What is the Tao (Way) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

What is the Tao (Way) - Essay Example The Confucian way of Tao and the East and West ways of Tao will be examined in the paper. The definition of Tao is "Tao represents the basic concept of Taoism. In general, this term belongs to the spiritual atmosphere of the ancient China and can be translated "way", "mean", "art", "skill"., 1 To answer the question, what is the Tao way, depends on which tenets of Tao you side with. Tao can be translated differently depending on the perspective of the doctrines of Tao and individuals understand. This means that individuals have different doctrines of Tao and it depends on which of these doctrines an individual understands and how they understand that the question can be answered. Tao can be though of a philosophical school of thought and one of these schools of thought is the one that concerns the thoughts of Confucius. According to Confucius and those that understand Tao with these doctrines Tao "refers , "Tao" refers to the art of ruling the state of the ancient emperors like King Wen and the Duke of Chou," 2 1 Mitchell, Stephen. "Tao Te Ching" (1998) New York. 1st Perenn similar concepts." 3 In this context, the polisemy of this term resembles the polisemy of the concept "prima materia" of the Greek-Egyptian classique alchemy or of the medieval European alchemy. The way of Tao is the way a person perceives these tenets and uses them in their life. They can be used in all aspects of an individual's life from work ethic to the way they understand the world. The Tao way can be thought of as the way a person understands. The way a person understands Tao depends on their beliefs about Tao. Tao is traditionally an Eastern religion and school of thought; however, it is now practiced in the Western cultures. The answer to the question might differ in the East than the West because the doctrines and interpretation have changed slightly in Western cultures. This is due to the fact that Tao is a part of life in the East for many and they been taught the philosophies and doctrines of Tao since birth. Tao in a sense has been adopted in the Western cultures so so me of the concepts have deviated in the process. Nagarjuna and the Limits of Thought Jay L. Garfield and Graham Priest Nagarjuna seems willing to embrace contradictions while at the same time making use of classic reductio arguments. He asserts that he rejects all philosophical views including his own-that he asserts nothing-and appears to mean it. It is argued here that he, like many philosophers in the West and, indeed, like many of his Buddhist colleagues, discovers and explores true contradictions arising at the limits of thought. For those who share a dialetheist's comfort with the possibility of true contradictions commanding rational assent, for Nagarjuna to endorse such contradictions would not undermine but instead confirm the impression that he is indeed a highly rational thinker. It is argued that the contradictions he discovers are structurally analogous to many discovered by Western philosophers and mathematicians. 3 Graham explains that "Taoism, the practice of the Tao concepts) started as a combination of psychology and philosophy but evolved into a religious faith in 440 CE when it was adopted as a state religion." 4 At that time, Lao-Tse became popularly venerated as a deity. Earlier in this discussion, the Confucius philosophy was explained to be one school of thought that individuals used to understand Tao. This is because they are closely related and the thoughts of Eastern religions have many of the same doctrines. Taoism, along with Buddhism and Confucianism, became one of the three great religions of China around the time of 440 CE. "With the