As many know, Tao is a concept found in ancient Chinese philosophy. While the Chinese calligraphic character itself translates as way or path, or more loosely as doctrine or principle, it is often used philosophically to symbolise the fundamental or true nature of the world. Whilst Taoism holds that Tao cannot be expressed, it holds that it can be known and its principles can be followed. Taoist writing also focuses on the value of following the Tao, which is called Te, or virtue.
The Tao is like a well:
used but never used up.
It is like the eternal void:
filled with infinite possibilities.
It is hidden but always present.
I don’t know who gave birth to it.
It is older than God.
— Tao Te Ching, Ch. 4
In religious Taoism, Tao is understood in terms of these constituents:
• Jing, corresponding to energy;
• Qi, or flow of energy and
• Shen, or the Spirit.
Jing Qi Shen — the triad Jing Qi Shen constitutes the Tao of all that is, and are represented as deities in the Three Pure Ones.
There are characteristics of Tao that are often used to describe its nature.
All distinctions are relative comparisons bound together by their mutual reference. Hence there is no such thing as long except by comparison to short, and vice versa; there is no such thing as non-being except by comparison to being. Because Tao itself has no defined shape or defined size, all comparisons fall within it. There can never be ‘real’ differences.
This concept is often used to describe that Tao will flow back, circumvent, and eventually undo any and every attempt to force it into a particular path.
The most important aspects of Tao are its subtle, unnoticed, everyday workings. The softest thing in the world overcomes the hardest. Many places in the Tao Te Ching underline that dramatic, alluring or extraordinary events may catch the eye and assume significance, but it is the slow, slight, unobserved and continuous movement of the manifestations of Tao that actually accomplish things.
Because all beings are manifestations of Tao, Tao gives itself completely to everything and everyone. However, by the same expression Tao is believed to be indifferent to the character of manifestations. Birth and death, happiness and sorrow, and life itself, from the perspective of Tao, are only movements and transformations.
According to tradition, “Old Master” or Lao Tse (Lao Tzu), a record-keeper at the Zhou Dynasty court, composed Tao Te Ching. Text is essential to the philosophical Taoism and Chinese religion in general, and strongly influenced other schools, including Chinese Buddhism. Many artists, including poets, painters, calligraphers, gardeners have used the Tao Te Ching as a source of inspiration. Its influence has also spread widely outside East Asia, succored by hundreds of translations of Tao Te Ching into Western languages.
The Tao that can be expressed is not the eternal Tao;
The name that can be defined is not the unchanging name.The Tao is called the Great Mother:
empty yet inexhaustible, it gives birth to infinite worlds.Since before time and space were, the Tao is. It is beyond ‘is’ and ‘is not’.
How do I know this is true? I look inside myself and see.Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.A leader is best when people barely know that he exists …
The Master (teacher) has no possessions.
The more he does for others, the happier he is.
The more he gives to others, the wealthier he is.The Tao nourishes by not forcing.
By not dominating, the Master (teacher) leads.A journey of a thousand miles started with a first step.
Scholars of the highest class, when they hear about the Tao, take it and practice it earnestly.
Scholars of the middle class, when they hear of it, take it half earnestly.
Scholars of the lowest class, when they hear of it, laugh at it.
Without the laughter, there would be no Tao.
Although sourcing from progressive Christianity its outlook on dynamics of personal revelation, and from Gaudiya Vaishnavism its enchantment with all-attractive God-dess, in its heart and mind Universalist Radha-Krishnaism is closest to ancient wisdom of Taoism than to either Gaudiya Vaishnavism or Christianity, for it refuses to share their predominantly outdated worldviews (or flow against the Tao).
It doesn’t seek followers yet it gives itself to all who would like to follow the Tao, or God-dess.
As a good traveler it has no fixed plans, and is not hurrying upon arriving.
As a good artist it let its intuition lead it wherever it wants.
Knowing the mark of a moderate man is freedom from his own ideas, it tries to best express itself but also lets go of all those ideas. All ideas eventually fail to describe the indescribable, all-beautiful God-dess.
Knowing the more laws and regulations are made prominent, the more misconceptions, thieves and robbers of truth there will be. Thus it follows no rules, and asks for no rules.
We live our best moments when adaptable, aware of our surroundings and what we need to do to go forward — flowing with the Tao, or God-dess.
It flows effortlessly between different philosophical, existential and scientific ideas, for flow is what Tao is. Tao is ever new. It is able to be experienced in different cultures and different times.
Following the footsteps of Lao Tse, we call Tao also Tao. We call it God-dess. Also Radha-Krishna. We call it God-dess for the sake of mutual understanding with all others who are more familiar with the term God. History made people imagine God as a masculine absolute, dispassionate ruler detached from this world, and have personified that fear from God, ruthlessness and senselessness into wider society. As a consequence world suffers in male dominance, discrimination, wars, crisis and misery.
We desire to walk the path of Tao, the path of understanding and balance. World has had enough suffering and we want it to enjoy itself better. Find a new sensibility and meaning. Hence we emphasise love for the feminine aspect of Tao and its integral part in our lives. God-dess thus describes both masculine and feminine, both Yin and Yang. By observing history we can conclude it existed before God and God-dess, which means, it’s older even than man’s dreams of God, or God-dess, or any other name.
We dub it personally Radha-Krishna, a beautiful name for otherwise indeterminate Yin and Yang, because as persons we’re immensely in love with it. Our earnest desire is to see the embraces and kisses of Radha and Krishna in groves of our hearts; eternal God-dess, Tao, its happiness beyond limits.
— Zvonimir Tosic
“Universalist Radha-Krishnaism could perhaps be best described as a post-modern, devotional form of Taoism.” I love it. Excellent insights.