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Lao Tzu and his disciples came to a forest where hundreds of woodcutters were cutting on felled trees. The forest had been cut down except for one big tree with thousands of branches. It was so big that ten thousand persons could sit in its shade.
Lao Tzu asked his disciples to inquire why the tree had not been cut down. They asked a woodcutter. He replied, "This tree is absolutely useless. You cannot make anything out of it because every branch has so many knots. You cannot use it as fuel, for the smoke of this kind of tree is dangerous to the eyes. The tree is absolutely useless, that's why we haven't cut it."
The disciples told Lao Tzu. He laughed and said, "Be like this tree. If you are useful you will be cut and you will become furniture in a house. If you are beautiful you will be sold at market, you will become a commodity. Be like this tree, absolutely useless, and you will grow to be a wonderful shade for people."
Taoism reminds us of wisdom that sees importance in simplicity of being. Christian contemplatives speak of the same thing as the True Self.
Like the Taoist parable, the True Self is a paradoxical Truth. When living from the True Self, our shared Self before being shaped by creative existence in the dualities of time and space, we experience the truthfulness between extremes. This confounds the dualistic mind of human persons, persons who tend to extremes in all thought.
Within the paradoxes of the True Self, the Tao, we find that place of authenticity that, ironically, allows us to be useful by being useless. Jesus models this in the Gospels: being supremely impractical, he was supremely practical.
Like in the Taoist story, we are who we are, not because we are advantageous to society, any group, or any person. The True Self is inherently the Image of the Divine. That Image does not have to be useful or used to be wholly what it is: Wholeness.
Likewise, that Image is not individualistic, but communal. The Image is in communion; therefore, there is no True Self that is separate. The True Self, again paradoxically, is shaped in each person and, yet, is the True Self of everyone else. The Image of the Divine, ironically, parceled among so many persons, still loses nothing of the Wholeness that the Image is.
Thus, the Christian conception of the person is communal; he or she is freed from existential loneliness that is rampant among peoples living cut off from inherent Good and in subjection to the tyranny of usefulness. That is, to say a person is cut off from God is to say he or she is cut off, as well, from the Image of the Divine. That Image being personally collective, means, also, that the person is cut off from communion with other persons. Yes, the person--better, individual--may be existing alongside other persons, but cannot enjoy communion. For communion can only occur when two persons meet each other on the level of the shared True Self.
In communion, then, we experience a mystery. By relating to others and ourselves detached from societal norms of practicality and usefulness, from the deep resources of Holy Communion the will of God arises and we are most useful to others and ourselves. My words cannot explain this: nothing at the level of True Self is explainable.
Reflections
1. What does it mean that the True Self is the same Self as all other persons?
2. How can you be most useful by not aiming to be useful? How does this relate to the contemplative life? Contemplative prayer? Faith? Grace? Divine Providence?
3. What does it mean to say that we too easily allow ourselves to become commodities for other persons?
4. Is the stress on self-esteem related to the teaching of the True Self? If so, how? If not, why not?
*OneLife writings are offered by Brian K. Wilcox, a United Methodist pastor serving in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. Brian lives a vowed contemplative life with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis, in North Florida. OneLife writings are for anyone seeking to live and share love, joy, and peace in the world and in devotion to God as she or he best understands God.
**To be on a daily reading list to receive notifications of when a new OneLife writing is up, its title, and an excerpt, write briankwilcox@comcast.net .
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