Taoism suggests experience over education

Taken from the Zhuangzi, a key Taoist text named after its author, the following passage can be understood on multiple levels:

A boat may be hidden in a creek, or concealed in a bog, which is generally considered safe. But at midnight a strong man may come and carry it away on his back. Those dull of understanding do not perceive that however you conceal small things in larger ones, there will always be a chance of losing them. But if you entrust that which belongs to the universe to the whole universe, from it there will be no escape. For this is the great law of things.

The first, and most obvious understanding comes from a literal reading of the passage. It coincides with a larger Taoist thread against materialism and the cleverness that a materialistic society values.

The second understanding leads to the nature of understanding itself. The problem:

Those dull of understanding do not perceive that however you conceal small things in larger ones, there will always be a chance of losing them.

This can apply to more than just material objects, but also to knowledge and in particular knowledge that affects how we should act: behavioral suggestions. These include (but are not exclusively) ethical and moral values.

These behavioral suggestions (the small things) are then frequently encoded (concealed) within metaphors and stories (large things) to teach one another. Furthermore, we often combine these stories into belief systems (again, larger things).

However, when we depend on stories to protect behavioral suggestions, and further more protect our stories inside of belief systems, we risk losing the original suggestion within the details of the stories and the belief systems themselves.

Like a man with a strong back, these belief systems can hijack the behavioral suggestions by bogging us down in the details of the stories that contain them. Focusing on these details, we lose the original meaning of the story.

Despite their use of stories to teach behavioral suggestions, most belief systems are founded on the principle that these suggestions flow from some their particular conception of the nature of the universe.

For example: Christian behavioral suggestions reflect a conception of the universe as a creation of God, with original sin, for the testing of man, etc.

However, though many belief systems are founded on this relationship (conception of the universe leads to behavioral suggestions), they still require stories to teach these suggestions. Education becomes necessary.

Taoism too has its own conception of the universe, and therefore its own behavioral suggestions, but follows a fundamentally different teaching method:

But if you entrust that which belongs to the universe to the whole universe, from it there will be no escape.

If behavioral suggestions flow from the universe, Taoists say experience that universe directly! Instead of trusting stories to teach us how to act, Taoists are confident that by simply stopping to observe the universe, you’ll come up with the same set of rules that they did.

Taoism then, suggests observation and direct experience over education.

I discovered Taoism through the writings of Lin Yutang. If you’re interested in Taoism you can read Lin Yutang’s translation of Zhuangzi online.

Note: I’m saving: the Taoist conception of the universe, what behavioral suggestions Taoists claim flow from that conception, and most importantly why I think it both trumps and includes most major belief systems, for a later article.