Reference: Pursuit of Understanding
- Tao Te Ching, A New English Version by Stephen Mitchell.
Scientology begins with the Tao. It works to the extent it parallels the Tao. It ends up going against the Tao. Scientology departed from attaining toward harmony and equanimity and headed instead toward attempting to conquer the natural balance that is the universe in which we live. That leads to the creation of ego, mental mass, conflict, individuation, and ultimate misery. It effectuates that departure by mocking up constructs as reality, complete with imagined or created or adopted nemeses, enemies, fears, paranoias, and delusions of superiority.
In a later recommended reading selection, Ram Dass relates the following in its preface:
When my Guru wanted to complement me, he called me simple; when he wished to chide me, he called me clever.
Somewhere along the line Scientology strayed from assisting toward simplicity and attempted to instill cleverness.
There is no better orientation, or re-orientation, to the power and truth of simplicity than the Tao Te Ching. Of the many translations I have read, Stephen Mitchell’s best captures that simplicity by not tacking on the cleverness that other interpreters have injected into it.
After faithfully applying all that Scientology has to offer, and after thirty-five years of interacting with and observing the best of those who did likewise, the following passage from the Tao Te Ching struck me like a bolt from the blue:
Do you have the patience to wait
till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action arises by itself?
I asked myself, ‘have I mastered this ability?’ The answer was ‘no.’ I asked myself whether I had seen other Scientologists who had, including L. Ron Hubbard. And the answer again was ‘no; quite the contrary.’ With some work, including following the course of study I have outlined in the recommended reading, I began to learn why the answers to my questions were ‘no’. Through practice I learned that this ability alone was far more powerful or ‘OT’ than anything Scientology had to offer. In fact, following Scientology assiduously, and exclusively as it dictates it is to be practiced, barred the door to its attainment.
The first step toward its attainment was to learn a little something about the Tao.
Moving On Up a Little Higher 