Path: shell.portal.com!svc.portal.com!uunet!in2.uu.net!electriciti.com!news From: wsnyder@powergrid.electriciti.com (Bill Snyder) Newsgroups: alt.philosophy.taoism,alt.magick,alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick.tantra,alt.consciousness Subject: Re: Do you really understand taoism? Date: Thu, 11 Apr 1996 19:55:38 GMT Organization: ElectriCiti, Inc. Lines: 21 Message-ID: <316d61d4.930963@news.electriciti.com> References: <4kel9p$2g3@jobe.shell.portal.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 198.5.214.54 X-Newsreader: Forte Agent .99d/32.182 Xref: shell.portal.com alt.philosophy.taoism:3378 alt.magick:71413 alt.magick.tyagi:7641 alt.magick.tantra:1119 alt.consciousness:25794 ende@acpub.duke.edu wrote: >why is the d in dirty capitialized? > Why is the c in clean not capitalized? > >i don't think taoism should be understood. isn't taoism everything and >nothing? > Taoism is an abstraction; all "isms" are. There are certain views and approaches to life which have been selected out and combined to form an "ism". I doubt very much that either Lao Tzu or Chuang Tzu would have understood your question if you had asked whether they were Taoists. When the Tao is lost it is called Tao; when following the Tao is lost it is called Taoism. It is theTao (or whatever it is we fail to name by that word) which pervades all things but is identical with no thing. -- Bill Snyder (wsnyder@powergrid.electriciti.com) Living is doing not being.