This study will examine the Taoist concept of the Tao. It will also explore the nature of the distinction between the absolute Tao and the relative Tao. In addition, the study will finally discuss how the idea of the Tao compares to the void of Mahayana Buddhism.
The word "Tao" is so important to the practice of Taoism that, as Thompson writes, "Translators have . . . felt it best to leave it in transliterated form. Key terms in any great tradition are inevitably distorted or even falsified by translation, and can be grasped in something like their true significance only by seeing their operation in many concepts. In studying Buddhism, for example, such words as nirvana and sunyata are rightly considered as technical terms and customarily left untranslated. This may well be the best way to treat Tao" (Thompson 5).
The beginning of Taoism is found in the mind of Lao-Tse. According to tradition and legend, Lao-tse, the "old philosopher", was the founder of Taoism. Only one book was written by Lao-Tse, the Tao-te-Ching, and even that work was put down on paper by a follower of the man.
As Fenton et al. write, "Scholars believe that this book was probably compiled in the third century B.C. It has had great influence on Chinese thought, since it has functioned, both in the past and in the present, as a counterpoise to the Confucian approach to life. Whereas Confucius stressed social conformity and the importance of reason in solving human problems, Lao-tse stressed the importance of the individual and the need for human beings to conform to nature rather than to society" (Fenton et al. 237).
In other words, Confucius was concerned more with practical day-to-day conduct, while Lao-tse was concerned more with the spiritual needs of man.
The relative nature of the Tao, or "the Way," has to do with its presence in the everyday world, while the absolute Tao has to do with the inability of man to fully comprehend it, d...