Dao De Jing’s Constant Dao

Among my [RLK] favorite lines in all philosophical literature are the deceptively simple opening lines of the Dao De Jing, the Chinese classic text that is the foundation of Daoism. “The Dao [Ultimate Reality, Way] that can be spoken of [expressed] is not the Constant [Eternal] Dao; the Name that can be named [understood] is not the Constant [Eternal] Name” (道可道非常道; 名可名非常名). “Dao” (道) refers to “Ultimate Reality” but also means “Way” or “Path.” “Constant” comes from “Chang” (常), which also means “invariable” and may connote “eternal.” “Name” comes from “Ming” (名), which also means “to name,” and as a homophone of the character “Ming” (明), may connote “to understand.”

The verses are nuanced, even vague, perhaps deliberately so, allowing high variance in interpretive translation. The core sense, however, seems to be that whatever you think the Dao may be, it is not that, and whatever you think the Name may be, it also is not that.

Opening Verses and Their Meaning

Sinologist and translator Joseph Pratt says it's hard to read those first lines and not think that the Dao is the source and manifestation of conscious experience or awareness and not think that the Name is the related cognition or thoughts. Supporting evidence comes from the Dao De Jing's Chapter 42 cosmogenic process: “The Dao begets the One, the One begets the Two, the Two begets the Three, the Three begets the Ten Thousand Things” (which includes human beings) (Pratt, 2020).

In short, the Dao (or Consciousness) and the Name (or Cognition) are both “Constant” or “Eternal” (常), giving rise to the YinYang of Consciousness and Cognition and eventually to the individual phenomenological dynamic of Consciousness, including Cognition and Form/Thinghood. So, in this ancient text, according to Pratt, consciousness is really the first thing and the last thing.

Dao, Flow, and Nothingness

Moreover, the Zhuangzi, the other of Daoism's main founding texts, refers frequently to the ideal of a flow state, including in the context of armed combat. Though sometimes considered to be an “unconscious” or “less conscious” condition, from the Daoist perspective a flow state is a deeper state of consciousness. Both the Zhuangzi and the Dao De Jing could be considered guides for cultivating such a condition (Pratt, 2020, 2023).

Personally, my long interest in the Dao De Jing's opening verses is rooted in my long interest in Nothing, the metaphysics/ontology of Leibniz's haunting question, “Why is there Something rather than Nothing?” “Why is there anything at all?” In my essay, “Levels of Nothing,” I pose nine levels of increasing Nothingness (or decreasing Somethingness). If consciousness is not fundamental, it would disappear at the most simplistic level of Nothing, Nothing Level 1. If consciousness is fundamental, it wouldn't disappear until Nothing Level 7 (Kuhn, 2013).