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Thursday, January 1, 2009

Limitation Through Definition

All men will come to him who keeps to the one,
For there lie rest and happiness and peace.

Passersby may stop for music and good food,
But a description of the Tao
Seems without substance or flavor.
It cannot be seen, it cannot be heard,
And yet it cannot be exhausted.
~ Tao Te Ching, Thirty-Five ~
In most religions, the supreme one is defined. We are told that it is just, loving, jealous, angry, forgiving or receptive. However, the moment you attempt to define it, you limit it. It's like you've placed it in a neat little box of rigid construction. Too often, in your mind, it becomes fixed by the very definitions YOU ascribe to it.

Tao, on the other hand, is accepted as definition-less. Tao is not defined as this or that; Tao just is. By not defining Tao, Tao is limitless and, as stated in the Tao Te Ching, "it cannot be exhausted".

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