Beyond Truth and Lies
We can become overwhelmed in a world that is dominated by an ever present Artificial Intelligence filtered and directed social media - information manipulated ‘at’ us. Bombarded by a continuous stream of information it is perhaps unsurprising that we can revert to accepting absolute conditions, we see something as either being a lie or it is a truth. A world increasingly polarised into opposing viewpoints (Fridlund et al 2023).
This polarisation of viewpoints is hardly surprising. If we were to try and unpick each utterance, step back and explore elements that can be both a lie and a truth, our minds can become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of biased media information that we are being presented with.
How we perceive both our external world as well as our internal thoughts are influenced by the meaning we attribute to language including the manipulation of the words that are used. This is by no means a modern issue, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche reflected on the use of language stating; ‘truths are illusions’ the meaning of words being ‘metaphors that have worn out and become sensually powerless’ (Ferrer 2020, p.123). The term sensually used here is perhaps significant and represents the central focus of our relationship with our relationship between truth and lies discussed later.
If the manipulation - meaning attributed to words is so fluid how can we avoid being overwhelmed by biased media information? How can we avoid being triggered into anger, fear or perhaps that most damaging of overwhelmed states simply shutting down?
Before Truth and Lie - Wu Chi
In Chinese philosophy opposites including truth and lie can be seen as yin and yang (Hunt 2024). However, there exists a state before the opposites of yin and yang come into existence called Wu Chi (Horwood 2008 p5). This is often translated as nothingness. However, the meaning perhaps needs to be clarified in terms of translation, culture and context (Zukav 1979 p.33). Jou (1981 p.87) explains Wu Chi as ‘something that cannot be comprehended rationally’ and that ‘there is nothing, yet certainly there is something’. As an explanation he states ‘the relationship between a person and a piano is Wu Chi if he has no intention of playing it’ (Jou 1981 p.88).
Suzuki’s discourse on Zen Buddhism discusses something very much like Wu Chi ‘a state of no-image, or shadowlessness (nirabhdsa)’ defined as ‘a spiritual state of absolute purity in which one finds no traces of dualism. It is a complete identification of the self with the suchness or thusness (tathatd) of things, and there is no thought of birth, abiding, and disappearance, seeing that all things start from the evolution of one's own mind (svacitta).’ (Suzuki 1998 p97). More accurately this may be seen as a more refined state of Wu Chi when through practice a person ‘becomes one with the Tao’ or Chen Yen (Horwood 2008 p.vi).
So how can we step away from the mental gymnastics of separating lie and truth within each media rant and think of nothing? And is thinking of nothing the same as being overwhelmed and shutting down?
Well personally I can state that I have never been able to find a meditative state of empting my mind and think of nothing. I would also suggest that there is a very big difference between intentionally becoming calm and unintentionally being triggered, being overwhelmed into unconsciously shutting down. But all is not lost, we can take some tips from Embodied Tai Chi to distract and calm the mind – meditation for people who can’t meditate!
You may already have experienced this state of consciousness, it is like ‘being in the zone’, how we sometimes feel when undertaking a repetitive physical activity. It can happen when driving, swimming, long distance walking or even working our way through that ironing pile.
The Calm in Doing Nothing - wu wei
The way to the nothingness of Wu Chi can be described as ‘wu wei’ often translated as non action. Watts (1957 p.41) goes further stating wu wei as being no or non; ‘action, making, doing, striving, straining or busyness.’ Non action is a way to give focus to a restless mind, to distract the restlessness by paying attention to what is. ‘The idea is not to reduce the human mind to a moronic vacuity, but to bring into play its innate and spontaneous intelligence by using it without forcing it’ (Watts 1957 p.41). In the same way the non action of wu wei can be related to the Buddhist state of anabhogacarya; ‘no efforts are made, no consciousness of strain is left though he is far from being a sleepy lethargic good-for-nothing fellow now.’ (Suzuki 1998 p224). So like wu wei anabhogacarya is very different from not thinking – shutting down. By paying attention to the sensation and feeling of the muscles, tendons or facia of our breathing and movement we can distract the mind from wondering through listening to our physical self in that moment. Zen Buddhism describes this as suchness; ‘You just have to stop your mind and listen, or watch. Then you will be relating to Suchness, the Suchness of the moment, the as-is-ness.’(Sumedho 2014).
Thomas Merton exploring his own Christian faith through the Buddhist philosophy of anabhogacarya, he relates this innocents stating; ‘When knowledge is awakened in the Garden of Eden where Innocents prevails, the differentiation of good and evil takes place.’ (Merton 1968 p104). Here Innocents is related to Wu Chi, the wu wei of paying attention only to the moment while Knowledge can be seen as the mind making judgement, truth or lie.
