taoisgod.com
TAO IS GOD
A Website about the Tao and about God
Written by Lance Volk, a contributor to Quora
Thou shalt have no other gods before me....but what of something that isn't a God?
Can I not have great respect for King Arthur and still be in awe of Camelot?
King Arthur was not in competition with Camelot, they worked in concert to prove what greatness is. God created the heavens and the earth from the Tao, just as the Tao can be considered the Mother of all that is, it is nurturing, and flows ever so naturally, God surely is the father and everything that can be perceived is their children, The Tao and God do not contend with each other, they are part of the whole, cause, and effect, is the result of their children's actions when they create an imbalance.
Love and Humility are the great balancer's, the Tao (the Way) considered the natural order of the universe is the ultimate of the subtle, it does not judge, it is the effect to our cause, it will always seek balance and God is the tester to see if we can be worthy.
The Tao meets God
Tao is God?....
Are you for real? The Tao may not be God, but "The Way" is a path that God Follows, it is the perfect example to follow that God has presented to all Humanity, there are those that follow the Way but do not believe in God.
And there are those that believe in God but do not realize that they are following the way.
God is only the guide to show the path along the way, to instruct life to keep the cosmic balance.
The Tao is God's instrument to orchestrate life successfully through cause and effect, I thank God for helping me navigate my journey to the way.
Possibly God follows "The Way"? How could God do anything other than follow the way? This is what God is trying to teach us to do, it's just a different format to some extent,
God has created all of these religions in which Man's dual personality has polluted these scriptures to the point of muddying up the true intentions spelled out in them,
we must use our spiritual side to discriminate the dogma from the divine.
God meets the Tao
Is there any good reason to believe in the Tao and in God?
I believe that I have brought up a couple of reasons so far, mostly this concept is for the benefit of the believers of the Tao and for the believers of God so that they may have some mutual ground to stand on when contemplating such things.
I would have to give the advantage to the believers in the Tao, as they are fairly united, there is no dispute about who's Tao is better, because there is just the Tao...Period, but as God goes, these various religions have different names for God and most of these religions even consider their God is the only Deity in town.
It is so unfortunate that they cannot see that they are all one and the same, It is probably because Their God has been so personalized and is so much a part of their lives, that they could never consider sharing with any other religion,
the idea of One-God inflames the emotions of many devout believers, but how could your all seeing, all knowing, all powerful God forsake ANY of its children?
THE LORD BUDDHA HAS SAID
that we must not believe in a thing said merely because it is said; nor traditions
because they have been handed down from antiquity; nor rumors, as such; nor
writings by sages, because sages wrote them: nor fancies that we may suspect to have
been inspired in us by a Deva (that is, in presumed spiritual inspiration); nor from
inferences are drawn from some haphazard assumption we may have made; nor because
of what seems an analogical necessity; nor on the mere authority of our teachers or
masters. But we are to believe when the writing, doctrine, or saying is corroborated
by our own reason and consciousness. "For this," says he in concluding, "I taught you
not to believe merely because you have heard, but when you believed of your
consciousness, then to act accordingly and abundantly."
The above words are from someone with wisdom enough to be able to perceive the truth when it comes to him,
by keeping an open mind and using your intuitive discrimination you may sift through all that comes to you during your seeking,
I have read much over the years, and there are many conflicting beliefs among many subjects, if they are things that can be tested, I test, if they are things to be practiced, I practice and choose what is best for me,
as for conflicting beliefs, I tend to investigate the ones with the least conflicts first.
This debate between the Tao and God can be hectic, but just imagine if you don't believe in either.
Atheists have a different mindset, be it more natural or more scientific or even neither of these two, they, I would suspect would have a belief in at least in themselves,
I would not assume to know what they contemplate or even if they have interests in such things, it is not surprising that there is an increase in atheism since the material aspects of earth societies has been increasing continuously,
spirituality is being replaced by materialism regularly, technology makes the material aspects of our existence more enjoyable and sometimes actually necessary.
The mystery and the intrigue of the Tao and God is overwhelming, but on one hand we have a soul and on the other hand, we have no soul, in both cases, there is a cause and effect and or Karma, because as we sow, so shall we reap,
but the confusion lies in where the karma resides, if there is no soul, how does the karma keep accounts straight, if "we" come back to reconcile our karma, who are "we" if not an immortal soul which is but a fragment of God,
this may be a requirement of the Tao for God to carry out or just possibly just a different part of the same thing, if "we" are not our soul,
but just some unknown identity that has the chore of coming back time and time again until all that is required is realized, and then "we" proceed to Nirvana, that just seems too final and easy to me to swallow as the whole story.
