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Uselessness
I had a thought last night as I read more from this book on Taoism that I have (I have been reading it before bed every night as sort of a calming experience to silence my mind and help me sleep instead of watching television). I wrote a little while back about accomplishment. This was before I was reading about Taoism, but what I wrote reminded me of one of the main themes of Taoism: usefulness versus uselessness. Essentially, my piece was referring to how one cannot become accomplished in society unless he has done many things (mainly, things of prestige), and it is something I battle with because I feel accomplished simply because I love my boyfriend the best that I can, I practice yoga, and I try hard every day to be a better person.
According to the Tao, being useless is the most important thing. For example,
Thirty spokes share the wheel's hub;
It is the center hole that makes it useful.
Shape clay into a vessel;
It is the space within that makes it useful.
Cut doors and windows for a room;
It is the holes which make it useful.
Therefore profit comes from what is there;
Usefulness from what is not there.
-Eleven, Tao Te Ching
In this short metaphor, Lao Tzu shows how the most "useful" (or important) things are that which are actually not there. I find this particular passage somewhat confusing, because it is a translation, and Taoism refers to the empty spaces (like doors and windows) as actually the "useless" because it is NON-material, but in turn, being "useless" is what is useful for us. So the wording is a bit confusing because this translation uses the word useful, but it is actually emphasizing that the useless is what is important (or useful to us).
To further explain what I mean, if you had a house, or a room, with four walls, the space in the middle, the nothingness, is what makes it useful, right? The walls are the actual material-- the "useful" stuff, but it is not really useful at all, because how can you live inside a wall? You must live within the space it creates when you put four walls together. Also, how can you get into the room without a space for the door? The void, the useless, is what is useful.
In another example, if a man is concerned with only the useful, the actual ground which lies exactly beneath where his feet are standing, then the rest of the world is useless because he is not using it. But the useless is important, because if the rest of the vast world, the useless world, was to sink into a deep abyss, then the man would become dizzy and unable to stand on the tiny platform of useful ground. The useful becomes useless without the useless. Understand?
Now that uselessness and usefulness have been explained, my point in writing this piece is because I have been thinking about ways in which to become more "useless". My piece on accomplishment shows that in some ways I am useless, I do things that I enjoy, but it also shows that I am striving to accomplish things in the world-- to gain plaques and accreditation.
Being completely useless is doing something merely because you enjoy it, no other reason. Not to gain footing in the world. Not to climb the social ladder. Not to lose weight. Not to get married and have a family. Being useless is silencing the mind. Doing nothing, sometimes. Meditation. Being truly happy. When we are completely natural, in other words, only following the will of the natural earth and not the man-made lifestyle, then we are happy. There are no torrents pulling us this way and that, urging us to constantly be productive.
When the block is carved, it becomes useful.
When the sage uses it, he becomes the ruler.
Thus, "A great tailor cuts little."
-Twenty-eight, Tao Te Ching
This may seem like a lecture. Like a diagnostic manual. It is not. I just wanted to help you understand what is meant by uselessness. It is hard to grasp, since it is nothingness.
Yesterday, I was telling Jesse about my day. I told him I had a very productive day off: I mopped the kitchen floor, vacuumed the house, cleaned the bathroom, brought my car to Midas, finished my Christmas shopping, and made a call to the Learning Corridor (the place at which I am hoping to do my Montessori training). As I said it, I instantly thought about being useless. I was not very useless yesterday. Uselessness is not what society wants, but it is what the Tao is.
I find small ways in which to be completely in the moment; ways I can simplify my mind, embrace quietude. I go to yoga and surrender my thoughts, send them off with each exhalation. In savasana, also called corpse pose, the final resting pose in yoga, I try to cultivate energy by focusing only on my breath and the different parts of my body. I embrace, entirely, being on the ground, closing my eyes.
Being worried and anxious about the world around me and its demands, I pretend at night that I am the only soul in existence, making a cocoon over my head with the blanket. I lay there in the fetal position or in child's pose and pretend like nothing else is there except the feeling of calm and the nest I have created. For a few moments, I feel the anxiety wash away, because for a moment, but only a moment, I have found nothingness.
Do you think you can take over the universe and improve it?
I do not believe it can be done.
The universe is sacred.
You cannot improve it.
If you try to change it, you will ruin it.
If you try to hold it, you will lose it.
So sometimes things are ahead and sometimes they are behind;
Sometimes breathing is hard, sometimes it comes easily;
Sometimes there is strength and sometimes weakness;
Sometimes one is up and sometimes down.
Therefore the sage avoids extremes, excesses, and complacency.
-Twenty-nine, Tao Te Ching
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| makes you think
 opdope
2009-09-22 11:32
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Your post made me think about my life dude, thanxx for that.
by the way, who made the drawing? its amazing!
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