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The Tao Te Ching is not organized in any clear fashion and is a collection of different sayings on various themes. [306] The leading themes of the Tao Te Ching revolve around the nature of Tao, how to attain it and De, the inner power of Tao, as well as the idea of wei wu-wei.
It was the Lingbao school who also developed the ideas of a great cosmic deity as a personification of the Tao and a heavenly order with Mahayana Buddhist influences. [29] The Shangqing school is the beginning of the Taoist tradition known as “inner alchemy” , a form of physical and spiritual self cultivation. [3]
The term Tao means "way", "path" or "principle", and can also be found in Chinese philosophies and religions other than Taoism. In Taoism, however, Tao denotes something that is both the source and the driving force behind everything that exists. It is ultimately ineffable: "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao." [1] Also called Daoism.
Daoism (or Taoism) is a philosophy centered on living in harmony with the Dao (Tao) (Chinese: 道; pinyin: Dào; lit. 'Way'), which is believed to be the source, pattern and substance of all matter. [9] Its origin can be traced back to the late 4th century BCE and the main thinkers representative of this teaching are Laozi and Zhuang Zhou. [6]
The use of Chinese concepts, such as the Tao, that were close to Buddhist ideas and terms helped spread the religion and make it more amenable to the Chinese people. However, the differences between the Sanskrit and Chinese terminology led to some initial misunderstandings and the eventual development of Buddhism in East Asia as a distinct entity.
The Tao Te Ching [note 1] (traditional Chinese: 道德經; simplified Chinese: 道德经) or Laozi is a Chinese classic text and foundational work of Taoism traditionally credited to the sage Laozi, though the text's authorship and date of composition and compilation are debated. [7] The oldest excavated portion dates to the late 4th century BC ...
Laozi (/ ˈ l aʊ d z ə /), also romanized as Lao Tzu among other ways, was a semi-legendary Chinese philosopher and author of the Tao Te Ching (Laozi), one of the foundational texts of Taoism alongside the Zhuangzi.
The Zhuangzi ' s only direct description of the Tao is contained in "The Great Ancestral Teacher" (No. 6), in a passage "demonstrably adapted" from chapter 21 of the Tao Te Ching. The inner chapters and the Tao Te Ching agree that limitations inherent to human language preclude any sufficient description of the Tao. Meanwhile, imperfect ...