I do not believe the point of all of this is to argue about the Tao and God but to realize that we are not just a random bunch of atoms assembling to create a human race to live and just die, there must be a purpose to our existence and it must have the intelligence to it,
something must be learned in its action that will be a benefit to something. There is no doubt that we are not alone in the universe, and other creatures from other planets must have had these same questions confronting them or are having them now,
our scientists are having a rough time of keeping the earth from the center of the universe, their latest findings are being kept on the down low as to not give fuel to the religious sect, our galaxy now seems to be at the center of the universe, but they are still looking.
https://creation.com/our-galaxy-is-the-centre-of-the-universe-quantized-redshifts-show
Scientifically there can be many reasons for this phenomena, the reasons still eluding sciences experts because science is still relatively new as compared to religion.
Dragging science into the God and Tao debate seems quite appropriate, science nowadays is driven from theories and best guesses, the atom, for example, is viewed as containing certain particles,
particles that have never been actually viewed, the premises of these particles align with other theories, and they are considered a fact, these facts are taken as gospel until a new theory supersedes the old one,
almost like when a new religion comes out, Scientology is a good bandwagon for people to jump onto a few decades ago, I do not claim what is true or what is false as there is some truth in all religions just as all theories had some worth when they were first conceived of,
and even if the atom is found to be a torus, it doesn't mean that there aren't any particles inside of it also. Keeping an open mind about the unknown not only gives us a more unbiased view of things, but it also exercises our humility which is a whole lot better than letting our arrogance run away with the show.
If thinking that the Tao is God is too much for you to swallow or even if God is the Tao, perhaps a slight simplification of your belief system is in order, the creation of our universe as we can perceive it is quite vast even on our visual scale,
not only does it consist of hundreds of billions of galaxies, and each of those galaxies consisting of a hundred billion stars give or take, the greatest thing in common out there are those bright spots we call stars,
if we were to consider our sun as an average sized star, then we could also consider that other stars out there may have life around them also, our star, the Sun brings us light, warmth, and life, without it there would be no plants, no animals and thus no life,
you could actually say that we owe our existence to the Sun, it allows us to perceive, it gives us our seasons, and it could be considered an ambassador of God or the Tao,
if you need something visible to worship, there it is, and every planet in existence has one in their neighborhood to look towards for inspiration.
It is not hard to talk about the vastness of the Tao and the greatness of God since their evidence is everywhere you look, religion and science have been in competition for a while now, but I believe that will be changing soon,
these relatively new discoveries of dark energy and dark matter are just the start of the segway between religion and science, this dark energy or dark matter is just the "unmanifested"
it pervades everything, there is no such thing as nothing, every space between and inside atoms have this ether or dark matter or energy that is so subtle and fine, yet encompasses all that we see and don't see,
it is the storehouse of all matter that resides in the Tao and God has the key, the black hole in the middle of our galaxy and at the middle of all galaxies, is the relief valves of reality that maintains the balance of existence,
every beautiful flower to every loving thought originated from this ether and shall return when it is time, you may call it a dimensional shift or whatever you please, Reality is the breath of God on the window pane of the Tao.
Tao is God is just the mirror image site of God is Tao, they both attempt to say the same thing with a different perspective, Believers in the Tao or "The Way" are really no different in believers in God,
they both hope to strive for a better meaning of life, one base their beliefs on a deity and the other on basically nature, what really needs to be grasped is that they are just different sides of the same proverbial coin,
they try to lead us to the same place, just using different paths, explanations of our existence differ, but not so much as to matter to any great extent, especially if you consider what the really important ideas are that are being presented,
both of these paths can be followed without any great compromise of either, we only need to open our eyes and our hearts in order to grasp these basic concepts of existence.
And as for all of you that worship materiality and nothing else, does it not seem very limiting to make your mark in life either by inventing something or making a lot of money and just be content in the thought that long after you are gone people will still be using your widget or that in generations to come you have made life easier for your offspring by giving them your great wealth so they no longer have to toil like the masses,
some will be fortunate enough to come up with something to cure a disease or feed the masses better, but that is it for you after that, your name may live on like the Pasteur or Einstein or Plato,
although Einstein was a self-proclaimed deeply religious non-believer and Plato resides on the other end of the scale, a belief in God or the Tao is not necessary to be a good human being,
even though an understanding of cause and effect would help you navigate your 3-dimensional life with greater ease. I believe that it is ultimately inevitable for science and religion to come together once dark energy and dark matter are adequately explained along with certain aspects of quantum entanglement.
