The Way to Tranquility While Awakening

It was barely the 38th day of meditation under the Bodhi tree, when Siddhartha Gautama began to think about what he had learnt in his previous years of life. He was stuck in the idea as to why some men were virtuous and some others were not.  In reality, he thought, we can only judge by person´s actions, but that is only superficial. There is more to the soul than what the human eye can see, and Gautama understood this. He let his mind wander and ponder through the infinite ethical dilemmas, but arrived nowhere. He was stuck in the immediacy of the questions, and did not let the answers flow like water in a river. Finally he decided he had to think structurally, otherwise he would conclude nothing and thus, repel his enlightment. Suddenly, he began thinking about Seneca, and his idea of a tranquil mind. But almost immediately, his train of thought changed and Lao-Tze appeared in his head. Gautama was utterly dumbfounded and began to fantasize about these two lovers of wisdom unraveling the mysteries of virtue and how to attain it.  

SENECA: I feel we have been brought together by Fate to discuss essential issues of virtue. Don’t you feel the same way, Lao- Tze?

LAO – TZE: Fate? More like the Universe has conspired in order for this meeting to happen. How else can we be speaking, other than in the mind of Gautama?

SENECA: I agree with the randomness of this meeting. Let us not misuse it, and help our fellow thinker reach his so desired Awakening.

LAO – TZE: You know? That is exactly the problem with Gautama. He wants so badly to attain virtue to be enlightened that by wanting it so much, it slips away, immediately.

SENECA: Well, how else can you attain anything of desire, if you don’t search for it?

LAO – TZE: It is easier that what is seems. You do not have to do anything, really. By wu wei, the Universe does it all.

SENECA: That does not make sense to me at all, please explain yourself better. I believe that in order to be a good person one must work very hard. One must resist temptations, help others using our talents in spite of our personal desires and embrace satisfaction and joy for others triumphs, even when these mean the failure of your own. How can one do all these things effortlessly?  

LAO-TZE: I will present to you the Tao. He will become your best friend from now on. The Tao is everything, yet nothing. The Tao is everywhere, yet nowhere. You cannot see, taste, nor feel the Tao, yet you can work with it. If you want to be in the Tao, you are probably not in it. It is the essential way of living. It is the Way of virtue, the Way a man would behave if he were pure, the way a virtuous man ought to behave. It is the natural way to act. It is the natural Way of the Universe, the Way everything is without interaction of any kind. It is pure balance.

SENECA: How can one attain virtue without looking for it?  How can one act without thinking about what the consequences of such act might be? In order to be a virtuous man one must seek virtue, and love virtue. One must fight for it and defend it.

LAO – TZE: You have it all wrong, my friend. You cannot look to be in the Way, because looking for it leads you in the opposite direction. At the same time, you cannot really know you are in the Way. I will put it this way: does a fish know they are in the water? Not really. They do not know what water is, even though they have been in it their whole lives. In the same matter, a person that is in the Way does not know they are in it. It is being good without wanting to be good.  

SENECA: So we are all born in the Way, and have to be nothing or do nothing in order to be in it? That sounds too easy. What is the merit of being in the Way, if one has to do nothing? This is mad!

LAO –TZE: You are right. There would be no merit at all. Thankfully, that is not how the Way works. See, the fish don’t have free will. They cannot leave the water. They know nothing about the world outside the Way. There is, my friend, a difference between fish and humans. We have the ability to decide our actions. When we were first born, we did nothing at all, thus we were in the Way. We were pure and balanced. Yet when we began acting and deciding upon our lives, we chose to leave the Way. It is up to the person to return to the Way or not.

SENECA: Right.

LAO- TZE: However, when returning to be in the Way, one must do so effortlessly. Let’s say the baby has grown to be a sculptor. This man has spent five years trying to sculpt the perfect figure, flawless. He has cut himself various times, he has damaged a considering amount of material and has lost irrecoverable time. 

When this sculptor finally finishes his masterpiece and becomes a professional sculptor, he will know so much about his art that he will not need to think about it, it will come naturally. The man is in the Way. He is completely comfortable doing what he does, and he does so perfectly. He does not need to think about it.

SENECA: Now I have understood the phrase ‘like fish in the sea’. I believe this makes perfect sense. As much as I have chased the idea of a tranquil, balanced man, now I understand I was being

counterproductive. I will stop looking for perfection and instead focus on virtue. When virtue comes naturally, I will be a complete, balanced, tranquil man. And even though I will not be able to know, I will be in the Way. Also, I find that it will be useful to attach to material things in order to become what I wish and ought to become. If I do not detach from the material world, avoiding temptations will be harder.

LAO- TZE: You are correct. Except, I wish to modify your last statement. You do have to detach from the material world, but it is not only that from which you have to detach. It is from everything you have to detach. You have to forget concepts and ideas as exterior knowledge and become those concepts and ideas.

SENECA: That sounds logical. However, the material detachment is the most important one. Let´s say I am running for office. If I am detached from the material benefits winning would give me, such as money, I would be a much better, honest and transparent governor.

LAO-TZE: I believe we have finally agreed, it is necessary for a governor to resist these type of temptations.

The days passed and passed and Gautama thought about virtue. When he finally understood the idea behind the non-action, and stopped thinking so much, he awakened. Now he was in real life, he was in the correct path. He was in the Way. All he had to do was sit there. Or more precisely, not sit there.