Exploring Beyond the Horizon

 "The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. The unnamable is the eternally real. Naming is the origin of all particular things" - Tao Te Ching Chapter 1. Defining what is meant by the Tao is an impossible task - the very first chapter of the Tao Te Ching asserts that the "tao that can be told is not  the eternal Tao." The Tao Te Ching then spends the remaining 80 chapters trying to describe the nature of the Tao. As someone new to the Tao, I am setting myself a low bar for being able to adequately describe the indescribable in this post. Part of the inherent beauty of the Tao is that it seems to be an expansive term and can mean many different things at different times and circumstances along our journey through life. The Chinese word for Tao means the road, the path, or the way. It has been described as the "flow of the Universe." In some respects the term can be used synonymously with "God...

  "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."  - Tao Te Ching The first steps in my journey with the Tao Te Ching I have recently been exploring the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching. I was originally considering doing a single post summarizing my thoughts and takeaways from the text, but as I've begun to immerse myself in the Tao Te Ching, I think this will more be a series of posts as I progress through my journey exploring this text.  Initially, my thoughts are to have this post as an introduction and history of the text itself and then follow ups on topics such as trying to define "the Tao," parallels with Christian and other wisdom traditions, views of the Tao on religious authority and leadership, paradoxes and apparent contradictions, and other major themes or individual verses/chapters that have an impression on me.  Introduction to the Tao Te Ching and Taoism The Tao Te Ching is a spiritual text comprising 81 short chapters. According to legen...

The Mormon Boy   I'm a Mormon boy. Born of goodly parents; taught the covenant way. I try to be like Jesus. I long to see the temple, to promise and obey. With white shirt and tie, praises to Joseph and God I sing. The Church is true, I'm taught to say, with every fiber of my being. At eight, I'm dressed in purest white, cleansed from sin - my family proud. As time goes by, I struggle and I fall. At school, I learn to swear, at home not aloud I change my friends, clean up my words, I obey and I repent. My friends know me as the Mormon boy. I'm proud to represent. Years pass - different struggles and different falls, but I try to find the straight and narrow way. I long to see the temple. I promise and obey, so that I may be deemed worthy... someday. I love seminary, Sunday School and EFY - I think I'm off to a great new start. At seventeen, I date a girl and things heat up fast. I break things off and break her heart... Because I'm a Mormon boy, the bar's be...