I am confounded, at impasse to understand how the tao can be maintained in view in a 21st century context of technology. Our species has been designated “homo faber” man-the-maker on account of the application of reason for tool making. Untold generations lived upon the earth between “discovery” of methods for making fire, and the stampede to develop AI. The AI repercussions however will follow the same recursive logic. Our species will reverberate with the consequences of what we have done. No individual is an island, immune from our hubris…

Maybe, just maybe — an extended, widespread meditation upon the tao is exactly what we need… The regenerative power of the tao inheres because it cannot be possessed, monetized, franchised …

Shun asked Cheng, his chief minister,
“Can I find the tao and guard it as mine?”

Cheng replied, You do not even possess your body
–how could you obtain the tao and keep it?”

Shun asked, “If I do not possess my body,
who possesses it?”

Cheng replied, “Heaven and earth have entrusted you with your bodily form.
Your inherent nature is not yours to possess. It is the conjunction of the harmony
of heaven and earth entrusted to you. Your grandsons and sons are not yours to
possess, for they are the shed skin of animals or insects entrusted to you by
heaven and earth.

Therefore we should walk without knowing where we are going,
remain where we are without knowing why, and eat without knowing
what we taste. All this is carried out by the strength of the power of yang in heaven
and earth.

How then could you obtain and possess the tao?

Zhuangzi by Zhuang Zhou, trans. by Hyunn Höchsmann and Yang Guorong, Book 22 knowledge Wanders in the North

Music, music, more music! This song is for you! I’ll Play For You by Seals and Crofts