Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!jarthur!bridge2!mips!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!udel!princeton!phoenix!swbatl.sbc.com
From: gilstrap@swbatl.sbc.com (3929)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: Re: Taoism
Message-ID: <14590@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 16 Mar 90 14:31:59 GMT
References: <14530@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <14554@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Sender: mukund@phoenix.Princeton.EDU
Lines: 32
Approved: mukund@phoenix.Princeton.EDU

In article <14554@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> aloise@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Jim Aloise) writes:
>In article <14530@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> ciula@cis.ohio-state.edu (Kim Ciula) writes:
>%
>%	The tao that can be told
>%	is not the eternal Tao.
>%	The name that can be named
>%	is not the eternal Name.
>%
>%	The unnamable is the eternally real.
>%	Naming is the origin
>%	of all particular things.
>
>
>How about a discussion of what this means - as far as we're able to talk about
>the unnamable, that is.

First my disclaimer: I don't have a great deal of scholarly background in
Taoism.  I have read a couple of books, and talked with some folks, but my
exposure is certainly colloquial.

To me, the above means pretty much the following:

When we try to reduce everything about "living" into words, there are vast
portions of the experience which cannot be captured.  Thus, you end up with an
incredibly abbreviated version of the experience, which is therefore
innaccurate almost to the point of being meaningless.

This all sounds rather dry and stuffy but, for me at least, part of the joy of
Taoism is how much *fun* life becomes.

Brian R. Gilstrap
uucibg@swbatl.uucp OR ...!{ texbell, uunet }!swbatl!uucibg