The Tao that can be spoken is not the true Tao
The names that are given do not contain their true meaning
Within the nameless is the true meaning
What is named has a mother and she is the mother of ten thousand things
The un-seeable is always seeable within the internal to those who are not bound by desire
Those who live in a state of desire see only the external illusion of manifestation
These two opposites are born from the same source
The source contains its mystery in darkness
Within the darkness is the darkness that is the gateway to the mysteries(Tao Te Ching, tr. Dennis Waller)
In all the translations of, and the writings about, the Tao (when spoken, ‘Dao’) there is an insistence that words and names are superfluous, that the Tao – while apparently having no objective reality of its own – can only be experienced subjectively. It is a philosophy, a pursuit of wisdom and a study of natural realities. Tao is not a religion: that is Taoism. We must, however, use words to explain how Tao came to be written down, what part it played in history and what its relevance is in the modern world.
(Pamela Ball, The Essence of Tao)
As Pamela Ball points out, the Tao is not a religious concept, any more than my much (over?) used phrase “the ground of being”, which I derived originally – if I remember correctly – from Paul Tillich via Richard Rohr. But in many ways they are both pointing towards the same truth: that the ontological source of all is, though quite literally inconceivable, able to be encountered.
So what has any of this to do with atheism? Well, it is next to impossible to approach this inconceivability of the utter beginning of what is from within the creedal framework of organised religion. (A few have managed it – witness Eckhart’s Istigkeit or Merton’s point vierge – but they are rare geniuses out on the perilous edge of their faith.) But without these constraints it seems more possible, if no easier, to find words for what has all too often been set aside as ineffable.
This is why experience, whether by a formal practice of meditation or by sheer force of circumstance (as in, for instance, near death experiences), will never be supplanted by even the most sophisticated reasoning. “I can’t find the words…” may be the beginning of wisdom.
An Open Ground 
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Thank you… again! It is where I find myself these days… intrigued and grateful for this wisdom of the Tao te Ching, as well as the wisdom of indigenous peoples (and so many poets!) who honour all that we can learn from the Earth. I do find myself pushing back a wee bit, (when reading many different translations of the Tao te Ching), by the passages about discouraging the ‘masses’ from too much learning because it might encourage them to challenge and question… and it might disturb the equilibrium that comes from ‘keeping people in their place’… or that is the way I interpret a few of the 81 ‘chapters’. But mostly… I appreciate the gentle and poetic wisdom.
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Thank you, Nancy! Yes, it’s a strange text for us Westerners, the Tao Te Ching, and it was written in and for a time and a society almost inconceivably different from our own. Do you know Ursula le Guin’s brilliant and strange translation? She tackles these problems as only she could, and it’s really illuminating to see how she does it. She says in her notes, “The point is that Taoists gain their ends without the use of means. That is indeed a light that does not shine—an idea that must be pondered and brooded over. A small dark light.” I’m very fond of le Guin!
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Yes, her version is one of them… and one of the most helpful in respect of providing an interpretation of the wisdom. I do wonder, if she were still alive, what she would make of the current emergence of AI and its effect on the human species.
Another contemporary interpretation that I have found helpful comes from William Martin. He has written several books using the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching. I have given several copies of these small books “The Sage’s Tao Te Ching” to various friends.
N
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