What is Intelligence?
When it comes to the Tao or God, Intelligence is what is noticed to bring either of the two into being noticed, the intelligent design of the universe and all that is contained within is the slap in the face of reason to dispell any thoughts of purely random nature of life,
things are organized, there is an obvious plan to life, and to deny this is an ignorant move on anyone's part, there is a mathematical precision to all existence that clearly presents itself in all of nature from a bacterium to a galaxy,
and the balance being maintained is like watching the ballet of life unfolding before your eyes, this is just the stuff that we can perceive with our senses, there is so much more that is not yet understood that is the real wonder of reality,
there is a reason behind everything, there is no such thing as coincidence, it is God making a point, but we just can't notice or understand, the best that we have been able to do is to explain things with our relatively new religion called science.
Science is supposed to be all about intelligence, a logic about things in nature, an explanation of things around us that makes life a little more clear, science has taken it upon itself to be the sole authority about reality,
it has a method that is dependent upon the senses and is straight forward, it has embraced materialism with all of its gadgets and devices that it has determined cannot be fooled or deceived,
yet it still depends on theories when it cannot outright prove something, God, on the other hand, is the mirror image of science, the perception through a view in a mirror is only 2 dimensional, and the third dimension has yet to be discovered,
that undiscovered dimension is called faith, it is intuition in the belief of things that cannot be proven as of yet, but when you see how things naturally work in nature, a logic that is intelligent,
God just as the Tao is subtle, more subtle than any instrument can measure, but science can see its results.
What is intelligence? Just because you have much book learning and making lots of money and know many scientific theories and are aware of what other people have discovered about material life does not mean that it is the only form of intelligence out there,
the ability to use your intuition to discover something about yourself or life as you live it that changes your view of everything is a different sort of intelligence, and wisdom is another factor in what is being presented to you,
things can be cool and things can be smart, but their wisdom may be veiled by its material eye candy, the Tao and God are spiritual aspects of reality that are not based on material things or how pleasant they are to the senses,
they work from our essence, our spiritual beliefs, our immortal souls or karmic beings, God and the Tao have materialized our senses and all of these material things to distract us and test us to see if we will realize what is actually going on and truly see how intelligent we think we are.
What is the Point?
Why is this site even here? Many people do not really care if there is a God or if there is a Tao, they just live their lives on their own terms and do what the masses do and basque in their senses and collect and play with their "things" basically being driven by the status quo of society,
yet there are some that have taken a side, they have chosen the Tao or they have chosen God as their belief, this is where I come in, these people believe in something greater than themselves but are unwilling to see the big picture,
Taoism is all about maintaining the balance, your actions are at the ends of the scale that determines your karmic destiny, a belief in God is somewhat more personal, but the same balance must be maintained because as we sow so shall we reap,
as it stands now, about 25% of Christians believe in reincarnation which would indicate that they also believe in karma as that is the reason for reincarnation,
so there you have two belief systems with the same basic goal except for the particular rules and dogma that has been inserted by our materialistic beliefs that have been driven by our senses,
a better understanding of "False Personality" can dissolve some of these unneeded differences and bring us all closer to the same conclusion.
but the point of all of this is to realize that we are much more than what we do and what we own or where we go and who we go with or what we eat or how we dress or who knows about it, all of that is self-serving and material based,
a search within or an external giving of one's self to an altruistic cause is a step in the right direction, don't just talk the talk, it is imperative to walk the walk in order to make the real point of what you need to do to prove that you are worthy of your soul or worthy of not reincarnating again and again,
all that you do in this life towards your enlightenment and towards other's enlightenment will count on your karmic spreadsheet, all of the realizations and wisdom that you gather in this life will be realized and acted upon in the next life,
your duality will be your greatest adversary, it will need to be completely controlled and that is no simple task, being able to reach a spiritual/material compromise will be the ultimate goal in order for you to prosper and still achieve an enlightened state.
