February 3, 2010
THE TAO
— 25 —
There was something formless and perfect
before the universe was born.
It is serene. Empty.
Solitary. Unchanging.
Infinite. Eternally present.
It is the mother of the all.
For lack of a better name,
I call it the Tao.
It flows through all things,
inside and outside, and returns
to the origin of all things.
The Tao is great.
The universe is great.
Earth is great.
Humanity is great.
These are the four great powers.
All humankind follows the earth.
Earth follows the universe.
The universe follows the Tao.
The Tao follows only itself.
Taoist Reflection
Taoism tries to recover the inner spirit of the rules, the inner spirit of life itself. It teaches a way of human living, the “Way of Heaven” and of “nature,” based on opposed but connected principles—light and dark, active and passive, heavenly and earthly, spirit and flesh, yin and yang—in constant, permanent interaction. The Tao itself is the source of all these dualities, the source of all being, from which comes the power and unity that sustains all things. It is wholeness, unity, the One. It is in all things and around all things. “The power that makes things what they are doesn’t have the limitation that belongs to things—the Tao is the limit of the unlimited, and the boundlessness of the unbounded. The way of the Tao teaches an ability to “make oneness your home,” to live in the power of this oneness: to live –hence to “see” the world—with “inner reverence” and humility, developing freedom from attachment to the individual things of the world, and thereby letting them (including ourselves) grow in harmony with each other and with their own “innate nature, their true nature.” Through the “fasting of the heart”, the follower of the Tao develops an inner “emptiness” that opens the door to a “transference of power” : merely vital energy is surpassed and the Taoist sage taps into the “primal” or “quintessential” energy of the universe.
Used with permission
Heintzman, Ralph.
“”Religions” and Religious Life”
In Rediscovering Reverence.
Montreal: MQUP, 2011.
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