THE MIND AND BODY IN THE LAOZI
THE MIND AND BODY IN THE LAOZI

Summary/Abstract: The body is the answer to the question of the mind that lost its way. Indeed, the mind, the everyday, discriminating mind, as years go by, becomes entangled almost beyond hope with “the ten thousand things” around it. Almost beyond hope – or beyond hope? For, how can one hope to disentangle one’s own heart and mind from the kaleidoscope of things that we see every day, and every year, and every moment of our life, if our mind is unable and unwilling to break free? My research hypothesis is that the body does the heavy work of reconquest of one’s lost mind, naturally, by doing nothing. When the mind ignores distractions, it is the body that takes over. Applying Rita Sherma’s ‘hermeneutics of intersubjectivity’ to a close reading of the Laozi (also known as the Dao de jing), the research shows how and why the ontogeny here reviews indeed the phylogeny, but only does so first contrariwise: conscience wanes into consciousness, then into conscientiousness, in order to wax back again, onto a higher level now. The body, that is closer to nature than the mind, can help the mind find its way back, and then onto the Way. Ten thousand things here under heaven unfold according to their nature: we can be one of them, if so we (truly) wish. The Laozi, distrustful of the holy, ignoring the divine, is an impassioned paean to the sacred.

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