The Point?

How can these three divergent topics possibly be related? Well, first of all, according to all three, we as human beings are caught in an endless cycle of assumption and illusion. Tang Yi-Jie feels "that the fundamental principle of life was to make spirit revert to its virginal truth or reality and that life would then conform to the tao (the way of nature)." (8) What does this mean? Maybe it means that human beings need to stop living in illusion. Maybe it means that in order to fully grasp the true reality, one must dig deeper into the self. Maybe it means that as long as there is striving for something, the "virginal truth" can never be achieved.

According to the Buddha, the origin of suffering is desire. (9) Desire for what? Desire for anything. How does one avoid desire? By doing nothing. Perhaps Wei Wu Wei said it best:

"Absolute absence is also absolute presence.
But the absence of presence-and-absence
Is the inconceivable truth." (
10)

So here we are in the land of oppositions. They occur everywhere. In literature, language, science, and philosophy. What do we do with this information? We dig deeper.

P.S. One more example of the Endless Chain of Signifiers--you're there now--The Internet. Think about it, endless links that have no concrete beginning or end. Sound familiar?

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