TAOISM

The person responsible for fathering Taoism is Lao Tzu, who was said to have lived around the 6^th Century BC. He was so mysterious a person that he earned the title of ‘Hidden Sage’. The followers of Lao Tzu believe he was an astrologer and archivist, but there is those who believe that he was not real or ever lived. Lau Tzu is credited with ‘The Book of the Way and of Virtue’, otherwise known as ‘The Tao-Te-Ching. Most now though believe that is not possible as this book seems to have been written some time after Lao Tzu lived.

Tao was first and foremost a philosophy, which became a religion after Lao Tzu was deified some time in the 2^nd Century. This religion then became known as Taoism. The person accredited with the change over to a religion was Chang Tao-Ling. As with most religions this too had two guises in the forms of popular worship and that linked to shamanistic and mystical practices.

Today there is material which is more popular and easier to obtain than the Lao Tzu books, that are written by Chang Tzu (350-275BC) and these are named after him.

Tao is pronounced dow and is the principle of all things. This principle consists of the Philosophies of the Quietests, which are:

Peace

Meditation

Naturalness

And Serenity

Taoists have a state, which they call Wu-Wei, which is a state of inactiveness. This is because they believe that they should not advocate any action, yet they do not leave anything left undone.

Tao has ‘The Way’ which in itself is self-contradictory as it cannot be taught or followed, but controls the Universe and all that is within. They believe that the goal for mankind is to become one with Tao.

For example in Tao Life and Death are actually one and the same.

The following are some phrases written by the Chinese Masters themselves.

The way is like an empty vessel

That yet may be drawn from

Without ever needing to be filled.

It is bottomless; the very progenitor

Of all things in the world.

In it all sharpness is blunted,

All tangles untied,

All dust smoothed.

It is like a deep pool that never dries.

(There was) something

Mysteriously formed,

Born before heaven and earth…..

Perhaps it is the mother of ten

Thousand things.

I do not know its name

Call it Tao.

Sources and Credits:
Written by Robert Worrall