The Tao of Kung Fu #17

I Worship Life

More about this video and Taoism here......................... This short video is from the 1970's TV series "Kung Fu". "Kung Fu" tells the adventures of a fictional Shaolin priest named Kwai Chang Caine, played by David Carradine. Caine wanders the American "Wild West" in the 1880's, with nothing more than compassion, moderation, humility and a little Shaolin magic. The teachings of the Shaolin were meticulously researched for the "Kung Fu" series, making it one of the most authentic interpretations of the Taoist philosophy in popular culture. I recently decided to post selected scenes from "Kung Fu", to illustrate this extremely insightful ancient Chinese philosophy. In this clip from the episode "The Brujo", Caine meets a Christian priest. Father Salazer (Julio Medina) is surprised to hear Caine is also a priest and asks him what he worships. Caine gives the simple yet profound answer "Life". We often take the process of life for granted, but can there really be anything above this phenomenon? Why do so many of us search for something beyond Nature's most magnificent achievement? Taoism is the belief life is a direct manifestation of the ultimate and there is nothing beyond this. All things, including oneself, are an aspect of the total unity called the Tao. The Tao is beyond all sensory awareness and words, yet the wisdom of the Tao is intuitively available to everyone. This is a very unfamiliar paradigm for Westerners, who have unshakable faith in their sensory awareness. It is probably for this reason Western culture perpetuates a view that everything is isolated and the only thing common to everything is a personal God. A world of isolation is considered an illusion in Taoism, although an extremely convincing one. To put the Taoist concept of absolute unity into context, rather than "Love your neighbour"; a Taoist believes that at a level beyond normal perception, you are your neighbour. This may seem unbelievable, but this parallels the findings of modern science.