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: : What would the relationship between the Tao and God be? How would they be related? If someone could answer these questions I'd be very thankful. : Hello fellow questioner!! : As I understood reading the Tao Te Ching, God is a result of the way things are. Tao, meaning literally, the 'way'. I cannot imagine that there is much separation between the two, however, as I feel it is never truly separated in the Taoist scripture. I have read in some translations that the "Tao was before the 'One' as the 'One is before the 'Two.'" : (I always like to think of God as the representation of that which is whole, such as teh 'One', and human beings to understand eveything in binary, such as the "Two", since we are only whole in the reproductive sense as a unit of two es, two codependent beings. But these ideas are the result of my personal ruminations, and I can only encourage you to keep asking. I am not a woman of the cloth of either Taoist nor Judeo-Christian kind.) : Here are some examples of the book of Tao. : Stephen Mitchell's translation quote: : The Tao is like a well: : used but never used up. : It is like the eternal void: : filled with infinite possibilities. : It is hidden but always present. : I don't know who gave birth to it. : It is older than God. : -chapter 4 book of Tao : And yet, often the book speaks of the Tao with divine characterizations, as adoringly as a theist, and makes you believe in its essence as true, whether or not you call it Tao or God. Some of the chapters are incredibly close to Judeo-Christian descriptions of God as well. For example: : The supreme good is like water, : which nourishes all things without trying to. : It is content with the low places that people disdain. : Thus it is like the Tao. : chapter 8 ibid. : -See the New Testament quotes on he who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, the humblest little child. Matthew 18:4 : -See also Matthew 19:17 'Why callest me thou good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.' : Love the world as yourself; : then you can care for all things. : chap. 13 ibid. : -See Gospel of Matthew 6:12 The Lord's Prayer : chapter 18:35 the parable of the unfrateful debtor. : -See Matthew 19:19 Jesus commands us to love one another as ourselves. : : If you want to be given everything, : give everything up. : Only in being lived by the Tao : can you be truly yourself. : chap.22 ibid. : -See in Matthew 19:20 Jesus encounters a rich man who has committed none of the cardinal sins but who cannot give up the one thing he has too much of, his material riches. : And I belive a list goes on and on that way. As though Lao-Tse called it the Tao, but Jesus called it eh Kingdom of Heaven (the then radical idea which was the primary cause of his being an outcast among the Jews of his day). It would be worth all the time to explore the connections and get a view of what there is to learn. : So, forgive my verbosity. I am always eager to explore the field with you. : Sincerely, Rye

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