Circolo Vegetariano VV.TT. Calcata

Lay spirituality is not just an “invented” term (as some detractors would like to affirm).

Actually, Lay spirituality is the first form of  spiritual recognition in man, its roots are founded in naturalistic  psychics, in analogical intuition and in conscience’ sacred expressions before the arrival of any religion.

It is obviously possible to find this “natural spirituality” in some so-called  religions of the past free from dogmas, from sacred books and prayers.

In the evolution of thought, there have been at least three forms of “so-called religion” that really existed, which did not have the concept of a “God as a personal creator” but  that maintained truth in a single matrix for all things. This matrix is called Tao or With no Name in Taoism; Brahman or Absolute non-dual in the Advaita; Sunya or Empty in Buddhism.

In the past I have often worked on the Advaita and on Buddism, and I feel that the time has come now to talk a little about Taoism, which is sometimes described as “the doctrine of the humble and the simple”, and in this sense, the term “lay” together with this feeling seems very appropriate to me. Actually the original meaning of “lay” is in reality “simple, humble, out of any social or religious orderly context”.

The father to whom this  “philosophy” is acknowledged was Lao Tse. Let me begin by saying that in Lao Tse’s thought we can find the condemnation of pride and attainment, which is fundamental in any lay spirituality. Nisargadatta Maharaj finds his thought in the same line, he was a wise lay advaita… but also in Christianity at its beginnings, this kind of understanding can be noticed, for example, in the words attributed to Jesus: “for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God”. Pride, this folly of greatness referred to mankind, is simply man’s illusion…. Because compared to the Tao, any human greatness is to be considered none other than vain. And here we can also perceive the subtle reason for the ideological differences between Confucianism and Taoism, but maybe we can talk about this subject next time.

In Lao Tse’s sayings we often find the disapproval of pride and of the criteria of personal attainment and this thanks to the law of the linking of opposites, the alternation of Yang and Yin which is the kinetic manifestation of the Tao.  That is why when the active Yang force finds its peak it is automatically pushed towards its contrary, the passive Yin. The punishment for pride is therefore, for Lao Tse, a kind of natural law. “A strong wind – he says – cannot last longer than the time span of a morning. The storm ceases with day. The glorious army will not win forever. The highest tree will be chopped down.” In the Tao Te King he explains how the same pride is a premonition to downfall: “He that lifts himself up on his toes is not upright. He that marches gloriously will not walk long. He that exhibits himself does not shine. He that exalts himself is without honour. He that brags about his talent is without merit. He that pumps his own successes will not last long. These for the Tao are like overeating and overreacting. All that is under heaven is nauseated by them. And the man that belongs to the Tao will not even pay attention to them!” 

This fundamental law though does not prevent Lao Tse to maintain an impartial and correct attitude towards the so called “ways of the world”. “The way of heaven – he says – takes away from he that has in excess to compensate he that lacks but the way of the wretched is to take from the needy to bring increase to the rich.” The way of heaven, says Lie Tseu (another Taoist) in a later date, is the way of humbleness and the way of the wretched is arrogance. There is a similar concept expressed in the book of Proverbs, when announcing the fall of Babylon: “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before the fall”.

But the aversion to pride and the consideration for humility do not  exhaust the Taoist doctrine. Lao Tse considers the Tao a sort of Mother that generates, feeds and protects all beings in the universe. But it is difficult to assert if the Tao “is” or isn’t”. In the metaphysics of the Tao the primary kenosi is without any substantial process, form or substance. Therefore in the sight of our fixed way of thinking, the “fullness” of the Tao seems similar to “emptiness”. The Tao is seen like a bottomless abyss and notwithstanding it is the source of all things, a chaotic whirl from whence all harmony springs.

Hence if the true Tao through our fixed perception appears as nothing, which to us corresponds to the race towards the emptiness of the “I”, at the same time it marks the blessed return to the silent matrix, that attracts and conveys the experience of the empirical thought process and then is reabsorbed from the nothing it has come from. This kenosi of the Tao proceeds with its own nature and does not suppose any creative or destructive will. Herewith it is possible to understand the reason of the Taoist non-recognition of a personal God.

Paolo D’Arpini

(Tradotto dall’originale italiano da Ilaria Gaddini)