Tao Te Ching - What is the Tao?

 "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 Creator, the Source, the Origin of the Universe. Chapter 51 asserts that  the Tao "gives birth to all things, nourishes them, maintains them, protects them." "In harmony with the Tao the sky is clear and spacious, the earth is solid and full." (chapter 39) Chapter 52 of the Tao Te Ching asserts that "In the beginning was the Tao. All things issue from it. All things return to it." This seems to be a direct parallel with the opening lines of the Gospel of John: "In the beginning was the Word... all things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made."  Of course, the Gospel of John was written about 400-500 years after the Tao Te Ching and it's not clear that any such direct connection or influence between the two texts existed historically, but they seem to be conveying a similar sense of mystery and original creative power of the Tao or the Word.

Yet the Tao takes this a step further and asserts in its fourth chapter that the Tao is "older than God." I don't know if this statement was meant as a direct challenge to traditional notions of God - there are certainly passages within the Tao that seem to have been a reaction to the religious authority, rules and rituals of 4th century BCE China, but that is a post for another day. Perhaps what Lao Tzu is trying to convey by saying that the Tao is "older than God" is that the Tao is meant to be an expansive term that transcends even religious conceptions of God - that written or oral descriptions of God may point toward the ineffable, but inevitably language falls short of actually defining Ultimate Reality. The Tao seems to be deeply rooted in expansive mystery rather than limited to a discrete divine being that resides somewhere in the heavens. The Tao does not seem to affirm the personal, rules-based, punitive God of the Abrahamic religions but seems to be more of a cosmic, creative force that inspires awe and divine action in everything in the universe.  

Perhaps another distinction of the Tao is that in addition to representing the external, cosmic, creative force in the universe, the Tao is said to be within each individual - sort of a pantheistic view (God is all and all is God). "It is always present within you. You can use it however you want." (chapter 6)  The creative power, the source of all good in the universe, is at the core of every being.  The natural man or woman, therefore, is not an enemy to God but is by nature good and one with God or the Tao. This internal unity with the Tao is obscured through the cloud of the ego, but can never be lost.

The Tao Te Ching seems to assert that the Tao cannot be known by traditional means of acquiring knowledge, but must be experienced as we let go of our preconceived notions. "In the pursuit of knowledge, every day something is added. In the practice of the Tao, every day something is dropped" (chapter 48).  The Tao is "ungraspable, dark and unfathomable" (chapter 21), "like the eternal void, filled with infinite possibilities." (chapter 4) It is the "center of the universe, the good man's treasury, the bad man's refuge." (chapter 62)  It is "like a well, used but never used up," (chapter 4) The 21st chapter of the Tao Te Ching asks, "How do I know this is true?" and then immediately answers, "I look inside myself, and see."

Admittedly, these loose descriptions of the mysterious and ineffable Tao conflict with my logical, analytical, skeptical nature and my desire for objective evidence for truth.  Positive feelings and elevated emotion were a central part of my Mormon upbringing and were labelled as the "Holy Ghost," a special gift that I was told I somehow had more access to than others not of my faith.  I was further given an interpretation that any positive feelings I had in a religious context meant my religion was the true religion, or that my religious book was the most correct book. Having found these feelings and emotions to be unreliable as indicators of objective truth, I am naturally skeptical of claims to "look within myself to find truth." 

But perhaps this is where I can benefit from the teachings of the Tao to "empty your mind of all thoughts" (ch. 16) and "let yourself become empty if you want to become full." (chapter 22) I think the Tao is inviting us to experience something deeper - to experience the true depth and full range of conscious existence without burdening the experience with defined labels and prescribed meaning. This may be part of what is meant that "The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name." (chapter 1) The Tao is an open invitation to explore the mystery, to experience the awe and wonder of the Universe, to look inside ourselves and discover the Ultimate Reality, the Atman, the Brahman, the Buddha-nature, the Christ or the Tao within each of us.