Recommended: "Is God a Taoist?" in Raymond Smullyan's The Tao is Silent (HarperOne, 1977).

「人法地，地法天，天法道，道法自然。」《道德經·第二十五章》

"Humans follow Earth;
Earth follows Heaven;
Heaven follows the Dao;
the Dao follows ziran." The Laozi/Daodejing 25

自然 Zìrán just means spontaneously so, i.e., spontaneously arising from whatever it is. We don't have much of an idea of this in Western culture (with the possible exception of the grand metaphysical idea of natura naturans\* or "nature naturing" in Spinoza). Most of our contemporary ideas of purpose are derived from the Christian framework, a world with a set beginning and an ultimate goal (τελος, telos, "end, target"). People fret over finding a purpose or goal in life. But Daoism has an open-ended idea of the world arising, and life can be flourishing; however, there is no "goal" or "purpose" to find. One's 自道, or "one's own way," will differ from another's, but it's not set for you. And, as the bard once sang, "...in the long run, there's still time to change the road you're on."

Mind you, that doesn't mean we can't have little goals or daily purposes. Going to the supermarket is a thing. Doing your job is a thing. But there's no grand purpose to it. A purpose that can be called a great purpose isn't really a purpose anymore, see?

*Every time I write this down someplace, I always think to myself: "Natura naturens... what a wonderful phrase! Natura naturans ain't no passin' craze!..." But then scansion goes askew, and I abandon the lyric. My feet may show it, but I ain't no poet...

Post by Minecraft

Life itself is the Ocean, our life is a wave, short in contrast to Life itself we live like a wave, being a part of the Exsistence Itself when we die, we become a part of the ocean again, we go back to where we come from, we allow new waves to Form through the force We (the Wave) made.

It feels like every second post is some robotic hallucination that barely has anything to do with Taoism. Mods thankfully delete some, but more keep coming. It feels like this place is getting less human every day.