The world belongs to those who let go.
- Lao Tzu
tao on
A Guide to Living a 21st Century Taoist Life
Each of us was born to be happy, at peace with our lives, fully living each moment as our unique, perfectly imperfect self, calmly greeting each new day with hope and gratitude, no matter what hand life has dealt us. Does that sound far from where you are right now? It doesn't have to! Happiness has little to do what life has given you or not given you and everything to do with your perception of yourself, your life, and life in general.
You can change your life to one of peace, hope and self-acceptance faster than you realize simply by learning about the Tao and integrating the principles of Taoism into your daily life.
Though Taoism is many things, including a religion and a potentially complicated philosophy where specific passages of the Tao Te Ching are dissected in an effort to understand Lao Tzu's precise meaning, Tao On focuses on understanding the essence of Taoism and how applying this essence to our daily lives can lead us to deeper fulfillment and peace. Though intellectual discussion about Lao Tzu's words can be helpful and illuminating, this author believes one of Lao Tzu's main messages is that it is by living the simply truths of the Tao, not using our mind and words to understand them with impeccable precision, that the Tao is able to flow more freely through us. That is the aim of this site.
key taoist principles
We begin to live a Taoist life when we learn some of the key principles of Taoism, embrace them, and let them start guiding the way we live our life. The more we embrace these principles, the more profoundly we allow the Tao to reshape our lives. Nowhere in the Tao Te Ching does Lao Tzu just state any of these principles; he suggests many ideas, and these are just of a few of his teachings. Click on each principle to explore it in more depth.
what is taoism?
Taoism is based on the belief that the Tao (nature or the universe) controls existence. Taoism is a path to well-being based on following the natural laws of the universe. In essence, Taoists believe that we can each live our intended lives by allowing the Tao to flow through us rather than relying on our own limited and culturally influenced understanding of life. Taoism developed in early China as people struggled to find the best way to live and wise men put into words philosophies that they believed reflected the ways of the Tao. Around 600 AD, Lao Tzu wrote down what he saw as the core Taoist principles in a book we know as the Tao Te Ching. Although Taoist principles are quite simple, they are spiritual and so the Tao Te Ching is written more like a poem, with metaphors and multiple layers of meaning. It can be difficult to understand the Tao Te Ching if you come at it with the expectations of the Western mind. But this is one of Lao Tzu's key points: The Western or analytical mind (although he doesn't call it that) in many ways runs counter to the truths of the Tao, and so we cannot rely on the analytical mind to understand the Tao. Simply put, the Tao is better understood through feeling than thinking. The Tao is like music. You can talk all you want about what a song sounds like, but it's only when you HEAR it that you understand what it is. Likewise, you can talk all you want about the Tao and Taoism, but you don't really understand it until you feel it or experience it.
Although no one's life is perfect, most of us have almost everything we need to be quite content or even overflowing with joy. We come to see we have everything we need by accepting ourself, life and others unconditionally. Usually the perception that we are not enough or our situation is not enough is a result of cultural conditioning which often runs counter to the Tao.
The Tao flows naturally through our lives, and usually our best course of action is simply to "go with the flow." This is wu wei. When we start to believe we are in charge, we know best, or we alone can change our life path, we take ourselves out of the flow of the Tao and make little progress. It may seem counterintuitive, but when we try less, things usually work out better for us.
Taoism vs.
Modern Values
How does Taoism differ from the way most modern adults live their lives? Click here to find out . . .
Nature is a pure expression of the Tao. When we spend time in nature, we feel the peace and power of the Tao and become more aligned with the Tao. By observing nature, we learn how the Tao works.
Everything we need to know about ourselves or how to live can be found or sifted out within our own heart. People have been figuring out how to live for thousands of years without the aid of self-help books, religion or personal coaches. Though external guides can help us much, each of us was born with the power to understand our own lives and what right action to take in each moment. The Tao speaks to us through our inner voice.
Often in the modern world we feel that in order to thrive or even survive, we need to promote ourselves and our needs. But the Tao is the source of everything we need, and if we trust the Tao rather than approaching life as if everything depends on our own efforts, everything we need will flow to us. Oftentimes what we need is already in our lives, we just don't see it.
Our tendency in the modern world is to judge things based on absolutes, especially when it comes to good and bad. Right now I bet you can easily come up with a list of all the good things in your life and all the bad things. The problem is that nothing is completely good or completely bad, and in truth goodness or badness (if there is such a thing) depends on perception. Lao Tzu said "Everything contains at once both light and darkness." When we start seeing things as composed of different but equally beneficial energies, we start valuing things differently and the quality of our life can change quickly. Whether it's assertiveness or passivity, fortune or misfortune, a cacophony of sound or the whisper of silence, everything has its time and place, and living the Tao helps us see this.
In our world full of so many choices and so many opportunities to compare our lives to the lives of others, we can easily be overwhelmed with the task of choosing what is best for ourselves. Taoism helps us consider what is most important in the short and long term and let go of what is not important, inviting peace and focus into our lives.
The only time that really matters in the Tao is this, the present moment. Everything that has ever happened has brought us into today, the glorious present. It's the present where we laugh, find fulfillment in our work, feel love or joy, or notice the feeling of sun upon our cheeks. What has happened in the past doesn't really matter, and if we obsess over past mistakes, we miss out on all the good happening today. Likewise, we can't really control what will happen tomorrow, and obsessing over what may or may not happen in the future is a waste of the priceless gift of today. Through meditation and gently directing our thoughts, we can learn to stay rooted in the present moment. As we learn to do this, depression and anxiety seem to dissipate away and we are free to be our full authentic self.