Scott: Well, debating with Mencius was sure a lot easier than debating with Xunzi, but still it leaves me with a feeling of disquiet just the same. Arguing about Dao is not experiencing Dao.
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Zhuangzi: Yes, it all seems to miss the mark, does it not? That’s why there’s relief in taking it all as the chirping of baby birds. In this, our opinions are seen as the same and equal and thus of no great consequence. The experience of Dao is just this. However much our opinions matter—and they most certainly do—there is also that sense in which they matter not at all. All happenings are the Great Happening, as you say.
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Scott: That’s Dao as the confluence of all daos—as you say. It’s a oneness manifest in infinite not-onenesses. And there are no not-onenesses that are not that oneness. Getting that, it seems to me, is the experience of Dao.
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Zz: It is. It is Dao as that experience, not as a something to experience. This Dao is an experience—nothing more.
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Scott: It’s as I said—like a walk in the woods. What a mess they are! Dead trees and dying. Broken trees and hale. The song of birds and the screech of the dying. All good. All one. All affirmable. All a chaotic riot of spontaneous happenings. Taking our place there is finding joy in it all.
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Zz: A pernicious oneness to be sure. Yet no perniciousness arises therefrom. All Meng’s rightness is realized in the love for all things just as they are.
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Scott: Even as we are.
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Zz: Okay. I’m off. Until next time.
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Scott: Until the next time.