Taoism in a nutshell

Taoism is for a special kind of person. Although anyone can benefit from it, it's not for everyone, at least not this day in age and place. The true benefit in Taoism is found by those who are ready to question what they've been taught. Furthermore, the more one learns of Taoism, the more they learn they must question. As Lao Tzu put it, "in pursuing knowledge, one accumulates a little more each day. In pursuing the Tao, one takes away a little more each day." Everything we've been taught, all the technicalities, categories, and descriptions of nature, keep us from experiencing nature itself. For nature is not something that needs to be categorized. It is the only category.

—Bill Mason

This may be why I'm a Taoist. Given a piece of information, one of my first responses is always to question it. Where did it come from? Whose point of view is it? Has it been filtered through many points of view? Is it even remotely accurate or useful? Most of the information in the media is so filtered as to be meaningless.

But the section on Nature hits especially close to home. When I look at a sunset, I can think "sunset" and move on, or I can really look at the sunset without thinking and experience its full wonder and beauty. Thought interferes with experience.

And now I consider that questioning may seem to be about thought... And it's true that one can be so busy questioning a piece of information that its meaning does not penetrate. Which is where the Taoist principle of "Balance in all Things" comes into play. :-)