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Complete Reality Taoism and Actual Freedom?

Complete Reality Taoism and Actual Freedom?
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Answer
6/2/11 8:01 AM
Hi everyone,

I've been a long time lurker, this is my first post emoticon

My buddhist related knowledge is fairly restricted to what i've read on this forum and in Daniel's MCTOB. I have however spent years wading through much of the taoist information that is available in English (although, truth be told, the constant use of metaphor in alchemical texts, and the various possible/Schools' interpretations makes it quite difficult to profess any solid understanding)

I'm finally posting as discussions of Actual Freedom, and the Actual Freedom website have stood out, reminding me of much of what i've read in Taoist texts through the years. Now, it could easily be the case that, Taoist texts being as vague/metaphorical as they are, I am reading in Actual Freedom concepts, but I thought it would be worth the discussion nevertheless.

To start, this is a link to Chang-Po Tuan's 'Understanding Reality', translated by Thomas Cleary, with detailed commentary by Liu I Ming. Cleary's summary of the Complete Reality School's view of Yin Yang introduciton (starting page 3)

Google books: Understanding Reality (specifically 'Yin Yang' pge 3)


Whilst this is definately a brief summary by Cleary, it gives an idea of the sort of things that seemed to relate to Actual Freedom. Liu I ming's commentary in the main body of the text, is much more concerned with process.

Or am I way off?



some snippets:

"stillness is not an ends but a means, and the practice of emptiness and stillness is supposed to have a definitive climax and outcome."

"One advantage of being able to stand aside from the mundane and recover the awareness of the unconditioned primordial mind is that it allows a more objective assessment of the value or otherwise of particular habits or patterns of behaviour; and it allows leeway within which to modify behaviour."

"What the Complete Reality Taoist strives for is to attain autonomy, the freedom to be or not to be, to do or not do, according to the needs of the situation at hand."

“The effort here is to join sense and essence; this may be described as developing a sense of the real essence of mind, and sensing reality directly from the essence of consciousness rather than through the acquired psychological configurations of temperaments. This is said to involve keeping consciousness open and fluid while clearing sense of subjective feelings; this means transcendence of restrictive mental fixations through the greater perspective afforded by the mind of Tao.”