Elsewhere on this site, I point out the inevitable spiritual tone that emerges from the study of the logically deduced patterns of nature put forth within the book All Things Are Numbers. Among all the ideas presented in the book All Things Are Numbers, the concept known as The Absentia is probably the most curious. What this study calls "The Absentia" might, to some minds, be roughly comparable to what some call "Brahman." It might also bear some resemblence to what others refer to as "The Tao" but with some subtle differences, at least in how I attempt to describe this indescribable force of nature. In this system of analysis, The Absentia is the ultimate neither. The Absentia is neither physical nor spiritual. Yet, at the same time, it is both physical and spiritual. It is Chicken and Egg in one, and neither Chicken nor Egg at all. It is a beginningless beginning that births the nothingness of our universe, out of which galactic-like spirals of something emerge.

Most philosophies include some kind of ineffable "Godforce" or indescribable state or point of enlightenment that resides beyond our concepts of a Universe. But in some cases, some of these philosophies seem a bit misleading in the way they describe this state, or in the way they point to it. Some seem to go too far in their pursuit of it, at times seeming to dehumanize Humanity in their pursuit of Divinity. By clinging to concepts of not clinging, recipies are at time easier written than lived.

The Tao Te Ching has many good ideas. But the net result of how we are to live can seem a long way off to many. And the cumulative result of instruction can mislead. To start us on our way to understanding the unobtainable, I wrote a verse of my own, that could probably fit right in with the Tao Te Ching. But is it The Absentia?

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The Way to Tao.

Like an animal in the wild, or an ancient primitive:

Don't do anything other than what comes naturally,
... to survive and navigate from one day to the next.

Don't carry any ambition to improve your life - just live it.
Don't carry any ambition to understand your life - just live it.

Don't attempt to express yourself - just live and die.
Don't attempt to explain yourself - just live and die.

Don't examine your life - just live it.
Don't question your life - just live it.

Everything in its own time.
Everything in its own way.
Just take what comes
... come what may.

Don't force it.

Don't Struggle.
Don't strive.
Don't try.

Don't make plans.
Don't participate.
Don't act.

Don't revel.
Don't regret.
Don't remember.

Don't have passion.
Don't show enthusiasm.
Don't adopt likes and dislikes.

Leave no mark.

Don't lead.
Don't follow.
Don't protect.
Don't defend.

Don't request.
Don't provide.
Don't desire.
Don't want.

Don't own.
Don't possess.
Don't value life.
Don't fear death.

Easy come, easy go.

Don't do.
Don't think.
Don't ask why.

Don't be fooled by the illusory discriminations
... of opposites like good or bad, or right or wrong.

Don't be fooled by the illusory fragmentations
... of duality, diversity, complexity and multiplicity.

Put away your books and studies.
Abandon the material world.
Abandon your physical body.

Stop being so human!

Transcend!

Be one with everpresent, everlasting oneness.

Be the eye, not the hurricane.
Be innocent, like a child.
Be alone, like a hermit.
Be simple, like a fool.

Be empty, not full.

Be passive.
Be quiet.
Be still.

Basically...
Be as unborn and discarnate as you can possibly be.
Crawl back into the womb.
Seal up the cosmic egg
... from which you were hatched
... and never come out.

If you can.

Can you?

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Verse 82 of the Tao Te Ching!
Respectfully submitted for your consideration by -Guy Palm

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If you could crawl back into the womb, seal up the Cosmic Egg from which you were hatched, and never come out... it might be Tao; the question is, can you? CAN you seal up the Cosmic Egg from which everything and everyone was hatched? I don't think so (see The Way elsewhere on this site). The whole idea of an egg metaphor is not just in how it hatches something, but also, in the characteristically one way nature of hatching, or any kind of birthing, and how, as a process, it can NOT be run in reverse! Thus, in considering the meaning of this verse, and whether it points the way to Tao or not, it would be my contention that if you did every POSSIBLE thing this verse suggests, it would NOT be Tao! If you did every possible thing this verse suggests, it would only get you to the spiritual unity of nothingness... not Tao. The point here being... that you could do just as well following either of the ways this verse suggests, it doesn't matter. Better yet, be both, because only by cultivating an awareness of both could you ever hope to be neither, and only by being neither could you ever find Tao. So it would be my contention that Tao is neither of these. But I would also contend that the title of this verse is not a complete misnomer. You just need to answer the closing questions the right way to find the way (see The Holy Grail of Gray Mandala in the essay Stop Being So Human, elsewhere on this site).

Tao is not physical and not spiritual... it is paradoxically both, and neither at the same time! Thus, within the confines of the tarot universe being discussed on this web site, Tao can only be spoken of by way of paradox.

However you try to add to it,
it can't be increased;
however you try to take from it,
it can't be diminished.

In my opinion, that statement points to the most critical aspect of Tao - specifically, that it does not belong to any universe where things can be added to or taken from. In other words, it doesn't belong to any universe at all, meaning:

You can increase forever and never find it.
... and
you can decrease forever and never find it.

Or, likewise:

You can compound to complexity and never find it
... and
you can reduce to simplicity and never find it.

Or, as Verse 82 suggests: The Tao, is not part of whatever universe is attempting to find it. Thus it is ultimately and infinitely unfindable by any means! Yet, it permeates our existence!! It permeates our existence by being necessarily excluded from it. In other words, we are here, because it isn't. Thus it is, that in this study of patterns in nature, we label this absent quality by calling it The Absentia.

