What is the Tao? What is being cultivated in the practice of the Tao? The answers are all in this couplet
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What is the Tao? What is being cultivated in the practice of the Tao? The answers are all in this couplet.
Often, believers would ask, "Master, what exactly is being cultivated in the practice of the Tao?" Or they might even directly pose an ultimate question: "What on earth is the Tao?" Faced with these two questions, many fellow Taoists are often left speechless, because these are questions to which no completely correct answers can be obtained no matter how much one thinks about them. What the former question refers to about what is being cultivated points to some specific and visibly real behavior, and one expects to obtain verifiable results of actual cultivation. All the methods of cultivation ultimately point to the "Tao". Thus, it leads to the second question, that is, what is the "Tao" that is being cultivated.
What is the Tao? Lord Laozi used five thousand words to specifically describe the character "Tao", yet it still ended up in a state that is ineffable and unknowable. And because one really doesn't know what it actually is, it can only be forcibly named "Tao". Zhuangzi attempted to summarize what the Tao is in the chapter "The Great Master", saying, "The Tao is sentient and trustworthy, non-active and formless; it can be transmitted but not received, obtainable but not visible... It is not considered lofty even though it exists before the Great Ultimate; it is not regarded as deep even though it is beneath the Six Extremities; it is not considered long-lived even though it came into the thermostat is used to control the temperature of the environment. If the temperature rises above the set point, the thermostat will turn on the cooling system to lower the temperature. If the temperature falls below the set point, the thermostat will turn on the heating system to raise the temperature.
In the view of Taoism, all things in heaven and earth are transformed from the Tao Qi. Lord of the Tao said, "The Tao gives birth to One, One gives birth to Two, Two gives birth to Three, and Three gives birth to all things. All things carry Yin on their backs and embrace Yang, and the interaction of Qi brings about harmony." This statement sets the tone for the Taoist cosmology. Taoism believes that the state that is most in line with the Tao is the chaos at the beginning of the creation of heaven and earth. In chaos, there was originally no concept of time and space, so all notions of size, front and back, high and low, long and short lost their significance of comparison. Therefore, it is described as being infinitely large without an outer limit and infinitely small without an inner limit, which exactly conforms to the description of the Tao. After that, a single Qi emerged from the chaos, which is called the Great Ultimate. This Great Ultimate is not the graphic of the Taiji Yin-Yang fish as we know it today, but a pole at the beginning of the primordial chaos. This is the process of the Tao giving birth to One. This pole further differentiated into the two Qi of Yin and Yang, which is One giving birth to Two. Because of the existence of Yin and Yang, there will naturally be comparisons. The light and clear Qi rises, while the turbid and stagnant Qi descends, and the originally chaotic universe begins to separate and take shape. Although Yin and Yang are two opposing Qi, they also have the possibility of connection and transformation. Therefore, at the intersection of the two Qi of Yin and Yang, "Three" is produced, which is the harmonious Qi of "the interaction of Qi brings about harmony". This harmonious Qi is born along with the connection of Yin and Yang, just as a new life is born due to the combination of the father's essence and the mother's blood. Among the clear heaven and turbid earth, all living beings with humans at the head are thus produced.
Even more abstruse is that although all things in heaven and earth are distinct from each other, the initial Yin and Yang Qi are still contained within each thing. It is precisely based on the separation and mutual transformation between Yin and Yang that the winter and summer, cold and heat in the world, as well as the birth, aging, illness, and death of humans are brought about. We regard all these as natural phenomena because all the changes occur in accordance with the movement of Yin and Yang. Those who practice cultivation within the religious community often recite a sentence: "Conforming leads to being human; going against leads to becoming an immortal." It means that if one conforms to the great transformation process from the Tao One, Yin and Yang, the Three Talents, and even to all things in heaven and earth, this is the principle of creating heaven and earth, and the continuation of the bloodline of humans and all things follows the same principle. Speaking of life and death, fundamentally, it is a process of the exhaustion of Yang and the emergence of Yin. Taoism takes the cultivation of immortality as the path to attaining the Tao. The first and foremost step is to transcend the limited physical body of life and death. How can this be achieved? The answer lies in the four words "going against leads to becoming an immortal".
It is written in the "Tao Te Ching" that a baby can cry all day long without getting a hoarse voice, and even without the interaction of Yin and Yang, its reproductive organs can remain in a state of fullness of Yang Qi. This is a description of a baby being a body with abundant primordial Yang. Among all living beings in the world, a person's life is a process in which the Yang Qi gradually dissipates and the Yin Qi continuously accumulates. That is why aging and death occur. The transcendence of life and death by cultivators is actually going against the flow of Yin and Yang, preventing the invasion of Yin Qi into the body and keeping the Yang Qi in a constantly sufficient and full state. This is reversing the change from the Tao One to the separation of Yin and Yang. The scripture says, "Movement is the basis of stillness." Seeking stillness from the constantly changing movement of Yin and Yang, and taking stillness as the true path to attaining enlightenment of the Great Tao. When Yin and Yang move, all things are born; when Yin and Yang are static, one returns to the primordial state. From the stillness of both body and mind, one can seek the method to return to the primordial Great Tao.
