EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
Chinese Thought: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Science
Edward Slingerland, University of British Columbia
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E Laozi on Shutting Down the Prefrontal Cortex Notes taken on December 16, 2016 by Edward Tanguay |
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Laozi has the most literal sense of wu-wei
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in the sense of non-action, or do nothing
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he wants to
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shut down activity
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shut down the trying the society has encouraged us to do
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strip away desires, artificial hypocrisy and learning that's been laid on top of our natural desires
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Daodejing, Ch. 48
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"In the pursuit of learning, one does more each day, but in the pursuit of the Dao, one does less each day, one does less and less until one does nothing, and once one does nothing, nothing is left undone. Gaining the world is always accomplished by following no activity. As soon as one actively tries, one will fall short of gaining the world."
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stop trying
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but if you are able to read this book the Daodejing, you have already been learning for awhile
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you are already part of the elite
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we are already in a fallen world
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we've already done enough and need to prevent further degeneration
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get back to the naturalness that has been ruined
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how to get back to the natural
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his soteriological strategy
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to get back in touch with the Dao
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the way he wants you to do this is left unclear in the text
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probably done intentionally
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he doesn't want to set up any concrete practices because he doesn't want us to do anything
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but still wants to get us from state A to state B
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from being fallen to being in harmony with the Dao
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hints that he is affecting a kind of conceptual transformation
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the mysterious qualities of the text, the riddles, the rhymes
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Daodejing, Chapter 1
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"The Way that can be spoken of is not the enduring Way. The name that can be named is not the enduring name. Within this enigma is yet a deeper enigma. The gate of all mysteries."
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it's telling you that it is trying to teach you something paradoxical
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the practice of koan meditation
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something that doesn't make sense which frees you from rational thinking
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what is the sound of one hand clapping
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what did your face look like before you were born
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the idea is that your unhewn wood will come out after you get past this need for reason
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hints of possible physical practices
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Daeodejing, Chapter 10
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"Embracing your soul and holding on to the One, can you keep them from departing? Concentrating your qi [chee] and attaining utmost suppleness, can you be a child? Cleaning and purifying your enigmatic mirror, can you erase every flaw? When the portal of Heaven opens and closes, can you play the part of the female?"
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concentrating your qi
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concentrating on your breath
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cleaning and purifying your enigmatic mirror
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becomes a metaphor for the mind, make it empty through meditation
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portal of heaven
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references to physical sexual practices
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the early century CE, people claiming to be inspired by Laozi are doing meditation, breathing exercises, sexual gymnastics, tantric sexual practices, taking hallucinogens
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what your brain looks like in wu-wei
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the state they are trying to get you into from a neurological perspective is a state called transient hypofrontality
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transient = temporary
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hypo = lower
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frontality = prefrontal cortex
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people who do long-distance running describe getting this high
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they feel exaltation
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they feel at one with what they are doing
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they lose a sense of time
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they seem to be in a state of wu-wei
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when you are doing intense exercise, your body has to make decisions about where to put resources
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your muscles need energy
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it starts to shut down parts of your brain
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your brain is a very expensive organ and at some point your body says, ok, we're not using this part much, we are going to reduce its resources temporarily, and the first part that gets shut down is your prefrontal cortex
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your prefrontal cortex is your seat of conscious control
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ability to make decisions
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the seat of working memory
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the seat of consciousness
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where we keep our narrative sense of what's going on
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so if you are shutting down the prefrontal cortex, you are shutting down the conscious mind to some degree
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the shutting down of the prefontal cortex also occurs in sports, meditation, alcohol, drugs, and sex
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features of this state
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living in the present
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you feel peaceful
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a feeling of floating
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diminished working memory
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diminished attention ability
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a feeling of unity
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because your prefontal cortex discriminates you from others
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Laozi's metaphor: mind of a child
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prefrontal cortex is late in developing
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it's the most recent part of our brain to evolve
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it doesn't develop fully until late teens
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the goal is to go back to a more primitive part of the brain
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metaphors of going back home, being like a child again
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let's go back to using more simple parts of our cognitive apparatus
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state of naturalness
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"so of itself"
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in touch with natural natural, an assumption that we are good
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Daodejing, Chapter 25
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"People model themselves on the Earth. The Earth models itself on Heaven. Heaven models itself on the Way. The Way models itself on what is natural."
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authentic, spontaneous, acting in a way that heaven made you
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it's good in the sense that a fish swimming in water is good, not in the sense that self-conscious Confucians walk around saying that they are good
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it's not something you have to talk about or think about, it's just something that you do
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Laozi's soteriological strategy
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similar to Confucius
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you as a sage can attain a state of wu-wei
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get a ruler to embrace wu-wei, or naturalness
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will be able to influence the rest of the world to fall into this naturalness as well
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Daodejing, Chapter 57
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"I do nothing and the people transform themselves."
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Daodejing, Chapter 32
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"The Way is forever nameless. Unhewn wood is insignificant, yet no one in the world can master it."
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Confucian vs. Laozian De
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de = virtue
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they both want to get you into the state of wu-wei
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Confucian model
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de is something that the rule has
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he is the pole star, the center of the universe
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Laozian model
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rule is dark, like the valley, but all rivers come to it
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you emulate the way, which is dark and lowly
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Laozi's lost golden age
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primitive villages
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agricultural utopia
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no technology, no writing, no luxury goods
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no explicity morality
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people are living in perfect harmony with each other and the natural world
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one imagines a super-harmonious, primitive wonderland
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a very appealing image
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many societies have suggested this
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Rousseau: noble savage
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the back-to-nature-movements in the 1960s
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with self-conscious primitive technology
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today's counter-culture movements
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anti-GMO movements
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it is easy to be convinced that anything that is natural is good, and as soon as you start departing from the natural, it's bad
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people just have to say that something is modified, and it can easily be labeled as bad