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The Cosmic Wheel Mandala

Here is a mandala you can use to meditate on this idea of a godforce that is not part of the universe that is attempting to perceive it, while at the same time having an inexorable influence upon the inhabitants of that universe. The large gear is the infinite universe, symbolized by the infinite spiral inside. The spiral also symbolizes how you can increase forever and never find this paradoxical godforce, and you can decrease forever and never find it. The gear of paradox, outside the universe, turns the opposite direction as the universe, and the model of existence inside, making its position characteristically unique and symbolically not compatible with the universe it moves. The point where all three gears come together, is a point of unity; the point where a model of existence, attempting to understand its universe, encounters the unity of nothingness, and where the unity of nothingness encounters the unity of paradox (see The Tree Unities elsewhere on this site). The larger gear is like a glass ceiling that we will never pass beyond, it is an enclosure we can see through but cannont pass through.

The outer gear, with dotted circle, and stylized Paradox/Godforce/Mobius/Tao/Absentia symbol within, is The Cosmic Egg. It births the universe below. The universe then grows in complexity. The spiralling in the large gear represents this idea of compounding complexity that is the inevitable result of any universe that is hatched. Around and around we go, forever increasing our universe through acquired knowledge and experience. But we can NEVER return to the egg that hatched us. We can become nothing, and know that unity. But we, as living beings within an infinite universe, can NEVER know the egg that hatched us and our universe.

The large gear, and the large dotted circle are both unities. Paradox/Godforce/Mobius/Tao/Absentia is, by law, not part of any universe attempting to find it. So it is a unity that cannot be known or even spoken. The universe is another unity. It is a unity that can be known... or at least spoken. Together they form the Vesica Piscis: the Pythagorean notion of monad reflecting itself into a universe, creating a dyad of duality. In the "fish bladder" of the Vesica Piscis, sits the fourfold model of existence being put forth within the pages of this site, with spinning arms of galactic-like rotation. That circle is you; inside a universe... inside two unities that equal a cosmic duality, with a sense that there is some unseen, unknowable force that drives the gears of your mechanical universe. Together, these three circles represent The Three Unities of::

The outer gear, with dotted circle, and stylized Paradox/Godforce/Mobius/Tao/Absentia symbol within, is The Primum Mobile. With this mandala, our universe is analagous to a playpen... infinite in scope, with every kind of toy we can imagine. The external Paradox/Godforce/Mobius/Tao/Absentia is then comparable to the nurturing parent who sits just out of reach, making sure our cradle is perpetually rocked (or in this case rotated), and who we eventually long to connect with, or whose womb we long to crawl back into. In some philosophies, this reunion is seen as entirely possible. In this philosophy, however, the outer circle represents a form of absentia that makes it more comparable to a hands-off God, allowing us to develop by ourselves. In this way, the Paradox/Godforce/Mobius/Tao/Absentia/Cosmic Egg/Womb is like a parent sitting on a park bench watching the children play and not intervening when we encounter the evils of life comparable to falling down and skinning our knees. Thus, the philosophical "problem of evil" is avoided by the notion of an absentee God who give us the free will to develop as we will. Like the analogy of a string leaving a spinning top, given elsewhere on this site, the Paradox/Godforce/Mobius/Tao/Absentia/Cosmic Egg/Womb that hatched our universe is unknowable. It is a beginningless beginning that leads to nothing and something, and then departs.

For those who want to insist that God is not absentee (see Consider the Source elsewhere on this site), and that God is in fact here helping us, a divine connection can be theorized between the detached and unknowable God, and the universe it (or "He") creates. Comparable to the parent on the park bench analogy, where the parent leaves us alone for skinned knees, but provides miracles of help when we fall from the monkey bars and crack our heads open, miracles of healing would actually fulfill the criteria of being impossible acts of an impossible God! (see The Absentia elsewhere on this site).

What some call The Tao, or what this study calls The Absentia, is not part of whatever universe is attempting to find it. Thus it is ultimately and infinitely unfindable by any means! Yet, it permeates our existence!! It permeates our existence by being necessarily excluded from it. In other words, we are here, because it isn't. The meaning of life is outside. You are inside. Good luck!

The Paradox/Godforce/Mobius/Tao/Absentia/Cosmic Egg/Womb is perplexing, to say the least.

It is like nothing you can conceive
... yet
it is the source of everything you conceive.

Likewise:

You cannot hold it with body nor mind
... yet
it is the source of your body and mind.

It allows you to conceive of everything... except it. You can't draw it, it draws you!

I too can not draw it, but mandalas like this one are a fun way to try. If you are interested in seeing some more thoroughly hypocritical diagrams of this perplexing "glass ceiling" to enlightenment, I have employed a pattern from nature that you might be familiar with. It's called the Fibonacci Sequence. In a sense, the Fibonacci Sequence also has two unities, just like the mandala above. When viewed this way, we can see how the unity of a monad doesn't just acknowledge itself, or reflect itself, and by doing so create the duality of a dyad, we can see how it actually reflects itself, and creates another monad. Those two monads together then equal the first duality of our subsequently evolving universe. So in that sense, monad plus monad equals dyad... just as 1 + 1 = 2 in the opening stages of the Fibonacci Sequence. The universe then expands with exponentially explosive, Fibonacce dimensionality. If you are interested in exploring this idea of monad plus monad further, read on...

If you are interested in more hypocritical explanation of The Absentia, read on...