Great Tao

Taoism is a tradition that has, with its traditional foil Confucianism, shaped Chinese life for more than 2,000 years. Taoism places emphasis upon individual freedom and spontaneity, non-interventionist government and social primitivism and ideas of self-transformation. Thus, Taoism represents in many ways the antithesis to Confucian concern with moral duties, social cohesion, and governmental responsibilities, even if Confucius’s thought includes those Taoist values, as one can read in the Analects of Confucius.

Taoist philosophy:

- The Way begat One (the lifeforce), which in turn begat Two (Yin and Yang), finally producing the entirety of the world as we know it (the 10,000 things) through the harmony of the Wuxing. The Way is therefore circular, acting upon itself to renew the cycle of life and death in harmony with nature.

- Act in accordance with nature, and with finesse rather than force.

- One’s mental activities should be stilled or allowed to dissipate until one finds a deeper source for guiding one’s interaction with the universe (see ‘wu wei’ below). Desire hinders one’s ability to understand The Way, and tempering desire breeds contentment. Taoists believe that when one desire is satisfied, another, more ambitious desire will simply spring up to replace it. In essence, most Taoists feel that life should be appreciated as it is, rather than forced to be something it is not. Ideally, one should not desire anything, not even non-desire.

- Oneness: By realising that all things (including ourselves) are interdependent and constantly redefined as circumstances change, we come to see all things as they are, and ourselves as a simple part of the current moment. This understanding of oneness leads us to an appreciation of life’s events and our place within them as simple miraculous moments which “simply are”.

- Dualism, the opposition and combination of the Universe’s two basic principles of Yin and Yang is a large part of the basic philosophy. Some of the common associations with Yang and Yin, respectively, are: male and female, light and dark, forcing and yielding, action and stillness. Taoists believe that neither side is more important or better than the other; indeed, neither can exist without the other, as they are equal aspects of the whole. They flow into each other in constant motion. They complete each other in perfect balance.

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao )

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