While I wouldn't exactly call myself a Taoist (I wouldn't exactly call myself ANY religion, but that's besides the point.) it's definitely what I feel most connected to, belief wise.
I first read the Tao in my IB philosophy class the junior year of High School. at first, like most students of the Tao, I just thought "WTF?" and only vaguely got what Laozi was attempting to teach.
After getting more into mysticism, reading some Timothy Leary and Robert Anton Wilson, I went back and read the Tao. Holy shit, it made so much more sense to me. It seemed like every chapter had taken on this new, great, amazing significance. It's hard to describe. While I don't want to be pompous or think I'm better than others, I definitely think most people really don't get what Laozi is trying to say.
I was thinking about Taoism, and I think people commonly confuse the Yin Yang for something it's not.
People are always like "Oh, you can't have the good without the bad because how can you know what good is without the bad to compare it to?"
I think that's wrong. I really do.
I don't think the Yin Yang is the symbol that good must have evil in order to exist, but I think it's rather the symbol that good and evil are exactly the same things; To use Laozi's terms, the tao.
Something is not good or evil, not naturally. Everything simply is. Everything is just the tao when it starts out. An uncarved block of wood, as Laozi would say. We MAKE it good or evil, as the tao being conscious of the tao, or to use another phrase, the universe being aware of the universe. The universe just goes about it's business, naturally just being, and being "is", without any real care. Things just are. They aren't one or the other. They just are.
Then we conscious beings come along, and take this base matter, this singular substance, this monist stuff of the universe, and start making it into things. We make something good or evil, to fit our needs. We take the universe, we take ourselves, and we shape it all to our forms, and our molds. Only when something is observed does it become good or evil.
Then a thought popped into my head.
Schrodinger's Cat.
The Tao is like Schrodinger's Cat. Before being observed, the cat is neither (Or both) living or dead. It just is. Only when it is observed, does it take on a characteristic. The same goes for the Tao. Before it is observed, the Tao is not Good or Evil. It just is. Only when it is observed, does it take on a characteristic.
I don't know exactly what I'm getting at with this. Maybe something about connecting philosophy with quantum physics, I don't know.
I hope you can take something out of this, though.
So, yeah. Your thoughts on Taoism?
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