In the practice of Tai Chi the aim of the beginning posture is to become Wu Chi, the wu wei of non action. The Tai Chi form only then begins finding opposites within movement. Our weight on one leg makes it yang so the other leg must be yin. The Wu Chi posture also used in Qigong requires the mind to pay attention to our balance, to be open and relaxed through our most efficient alignment with gravity. We become intent on our breathing, air being drawn in to our lungs or allowed to calmly leave our body.
So rather than empty the mind we have the intention to distract it by paying attention to each moment, in this case our breath and our physical alignment with gravity. There are no opposites, the only reality is that fleeting moment. A moment when air is being drawn in or it is flowing out, it can’t be both in the moment. It was and will be different, but that’s a thing of past and future. The flow of breathe is what it is, what we perceive through sensation in any one moment. There are no opposites, no lies, no truths.
Here we do not picture or visualise the action of breathing, this is not just a mental process. When practicing Embodied Tai Chi we pay attention to the internal physical sensation or feeling of each breath. We become more sensitive to our internal physical action. When we move we become sensitive towards, have a deeper perception of our sense of balance. Our movement becomes a ‘dance with gravity’. Reflecting on Friedrich Nietzsche (Ferrer 2020, p.123) perhaps we can describe this as becoming ‘sensually’ powerful.
These are not new concepts in the Western world, Thomas Merton drew on these Eastern methods in the practice of his own Christian faith stating; ‘My God, I pray better to you by breathing and walking than by talking…’ (Merton 1995 p.161).
Conclusion
Here we have suggested perhaps two human responses towards being overwhelmed by an increasing volume of biased media information;
…simply shutting down and not caring or
…no longer attempting to discern what part is truth and what part is a lie, simply adopting a rigid unquestioning polarised viewpoint.
However, we can move beyond truth and lies by learning to bring our perception back to the inner working of our own physical body. We simply become aware of the physical feeling and sensations in the moment. We may even extend that way of perceiving to the world beyond the working of our physical self.
This calm state of being may act to prevent our minds being overwhelmed. It also enables our mind to have ‘time out’ so that we can eventually return to unfolding biased media information into that part of it that is truth and what part is a lie.
It may also allow space for unsought thoughts, perceptions, inspiration, intuition or even some form of epiphany. Merton (1968 p105) cites DT Suzuki who states; ‘out of the Emptiness of the Mind a thought mysteriously rises and we have the world of multiplicities’. We can perhaps all learn to find a state of perception beyond truth and lies. As the 13th century poet and philosopher Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī stated;
‘Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn't make any sense’ (Barks and Moyne 1995)
References
Barks Coleman and Moyne John (1995) The Essential Rumi ; https://allpoetry.com/out-beyond-ideas , Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (1273) Out Beyond Ideas Reprinted with the permission of Coleman Barks, Translated from Persian by Coleman Barks and John Moyne, from The Essential Rumi, published by HarperCollins, accessed 22nd March 2024
Capra Fritjof (1983) The Tao of Physics; London, Flamingo
Ferrer Daniel Fidel (2020) Nietzsche’s seven notebooks from 1876; Translations and illuminations by Daniel Fidel Ferrer, https://archive.org/details/nietzsches-seven-notebooks-from-1876/page/n25/mode/2up , accessed 22nd March 2024
Fridlund Patrik, Goldman Aaron James and Andersson Rickard (2023) Beyond Truth and Lies - Conspiracy Theories, Post-Truth, and the Conditions of Public Debate; Lund University, The joint faculties of humanities and theology, https://www.beyondtruthandlies.ht.lu.se/ , accessed 22nd March 2024
Hunt David (2024) The Yin Yang of the Lie said to the Truth; Blog dated 23rd March 2024, https://embodiedtaichi.org/blog/the-yin-yang-of-the-lie-said-to-the-truth
Horwood Graham (2008) Tai Chi Chaun and the Code of Life; Singing Dragon, London
Jou Tsung Hwa ((1988) The Tao of Tai Chi Chuan, Way to Rejuvenation; New York, Tai Chi Foundation
Merton Thomas (1995) Entering the Silence: Becoming a Monk & Writer; https://www.azquotes.com/author/10004-Thomas_Merton/tag/walking and https://archive.org/details/enteringsilenceb0000mert , accessed 27th August 2024
Merton Thomas (1968) Zen and the Birds of Appetite; New York, New Direction Books
Sumedho Ajahn (2014) Tathata or Suchness; https://buddhismnow.com/2014/11/21/tathata-or-suchness/ , accessed 2nd September 2024
Suzuki DT (1998) Studies in the Lankavatara Sutra; ISBN 81-215-0833-9, Originally published in 1930, New Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd.,
Watts Alan (1957) The Way of Zen; Suffolk, Pelican Books
Zukav Gary (1979) The Dancing Wu Li Masters; New York, Morrow Quill
