1000th post

[SparkyOSU]

I am going to name my 1000th post after the first person to strike my fancy....

 

[Taosman]

Post, bi-yatch!

 

[Taosman]

What is the Tao?
Tao is central to Taoism which takes characterizing its nature as its defining project, but most other schools, particularly the moralist Confucians and Mohists also use it. In their writings, it refers to their own preferred moral scheme or way of acting and we typically translate those using a definite description (perhaps capitalized): "The Way." This translation choice also characterizes religious uses, including the mystical approaches. The philosophic and religious uses of the character can be analyzed into two connected concepts: one meaning is "doctrine" or "discourse"; moralist schools formulate and defend a specific Tao -- their moral discourse or doctrine. The related concept would be that doctrines physical correlate -- the way things would go if everyone followed the practical norms advocated. That is sometimes referred to as "walking a way." Under this meaning we can include references to the 'Great Tao' -- the actual course of the entire universe over all time. It's discourse counterpart, notoriously, lacks any formulation. Nature follows a course, but it is not "dao-ed" -- guided by a set of rules. This unformulatable, constant, natural tao is sometimes characterized as beyond being and non-being, prior to space and time, in the sense that it is 'how' there came to be space-time and something rather than nothing. Tao resembles here the idea of natural law, though that formulations of it is alien to the ancient Chinese thinkers. It is what guides the unceasing flow of change in the actual world. In this sense Tao gains great cosmological and metaphysical significance comparable to the theistic concept of God (particularly the first person of the Christian Trinity) ; the Greek concept of the logos; or the Dharma in Indian religions.

 

[coastalbuck]

What is the Tao?
Tao is central to Taoism which takes characterizing its nature as its defining project, but most other schools, particularly the moralist Confucians and Mohists also use it. In their writings, it refers to their own preferred moral scheme or way of acting and we typically translate those using a definite description (perhaps capitalized): "The Way." This translation choice also characterizes religious uses, including the mystical approaches. The philosophic and religious uses of the character can be analyzed into two connected concepts: one meaning is "doctrine" or "discourse"; moralist schools formulate and defend a specific Tao -- their moral discourse or doctrine. The related concept would be that doctrines physical correlate -- the way things would go if everyone followed the practical norms advocated. That is sometimes referred to as "walking a way." Under this meaning we can include references to the 'Great Tao' -- the actual course of the entire universe over all time. It's discourse counterpart, notoriously, lacks any formulation. Nature follows a course, but it is not "dao-ed" -- guided by a set of rules. This unformulatable, constant, natural tao is sometimes characterized as beyond being and non-being, prior to space and time, in the sense that it is 'how' there came to be space-time and something rather than nothing. Tao resembles here the idea of natural law, though that formulations of it is alien to the ancient Chinese thinkers. It is what guides the unceasing flow of change in the actual world. In this sense Tao gains great cosmological and metaphysical significance comparable to the theistic concept of God (particularly the first person of the Christian Trinity) ; the Greek concept of the logos; or the Dharma in Indian religions.

 

[LoKyBuckeye]

What is the Tao?
Tao is central to Taoism which takes characterizing its nature as its defining project, but most other schools, particularly the moralist Confucians and Mohists also use it. In their writings, it refers to their own preferred moral scheme or way of acting and we typically translate those using a definite description (perhaps capitalized): "The Way." This translation choice also characterizes religious uses, including the mystical approaches. The philosophic and religious uses of the character can be analyzed into two connected concepts: one meaning is "doctrine" or "discourse"; moralist schools formulate and defend a specific Tao -- their moral discourse or doctrine. The related concept would be that doctrines physical correlate -- the way things would go if everyone followed the practical norms advocated. That is sometimes referred to as "walking a way." Under this meaning we can include references to the 'Great Tao' -- the actual course of the entire universe over all time. It's discourse counterpart, notoriously, lacks any formulation. Nature follows a course, but it is not "dao-ed" -- guided by a set of rules. This unformulatable, constant, natural tao is sometimes characterized as beyond being and non-being, prior to space and time, in the sense that it is 'how' there came to be space-time and something rather than nothing. Tao resembles here the idea of natural law, though that formulations of it is alien to the ancient Chinese thinkers. It is what guides the unceasing flow of change in the actual world. In this sense Tao gains great cosmological and metaphysical significance comparable to the theistic concept of God (particularly the first person of the Christian Trinity) ; the Greek concept of the logos; or the Dharma in Indian religions.

 

[FCollinsBuckeye]

 

[Taosman]

That's Tao! Not Taz!