The point is for us to realize that we are the creation of much more than an evolution of a random bunch of atoms that just survive because we are the fittest or that a natural selection has occurred that has brought us where we are,
all of our scriptures have been trying to explain this to us but false personality from our duality has tainted our scriptures and now people have jumped onto the dogma bandwagon and have believed these unnecessary and superfluous additions from our less than spiritual sides for so long that they now insist that they are all the word of God and worship every superstitious phrase,
a little discrimination and a realization that fear and superstition are not the way of the Tao or God would have helped humanity greatly, to understand that Love is the biggest intention presented to humanity and we should all get together and figure this out,
we need to replace our out of control emotions with some level headed humility and compassion to be able to agree to a peaceful resolution to our single-minded opinions that have been preserved to cater to our material based, emotional, worse halves for centuries,
I thought that religion was supposed to make us better people.
If you have discovered the point of a site called "Tao is God", you are ahead of the game, you may be a seeker of truth and this is just a stop on the way to many more stops,
the mirror site "God is Tao" has the same mission and teaches the same tolerance to differing beliefs with the same target audience, and that is EVERYONE,
the Tao or God can go by other names or definitions like cosmic intelligence, supreme energy, divine all-encompassing spirit or just nature is fine,
the destination should be the same for everyone and the ways about getting there are really not so important as long as the object of the endeavor is realized,
we are all headed in the same direction, why not carpool and discuss with each other the different routes to be taken, maybe we will all learn something in the process.
The true point of this site is to cause you to realize that there is an intelligence that has guided humanity by the creation of the many religions and belief systems all over the world to allow us to recognize that there is something going on that is not just random,
and there are some points being made in our various religions trying to point out certain things that are important, firstly, the recognition that there is an intelligence that has created all that is, be it God or the Tao is not really important,
second, there is a balance that needs to be maintained or else bad things happen, our Yin and Yang must be paid attention to because as we sow, so shall we reap.
third, reincarnation, which is a rather logical assumption since it is next to impossible to get life "right" in the first try,
forth, karma, which is a debt that is acquired in the process of creating an imbalance and which must be balanced before any great progress can be made towards realization,
realization would be the fifth factor in religions purpose, it is true that this has been greatly simplified as there are many more aspects of the different religions and beliefs that are important to humanities existence.
Something worth doing and doing well, something that helps all of humanity in such a profound way that our planet can finally attain its 1000 years of peace,
this is a life mission for anyone willing to make the sacrifice of typical material gains of typical earthly life in order to educate your brothers and sisters to reality,
it really is a point that is lost and not understood by many, many refuse to listen or consider anything other than what their senses tell them, this knowledge has been presented in many forms for thousands of years and it is up to each and every individual to discover its existence,
all of our religions and beliefs dance around various facts of our reality hoping that some will see the light through the heavy veil of our senses and come to the greatest realization that can be realized,
it is not at all important what we wish to call this realization, Tao or God of many names, energy, universal intelligence, there can be no adequate description that could encompass something so vast,
your thoughts of what it may be are all that will really matter and the realization that it truly exists and you are part of it.
When we as a race are able to recognize that there is no difference between God/Gods/Tao and come to the realization that what our various religions, scriptures, and beliefs are trying to enlighten us to,
there will be true civilization and worldwide peace. The important part of this literature is not the fear of going to hell or any of the superstitions or even the clothing you wear, there is one paramount belief that must be maintained and lived by and that is the belief in God or Tao,
the commandments are there to reduce the possibility of acquiring karma because when you acquire karma, you must reincarnate to equal it out by opposite karma, this is the closest thing to hell that you will come to,
if you murder, you will be murdered, if you leave lives in ruin, you will live a future life in ruin, as ye sow, so shall ye reap, these are cosmic laws similar to cause and effect but with an eternal memory,
whether you wish to believe that they come from God or the Tao is not of great concern when there is a fire raging through your neighborhood, you do not sit and consider how or why it started, you leave your house if you want to live.
