The Wes Cecil Podcast

I realized that perhaps more helpful than comparing Taoism withing the context of Mohism, Legalism and Confucianism would be to compare it to Calvinism. Calvinism, derived from Platonism, is THE dominant cultural influence in much of the west and comparing the key elements of the Calvinist and Taoist worldviews side by side is, I hope, edifying.

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A lot of the narrative around our struggles with the modern world focuses on individual responsibility. However, the rates of stress, sleep troubles, prescription drug use, depression and more all point to a systemic problem not a personal one. Our struggles are neither personal nor accidental, the systems we inhabit seriously challenge our ability to live simple, human lives.

Join Wes on Patreon for a deeper dive into the ideas we explore on the podcast. It’s a space for lifelong learners — with bonus lectures, course materials, peer discussion, and audio diaries from France. Wes is active in the community and often engages directly with listener questions.
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Two tales from Chuang Tzu emphasize how we consistently pay too much attention to Language rather than Experience and hence stay confused. By emphasizing the importance of the individual and experiencing over knowing, Taoism consistently resists the concept of universal or even broad ‘truths’. When one learns to think in this fashion, it highlights how much we rely on agreeing with the ‘known’ to construct our sense of the world.

Join Wes on Patreon for a deeper dive into the ideas we explore on the podcast. It’s a space for lifelong learners — with bonus lectures, course materials, peer discussion, and audio diaries from France. Wes is active in the community and often engages directly with listener questions.
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Image credit: Thanato, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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As one cultivates a sense of the human it is difficult to not notice how inhuman much of the world is. Our encounters with people and the environment around us will be a constant reminder and challenge for pursuing our own humanity. The aftermath is a seemingly inescapable level of friction as one slowly unwinds both internal and external patterns that have shaped our outlook and habits for much of our lives. So a slight warning, be prepared - as with all adventures, there will be interesting challenges ahead.

Join Wes on Patreon for a deeper dive into the ideas we explore on the podcast. It’s a space for lifelong learners — with bonus lectures, course materials, peer discussion, and audio diaries from France. Wes is active in the community and often engages directly with listener questions.
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Besides a cultural bias towards action, we also have a strong drive towards suffering, overcoming, grit, drive etc. in pursuit of external goals. Taoism argues this is exactly the wrong approach. Acting without acting means to work in accordance with the Tao - as experienced through nature - and our own selves. When we cultivate the Tao and reject suffering, difficulty and similar experiences, the Tao flows through us and we live more fully and more easily.

Join Wes on Patreon for a deeper dive into the ideas we explore on the podcast. It’s a space for lifelong learners — with bonus lectures, course materials, peer discussion, and audio diaries from France. Wes is active in the community and often engages directly with listener questions.
Starting at $2/month.

Image credit: Thanato, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.