Taoism in a Nutshell
As time is going on in my journey, it is becoming more and more obvious to me that Taoism is a truly simple but universal concept and maybe can be summarised in a very small amount of text. This page will hopefully (eventually) achieve this. This isn't to dismiss the reams and reams of text written on Taoism and its various manifestations explaining the various aspects of possible study but I believe you could read for ever and still not necessarily understand Tao. You certainly need to read some classics to start the process (the Tao Te Ching for example) but after that if you accept the full implications of Taoist chaos then you have to accept that your "way" might be totally different to someone elses (but just as "right" if there is such a thing within Taoism). I'm still finding out about it all and much of this page might have missed the deeper areas of study or possibly totally missed the point of what devotees of Tao follow. However, Taoism is very much a personal position and can only be experiential; Peaceful Fight is my experience and opinion. It is not a race to any specific point or end position or rank but just a certain "spirituality" and at this moment (April 2003) my view so Taoism can be summarised as the following.
Tao and Dao are the same word and interchangeable. They relate more to the complications caused by transliteration of Chinese than in their fundamental philosophies. The sound of a word means nothing without the understanding behind it. "Tao" means "the way" and that is what is important.
Tao manifests itself as a feeling of rightness. Following Taoism relies on aligning your little piece of Tao (ie your life) with the "bigger picture" of Tao in the World. You act upon Tao and it acts upon you. If you feel it, it can guide you to make the right decision in all situations. However, it is a bit like an actor in a play getting one line of the script at a time. You know the line is right but you have no idea of what the future implication is (but you say the line anyway). The important thing is that you know it is right for no other reason than it feels right and fits in te "script" (or conversely, sometimes you just know the line is right because it just doesn't feel wrong). At any time, you have freewill to follow the right path or to ignore it (and so Tao is not what people call fate) but when you are not aligned properly with the larger Tao then you will feel that things are not right. The further from Tao you are, the less right you will feel. The longer you stay away from being aligned with Tao, the more pain / suffering you will have to take to get back into alignment. You can hide the feelings by doing lots of external things to divert your attention but in the quiet of the night there is nowhere to hide and if your spirit is unsettled, it will eventually show you that this is the case. Main thing is to not leave it so late to get things right that you can't turn around and find the proper way (Dao).
Tao lives within this moment which is made up of past, present and future, simultaneously. Nothing is fixed in Daoism expect that your personal Dao ultimately leads you towards death. Doing the right thing keeps you on Dao and optimises your lifespan and quality of life. At any time, you have to be free within the chaos so that you can do the right thing, however strange this may seem to other people. It's a bit like a piece of string fixed to one fixed peg and one sliding peg set in a piece of wood. The string represents Dao and the end sliding peg relates to the time of your death. If you choose to move away from Dao it is like moving the string side to side. Because the string has a fixed length, by moving it side to side you pull the sliding peg towards you (so moving death closer). It doesn't matter to Dao if you shorten your string as that is your choice but you will have moved your death within the larger Dao (but it will still be in its rightful place fro your "revised Dao"). However, by keeping the string in the centre, everything sorts itself out and you die a rightful death at the right time. If your death moves forward from its starting point (ie where the sliding peg was when you are born) then you have died at the "wrong time" and it will be difficult to let this life go (as within your "original plan" you had certain things to do that you have run out of time to complete. This causes spiritual conflict and so pain and discomfort. One of the things we should wish for everyone we love is a peaceful death, whenever it arrives).
The side to side motion of the string is a deviation towards the extremes of yin and yang. In the World, first there was one (which was "Dao") then came two (which were "yin" and "yang") and then came 10000 things (everything else). This means that Tao is in everything but just feels one way regardless of where it is encountered. So, if you can feel and comprehend Tao and also feel and equilibrate the numerous yin /yang balances that exist in all things, then you can start to understand the 10000 things. This isn't like being able to write a thesis on everything nor to have all the answers, just you know what should happen due to how it feels. Taoism is being in the right place at the right time for the right reason and then doing the right thing. This is not an easy road but one that all of us can follow as to be sufficiently free to follow Tao you have to lose all aspects of stereotypical thought, preconceived ideas, desire for future outcomes, ego etc as these anchor you and stop you "drifting" with Dao.This doesn't mean you cut yourself off from everything, just that you are free to do anything at anytime if it is the right thing to do (ie aligned with Dao). There is no "what if such and such happens...." thoughts or "I wish I'd done......" or "If I do this, in the future I will be happier / better....." because the only moment that matters is this one. Deal with what you are supposed to do at this moment and the next one will naturally be aligned properly. Might not make much sense, it might be painful but see it for what it is within Tao and then things actually do start making sense. This is true freedom and leaves you free to play your role within the larger Dao (an then you start to see how big the Tao is and how simultaneously important / unimportant you are within it).
Love all people (at least until they choose to piss you off!).