Thus, the questions raised at the beginning of this article can be answered. What is being cultivated in the practice of the Tao is necessarily the Tao, and the path to attaining the Tao is through tranquility.
It is said in Taoist cultivation that the human heart is the most difficult to subdue, simply because ordinary people's hearts lack stability and are the most easily influenced by external factors and drawn away. If one's heart only fluctuates with the appearance and disappearance of external things, it will be difficult to hold onto one's true and constant self. Then, what is the true and constant self? Literally speaking: True means real; Constant means ordinary. The real ordinary, and the ordinary is real. This is telling us that in daily life, we should not disguise our own real selves and regard all the ups and downs of life as ordinary. The Tao manifests itself in the human world through Yin and Yang, so there will inevitably be differences such as high and low, rich and poor. Understanding that these are the real ordinary things in life, we will not be induced to feel resentful in our hearts due to external differences. Looking at all things with a calm heart and treating ourselves with a tranquil heart, cultivating and verifying the same principle from thousands of differences, the perception obtained through enlightenment is the perception of cultivation. This is also the process of seeking true stillness within the heart from the movement of all things.
In Taoist temples, a couplet is often seen. The upper line is "The Tao gives birth to One, One gives birth to Two, Two gives birth to Three, and Three gives birth to all things." The corresponding lower line says, "Man models himself on the Earth, the Earth models himself on the Heaven, the Heaven models himself on the Tao, and the Tao models himself on Nature." If the upper line clearly shows the process of the True One Tao giving birth to heaven and earth and all things, the lower line is teaching people to study and learn all the laws between heaven and earth and nature and enable themselves to find their own natural state, thereby verifying their own Tao and attaining enlightenment of the universal Tao. It clearly shows the process of cultivating and verifying from the tangible human world to the pure and void Great Tao. Cultivation is originally about emulating all things for one's own use. As for what the Tao actually is, perhaps it still cannot be put into words. However, if one can cultivate a natural state through the tranquility method, it is believed that everyone can find their own "Tao".
Often, believers would ask, "Master, what exactly is being cultivated in the practice of the Tao?" Or they might even directly pose an ultimate question: "What on earth is the Tao?" Faced with these two questions, many fellow Taoists are often left speechless, because these are questions to which no completely correct answers can be obtained no matter how much one thinks about them. What the former question refers to about what is being cultivated points to some specific and visibly real behavior, and one expects to obtain verifiable results of actual cultivation. All the methods of cultivation ultimately point to the "Tao". Thus, it leads to the second question, that is, what is the "Tao" that is being cultivated.
What is the Tao? Lord Laozi used five thousand words to specifically describe the character "Tao", yet it still ended up in a state that is ineffable and unknowable. And because one really doesn't know what it actually is, it can only be forcibly named "Tao". Zhuangzi attempted to summarize what the Tao is in the chapter "The Great Master", saying, "The Tao is sentient and trustworthy, non-active and formless; it can be transmitted but not received, obtainable but not visible... It is not considered lofty even though it exists before the Great Ultimate; it is not regarded as deep even though it is beneath the Six Extremities; it is not considered long-lived even though it came into the thermostat is used to control the temperature of the environment. If the temperature rises above the set point, the thermostat will turn on the cooling system to lower the temperature. If the temperature falls below the set point, the thermostat will turn on the heating system to raise the temperature.
In the view of Taoism, all things in heaven and earth are transformed from the Tao Qi. Lord of the Tao said, "The Tao gives birth to One, One gives birth to Two, Two gives birth to Three, and Three gives birth to all things. All things carry Yin on their backs and embrace Yang, and the interaction of Qi brings about harmony." This statement sets the tone for the Taoist cosmology. Taoism believes that the state that is most in line with the Tao is the chaos at the beginning of the creation of heaven and earth. In chaos, there was originally no concept of time and space, so all notions of size, front and back, high and low, long and short lost their significance of comparison. Therefore, it is described as being infinitely large without an outer limit and infinitely small without an inner limit, which exactly conforms to the description of the Tao. After that, a single Qi emerged from the chaos, which is called the Great Ultimate. This Great Ultimate is not the graphic of the Taiji Yin-Yang fish as we know it today, but a pole at the beginning of the primordial chaos. This is the process of the Tao giving birth to One. This pole further differentiated into the two Qi of Yin and Yang, which is One giving birth to Two. Because of the existence of Yin and Yang, there will naturally be comparisons. The light and clear Qi rises, while the turbid and stagnant Qi descends, and the originally chaotic universe begins to separate and take shape. Although Yin and Yang are two opposing Qi, they also have the possibility of connection and transformation. Therefore, at the intersection of the two Qi of Yin and Yang, "Three" is produced, which is the harmonious Qi of "the interaction of Qi brings about harmony". This harmonious Qi is born along with the connection of Yin and Yang, just as a new life is born due to the combination of the father's essence and the mother's blood. Among the clear heaven and turbid earth, all living beings with humans at the head are thus produced.
