Someone once asked me what Taoists believe. I don’t know what Taoist’s believe. I can only know what I believe. It’s not like we have churches or need people to tell us what the writings mean. The mental game we’re playing here is to figure it out for ourselves. There is no accomplishment in blind obeisance to someone else’s interpretation. I think I can say that all Taoist are on the same page up to just about here.
The first chapter of the Tao te Ching (loosely, Book of the Way…and yes, we have a book) tells us we are on our own when it comes to interpreting existence. That certainly includes the meaning of the words in the book. Several parts of the book discuss the futility of trying to teach the Tao to anyone else.
But I digress…