The Way essays

The Way essays Tao means the way. It is basically indefinable. It has to be experienced. It refers to a power, which envelops, surrounds and flows through all things, living and non-living. The Tao regulates natural processes and nourishes balance in the Universe. It embodies the harmony of opposite, in other words there would be no love without hate, no light without dark, no male without female. According to the Tao Te Ching, it is the first principle of the universe, the all-embracing reality from which everything else arises. The Tao cannot be defined in words and is not an idea or concept. Chuang-tzu said, It may be attained but not seen. Its presence is everywhere, not as a spiritual being, but as the basic stuff which all things have been issued. It gives life to all living beings and maintains them with no likes or dislikes. The back of our textbook puts it best: Accept what is in front of you without wanting the situation to be other than it is. Study the natural order of things and work with it rather than against it, for to try to change what is only sets up resistance. Nature provides everything without requiring payment or thanks, and also provides for all without discrimination. In other words: Simply be. Classical Taoist philosophy, formulated by Lao Tsu, the anonymous editor of the Tao Te Ching, and Chuang-tzu, was a reinterpretation and development of an ancient nameless tradition of nature worship and divination. Lao Tsu and Chuang-tzu, living at a time of social disorder and great religious skepticism, developed the notion of the Tao as the origin of all creation and the force, unknowable in its essence but observable in its manifestations, that lies behind the functionings and changes of the natural world. They saw in Tao and nature the basis of a spiritual approach to living. This, they believed, was the answer to the burning issue of the day: what is the basis of a stable, unified, and e ...