Reason and Understanding In Beliefs
It has now come to us to determine what is going on on our planet, as our religions have evolved we have been fed new information about reality from many different points of view,
the ancient Hindus have brought many deities controlled by one central God, Buddism has given us a realization that we have ultimate control over our lives and should take responsibility for our actions,
both of these religions or beliefs have Karma and Reincarnation as an integral part of their beliefs, the main difference between the two is a lack of a deity and a soul, then comes along Christianity with its personal God and his son,
here some basic rules were brought forward "The 10 Commandments" and the soul was Gods contribution to our being and a few hundred years later Islam comes forward with more specific ideas to refine the beliefs presented so far like charity as a regular mission,
whether you belong to a Synagogue, Mosque or Church or any other place to gather for worship the basic goal is the same or should be, Peace and Love should be on the top of the list,
which brings me to Cao Dai which was founded in 1926 by someone that was approached by the supreme being that has guided a man to believe that all of the religions are good and it is based on justice, love, peace, and tolerance, it incorporates some from all of the great religions which is where we have all been led for millennia,
by coming to the realization that we have all been shown the way towards the truth from the very beginning, we can finally start to grasp what is really going on here, there is only one great intelligence out there no matter what it is conceived as,
and it has a plan for us to evolve, we now have the tools to enable us to communicate and tear down the tower of babel and share what all of our faiths have learned for thousands and thousands of years,
we now need to filter out what was the input of our false personality (evil), this is the true test of our wisdom, the rituals and traditions are good for remembering what is important, but the fear, hate, and superstition needs to be lost in order for us to make some good from all of this,
there are many out there consumed with their pride and driven by their emotions from what has been drilled into their minds for all of their lives, it has control, it is time for everyone to take that control back,
we have all been given free will and now is the time to use it, our souls are being tested here and they have learned much, our spiritually based selves (good) and our materially based selves (evil) are in conflict,
our duality must be controlled as it cannot be destroyed due to our sense driven existences,
our souls are playing the ultimate game to see what can happen, and this is considered a learning experience for them which ultimately adds more knowledge to "all that is", we just need to realize this and take back control from our senses,
emotions and desires use this control for good and prove that our wisdom has increased in the process, Caodaism is the single biggest step towards religious tolerance there is as religion goes, it may have aspects that people find hard to swallow,
but that is where your discrimination and intuition comes to bare, the basic concept is exactly what is being presented on these sites and I am so glad that I have come across this information as it gives a better degree of hope toward humanities progress,
I have been deliberately led to these ideas whereas another was led in this direction over 90 years ago, I do not claim to be a Prophet as the many throughout history, but I have been given ideas and a sense of urgency to share these ideas,
we all have the ability to see the truth when it is presented to us, and I hope that some eyes will open to some wisdom and love as opposed to the other regular stuff that happens day in and day out through our lives.
The True Tao cannot be Spoken
This is an easy statement to be explained on more than one level, not only is speech a material thing and the Tao is purely non-material, but the Tao is such an all-encompassing enigma that absolutely no explanation could possibly even come close to its expansive greatness that is perceived or not perceived,
the Tao can only be explained by the last digit of pi, and even if an explanation was attempted it would not be completed until the end of time or at the completion of infinity,
OK, since we have gotten its greatness established, now we can continue with what we know, the Tao and God have much in common, The Tao "just is" and always has been and God has no name other than I AM that I AM, the first, the last, the beginning, the end, the alpha, the omega covers both of these concepts and they are both beyond all human understanding,
neither of them is material in the least, yet they have produced all that we perceive, they both strive for balance keeping our yin in check with our yang and sowing what we reap goes both ways, good and bad.
The big picture is rather simple and logical in our 3-dimensional views of things, we have been given instructions of how to act and how to live that are reasonable as long as we don't let our false personalities from our duality run the show,
excessive negative emotions and material stimuli are the boat rockers of our existence, what it all means is the part that no one knows, the meaning of it all cannot be explained,
but we have clues to what is expected of us, and possibly if we get together and take the best that our religions have to offer, that will possibly get us closer to that thing that cannot be spoken.
What Beliefs Do Buddhism Have?
The four noble truths are the basic basis for Buddhism, they involve the different aspects of suffering, though the Tao is not part of Buddhist beliefs, they have similarities and can be compared to beliefs that involve God,
the non-universal belief of karma and reincarnation that are not followed in all of the beliefs that include God do have references to ideas that can correspond to reincarnation such as sow as ye reap and But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken,
since it is not proclaimed when judgment day is, it can only be assumed that it would be at the end of your life, and if that account that they give does not tally, it will be balanced in a future life,
Buddhism has its sort of commandments the same as in the Bible, not lying, not stealing not killing, etc. , following these rules keep a cosmic balance that ensures that you do not acquire any bad karma that will upset the balance,
God "will repay each person according to what they have done." Just by going to hell for doing something unjust does not teach the offender any sort of lesson, but coming back to live another life and being confronted by the injustices that you might have done to others will balance the scales nicely,
just because Buddhists do not believe that God is orchestrating these reincarnations or that there is a soul involved in these various life long penances is of no great importance, just the acts that you do to acquire karma or the penances that are done to pay off or balance the cosmic scale are what really count,
even if Karma and reincarnation are not one of the functions of God and are just the cosmic clockworks of the Tao, it still provides what is necessary to maintain balance. In order to end the rebirths and the suffering on this planet, the requirements are the same in many faiths.
