Scriptural Christianity and the Tao Te Ching
"The heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God." Ezekiel 1:1
The following does not attempt to be any sort of an exhaustive or learned commentary on Taoism. It only seeks to note some significant similarities and differences between some the teachings of the Tao as expressed in the beginning of this book, and some teachings of Scriptural Christianity.
By “Scriptural Christianity” I mean only those aspects of Christianity that are stated in the Old and New Testaments, without regard to this or that particular church, denomination, time or pace, or culture.
Section 1 of Part I states, in James Legge’s translation, that there is a higher and invisible aspect of reality, something enduring and unchanging, but which cannot be named. It is referred to as “the Originator of heaven and earth . . . the Mother of all things.” [1]
In Part I section 25, the writer adds: “I do not know its name, and I give it the designation of the Tao (the Way or Course). Making an effort further to give it a name I call it the Great.”
Going back to the first page, we read that all we can see of this fundamental but unknown reality is only the “outer fringe” of its “deep mystery.”
Although this unchanging reality is one and the same, yet somehow development takes place. This is called a mystery. Some of the Greek philosophers were also puzzled by the relationship between unchanging and changing reality.
The Tao Te Ching goes on to say, still in Part I, that the wise men, the sages, empty their minds and weaken their wills, so that they might be in harmony with the emptiness and the purity of Tao.
“The sage puts his own person last” . . . “he has no personal and private ends” . . . He shows “the excellence of water” in occupying the lowest place, and is not troubled if his innate excellence is unappreciated and unrewarded.
Lao Tzu further says, that “To withdraw into obscurity is the way of Heaven,” that gold and jade, wealth and honors bring evil.
Much more could be quoted, but I think some simplicity and some minimalism is more in the spirit of the book, so I will content myself with a few observations on the ideas presented above.
To begin with, we notice the depth and the seriousness of this contemplation. It is very much out of harmony with the noise, excitement, and thirst for sensation and activity of the ordinary world.
It is also out of harmony with those who feel that their scientific knowledge is sufficient to absolve them from the need for further consideration of life’s higher, non-scientific realities.
Also noteworthy is the awareness of some organizing principle behind the physical realities of the visible world. Many of the classical philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome also had such an awareness. There is some causal principle behind the physical world, solar system, and cosmos. It did not just sort of happen by blind, random or accidental collisions of matter and energy.
This organizing principle is mysterious – unknown and unknowable, unnamed, and unnamable – but it is recognized to be there. There is a higher reality beyond that of merely human consciousness. The human mind, and the thoughts of the human mind, are not ultimate realities. There is something beyond us which we must contemplate and try to emulate – hence the emphasis on selflessness, and avoidance of the distractions of the world.
There is furthermore an ideal of life that is derived from this awareness – an ideal of quietness, of contentment with few things, and of indifference to the noise and distractions of the world.
Those are a few thoughts found in a few pages of Part I – and the similarities with Christianity are obvious.
Bible believing Christians also believe that there is a higher, creative principle, a God behind the world of appearance, the world of coming to be and passing away. This principle is an enduring and unchanging reality, according to which we should arrange our lives.
There is also an element of mystery and of the unknown in Scriptural Christianity, an awareness of aspects of God that are utterly beyond us. This is sometimes obscured by the fact that we claim to have more direct knowledge of this higher reality, and we may even be proud of our knowledge, but the unknowable aspects of God are a biblical reality.
We read for example about “The mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” and “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” We know that “there is no searching of his [God’s] understanding,” for “Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.”
Paul says in Romans “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out.”
Much of this sense of mystery has been lost among professing Christians. This is because of our laziness, superficiality, pride, ignorance, and love of the world. We need to give more heed to Paul’s warning: “And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know” (I Corinthians 8).
We think that because we know some basic doctrines we no longer need to be silent before the mystery of God - but what does the Psalmist say? “Be still, and know that I am God,” and also, “So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee (you).”
We also notice Lao Tzu’s personal humility and emptiness, and a desire to escape the false delights of the world. There is also wisdom in this, but in the Christian worldview this is not achieved by will power or by human effort alone - and here we come to the greatest difference between the vision of the Taoist and the Bible believing Christian: that the unknowable mystery has made itself known to us in a more specific and detailed way – not completely, not exhaustively, but truly, and in a light much clearer and brighter than anything Lao Tzu or any of the ancients, East or West, could ever have imagined.
In Colossians, Jesus Christ is described as the ultimate mystery of the universe, “the mystery which hath (has) been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest” (1:26), and in Romans 16:25, where the preaching of Jesus Christ is called “the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.”
We read in Hebrews chapter 1 that it is Jesus Christ who “upholds all things by the word of his power.”
Colossians chapter 1 says of Jesus Christ not only that “by him were all things created,” and that “He is before all things, and by him all things consist.”
“For in him dwelleth (dwells) all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” is stated in Colossians chapter 2.
It is incredible, impossible, ridiculous to the world and to ordinary human wisdom, that the unknown, unnamed, and shadowy power so faintly discerned by Lao Tzu should have condescended to reveal himself to us in human form, even to the extent of being born of a woman.
This brings with it a very different understanding of the virtues described by Lao Tzu.
Yes, those who by faith have gained an interest in Christ should not be enamored too much of this world. They should not be proud, haughty, boastful, and neither should they desire great things for themselves – but they are motivated in these areas by the mind and the Spirit of Christ himself, not by a sound but vague instinct.
And then, there is – to state one final difference – the revealed knowledge of what comes after death. Christ being “the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead,” has revealed to us what lies on the other side. Death is not the end, but the beginning.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. Revelation 20:12-13.
And,
for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. John 5:28-29
This is something that Plato, and Lao Tzu, and Aristotle, and all of the modern thinkers could never imagine, but it has been revealed.
All of this being so,
. . . what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 2 Peter 3:11:13
How far do we fall short of this? And how many times to seekers visit some church and see nothing there because there is nothing more to see?
Footnote
[1] Lao-tzu, (trans. James Legge). The Tao Te Ching. (Oxford University Press, “Dover Thrift Editions,” unabridged, 1997). Legge calls the main numbered parts “chapters,” which I have changed to “sections.”
Good points Joe highlighting the superiority of truth revealed in revelation.
Your last comment is sad. Sadly, many churches become worldly to attract non believing seekers but do not reveal an alternative to the world.
Thomas Merton wrote a book dialoguing Christian Mysticism with Japanese Zen Buddhism (which is influenced by Taoism and vice versa). I found it very interesting and you might enjoy it as well.