Taoist Conclusions

"Between birth and death,
Three in ten are followers of life,
Three in ten are followers of death
And men just passing from birth to death
also number three in ten.
Why is this so?
Because they live their lives on the gross level.

He who knows how to live can walk abroad
Without fear of rhinoceros or tiger.
He will not be wounded in battle.
For in him rhinoceroses can find no place to
thrust their horn,
Tigers no place to use their claws,
And weapons no place to pierce.
Why is this so?
Because he has no place for death to enter." (Tao 50)


This was something that got me thinking. Anyone who is strong and has the will to live can go under any circumstance and survive. Things like the Holocaust and the FARC kidnappings are perfect examples of people’s love for life and will to live. This passage gave me a new perception on life and death. It got me thinking about my own life and frustration. Frustrated people and those who give up are “followers of death”, those who are ignorant and don’t care live their lives without any care for themselves or others. And only “three in ten men ” are “followers of life”. These men are the ones everybody should look up to. These men have a purpose and want to go on living because they love life. Anyone who loves life can live until they’re a one hundred years old and still wake up every day with a smile on their face. I myself, want to live as long as possible as long as I still have the will to wake up every day and make somebody else’s day better. The moment I stop loving life, form there on, I’ll just be wasting my time and everybody else’s.



Something else I really like about Tao is that it usually talks about the community instead of individuals. It says that when you "cultivate Virtue in yourself, it will be real" (Tao 54) and when you "cultivate it in the universe, Virtue will be everywhere." When I read this, It shocked me how motivating this was. Basically, what it is saying is, when you believe in something, you shouldn't wait for others to spread it, but instead get up and do it. Other things like ethic and morals are things people are born with but easily forget. Those who so remember its significance and value tend to let it pass, but others who truly care do their best to spread values.

The Tao is something that "can't be explained" yet it is"eternal". How can something "eternal" have no explanation? This reminds me of life. We live in a very complex place full of tragedies, happiness, wars, and celebrations. We think that everything we do is for a reason, but do we really have a purpose? Nobody can tell us right from wrong and nobody can tell us what to do. Why is this? Every human is born with judgment. We might become submissive to people we consider superior, but this only happens to those who forget their purpose and lose their identities. Now, finding a purpose is not easy but only one person can tell you which is your purpose, and that is yourself. So, why is not being able to explain things or being eternal relevant? It's not a simple question and my answer is just a guess. Life is something that cannot be explained. Scientists might give us theories as to why we are here and the Bible might tell us a higher being created us, but this isn't complete. Something is missing in this world where nothing is black and white. Lao Zu says that the Tao cannot be explained but somehow, it's eternal and he says that "to die but not to perish is to be eternal" so how do people become eternal? In my last entry I had very inaccurate notion of what Lao Zu meant by this. It all made sense when I realized that because the Tao is eternal, if we follow Tao, we are eternal, and the Tao never perishes, therefore, we do not perish. If we follow the Tao and we live how the Tao tells us to live, then we become the Tao. Does this make any sense? It's hard to explain, and might never be explained and maybe this conjecture is completely wrong. I do believe though, that Lao Zu wrote the Tao because he knew that no matter how evil or damaged a person can be, the person doesn't change, evil or good its a person. Every person is born with good and evil, if not, as Lao Zu said, "All can know good as good only because there is evil" (Tao 2). The Tao describes human beings and it gives us the tools to make the most of our lives according to our behaviors and emotions. If we just lose ourselves, we lose our Tao, because the Tao is everything and therefore it is "eternal", and because it's "eternal", it cannot be explained. It would take several lifetimes to explain something so complex as the Tao, something so complex as life, something so complex as ourselves. This is the meaning of the Tao, don't try to achieve what you know you won't achieve, this would be wasting time, but achieve things that won't frustrate you and will make you happy.




The Tao has so much wisdom and it says so much in such a few words. I can say I learned a lot with Tao. Not just what is asked of me for my English class, but things that I might use later on in life. There are so many things hidden in the Tao that I would need lots of time to understand it completely. I do think that the Tao is motivational and inspiring and, -without getting cheesy- one of the books that has impacted me the most. I'm glad we're not looking at it from a religious point of view because I would judge it, and I'm glad it's not a historical point pf view because I would just analyze the people/person who wrote without actually thinking about how deep the text is. The Tao is a very powerful text that not only focuses on the implicit things in life but also, life itself. I feel like a completely different person now. Now I see the world completely different and I'm more curious about the world I live in, I keep questioning myself, why am I here? But I suppose I'll never get an answer.