Coming & Going; Tao or Father?

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going." Jesus, in John 8:14

"Far reaching implies returning to the Source." Lao Tse [Laozi, 老子], founder of Taoism.

We joke that a confused person "doesn't know if they are coming or going," but in truth most people have no idea where they are from or where they are headed.

Source, Force, or Father? When Taoism's founder Lao Tse spoke of man coming from and returning to a Source, he did not mean an impersonal, blind New Age or evolutionary "force" but a Spirit that actually cared for its beautiful creation down to such small details as forming the down of a bird in autumn (this reminds me of Jesus' saying that not one sparrow falls to the ground without our Father's knowledge; Matthew 10:29). The great Taoist philosopher, Chuang Tse [Zhuangzi,庄子] wrote eloquently of this "Spirit of the Universe":

"The Sage looks back to the beauty of the universe and penetrates into the intrinsic principle of created things....The spirit of the universe is subtle and informs all life. Things live and die and change their forms, without knowing the root from which they came. Abundantly it multiplies; eternally it stands by itself. The greatest reaches of space do not leave its confines, and the smallest down of a bird in autumn awaits its power to assume form."

Unknowable Source Taoists knew of the Source, but had no way to know the Source itself. Chuangtse wrote, "Whence comes the spirit and how did consciousness arise? The Sage's wisdom must derive from something...[but philosophers] seldom comprehend adequately the beauty of the universe and the ways of the spirit... Each man thinks what he likes and creates his own system. They shall never find the truth."

Chuang Tse concluded, "The creation lies spread before me, but in none of these things can be found the true source."

From Nowhere to Nowhere As Chuang Tse predicted, Taoists never found the truth, and over the centuries, Taoism degenerated into a religion of magic and alchemy. And 2,500 years of philosophy has not brought us any closer to the truth. Where Taoists once wrote of their inability to understand the "Spirit of the Universe," scientists and philosophers now simply deny its existence. Today we are to believe that the universe simply popped out of nowhere, and that mindless chance set everything in motion and guides us upward and onward. But if evolution is just a vehicle driven by a blind, mindless force on a randomly laid out road, logic says it could have no direction or purpose. We are truly from nowhere, and headed nowhere very quickly. We are all the Beatle's "Nowhere Man."

From Someone to Somewhere Fortunately, our lives are determined not by a mindless force, or even the Taoist Spirit or Principle, but by a Father. And how can we know Him? Chuang Tse was on target when he wrote, "Speech by its very nature cannot express the absolute." And because our finite minds cannot grasp the infinite, our Father sent his Son to show us the Way not through words but through example. As Jesus said quite simply, "If you know me, you know my Father."

The Way in the Beginning. One of my favorite verses in the Chinese Bible is John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word," [约翰福音1:1,"太初有道"] because 'Word' is translated as 'Tao' [道]. Tao means 'The Way,' and early Christians were called followers of 'The Way.' Tao is not the New Age 'Tao' but the original Tao of Lao Tse and Chuang Tse--the Tao they so revered but could not understand. But we can understand the Tao because John 1:14 said, "The Word [Tao] became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." [道成了肉身住在我们中间，充充满满的有恩典有真理。我们也见过他的荣光，正是父独生子的荣光]

Where Are We From? Jesus could say he knew where he was going because he knew where he was from. If we are mere products of blind chance and random evolution, then we are from nowhere, and going nowhere very quickly. But if we are from a loving Father, then we know that this life has meaning and purpose because he has put us here to learn, and grow, and to ultimately return to Him.

Where Are We Going? Today is not just one of 26,000 aimless, purposeless days between birth and oblivion, but an important stage in a Journey of discovery. Today is another day of class, taught by a Father who cares for me much more than Jesus' "sparrows of the field" and Chuang Tse's "autumn down of a bird."
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