I do not know its name, and I give it the designation of the Tao (the Way or Course).Notice how different this is from the Abrahamic religions. In Judaism, Islam and Christianity, the divine source makes direct contact with the human race and announces what it should be called. This contact is something akin to a person-to-person relationship.
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~
I do not know its name
Call it Tao.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~
I do not know its name
Identifying it, I call it "Tao"
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~
I don't know what else to call it
So I'll call it Tao.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~
Lao Tzu makes no such claims. He doesn't state that the essence of the universe is named Tao; that's simply the name he has chosen to refer to it by. He also doesn't claim to have a personified relationship with Tao. The Way is a mystery and our lives are spent trying to catch glimpses of how we might unravel small bits of it.
To view the Index page for this series to see what you may have missed or would like to read again, go here.
Of course, "Yahweh" isn't exactly a proper name like Jesus or Abraham...the "I am what I am" concept, or, popping over to Wikipedia, it may mean “He Brings Into Existence Whatever Exists." (Yahweh as a Taoist magician?)
ReplyDeleteNot denying the "personal" nature of God in the Bible, the I-thou relationship being central to Judeo-Christan faith, but it is still an ineffable kind of concept.
People always say "God works in mysterious ways." So does Tao.