Before meditating today I read this:

[From The Lao Tzu (Tao-Te Ching) as found in Wing-Tsit Chan (translator and compiler), A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, (1963), slightly adapted by Jonathan Freirich]

16.

Attain complete vacuity,

Maintain steadfast quietude.

All things come into being.

And I see thereby their return.

All things flourish,

But each one returns to its root.

This return to its root means tranquility.

It is called returning to its destiny.

To return to destiny is called the eternal (Tao).

To know the eternal is called enlightenment.

Not to know the eternal is to act blindly to result in disaster.

One who knows the eternal is all-embracing.

Being all-embracing, one is impartial.

Being impartial, one is comprehensive.

Being comprehensive, one is one with Nature.

Being one with Nature, one is in accord with Tao.

Being in accord with Tao, one is everlasting,

And free from danger throughout one’s lifetime.

Comment. In the philosophy of Lao The, Tao is revealed more fully through tranquility. The position of the Neo-Confucianists is just the opposite. They said that only through activity can the mind of Heaven and Earth be seen.

My thoughts:

I feel the deep connection between rabbinic thinking in the Talmud and the medieval Jewish mystical thinking in the Zohar as similar to the rationalist-mystic thread between Neo-Confucianism and Taoism. The Talmud counsels learning and merit, the Zohar counsels self-reduction, tzimtzum, in Hebrew - both are needed for healthy growth and functioning as individuals and in community.