The Tao

[WareW-Believer]

I hope I put this thread in the right place. :confused:

I'm wondering about people's recognition or meaning about the Tao. If you have no idea about what the Tao is then refer to the book "The Tao is Silent" by Raymond Smullyan. Anyway, the Tao is something which is not but is(confusing, no?). Here's an exerpt:

"The Tao is above existance and non existance.
Existance is for men who use words.
But the Tao coes not use words.
It is as silent as a flower.
Words come from the Tao-
The tao produces words,
But it does not use them."
-Raymon Smullyan "The Tao is Silent"

Now can you tell me what a Tao is? :shrug:

I'd really appreciate some feedback.

[Tempest]

I may be wrong, but I believe that the Tao is to Taoism as God is to Christianity. May not be the best analogy, but I try.
You can read more about Taoism HERE (http://www.religioustoleran ce.org/taoism.htm).

[Vendetta]

Now can you tell me what a Tao is? :shrug:

The sound of one hand clapping. :D

Also I think this belongs in philosophy.

[DarkWolf]

Tao is a term relevant to what is called Taoism which is just our way of saying Daoism - the second greatest concepts of Chinese Philosophy. It's basic premise was to promote a life outside of society and in harmony with nature. The philosophy describes a mystical "Way" (hence "Dao" - the chinese word for "Way") which was a part of all humans and could be followed by reacting to spontaneous events in a "flexible" manner. It was a philosophy that was in great conflict with the restrictions of the previous great philosophy of Confucianism. Daoism promoted the idea of never forcing things against their nature.

Daoism was the non-political side of Confucianism and advocated the reversing into somewhat primitive civilisation controlled by a government that did not enforce anything on anyone and did not interfere with anybody's lives. It was greatly believed that a teacher of Confucianism, philosopher Laozi (Lao-Tzu), was the one who founded the philosophy of Daoism (Taoism) along with secondary founder, Zhuangzi (Chuang-Tzu).

Zhuangzi focused more on the personal side of it: the individual person. While the basic premise was still one of the whole "going with the flow" and relaxing. It was from people taking Zhuangzi's work literally and trying to evolve into a state of higher awareness and/or immortality that the philosophy of Daoism became a school of religion.

In summary: Chinese Daoism was like mixing Japanese Zen with the relaxing revelations of a slacker. :shrug:

[EP-GingerSnaps]

Well-said DarkWolf, though I doubt it answered the question. WareW-Believer, if you go to the library and read books concerning the topic of Taoism, you would find multiple definitions and interpretations to answer what you are looking for. I am beginning to find it irritating that no one essentially doesn’t any extensive research on a subject they wish to discuss. Why is it, the possibility of formal study and understanding doesn’t play a plausible role in society’s ideation? It’s not like we are required to reinvent the wheel, just research the damned wheel, please.

By the way, WareW-Believer, did you notice you said:

If you have no idea about what the Tao is then refer to the book "The Tao is Silent" by Raymond Smullyan.

Then you said:

Now can you tell me what a Tao is?

Can you explain to me how you can advise a book purposed for understanding the idea of Tao, when the book obviously did not help you understand it? Just curious…

[WareW-Believer]

Can you explain to me how you can advise a book purposed for understanding the idea of Tao, when the book obviously did not help you understand it? Just curious…


Well the whole point of posting this is that I wanted to find out peoples different points of view from the Tao. I understand perfectly well what it is in my own thoughts. But I just wondered how other people understood it.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

[WhiteCrowUK]

Can you explain to me how you can advise a book purposed for understanding the idea of Tao, when the book obviously did not help you understand it? Just curious…

Doesnt the greatest wisdom comes from knowing you know nothing ... or is that Buddhism! ;)

[WareW-Believer]

Doesnt the greatest wisdom comes from knowing you know nothing ... or is that Buddhism! ;)


Actually........Yeah .