Gregory J. Johanson - Grace Unfolding

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint:
Macmillan Publishing Company for excerpts from The Way of Lao Tzu (Tao-te ching) translated by Wing-tsit Chan. Copyright 1963 by Bobbs-Merrill. HarperCollins Publishers for excerpts from Tao: A New Way of Thinking by Chang Chung-Yuan. Copyright 1975 by Chang Chung-Yuan and from Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, translated by Stephen Mitchell. Copyright 1988 by Stephen Mitchell. Alfred A. Knopf Inc., for excerpts from Lao Tzu/Tao Te Ching by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English. Copyright 1972 by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English. Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., for excerpts from Lao-Tzu/Te-Tao Ching translated by Robert G. Henricks. Copyright 1989 by Robert G. Henricks. Penguin Books Ltd. for an excerpt from Tao Te Ching: The Book of Meaning and Life by Lao Tzu, translation by Richard Wilhelm, translated into English by H. G. Oswald (Arkana, 1985), English translation copyright Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985. Shambhala Publications, Inc., 300 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, MA 02115, for excerpts from Tao Teh Ching by Lao Tzu, translated by John C. H. Wu. Copyright 1961 by St. Johns University Press, New York.

Copyright 1991 by Gregory J. Johanson and Ronald S. Kurtz
Illustrations 1991 by Charles J. Chu

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Originally published in hardcover by Bell Tower in 1991.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Johanson, Gregory J.
Grace unfolding : psychotherapy in the spirit of the Tao-te ching / by Greg Johanson and Ron Kurtz; with illustrations and calligraphy by Charles Chu.1st ed.
1. Psychotherapy. 2. Lao-tzu. Tao-te ching. I. Kurtz, Ron. II. Chu, Charles. III. Title.
RC480.5.J58 1991 616.8914dc20 91-6584

eISBN: 978-0-307-78619-7

v3.1

This book is dedicated to
Edgar N. Jackson, Jung Young Lee, and Nelson S. T. Thayer,
for their inspiration in pioneering new paradigms
while respecting the wisdom of the old;
and to Leif and Lily,
for their wisdom in helping adults know
when it is time to play.

Special thanks to literary agent Bob Silverstein
for his encouragement and vision
in bringing this volume into being;
to Platt Arnold, Nancy Donny, and Hope Johanson
for the generous gift of their editing skills;
and to Toinette Lippe, our Bell Tower editor,
for bringing such passion, precision, and good judgment
to this as well as all her projects.

The highest gooa is like water.
Water gives life to the ten thousand things and does not strive.
It flows in places men reject and so is like the Tao.

Thirty spokes share the wheels hub;
It is the center hole that makes it useful.
Shape clay into a vessel;
It is the space within that makes it useful.
Cut doors and windows for a room;
It is the holes which make it useful.
Therefore benefit comes from what is there;
Usefulness from what is not there.

Tao-te ching; from chapters 8 and 11,
translated by Gia-fu Feng & Jane English

INTRODUCTION

The Great Way is very smooth and straight;
And yet the people prefer devious paths.
(Wu, 53)

Some say that my teaching is nonsense.
Others call it lofty but impractical.
But to those who have looked inside themselves,
this nonsense makes perfect sense.
(Mitchell, 67)

Sometime during the sixth to fourth centuries B.C . the mysterious Lao Tzu bequeathed us the Tao-te ching, a book which would become the foundational text of the spiritual/philosophical school of Chinese thought called Taoism. The identity of Lao Tzu (old master) is lost in the mists of time. Tradition says he was a senior contemporary of Confucius, a government archivist perhaps, who reluctantly put together this book of wisdom for the benefit of those who governed. Although more than one hundred English translations of Lao Tzus work have been made, it has generally retained its Chinese title, Tao-te ching. In English this might be rendered as The Classic (ching) of the Way (Tao) and Its Virtue (te). The Tao-te ching is a mystical or spiritual book because it presents the Tao, or the Way, as the source, truth, or creative principle behind all the appearances of life. Like God in the Western tradition, the Tao can never be captured in words. A practical, philosophical training manual, the Tao-te ching encourages us to embody virtue, to live lives that are consistent with the reality of the Tao. With poetic grace it seeks to help us bring our being and our doing into harmonious unity.

Lao Tzus teachings were written during a time when old structures were declining. Trade and business were growing with the advent of new technologies. Rulers flaunted their power, developed new weapons systems, and called for law and order to quiet the restless masses. Confucianism, the philosophy of the day, emphasized the values of conformity and worldly treasure. Life was both busy and unhappy.

Into this volatile and complex situation that seemingly called for much to be done, Lao Tzu introduced the ideas of nonbeing, nondoing, and nonviolence. Nonbeing was a revolutionary concept for the Chinese. It has also been a difficult concept for Westerners because it does not mean nothing or emptiness as the Greeks and those that followed them understood it. For Lao Tzu, nonbeing is the foundation of being, more like everything than it is like nothing. Like the hub of a wheel or the hollow of a cup, it is the empty space that makes things useful. Nonbeing gives being the space to exist. An analogous thought is found in an ancient Jewish myth that says in the beginning God was everything, so the only way God could create was by withdrawing, disappearing, to allow the space for life to emerge. Nonbeing suggests not identifying with a part of anything, or of ourselves, but embracing all, excluding nothing. Similarly, nondoing for Lao Tzu does not mean doing nothing, but rather not interfering, doing only those things which are natural and in line with the movement of our ever-changing world.