It’s how it is, whether it’s meaningful or not. His words can also be interpreted as suggesting the will of the Tao law of nature just being a way of looking at it: Since Tao is how nature really works, it can be described as a willful intention of this law of nature. Well, Lao Tzu is not crystal clear about this.
Still, Tao has an aim and clear preferences. It has intention and a direction, though not at all like the deity of a religion, dictating its will and relating more or less emotionally to creation. Yet, Lao Tzu’s Tao is more than an impersonal natural force acting like a fixed mathematical formula. Therefore, the best comparison would be with the idea of a united field theory, a basic law of nature behind every phenomenon in the universe. But Tao is described as the one law ruling all others. It decides how the universe behaves, ever since its emergence at the Big Bang. In that sense, it’s indeed comparable to a law of nature in modern physics like, say, gravity. From a state so disorderly that nothing could be made or perceived of it, Tao built the universe as a matter of giving it structure, taming it into a system bound by its primary natural law. Tao created the world by bringing order to the chaos, simply by commanding it to conform to its law. When it did, though, it was the work of Tao. But he does state clearly that the world had a beginning, although it must remain an impenetrable mystery exactly out of what the world emerged. He hesitates before the paradox of getting something out of nothing, as have so many philosophers since. Whether Tao was born somehow in that chaos or just rested before springing into action at some point, Lao Tzu is unable to decide. Tao must have been present there, as well, or chaos would have remained forever. Lao Tzu hints at a primordial chaotic state, before the world emerged. That’s what occupies a substantial number of the chapters. But Lao Tzu had much to say about the characteristics of this way of nature, and in what direction it leads the world as well as everything and everyone in it. Since ancient times, Chinese tradition talked about Tien Tao, the Way of Heaven, referring to much the same – how nature was ruled. Lao Tzu was not the first to use the term with such a splendid meaning. This law made the world spring into being and keeps on ruling how all things in the world behave.
It can be described as the idea of a primordial law of nature by which the universe has been given its shape and mechanics. Tao, the Way, is the core and essence of Taoism, and the major theme of the Tao Te Ching.
Here the 81 chapters of the book are divided into seven major themes:
That has been evident in commentaries through the centuries, revealing profound insights into human behaviour and the meaning of life. Its minimized language and poetic form of expression open for a wide variety of interpretations. In spite of its mere 5,000 words, the content of the Tao Te Ching is not easy to penetrate and grasp. His thoughts are still relevant and cherished the whole world over. Below you will find this Taoist classic with extensive explanations by Tao Te Ching is the very source to Taoism, the sublime philosophy pioneered by Lao Tzu and his followers in the 6th century BC. Lao Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching at the request of a border guard on his journey into the mountains. He was a palace librarian, but left the Chinese emperor’s court on a water buffalo after growing tired of politics. The main and oldest source to Taoism is the Tao Te Ching written by the legendary Taoist master, Lao Tzu.
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