In order to discuss the nature of the Tao, we must begin adapting the mind toward a framework from which it may be understood. Our starting point must be one in which we suspend all that we previously know or believe to know, in anticipation of halting judgment about practically everything. One must try to return as we once were as i

“When the simple oneness of Tao is split up into individual

I was quite pleased with myself, but I did not know

dreaming he was a butterfly or the butterfly dreamin

and was happy as a butterfly. I was conscious that

This passage illustrates Chaung Tzu’s view that where one draws a distinction depends entirely on the context of the comparison. Whether a bug is large or small depends on what we are comparing it with, other bugs or other animals for instance. This insight amounts to the paradoxical premise that we can find a difference between any two things no matter how alike, and we can find a similarity between any two things no matter how different. So object similarity or difference does not justify any particular way of distinguishing amongst things. Chaung Tzu’s conclusion then follows, since distinctions are not in “things”, reality must be “one”. At this point it is argued that “distinctions appear to distort reality”, Hui Shih, one of Chuang Tzu’s peers. Chaung Tzu would postulate that if all distinctions are relative to some perspective, then we have no basis to conclude anything about absolute reality.

Some topics in this essay:
Chaung Tzu, Lao Tzu’s, Yin Yang, Tao Tao, Chaung Tzu’s, Lao Tzu, Hold Tao, Chuang Tzu, Chou Chou, Ching” Tao, chaung tzu, “tao-te ching”, chaung tzu’s, true nature, yin yang, lao tzu’s, taoist philosophy, chuang tzu, explain tao, sum total,