Monday, January 16, 2012

Tao

Taoism (in addition to Chinese Buddhism and Confucianism) is the pursuit of "becoming one with the Tao" which is interpreted as harmonizing one's will with nature. When you consider that nature is God's image, pursuing the Tao is harmonizing your will with God's image. This idea is consistent with Baruch Spinoza's conception of God.

The oneness of creation mentioned in the "Destruction" section describes how profoundly large and cohesive creation (which includes the terms: nature and the universe) is as God's image. Community acting to help reduce the fragmentation (evil) within God's image is mentioned within the "Purification" section, which must occur with individuals exhibiting humility as mentioned within the "Humility" section. The combination of these ideas shows a reality that can endure anything that might be seen temporarily as a problem. In this way, becoming self-less (achieving humility) is liberation from suffering. Both physically and mentally, there will always be pain of various forms, within our mortal existence as we gradually decay and die. The knowledge of our oneness within God's image provides us with the conceptual framework to understand suffering as mentioned within the "Happiness" section.

With us being only our perception and our will, as mentioned within the "Starting" section, the Tao is making our thoughts harmonize within God's image, as mentioned within the "Thoughts" section, while being supported by the single greatest (and only) virtue, humility, and our individual cohesiveness known as community. So, thought is our mental cohesiveness while community is our physical cohesiveness, with both providing simple evidence of oneness within God's image, despite fragmentation (evil) that separates individual entities in both time and space. The control of thoughts, with our will, is critical to harmonizing our will with God's will, because it controls everything we do as an individual.

The most important way to control our thoughts is to not encourage or retain fear, since fear is the perception of imaginary fragmentation (evil). Obviously, most people would consider fear a natural reaction that aids temporary survival in many ways within creation. However, fear is a type of pride, since it attempts to label a part of creation as a part of fragmentation (evil), which is also ignoring the authority of God. Instead, it is important to pursue humility, which is the path by which your will comes into harmony with God's will.

Community is the external guide of your perception, and your perception guides your will. Community combined with the humility of individuals helps to support the effort to harmonize yourself with God's will (as mentioned within the "Friends"). Harmonizing with God's image is equivalent to harmonizing with the cohesive presence within God's image, which is God's will (i.e., active purification, described within the "Purification" section).

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