The Scientific Tao Traveler

When you read psychology books one author will tell you that our brain is designed to read meaning into randomness, while the other might tell you that everything that happens to you has meaning and it is yours to find it. This seems like a downsized debate on whether there is a personal God or not, and like the big debate, one thought system can never convince the other.

The French Surrealist Albert Camus once said that the most meaningless way to die would be in a car accident. Well, as coincidence had it, he died in a car accident and the accident seemed really pointless as he had a train ticket to Paris in his pocket. In the last moment a friend convinced him to drive him the distance by car instead. So it almost appears that you create the symbolic journey that works for you. If you believe in the randomness of the universe and a pointless life you get what you want and if you believe in meaning, you search until you find that too. Carl Gustav Jung reported that after he had identified the theme of Synchronicity he experienced meaningful 'coincidences' everywhere but when he stopped looking for them they disappeared.

I believe that our psychological journey has only meaning to offer, but I also keep an eye out to the possibility that I might be deluding myself.You can be a Tao traveler and a scientist at the same time. You just make your thesis that every interaction, every occurrence is meaningful to you and fits in a bigger plot. You follow closely to what people say, you get completely absorbed by the now. And if after your experiments you feel frustrated like Albert Camus was by his life events, well then you just change your perspective. What else can you do?

 In my experience such a day of disappointment never really comes once the Tao has gotten of you, but then, please don't take me as an authority. Only you can be the judge, only you can establish a bond with this magnificent Force, no one else can do it for you. Try to be honest with yourself. In the end you do have to end up reaching that stage that Jesus described as 'By their fruits will you recognize them and they will recognize themselves'. Enjoy your magnificent experiment!