The Holy Trinity
The belief in the Holy Trinity has been popular ever since the Bible was first read, the Father has been thought to be God and the son was Jesus or some other blessed Avatar,
but the holy ghost or holy spirit has been considered a different sort of fragment of God as if the concept of God was not complex enough, I believe that there has been a miscommunication in certain respects,
as there are many concepts of Holy Trinities covering many faiths and different degrees of male and female, material and spiritual, this is just one of them.
This Holy Spirit is akin to the Tao along with God, all creation has come to be and the results of this is US and "All That Is" the Son is a mediator or translator from the spiritual to the material,
there have been some Avatars throughout history that have had information about God and or the Tao that have been able to convey this information in a way where our material senses were able to process what they intended to tell and show mankind,
since we are all children of God and or the Tao, that would make all of us a potential son depending on what type of enlightenment we would receive,
the cosmic rules of creation would have us dependant on Karma and Reincarnation since we are sentient beings that have all been given free will by God, the great void or the Tao has always been, and God decided to have creation which has brought us into material existence,
it is unknown to what cosmic rules have been brought into existence by God or the Tao, but the necessity of balance is crucial in order for Karma to be held at bay,
so this Holy Trinity is about God, the Tao and all of creation. Person, Place, and thing or stage, director and actors, try to keep it simple and it will mean much more to you.
Why is the Tao like Water
The Tao would love everyone to maintain the status quo, to just be, do not strive for complications, simple is better, just as water has no agenda it just seeks its own natural level,
there can be some water in a bowl outside and it will eventually evaporate if there is no added rain to replenish it, even though water is more prevalent than anything else on earth it does not brag about the fact,
it is very soft and yet it is able to cut and wear through just about everything it comes in contact with eventually, its power cannot be denied a tidal wave or tsunami is most devastating, water will naturally, flow to the lowest position available to it,
it does not feel entitled to require an elevated position, it teaches by example, its humility is plainly apparent, water does not show favoritism towards anyone, everyone benefits from its presence,
water is mysterious as there is much hidden within its depths, it does not taunt because its meer existence cannot be fathomed to a complete explanation, it will always continue to harbor its secrets without reason or condemnation,
water is unstoppable, eventually, every roof will leak, yet all life depends on its arrival to survive, water is able to travel freely by land or by air, it can freeze to split the greatest boulder and it can be still to reflect all of the beauty that surrounds it,
just as water is like the Tao, it can also be likened to God, as the rules of God in commandments and virtues can be compared to maintaining a balance or natural level as long as water has not contended with we shall sow as we reap,
just as water does not judge, neither does God as long as we do not attempt to judge others, there is much to see and say about the the subtlety of water and always something to learn.
How Can Religion Help Me?
Religion can be a two-edged sword, it can help you greatly if you have the intuition to be able to discern the important from the superstitious, or it can drag you down to the level of fanatical beliefs that are supported by ignorance and violence,
Religion has been originally created to enable mankind to be able to live together in a civilized manner, it covers many views and ideas that have the same basic goals, the main problems with religion is that it has been written by "man" that has had divine guidance,
these enlightened ones and prophets have something in common with all of us common folk, it is that they also have been given free will to take these divine visions of wisdom and put them down in their own words,
some of these words contain ageless wisdom that is very valuable in everyday life and other of these words are meant to frighten you into believing all that is presented, discerning the good from the bad is what is of greatest importance,
being able to tell what is of the senses and is material in nature from what is spiritual and is divine in nature is not as hard as it may seem, most peoples dualistic nature has a majority of control coming from the materialistic side of your being,
it thrives on conflict, it likes what it sees and hears and wants more of it, it wants stuff and things that taste and smell good so it can feel good all of the time, sometimes at any cost,
whereas the spiritual side of your being is the opposite, it would rather give things away and treat life with a loving view of existence, it is moderation and temperance, it is humility and chastity, where tolerance of everyone is the norm.
Religion has great potential when used properly, you need only use your intuition and not fall prey to threats and fear.
