Appendix B - Taoism

Summary

All Chinese names and terms used here are rendered in the spellings that would have been familiar to the O’Neills.

Taoism—a philosophy, a religion, a system of belief, a guide for living. No one of these terms is quite accurate, and the idea of tao is unnamable because it is so encompassing and pervasive. To give it a definition would remove it from the infinite, and so there would be opposition, duality.

Tao is about oneness or “with-ness,” a harmony with all. As a guide to how to be in the world, the term is often translated as “the way,” how to be at one with all that is other. The oneness is not static. It flows.

Lao-Tzu lived—or evolved as a legend—somewhere in the fifth to sixth century BCE, possibly a contemporary of Confucius. The person with this name or title (literally, “Old Master”) became known as the author of the texts called the Tao te Ching, which laid the groundwork for what is known as Taoism.

A somewhat later writer, known as Chuang-Tzu, further developed these precepts in a series of writings known by the author's name or title.

A mandala is a depiction of the universe in Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Mandalas typically use geometrical form, not figurative imagery to depict the metaphysical world. The mandala most associated with Taoism is the portrayal of yin and yang as con¬trasting but cyclically intertwined forces. The natural world contains a balance of these forces, which humans should seek in the way they live.

The Ba-Gua is a further elaborated version of the yin/yang mandala, which associates color, natural elements, bodily organs, and human characteristics with an octagon that encloses the circle. This symbology, which can be endlessly elaborated, makes intelligi¬ble the way one should live in the world. The point is to enable the flow of qi, or ch’i, the energy or life force.

The design principles that evolved from these ideas to enable the flow of qi and to enable tao in human habitation is Feng shui.

Wu wei is a concept that explains how one should live in relation to the world, which is in a state of active passivity or creative inaction.