Conversation with Richard May (“May-Tzu”/“MayTzu”/“Mayzi”) on Daoism and Neo-Daoism: Co-Editor, “Noesis: The Journal of the Mega Society” (12)
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/02/15
Conversation with Richard May (“May-Tzu”/“MayTzu”/“Mayzi”) on Daoism and Neo-Daoism: Co-Editor, “Noesis: The Journal of the Mega Society” (12)
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: When it comes to the poetry and written work by you, I’ve always encountered a great deal of Daoist influence on you, or maybe the other way around. Regardless, let’s start with defining, potentially the undefinable, but we can flail! How do you characterize the Dao?
May-Tzu: I have written an exhaustive disquisition on the Tao below following the number 1 and preceding 2.
1.
2.
I cannot fully appreciate the Tao of Lao-Tzu and Juang-Tzu , because I do not read or speak Chinese. — — Perhaps if one could synthesize Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle with Alfred Korzybski’s formulation that “the map is not the territory” …
I used to go to lectures by the “macrobiotic” Taoist teacher Michio Kushi in Boston, when I was in my thirties. (He once referred to me as “great thinker,” I think because I sat in the back of the room, which was “yin,” and have a large head.) Mr. Kushi said that he would teach everyone how to live to be 120 years old. He also said that “cancer is our friend.” He died at age eighty-eight of cancer. His philosophical predecessor, George Oshawa, unintentionally caused the death of his infant child by feeding it highly excessive quantities of salt, NaCl. The subtleties of the Tao could not fail to impress me.
“The Twelve Theorems of the Unique Principle
- Yin-Yang are two poles which enter into play when the infinite expansion mani- fests itself at the point of bifurcation.
- Yin-Yang are produced continually by the transcendental expansion.
- Yin is centrifugal. Yang is centripetal. Yin and Yang produce energy.
- Yin attracts Yang. Yang attracts Yin.
- Yin and Yang combined in variable pro- portion produce all phenomena.
- All phenomena are ephemeral, being of infinitely complex constitutions and con- stantly changing Yin and Yang compo- nents. Everything is without rest.
- Nothing is totally Yin or totally Yang, even in the most apparently simple phe- nomenon. Everything contains a polarity at every stage of its composition.
- Nothing is neutral. Yin or Yang is in excess in every case.
- The force of attraction is proportional to the difference of the Yin and Yang components.
- Yin repels Yin and Yang repels Yang. The repulsion is inversely proportional to the difference of the Yin and Yang forces.
- With time and space, Yin produces Yang, and Yang produces Yin.
- Every physical body is Yang at its center and Yin toward surface.
The Seven Laws of the Order of the Universe
- What has a beginning has an end.
- What has a front has a back.
- There is nothing identical.
- The bigger the front, the bigger the back.
- Every antagonism is complemen- tary.
- Yin and Yang are the classifica- tions of all polarization. They are antagonistic and complementary.
- Yin and Yang are the two arms of One (Infinite).”
The 12 theorems of the unique principle and 7 laws of the order of the universe are from the 1962 French edition of “The Atomic Era and the Philosophy of the Far East” as translated by Michael and Maria Chen. https://ohsawamacrobiotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/macrobiotic-principles-2013.pdf
Jacobsen: How do Daoism and neo-Daoism define the Dao?
May-Tzu: “The term “Neo-Daoism” (or “Neo-Taoism”) seeks to capture the focal development in early medieval Chinese philosophy, roughly from the third to the sixth century C.E.”
— The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Jacobsen: I’ve read Dao can be read as a noun or as a verb. How does this work?
May-Tzu: Don’t recall.
The Tao that can’t be Taoed isn’t the Tao.
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