All of our scriptures have been ultimately written by man, many of them are thousands of years old and refer to things that are no longer done and haven't been done for a long while,
sacrificing animals and smiting our disbelieving neighbors with the edge of our swords is a good example of contradictions of not killing and coveting material things from our conquered brothers,
wiping out entire cities including the children of the non-believers are eradicating the chance of any sort of redemption in case someone decides to change their religious views,
and being a child leaves very little choice of what can be done before you are killed in the name of God, Jesus in the new testament brought some of these contradictions to light,
but still, this scripture was written and edited by man which would void it's entire divine perfection, still, it harbors great wisdom that has survived man's inputs and adjustments,
it is truly up to all of us to determine what to believe and worship, How can religion help me? you ask, just pay attention to what people really worship these days, their gadgets and new technologies are their new Gods,
they worship their human celebrities and all of the other materialistic junk that they have created over the centuries,
just taking the time to peruse a variety of scriptures to ferret out the tidbits of divine enlightenment just waiting to be discovered is a worthwhile endeavor for anyone really looking for the true meaning of religion.
Is God a Taoist?
The classic question of the chicken and the egg, which came first? Has Taoism created God? Or has God created the Tao?
There is a great power out there and all around us that has created "all that is", the name of this power is ultimately inconsequential as this power has created all language,
Mankind tends to limit its views of reality by compartmentalizing its various religions and beliefs when it should be opening its vision to include "all that is", there is something great that has created all religions because reality is too big a pill to swallow,
all of the religions have some of this truth and wisdom hidden within, it is up to our free will and its wisdom of use for us to discover where the truth really lies,
Lao Tsu has been enlightened with certain beliefs as well as Jesus and Krishna, they all have different views of reality or should I say they have been enlightened with different portions of reality,
there are many more enlightened ones that have tried to bring their truths to bare for all to ponder and try to understand, God or the Tao has given many a glimpse of its greatness and that is including you and me,
you see, no single person is excluded from this knowledge and it is up to each and every one of us to find this out and then to tell others,
by using our discretion along with our free will and intuition we can distill the truths from the fear and superstitions, we are all connected throughout this creation,
our planet is but a small part of this creation and this is our tour in this solar system to find this out, we have all of the tools necessary to do this, all of the information that we need is on the internet,
and if we feel that this is not enough we can venture within for even more answers like if the Tao created God or if God created the Tao,
either way you choose you must search for answers in order to prove you are worthy of being a part of creation.
The Tao that can be Spoken
If we were to compare the Tao to God there would be a similar aspect occurring, it would be that they are both not of a material nature and they both do not reside in matter,
their attributes cannot be shown to anyone yet they are always there, all of our existences are due to them, though they cannot be described, they're works can be perceived in all that exists,
both God and the Tao are subtle, they are not demanding as opposed to some scriptures, they just ARE, without them there is nothing as they have created everything,
there is no physical or material representation of a feeling, a thought contains no matter, love has no agenda, a sunset is constantly changing and cannot be grasped,
the Tao Te Ching does a good job of describing the Tao and it's attributes, but essentially what is of most importance must be felt and an understanding of an unspoken non-thing cannot be understood with the senses,
it must be lived in order for any understanding to be remotely possible, when we speak of the Tao it is only to alert us to it's existence, we must be informed of the rules that surround all creation,
we are all material beings with material driven senses and we are stuck in this situation, and a speaking of the Tao and hearing of the Tao is our only Material interface with this "Great Way" until we return to our natural state of being we can only speak of the Tao,
we may get glimpses of what is going on in our dreams or during meditation that is why we must depend on the Tao that can be spoken until our 3-dimensional tour is complete on this planet
or our present life comes to an end we will speaking of the Tao and afterwards it shall become much more clear to all of us.
Is the Tao God?
