First off, I am going to ignore, in entirety, any reference to any particular school of Taoism. As with any religion, philosophy, philology … schools of thought are the exponentiation of the ego.
Primarily, I am ascertaining my assertions through the earlier concepts of Tao, as lead back to its’ shamanistic roots, most likely upon the Yellow plains … when Tao was what was acknowledged, and for no other reason, than its’ very encompassing nature.
To wit:
It should be agreeable that form is manifest substance of Tao. Thus the myriad creation and the ten thousand things. It should also be agreeable that outside the human form and mind of separation and duality, the myriad creation lacks the ego to find its’ nature removed from Taoyin.
The problem for the human that seeks Tao: finding essence bereft of direct consciousness, and lofty ego, where even form bound actualization of Tao, is limited, thus not Tao.
The inherent problem then is form and mind, the former being mostly ignored, especially in modern, post-esoteric, post-monastic periods. All is laid upon the mind, dissolution of the ego, manifestation of “living Tao”. This is obvious to anyone having even passed through the Tao Te Ching, “The Tao that can be spoken of, is not Tao”.
The problem comes from when even a great Sage makes an assumption, that in conquering the mind, in being te of wu wei and wu li, in conquering and surpassing te tzu, one is still form. Form is manifestation, manifestion although connected inherently to Tao, is the lower form, the perceivable form, thus not the actuality of the ineffable and unknowable.
Most who seek the ultimate nihilism of returning to the source, origin, ineffable Tao, use manners of esoterics which are far too numerous to mention, and again, fall prey and victim to the schools of thought syndrome. Generally, with caution, it can be stated that some form of meditation practices are used or adhered to, not only for the release it provides from the shackles of living form, and others of like kind, but for those momentary glimpses of the ineffable.
We learn to use our subconscious, and shut down the crudeness of the conscious. This is what meditation does. Now with the filter removed, we can start to “see” reflections of Tao, absent symbols, images, voices … we engage, lightly, in the elation of nothingness. This also produces a problem in and of itself, one which has been personally experienced. It becomes almost narcotic-like, your desire to stay in this place, away from the harshness of form, to engage the elation, to succumb to the nothingness, primordial and pure.
But still you are attached to the form, even in so seemingly grand a state. These reflections of Tao, no matter how pure in sensation, are just that, reflections. These are the spirit of form speaking with Tao, and you are still just an external observer. Spirit to Tao can be related much in the same manner as Y’Shua to Creator … spiritual reflection that is not the entirety, itself. Ultimately, still separate.
So what is the end for this mode? How does one go from symbol, process and reflection to the actuality?
The spirit is the reflection, so the reflection must rejoin that which created its’ presence, to become whole, as in the reformulation of the shards, which become again, the mirror that shows all.
The thread that ties the spirit to the form must be severed, which for all its’ known horror and fear, does means death of the form, which never was anyways. One wishes to engage being, the vessel must be shattered to free the vapors to rise. The “you” and the “I” and “me” of form will have to be let go.
Form is forever separate from Tao. The form must needs be shed, to be Tao. No more symbols, no more images, no more allegory or metaphor … being Tao, is formless.
