The Great Tao

Abstract

Very little is known of the similarities shared by the Great Tao as conceived in the immortal Taoist carwn, the Tao-te ching, and the nature of God and the teachings of God's messengers as expounded by Baháʼu'lláh and ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. This article focuses on the Great Tao of the ancient Chinese people, a Tao whose eternal spirit has seeped into the very heart of Chinese tradition, culture, and way of life for centuries, and which is manifest in various aspects of Chinese thought and life as well as in the more apparent aesthetics of calligraphy, painting, and poetry. This article compares the similarities of the spiritual insights of the Tao-te ching with that of other major religions, rwtably the Baháʼí Faith, and argues that rw understanding of the Chinese mind and spirit can be complete without a perusal of some of the main spiritual tenets of this imperishable crown. It must be rooted that this article is concerned with the original philosophy of Tao and not with what is today popularly known as the "Taoist religion," an invention only loosely connected with the spiritual insights of the Tao-te ching.