An Introduction to Taoism

The best way to find out about Taoism is to read and study the Tao Te Ching. There are numerous copies of the
Tao Te Ching on the web: my favorite translation is by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English. Check out my links section for links to online versions of the Tao Te Ching.

Tao means "way" or "path". Just as a path or trail into the woods might be big enough to allow me to pass but not an automobile, so the Way also embraces small paths and big ones. I cannot tell you about the universal Tao, the Tao of everything and nothing. There are no words for this. You will never "understand" the Tao, you can only annihilate the separation that stands between you and It.

Paradoxically, you are never separate from the Tao except in your own mind. The puddle can believe that it is separate from the ocean, but the ocean is not limited by puddle consciousness.

The Tao is both the law of the cosmos and that which the law regulates: there is no difference in this. Thus you may hear the Tao spoken of as both a kind of supreme being and as a cosmic law or principle: it is both and neither.

Let's look carefully at the first sutra or verse of the Tao Te Ching. I will take it a little bit at a time:

"The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name." When you name something, you define it and set it apart from other things. There are things that are the opposite of what you named, and there are things that just aren't what you named.

But what is the opposite of God? What is other than God? If you say Satan, then you have created two things. Where is the one thing behind them?

So Taoists believe everything is one? Not exactly. When you say one, already you have separated it from two, three, and a million. Tao is one and not-one.

"The nameless is the mother of heaven and earth. The named is the mother of ten thousand things." "Ten thousand things" is a Chinese way of saying "myriad things" or "innumerable things". To the ancient Chinese (and some modern ones, I bet), Heaven and Earth were the two main features of their spiritual cosmos. Heaven was the archtypal father; Earth the archtypal mother. Heaven was seen as firm, creative, and strong: Earth was weak, nourishing, and yielding. This was part of the Chinese duality of Yin and Yang.

The Yin-Yang symbol was used to express the cyclical pattern of nature: light follows dark, day follows night, Spring follows Winter. As you can see, there is a little dark spot in the light area, and a little light spot in the dark area. This signifies that each has the potentiality to turn into the other, because they really aren't two things but one thing.

So, this verse is saying that the nameless, universal Tao is the origin of this cyclical duality, Heaven and Earth, light and darkness, positive and negative, and that this cyclical duality is the origin of everything else.

"Ever desireless, one can see the mystery. "Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations."

Let's say for the moment that you are a man. You are looking at a woman in a green sweater. What is going on?

Reality: You are looking at a woman wearing a green sweater. You are standing outside on a day with fair skies, and it's about 90 degrees. What you are experiencing: "Dang that's an ugly sweater, I wouldn't be caught dead wearing a shade of green like that. She sure has nice legs, though. Damn, it's hot today, I'm about to pass out." When you desire things or have a strong aversion to them, you don't experience them as they are but as how they relate to your desire or dislike. Thus things appear strongly differentiated in accordance with how they figure into your plans or values. Thus the statement,

"Ever desiring, you can see the manifestations."

Hold those values and desires in suspension and just look, and you can see that everything, things you like and things you don't and things you never noticed, are all interrelated. In fact, you can begin to notice your own separation from the rest of the world beginning to melt. We in Western Civilization have a very strong subject-object distinction which really isn't backed up by reality. We are always taking the external world within ourselves and sending parts of ourselves back out again. A human being is not like a vase of stagnant water but like a river. The Ocean of the world is always sending rain to feed us, and we in turn empty back into the Ocean. Thus the statement,

"Ever desireless, one can see the mystery." Now lets look at the closing lines:
"These two spring from the same source but differ in name; This appears as darkness. Darkness within darkness, The gate to all mystery." These two spring from the same source but differ in name. "These two" means the mysterious unnamable Tao and our everyday experience. However, when you try to get too precise about talking about the Tao, it has a habit of slipping through your fingers! The more you try to insist on defining the ultimate nature of things, the deeper you seem to fall into darkness within darkness.

Eventually, you may give up trying to put Tao under a microscope and just relax. We can think about Tao in certain ways, and we can talk about our own Tao, our own path, but remember: Taoism is not about thinking but about being. As long as you are still thinking and believing your religion, you are still far from it.

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If you would like more information about Taoism or Taoist-related subjects, check out the resources on our links pages.

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