A Taoism Vision of Mind-Body Unity
Sharisse Kanet, PhD, Worcester State University, Worcester, MA
The Taoist creation story envisions an undifferentiated unity that, somehow, broke. This break created the first existent thing from whence the “ten thousand” things (i.e. everything in the universe) eventually came. One characterization of the Taoist project is that we can retrace our existential steps back to this beginning, before differentiation, and become unified with all things once again.
A particular false division that human consciousness creates is the mind-body duality. Much Western philosophy and science has bought into this distinction wholesale, often analyzing (as Descartes did) or aiming to treat (as most modern medicine does) one without the other. At first glance, one might see Taoists as falling into the same trap, often focusing on the internal and underplaying the importance of the physical. However, on a deeper reading, Taoists believe in the indubitable unity of these realms.
The Taoist philosophy of disability, illness, and death makes clear that the physical body is just one manifestation of universal energy. Our emotions and thoughts are, likewise, mere manifestations that do not fundamentally differ in kind. In fact, all existent things have the same ultimate nature. To conceive of disability, illness, and death as harms is to misunderstand the nature of life and of reality. This causes people much unnecessary suffering. The Taoist vision of spiritual progression is following the Way back to wholeness, thereby altering our conceptions of health and illness, of life and death.
A particular false division that human consciousness creates is the mind-body duality. Much Western philosophy and science has bought into this distinction wholesale, often analyzing (as Descartes did) or aiming to treat (as most modern medicine does) one without the other. At first glance, one might see Taoists as falling into the same trap, often focusing on the internal and underplaying the importance of the physical. However, on a deeper reading, Taoists believe in the indubitable unity of these realms.
The Taoist philosophy of disability, illness, and death makes clear that the physical body is just one manifestation of universal energy. Our emotions and thoughts are, likewise, mere manifestations that do not fundamentally differ in kind. In fact, all existent things have the same ultimate nature. To conceive of disability, illness, and death as harms is to misunderstand the nature of life and of reality. This causes people much unnecessary suffering. The Taoist vision of spiritual progression is following the Way back to wholeness, thereby altering our conceptions of health and illness, of life and death.