The Name

Maybe....

Therefore knowledge is useless. It is better to stay still and go with the flow of Tao.

Therefore it is impossible to speak of it because it cannot be defined. It is literally absolutely nothing. It's not nothing not something not this not that not infinite not finite not great not petty not bright not dark not empty not full not profound not shallow not intelligent not stupid not complex not simple not inside not outside not there not here not life not death not existence not nonexistence not dual not nondual not one not two not singular not multitudinous....it cannot be known it can only be not known because its the only thing that is real. It isn't knowing not ignorance not real not unreal not it not me not wisdom not ignorance not abstraction not reality not mind not body not instinct not will not consciousness not unconsciousness not subconsiousness not hyperconsciousness not the noosphere not the world-soul not gods not mortals not time not space not ocean not shore not not.

Hahaha Yeah, I was fooling around to see in what ways can the Tao be (mis)interpreted... Ultimately,

Ah, I see. So ultimately Tao is to be open to the infinite which is neither this nor that, instead of frantically searching for an illusion we should accept the inherent bliss of ontological totality!

Hmmmm....this is quite true.. We need to embrace wholeness and stop deluding ourselves with dual views. Until now the human species have always shown right-brain aggression towards mother nature, always alienating the Self by mislabeling it as 'the other'. But there is hope, because as history progresses we foolish humans start to learn from our mistakes and become wise by embracing the Tao and Mother Nature wholly (holy?). Ultimately, the greatest gift which Enlightenment bestows upon one is the ability to love all beings unconditionally and help create a more beautiful world by restoring the holistic view as opposed to the fragmented view which feeds the fires of agressive impulses stemming from ignorant fear.

Hello. Yeah, you make a strong argument...now that I think of it, it does sound like genocidal christian fundamentalism.

Different ideas but not different Tao, therefore only one way is right and all the others are wrong. Zhuangzi said that we cannot compartmentalize reality because reality is whole, he was against reductionism but acknowledged the parts as well as the whole. See? ..he is saying that only the human who has ability can do the right thing.

It comes from thousands of years of history, it is clearly in man's nature to rule over nature (pun intended). There is a right way to write and there is a wrong way to write, if you do not write the ideograms in a right way then you will not communicate your right advice. Every thing is right and wrong forever. When there is nothing then there is nothing. Therefore the sage talks about right and wrong while being right and avoiding the wrong.

I agree, the Tao is not the real tao. But "going with" Tao implies that there is a certain pattern which should be enacted, this is what I meant by the order of things. There are two aspects of reality (from our perspective), one is the absolute and the other is the illusory. There is form, pattern, structure, order etc but it is ultimately void, just as Tao manifests 1.600.600.600 things but is ultimately transcendent. If Tao were 'simply nothing' then it would be absolutely useless to talk about it, and Lao Tzu would have just lived as a recluse without speaking, realizing that it is stupid/ignorant to say anything. But he did spoke, in fact he wrote a philosophical work on statesmanship, so he acknowledged the other side of the coin, namely the cosmic manifestation of pure being in form.

Some people have a distorted view of the idea of "flowing with Tao" and "wu-wei" as meaning renunciation and instinctual living but is this really true? Look at Lao-tzu for example, the man lived in 500 BC and wrote a philosophical disertation which was aimed at educating the ruling elite. Does this sound like wu-wei as is commonly understood? My point is that Tao means the order of things and the Tao of man is to rule over nature, therefore wu-wei does not mean letting oneself to be driven by animal instinct. The Tao of a human being is virtue and self-overcoming in the Nietzschean sense. Maybe the hippies were wrong?!

Enlightenment means to develop the ability of consciously maintaining the executive functions of your brain at all times thus developing a fully rational aproach to reality, free from emotional and instinctive determinism. So it is the opposite of what you describe, it is unattainable by 95 percent of humankind. ... Also, when the character has rippened and you are freed from automatic behaviour you can fully acknowledge the fact that you are just an idea thus being freed from the ultimate form of fear, namely existential fear. And the ease and inner might resultant from the actualization of conscious rational awareness also allows you to apply yourself towards working for a greater purpose. Thus Enlightenment is the exact opposite of resignation.

Good point. So if I understand correctly, what you are saying is that 'self-imaging' is similar to halucinating and karma is when one clings to images and therefore suffers due to the impermanence and 'emptiness' of dualistic illusory phenomena. It's quite interesting to consider that basically all 'bad karma' stems from ignorance, for example greed is the fear of lack, and hate is the fear of hurt, etc etc... So these negative impulses, seen as 'ideological habits', can also be described as bad karma which leads to more bad karma and, as you say, the only way to 'dispell' these is to flow with the Tao, to be aware and re-cognize the essential unity of the whole and realize that fundamentally nothing can go wrong.

Thank you for the observation, I didn't want to seem a misoginist. I am actually a feminist, I believe Woman is not man but Übermensch. ..but I'll just use the innacurate term "human species" from now on. It can solve the problem of suffering about suffering. And it is quite a relief to realize that you are TAO.