Even more abstruse is that although all things in heaven and earth are distinct from each other, the initial Yin and Yang Qi are still contained within each thing. It is precisely based on the separation and mutual transformation between Yin and Yang that the winter and summer, cold and heat in the world, as well as the birth, aging, illness, and death of humans are brought about. We regard all these as natural phenomena because all the changes occur in accordance with the movement of Yin and Yang. Those who practice cultivation within the religious community often recite a sentence: "Conforming leads to being human; going against leads to becoming an immortal." It means that if one conforms to the great transformation process from the Tao One, Yin and Yang, the Three Talents, and even to all things in heaven and earth, this is the principle of creating heaven and earth, and the continuation of the bloodline of humans and all things follows the same principle. Speaking of life and death, fundamentally, it is a process of the exhaustion of Yang and the emergence of Yin. Taoism takes the cultivation of immortality as the path to attaining the Tao. The first and foremost step is to transcend the limited physical body of life and death. How can this be achieved? The answer lies in the four words "going against leads to becoming an immortal".
It is written in the "Tao Te Ching" that a baby can cry all day long without getting a hoarse voice, and even without the interaction of Yin and Yang, its reproductive organs can remain in a state of fullness of Yang Qi. This is a description of a baby being a body with abundant primordial Yang. Among all living beings in the world, a person's life is a process in which the Yang Qi gradually dissipates and the Yin Qi continuously accumulates. That is why aging and death occur. The transcendence of life and death by cultivators is actually going against the flow of Yin and Yang, preventing the invasion of Yin Qi into the body and keeping the Yang Qi in a constantly sufficient and full state. This is reversing the change from the Tao One to the separation of Yin and Yang. The scripture says, "Movement is the basis of stillness." Seeking stillness from the constantly changing movement of Yin and Yang, and taking stillness as the true path to attaining enlightenment of the Great Tao. When Yin and Yang move, all things are born; when Yin and Yang are static, one returns to the primordial state. From the stillness of both body and mind, one can seek the method to return to the primordial Great Tao.
Thus, the questions raised at the beginning of this article can be answered. What is being cultivated in the practice of the Tao is necessarily the Tao, and the path to attaining the Tao is through tranquility.
It is said in Taoist cultivation that the human heart is the most difficult to subdue, simply because ordinary people's hearts lack stability and are the most easily influenced by external factors and drawn away. If one's heart only fluctuates with the appearance and disappearance of external things, it will be difficult to hold onto one's true and constant self. Then, what is the true and constant self? Literally speaking: True means real; Constant means ordinary. The real ordinary, and the ordinary is real. This is telling us that in daily life, we should not disguise our own real selves and regard all the ups and downs of life as ordinary. The Tao manifests itself in the human world through Yin and Yang, so there will inevitably be differences such as high and low, rich and poor. Understanding that these are the real ordinary things in life, we will not be induced to feel resentful in our hearts due to external differences. Looking at all things with a calm heart and treating ourselves with a tranquil heart, cultivating and verifying the same principle from thousands of differences, the perception obtained through enlightenment is the perception of cultivation. This is also the process of seeking true stillness within the heart from the movement of all things.
In Taoist temples, a couplet is often seen. The upper line is "The Tao gives birth to One, One gives birth to Two, Two gives birth to Three, and Three gives birth to all things." The corresponding lower line says, "Man models himself on the Earth, the Earth models himself on the Heaven, the Heaven models himself on the Tao, and the Tao models himself on Nature." If the upper line clearly shows the process of the True One Tao giving birth to heaven and earth and all things, the lower line is teaching people to study and learn all the laws between heaven and earth and nature and enable themselves to find their own natural state, thereby verifying their own Tao and attaining enlightenment of the universal Tao. It clearly shows the process of cultivating and verifying from the tangible human world to the pure and void Great Tao. Cultivation is originally about emulating all things for one's own use. As for what the Tao actually is, perhaps it still cannot be put into words. However, if one can cultivate a natural state through the tranquility method, it is believed that everyone can find their own "Tao".
