Tao: Encyclopedia II - Tao - Some characteristics of Tao

Tao - Some characteristics of Tao

The Tao is the main theme discussed in the Tao Te Ching, an ancient Chinese scripture attributed to Laozi. This book does not specifically define what the Tao is; it affirms that in the first sentence, "The Tao that can be told of is not an Unvarying Tao" (tr. Waley, modified). Instead, it points to some characteristics of what could be understood as being the Tao. Below are some excerpts from the book.

• Tao as the origin of things: "Tao begets one; One begets two; Two begets three; Three begets the myriad creatures." (TTC 42, tr. Lau, modified)
• Tao as an inexhaustible nothingness: "The Way is like an empty vessel / That yet may be drawn from / Without ever needing to be filled." (TTC 4, tr. Waley)
• Tao is omnipotent and infallible: "What Tao plants cannot be plucked, what Tao clasps, cannot slip." (TTC 54, tr. Waley)

In the Yi Jing, a sentence closely relates Tao to Yin-Yang, asserting that "one (phase of) Yin, one (phase of) Yang, is what is called the Tao". Being thus placed at the conjunction of Yin and Yang alternance, Tao can be understood as the continuity principle that underlies the constant evolution of the world.

A perhaps closest approximation in relatively common usage to the Tao may be Logos in the Christian religious sense: "In the beginning was the Word (literally from the Greek, "Logos"), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Moreover, in the words of Pope Ratzinger, "Christianity is the religion of Logos"...providing a fundamental point of commonality with Taoism when the Tao is considered to be 'like' -- if not, in fact, identical to -- the Logos or Word.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Some characteristics of Tao", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki