Brief introduction to Taoist thought delivered at Philo Agora, Glebe NSW in 2007.

1. Faith in Taoist Philosophy for
Believers & Not

2. To Encounter the Tao
I and

3. Shift Paradigm
• There Is No God • There Is a God
An Acknowledgment of Man’s Search
for Truth & Meaning

4. Brief History of Taoism
• Shamanic tradition preceding Lao tze
• Mythical King Fu Hsi (2,800 BCE)
• Yu of the Court of Sun (2070 BCE)
managed floods with dikes & canals
• King Wen (1100 BCE) crystallizes sixty
four trigrams of divination into I Ching
http://www.taoism.net/enter.htm

5. Historical Context
Hellenic Homer, Heraclitus, Socrates,
Sappho & Pythagoras & Plato &
Thales Aeschylus Aristotle
Shih Huang ti, Lao tze, Confucius Mo tzu,
Chinese
I Ching, Feng & Sun tzu Chuang tze
Shui & Mencius
Hindu- Vedas, Buddha, Kautilya (final
Arabic Upanishads & Zoroaster & author of
Dharmashastra Mahavira Arthashastra)
600 BC 400 BCE 200 BCE

6. Classic Crisis of Lao Tzu’s Era
• “Warring States”
– Fragmentation
Leading to Eventual
Consolidation
– Territorial & Resource
Conflicts
– Contending Gods &
Deities
– Intellectual Ferment
& the Employment
of Sages as Advisers

7. Taoism through the Years
• The Rise of the Fang Shih: sages retired
in the era of peace
– agroindustrial & commercial architecture/
design & planning (Feng Shui)
– traditional herbal & natural medicine
– martial arts for health & self-defence
• Fusions
– Buddhism: Ch’an & Zen
– Confucianism Tradition & Ceremony

8. Lao tze & the Tao Te Ching
• Called for harmony • Tao te Ching: 81
through the Verses
respectful • Original versions
understanding have been said to
• Cultivate the sage be lost but Taoist
within us by being in thinkers reason that
the world it’s always a work-
– Learn from nature & in-process anyway:
from one another relevance over
– Reflect upon one’s version
self & relationships

9. The Tao Exists
• Does God exist?
• Taoist thought would say:
– the logical difficulty of proving God’s
being in reducing God to an object
– things happen & there is a “how” behind
them is difficult to refute.
• Tao is not a what or a being as God is
proposed to be but a “how” & a
“being in itself”

10. Tao is not a what or a who
• What can be experienced is not the Tao;
A world that can be constructed is not the world.
Tao manifests all that happens and may happen;
A world represents all that exists and may exist.
To experience without agenda is to be in the world;
To experience with agenda is to anticipate a world.
Although these two experiences are hard to tell apart;
Their construction differs but produce definite results.
Beyond the gate of experience flows the Tao,
Which is ever greater and more subtle than any world.
• Tao is not a “what” or a “who”

11. Tao Is How
• The Tao is limitless;
When used selfishly, it is never filled nor matched by
the world;
It cannot be cut, knotted, dimmed or stilled;
Its depths are hidden, ubiquitous & eternal;
Who can know from where Tao comes?
Tao comes even before nature.
• Tao can’t be a “what” or “who” to be proven to
exist or not but a “how” to be worked with

12. Self-less: Be Like the Tao
• Embracing the How, you become embraced;
Breathing gently, you become newborn;
Clearing your mind, you become clear;
Nurturing your children, you become impartial;
Opening your heart, you become accepted;
Accepting the world, you embrace Tao.
Bearing and nurturing,
Creating but not owning,
Giving without demanding,
This is harmony.
• Sin is its own punishment. Goodness is its own reward
• Justice is owning up to the process & outcomes

13. The Tao of the Sage
• The best of man is like water,
Which benefits all things, and does not contend with them,
Which flows in places that others disdain,
Where it is in harmony with the Way.
So the sage:
Lives within nature,
Thinks within the deep,
Gives within impartiality,
Speaks within trust,
Governs within order,
Crafts within ability,
Acts within opportunity.
He does not contend, so none contend against him.

14. Ego & Agenda
• Distractions from seeking the Tao
• To learn “how to manipulate” is not
learning the How of the Tao
• Facing the ego & agenda , not even
by denying them
• To meditate & to choose:
– Integrating means & ends
– What is or what can be

15. Harmony & Non-Contention
• Not in denying but
respecting
• Complementation,
Cooperation &
Creative, Friendly &
Constructive,
Competition
• Applications:
– Positive Sum Games
MASCULINE FEMININE – Gender Issues

16. The Tao of Leadership
• The best leaders are unobtrusive;
The next best are loved and praised;
The next are feared;
The lowest are despicable:
They have no faith in the people,
And the people feel contempt for them.
When the best leaders achieve things
The people are able to lay claim to them
• Democracy is I , Thou & Tao

17. Tao & Ideology
• When the How is forgotten or foregone
The rhetoric of duty & justice appear;
Then ideologies are born
Along with their hypocrisy.
When harmony dissolves
Demand for respect & devotion arise;
When a nation falls to chaos
The rhetoric of loyalty & patriotism is born.
• The Tao pursues the context for facts & doesn’t
screen them according to agenda.
• It takes sides with principles, not egos

18. Taoist Morality
• Who understands the world is learned;
Who understands the self is enlightened.
Who conquers the world has strength;
Who conquers the self has harmony.
Who is determined has purpose;
Who is contented has wealth.
Who defends his home may long endure;
Who surrenders his home may long survive it.
• Virtue is the conquest of one’s self-ishness, more
than of others. Self-discipline has no substitute.
• Purity of Intention = Wisdom as Journey

19. Tao Is Merciful
• The Tao is the fate of men,
The treasure of the saint,
And the refuge of the sinner.
Fine words are often borrowed,
And great deeds are often appropriated;
Therefore, when a man falls, do not abandon him,
And when a man gains power, do not honour him;
Only remain impartial and show him the Way.
Why should someone appreciate the Tao?
The ancients said, "By the Tao, those who seek may easily find,
And those who regret may easily absolve"
So Tao is the most precious gift, mercy.

20. The Tao of Don Quixote
Change must be natural even when it’s imperative
• Who recognizes his
limitations is healthy;
Who ignores his
limitations is sick.
The sage recognizes
this sickness as a
limitation.
And so becomes
immune

21. Tao of Hope
• What lies still is easy to grasp;
What lies far off is easy to anticipate;
What is brittle is easy to shatter;
What is small is easy to disperse.
Yet a tree broader than a man can embrace is born of a tiny shoot;
A dam greater than a river can overflow starts with a clod of earth;
A journey of a thousand miles begins at the spot under one's feet.
Therefore deal with things before they happen;
Create order before there is confusion.
• Hope in a future yet to be written, of possibilities limited only by one’s
imagination

22. Tao of Education
• The ancients did not seek to rule people with knowledge,
But to have them realize that they already know naturally.
It is difficult for knowledgeable people to become natural;
So to use law to control a nation weakens the nation,
But to use nature to control a nation strengthens the nation.
Understanding these two paths is understanding subtlety;
Subtlety runs deep, ranges wide,
Resolves confusion and preserves peace.
• “Edu Care” = to draw from
• Teaching is already easy because the student already knows.

23. Tao Is Infinite as One Minute
• Have you ever heard of One Minute
Wisdom?
• Isn’t it too short?
• It’s actually fifty-nine seconds too long.
• Why?
• Opening one’s eyes takes a second
but seeing takes a lifetime.