| MC |
How
is death explained in the Tao tradition? |
| RHEE |
Here
again is an essential difference between
the Western tradition and the Eastern
tradition.
As Paul Tillich pointed out
in his book Courage To Be, psychoanalysis
and other Western ways of treating mental
problems can relieve neurotic fear,
but not the ontological fear. The ontological
fear is shared by everybody. You can
liberate yourself from it only by realizing
the Tao. When you don't have so-called
"the Mind of Life and Death,"
you can face death without fear accepting
it as a normal process of life. That's
the ultimate and total transcendence
of death. You know that Koreans have
had the custom of preparing their own
tombs and coffins while they are alive.
The Westerners would think it's weird.
But I heard that some Americans also
do the same thing nowadays. So-called
the existentialist philosophy of the
West indeed is based on the concern
in the issue of the ontological fear.
But they could never get the ultimate
solution. The ultimate solution is in
the practice of the Tao. |
| MC |
In
short, you mean that we can overcome
the fear of death and thus accept death
by practicing the Tao. |
| RHEE |
And
vice versa. Only when death is accepted,
the mind is emptied. As long as we have
fear of death, we can't see the Reality
as it is. |
| MC |
It
is said that one of the essential features
of the Eastern philosophy has been the
idea of the Tao... |
| RHEE |
But
seen from the perspective of the Tao,
ideas are nothing but deceptive illusions.
We may even say that to get rid of ideas
is the Tao. The whole reality as it
is here and now, not artificially constructed
ideas of it, is The Tao. |
| MC |
Then
we shouldn't say "the idea of the
Tao" but simply "the Tao." |
| RHEE |
The
point is that the Tao is not something
separate from reality. It is not ideas.
|
| MC |
I
guess our ancestors' lives were much
influenced by the Tao tradition. Were
they? |
| RHEE |
Yes,
they always were. In 1979, I visited
a psychoanalyst at London University,
and asked him of the difference between
Western and Eastern patients. |
| MC |
Is
there any difference? |
| RHEE |
Yes,
he told me of a very interesting difference:
the Asian patients were much concerned
with their previous lives while the
Western patients were much concerned
with the present, especially with doing
something. This implies a very substantial
difference between the East and West. |
| MC |
How? |
| RHEE |
According
to Erich Fromm's work To Have or To
Be?, "To Be" is to be concerned
in how to live, how to die, and what
to be. But the major concern of the
Western civilization has been "To
Have," hence all its neurotic features.
The desire to have something or to do
something generates neurosis. Lao-tzu
meant it with the concept "Doing,"
in contrast to "Non-Doing."
"Doing" is the same as neurosis
in the sense that both are grounded
in desires. On the contrary, "Non-Doing"
means "to be natural" without
manipulating reality according to one's
own desires. |
| MC |
Then
can we say that "To Be," not
"To Have," is a search for
the true Self? |
| RHEE |
Yes.
And that's none other than the Tao.
Trying to do or to have something is
to be against the Tao, for that kind
of activities are based on desire. |
