Emptiness II

A westerner may decide that a nature religion like Taiosm undermines the "
meaning of
life" because he is used to thinking that questions about life require a
transcendental
state, realm or being. For some people, there must be something outside this
life to give
meaning to it -- "God's plan," for instance.

Full absorption, participation, and appreciation of this life, Taiost hold,
requires accepting
that "nothing" lies outside or beyond it -- the very nothing on which
constrasting
existence depends. This insight is intended to guide us back to the present
moment and
force us to accept here and now as the locus of whatever meaning life has. For a
Taiost,
that is not taking meaning away, but learning to imbue nature (including your
self-nature
and ordinary activities) with awesome meaning and value. However we come to
grips with
the advice to seek meaning "where we are," it helps to accept that life is part
of an endless
process of transformation of being from form to form. That does not make it less
beautiful
or valuable, nor does it make life less spiritual or divine. The divinity lies
in nature -- not
viewed as a creation of something with true value, but viewed as just here --
from
nothing!

In chapter 6 of the Daode Jing we read, " The spirit of emptiness is immortal;
it is called
the Great Mother, because it gives birth to Heaven and Earth." Chapter 75 of the
Daode
Jing councels, " Only those who do not cling to their lives can save it"