de ventre ejus fluent aquae vivae. Hoc autem dixit de Spiritu, quem accepturi erant credentes in eum : nondum enim erat Spiritus datus, quia Jesus nondum erat glorificatus.”

Ch. 7 - Praying from one’s Centre

• In order to be able to pray from one’s centre, one’s secret inner place, you have to put in your time before God , every day without fail
  • Every day, morning and night, time should be set aside, for watchfulness and prayer
  • Mornings are best for establishing a foundation of watchfulness, evenings better for repentance and contrition
  • Additionally strive to maintain throughout the day
• p. 373, not trying to have no thoughts, jut to not accept and follow the thoughts that come; when one comes, we immediately raise our heart and mind back to God; if we are saying the Jesus Prayer, we return our attention to the words of the prayer
• p. 376, breathing and other techniques can help (but also hinder if misapplied)
  • Far more important is attention to the name of Christ and the words of the Jesus Prayer
• p. 379, try not to measure spiritual progress while praying, not to say, “Is this it?”; drive such thoughts away
  • If graces come, try not to think too much of them
  • Neither grow discouraged for not gaining some spiritual state
  • The goal is not to enter states but to raise one’s heart and mind to God
  • Time spent in prayer is never wasted
• p. 380, at the end of prayer times it is very common for demons to attack with intrusive thoughts, attempting to undo any spiritual fruits resulting from prayer
  • Important to keep sobriety and discernment with ou as you finish

Ch. 8 - Emptiness

• 道德經11: “埏埴以為器，當其無，有器之用。鑿戶牖以為室，當其無，有室之用”, “Clay is moulded into a vessel, but the ultimate use of the vessel depends on the part where nothing exists. Doors and windows are cut out of the wall of a house, but the ultimate use of the house depends on the parts where nothing exists.”
  • The follower of Christ the 道 seeks to be such a useful nothing
• p. 388–9, repentance hard but rewarding, “no sooner does one realize with bitterness and sorrow the vileness of one’s demoniac pretensions to excel … than the heart is led into the hitherto unknown sphere of freedom, where the Divine Light dazzles and all is contemplation of the goodness of God.”

Ch. 9 - Illumination

• Interesting story about Elder Paisius of Mt. Athos, who had a vision of the Uncreated Light while keeping vigil at night. When it was over it was morning but he was confused because he mistook the sun for the full moon, so used were his eyes to the Uncreated Light.
• p. 397, Gregory Palamas (1296–1359), originally a Mt. Athos hermit, left to defend the Eastern doctrine on Uncreated Light against Western theologians who said that the Light seen by hesychasts was created, physical light
  • Palamas: Grace is not created but is God’s Energy or Power
• St. Irenaeus: “God became man in order that man might become god.”
  • Christ in assuming human nature, deifies it, made it possible for us to be deified in our human nature
• p. 405, Elder Zosima from The Brothers Karamazov was modelled on St. Ambrose of Optina (1812–1891), a clairvoyant elder known by Dostoevsky
• p. 407, “[老子 and others who died before Christ] still have a chance to know Him after they die. Unlike them … we have already been given our chance in this life; we have already been shown the Way to heaven. Much more has been given us; therefore much more will be required of us.”

Appendices, etc.

• Very good an interesting testimonies from those persecuted by Communists
  • Fr. George Calciu (Romanian, Orthodox); Lin Xiangao (林獻羔, “Samuel Lamb”, a Chinese protestant)
• there is a letter from Seraphim Rose to a spiritual seeker, in the intro to which René Guénon is mentioned again; perhaps should read?
• p. 450, “There are many truths in the other traditions, both those handed down from a past when men were closer to God, and those discovered by gifted men in the reaches of the mind; but the full Truth is only in Christianity, God’s revelation of Himself to mankind.”

Illustrations

In the 1920s, the head of the Fu-Jên University’s (輔仁大學, a Catholic university then in Beijing, now in Taiwan) Art Academy, Ch’en Yüen-du (陳緣督, “Luke”), a non-Christian, undertook a study of the Gospels in order to paint them in a traditional Chinese style with his pupils. They came to believe in Christ and were baptized in the 1930s, cf. The Life of Christ by Chinese Artists (Westminster, 1938).