Wes Cecil

The Power of Taoism!

3K views · 1d ago · 39:19

Meet The New Boss - Change and Resistance

5.2K views · 5d ago · 47:59

There are many critiques of the power of ideology to shape our perception of the world and freeze us in a sense of powerlessness. However, less discussed is that while we may feel nothing really changes, in many ways the world has changed dramatically in a relatively short period of time. When we reject our cultural presumptions about the world, we can liberate our past, presents and future. A few selected texts

Truth is a Deception: The Eternal Tao

6K views · 1w ago · 33:44

In Chapter two of Chuang Tzu, we read a clear questioning of the value of ‘Truth’ and the inability of the language to reliable capture the reality we experience. If we move from a concept of truth to one of engagement, discussion, reflection and conversation we are much closer to the Taoist approach to knowing than when we argue about ‘Truth’ or ‘Right’ or ‘Goodness’.

The Students are Marching: Joy of Resistance

6.9K views · 1w ago · 48:47

As if just to illustrate the ideas we’ve been exploring, the students of France are out on the streets to protest the latest French government budget. Not only is this a repeat of some of the key elements that led to the revolt in May 1968, it also underlines the degree to which the government will go to not have to admit they have utterly failed to deliver on its many promises over the last 20 years. The joy of resistance is getting very real indeed.

Forget Balance: The Eternal Tao

4.2K views · 2w ago · 24:52

Guest: Forget Balance

The popular American conception of balance associated with Taoism is almost entirely misleading and very probably anti-thetical to the core principles of Taoism. While the ancient Chinese had a word for balance as in a balance beam or equal scales, this word never appears in the Tao Te Ching. Rather it uses the words for Harmony, Middle, Stillness and Equilibrium.

You are a Subject of History: The Joys of Resistance

8.9K views · 2w ago · 36:48

Camus’ critique of Romanticism is grounded in a belief in the contingency of human existence. We are not isolated heroes who can, or perhaps cannot, utterly transform the world. We are limited humans living in an environment shaped by forces beyond our control or even comprehension. As such, we can at best attempt to resist according to our own sense of joy while keeping our communities in mind. Hence the importance of joy.

Other People Are a Problem: The Eternal Tao

12K views · 3w ago · 28:58

Chapter 14 of Chuan Tzu presents a Taoist reflection on perhaps the single vexing problem in our lives - the other people. Taoism argues for a natural approach to other people that will remove us from the shackles of expectations, obligations, and unnatural modes of reciprocal behavior. Chuang Tzu acknowledges the difficulty, yet it remains necessary to address this central problem if we are to have any hope of creating lives in harmony with the Tao.

Your Imagination is Under Siege

61K views · 3w ago · 46:34

Following on last episode's discussion of the philosophical critiques of how commoditization influences our world, I thought it would be worth taking a moment to reflect in a concrete fashion on how our imaginations are used against us to distort the world and colonize our subconscious. I’ve been a bit heavy with the references so I thought I’d save a few up for next time.

The Pleasure of Taoism

9.8K views · 4w ago · 31:07

What rises in the Taoist tradition when one is tranquil is pleasure. This simple idea is almost universally ignored or obscured in the Taoist tradition - yet it is central to both the literate and folk tradition. Living in accordance with the Tao is living with pleasure.

Sign Value and Recuperation

10K views · 1mo ago · 42:26

One of the significant challenges of our current environment is that our own imaginations have been turned against us. Much of our needs come from our imaginations and are very much focused on the way acts and products signify - their sign value. What this means is that our very real desire for change ends up being recuperated and being sold back to us products that reinforce the very system we wish to change.

Taosim and Tranquility

7.9K views · 1mo ago · 31:07

While Taoism emphasizes knowing and being nothing, it does have a positive value - tranquility. Virtually ignored as a value in the Western tradition with its powerful focus on “meaning” and “knowing” Taoism focus on feeling the world and, it argues, the feeling should be tranquil. Chapters 15 and 16 of the Tao Te Ching are central to these ideas.

Revolution is a Trap!

13K views · 1mo ago · 42:56

The overriding narrative of revolution features a defined enemy inhabiting a defined space that we can, with courage, suffering and sacrifice, overthrow and inaugurate a new and better world. However, as Kafka and Musil demonstrated we live in a world that is diffuse, multi-layered and without center.

Taoism and Nihilism

13K views · 1mo ago · 27:34

Taoism posits that the meaninglessness of life is not a basis for Nihilism but for Joy and Liberty. The palpable despair imparted by the advance of science and the increasing awareness of the triviality of humanity on a universal scale disoriented - and perhaps is still disorienting - virtually every culture in the world. Taoism, however, provided an inspiring response to these problems 2,600 years before they appeared.

Cicero Warned Us: The Joy of Resistance

9.3K views · 1mo ago · 45:09

2,000 years ago Cicero warned us against the idea that other people are functionally prey from whom we extract the profit. Unfortunately, his arguments have been forgotten and we inhabit a society that insists that the exploitation of others is not only acceptable but necessary and admirable. As Deleuze and Guattari and others have demonstrated, this logic leads to an idea of the self that is entirely devoid of human sympathy.

Socrates was NOT a Taoist

12K views · 1mo ago · 28:39

While Taoism emphasizes ‘not knowing’ it does so in a very different way than Socrates’s claim of knowing what he does not know. In Chapter 17 of Chuangtzu we encounter a classic example of both the limits of knowledge and the importance of experience to the Taoist tradition. In many ways, Taoism refutes the entire basis of the Platonic/Socratic tradition that underlies most of the western philosophic tradition.