- What is the Tao? Also called “the act of existence (actus essendi),” “the first principle of Zen,” and the region on the other side of Aldous Huxley’s doors of perception. This part emphasizes “The Reality Spectrum”: The Tao-->Essence-->Existence.
- Modernity rejected the Tao portion of the Reality Spectrum and focused almost exclusively on the “essence” part of the Reality Spectrum: things we can count, measure, and understand through reason and logic. “The Great Rejection.”
- This rejection is a rejection of reality, but reality can’t be denied so the Tao keeps bubbling to the surface, often in troubling, but occasionally good ways.
- How to get the Tao back into one’s life. Also called, “How to flourish in modernity despite modernity," "Strengthening your right hemisphere" and things like that.
Part IV brings Iain McGilchrist's important "Hemisphere Hypothesis" into the analysis. The right hemisphere is the Tao's modem, so by strengthening the right hemisphere, you strengthen your connection to the Tao, which helps your right hemisphere reclaim its rightful spot as the master of the left hemisphere. Because modernity's essence emanates from the left hemisphere, the act of reasserting the right hemisphere is an act of resistance against modernity.