There are a multitude of views on this subject that can and will be taken to extremes depending on emotional content of the opinionated,
a Taoist will give you a resounding NO, even though the Tao is known to not be known, if there is someone that claims to know the Tao, according to Taoists, they do not know the Tao,
a sort of paradox that can and cannot be true, it is not the intention here to upset anyone with specific beliefs one way or another but it is the intent to keep your minds open to possibilities,
after all, God is basically in the same boat as the Tao, both are unexplained and both are responsible for all that we perceive,
what this power and or intelligence may be called is of very little consequence in the grand scheme of things, I just see it as another aspect of the same immense thing,
Though I have not heard of anyone praying to the Tao, I have heard of them being one with the Tao, for you purists out there that believe that it should be referred to as the Dao,
before the incorporation of the English language, the Chinese symbols agreed with neither, we shall try to agree that it sounds like Dao, or if you had a cold, Tao still works,
mostly the Tao is used here so it is not mistaken with the organization of developers, Taoism teaches balance in your life, in what you do and how you deal with people,
while in a more concrete way, the commandments also teach a sort of balance by showing people how not to get way out of balance, just as in reincarnation, the eternal Tao process will accept that our energy is eternal even though a soul is not specifically stated,
the point being made here is not if the Tao and God are the same thing but if it is indeed unknown what either really are, why not search for more things that it can possibly be,
even if it is agreed upon that the Tao and God are different, it could possibly be agreed upon that the concept may be similar and they may just be different aspects of the same concept,
it was stated earlier that the Tao was the canvas and God was the artist, matter comprises a very small percentage of the space in our universe, that is about .0000000000000000000042 percent,
and even the matter itself is considered to be less than 31.5% solid, this leaves the vast amount of what we perceive to be considered dark energy as science calls it or Aether as it has be known throughout the ages,
this is quite the canvas for creation to be painted upon, this is only our perception as seen through our limited senses, where space and time dictates how things are seen,
our perceptions of what we believe as reality is limited and the Tao and God are unlimited, we are just fragments of the whole, our material existences are next to nothing as compared to the eternal expanse,
The Tao and God are just the tips of the spiritual iceberg that govern all physical existence.
ALL THAT IS!
This is one point that God and the Tao share and that is "all that is", this is a common description of everything that exists and possibly doesn't exist, "all that is" is a description of all existence, it does not need a God or the Tao to be realized,
we all are a part of all that is, so this means that we have an inherent connection to everything, it has been proposed that all that we perceive is the product of our minds, being a part of the universal consciousness allows us to work together to create our reality,
so time and space may just be a product to allow us to function in this 3-dimensional environment that we all have created, in science, we can perceive the outer limits of our observable universe through telescopes,
we estimate that there are 100's of billions of galaxies each containing 100's of billions of stars and not telling how many planets, these observations cannot be proven physically, they are only specs of light that cannot be reached,
and it is suspected that it goes forever past what we perceive, if this is all indeed what our soul's minds have created, space may also just be some fabrication to explain our current existence, and still, "All that is" covers this nicely also,
at this point of our current perceptions, we should just play along and experience our 3-dimensional existences as if it was all there was, after all, this is why our souls have chosen to be here to begin with,
it seems that it will be quite a while before we are able to physically reach another star let alone another galaxy, so there will be plenty of time for us to contemplate our existence through science or any other means,
this gives our wisdom time to catch up to what we think we know in science, we will probably continue to come up with unprovable theories like "the big bang" just to stroke our egos and lead ourselves to believe that we really have a clue about "All that is",
the human mind is the true frontier to be conquered, and until humanity is willing to accept this, science shall continue to propose it knows what it is all about.
Why can the Tao not be named?
This goes along the same lines as why God is known as "I am", I am that I am because what other name could possibly be used for something that has created all that is? The Tao or pronounced the Dao, has no name being the original primordial constant,
it cannot have an identity, unlike God which has been greatly personified, the Tao has always been and will always be, who can be arrogant so as to believe that they know truly what the Tao is, let alone some name that should be used for it,
the concept here is about humility, we as individuals are really nothing in the grand scheme of things and we should have this realization, that is why it is said that those that say they know the Tao, do not know the Tao,
when you realize your true ignorance in this respect, you have a much better chance of understanding what the Tao means to you, essentially you must strive to be one with everything around you in order to get a glimpse of what the Tao may be about,
there is a universal consciousness that we are all a part of and this consciousness dwells within the Tao, we are just fragments that try to keep a proper balance in our lives, it is our actions and beliefs that fill the Tao and flow with it,
we don't really know what it is or why it is, only that it is, those of us that feel that they have a name for this force or this state of reality or this unknown where all that we perceive is manifested do not have what it takes to be worthy enough,
it seems that much of the Tao's power comes from its mysteriousness, the acceptance that we as mortal humans can never know its true extent or intentions if any, we are just supposed to know it is what enables all of existence as we know it and it thrives on balance,
when balance is disrupted, life is disrupted until the balance is restored, why this is should not be a concern of ours let alone the naming or reasoning of such a power that is able to control this,
as humans we are all naturally inquisitive and would wish to know such things but we don't need to know how gun powder works in order to know that a bullet fired from a gun will kill, and the not using of a gun will avoid this particular problem all together.
Taoism God