“Tao” is pronounced “Dow,” and is a Chinese word meaning “The Way,” or “The Path.” It is The Way Things Need To Be. It is The Path to Right Living and Right Being.

     The “Tao” has been the name of the Way/Path from between 5000 and 500 BCE. It is the experience of the right thing, done at the right time, in the right way, in the right place, in each situation as it arises. “The right thing” is understood to be “

“What is called for here/now.”

     Which begs the question, “Who is to say?” Who is to say what the right thing is in any moment? The answer, of course, is “You are/I am/Each One of us is!” When it comes to knowing what the situation here, now, calls for we are all “on the spot.”

     This is reflected in a text found only in Codex Bezae after the first four verses of the sixth chapter in Luke’s Gospel, which read:

     1 One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grain fields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels.  2 Some of the Pharisees asked, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” 3 Jesus answered them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”

     At this point, Codex Bezae, a late 4th or early 5th century work in Greek and Latin, inserts verse 5, which reads:

     “On the same day, when [Jesus] saw someone working on the Sabbath, he said to him, ‘Man, if you know what you are doing you are blessed, but if you do not know then you are cursed and a transgressor of the law’”

     This is,to me, an astounding bit of scripture. Jesus says we all are to know what we are doing! And how do we know if we know what we are doing? The old Taoists would say, “By living in accord with the Tao, aligned with the flow of life and being.”
By being so here, now, that we are in synch with the flow of the moment, and know what needs to happen, where, when and how.

     Those who are in accord with Tao, are aligned with their intuition, their Psyche, with that which has always been called “God.” They sense—they know—what is called for, and they follow the impulse of their Original Nature, their innate Virtues (What they do best and enjoy doing most), Their intrinsic Intuition, and their inherent Imagination in responding spontaneously to the call of the moment—as did the Good Samaritan with the Jewish man, beaten and left for dead on the side of the road, the Prodigal’s father in welcoming his son home, the man who built his house on a rocky foundation, and those who did what was right by the least of those who came their way, and how Jesus responded to the woman at the well and to the man who asked him “Who is my neighbor,” etc.

     All of which is to say that those who know, know! And live accordingly. And knowing is only a matter of being here, now and tuning in to what’s what, what’s happening and what is called for in each situation as it arises.

     Living at one with the Tao is knowing intuitively, instinctively, instantly, immediately, spontaneously, naturally arising from our understanding, comprehension, “take” on the situation at hand—and responding automatically in doing what is called for in the right time, in the right place in the right way.

     All the words of Jesus in the Gospels are about knowing and living accordingly. We must be right about it. Yet, we cannot be taught how to do that. We “just know.” But, right in terms of what? Not in terms of keeping “the law,” or pleasing the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who knows how many feathers are on each bird, and keeps careful watch over all of our actions, jotting notes in the Book of Life to be read on the Last Day when the verdicts are served with his, “Well done good and faithful servants! Enter into the joy of the Kingdom!” or his, “Get Thee away from me Thou faithless and evil Sinners—and be damned forever to the everlasting fires of Hell!”

     That is the version that gets all the attention and has all the drama, but the real scoop is much more down to earth in a practical kind of way. Being right about what the moment is calling for is being right in terms of the balance and harmony, direction and flow of the moment. It is being right in terms of the spirit, vitality and life of the moment. It is being right in terms of the sincerity, purity, spontaneity and lack of contrivance of the moment.

     The moment—not eternity—is at the heart of Tao. This here and this now are the only time and place that matter. This time is the time for action and the time for refraining from action. Which is it to be? What is this time right for? Everything comes down to this, and flows from this, and depends upon this.

     Here, now is where we live to integrate the opposites of Yin and Yang whatever their present configuration may be—for the sake of the moment! For the good of the moment! We live for right here, right now!

     Taoism is about doing the right thing at the right time in the right place in the right way. Taoism is about the flow of life, moving in sync with what is called for, where, when and how it is called for, with balance and harmony, right seeing, right hearing, right knowing, right doing and right being. If we get this down, what more is there to ask, or think, or have, or do, or be? The only thing to want is to be right about what needs to happen/be here, now, and do it as it needs to be done.

And we see how far this is from living in ways calculated to produce the greatest gain for the least amount of effort! The profit motive destroys our ability to know what is called for in the moment and is the right thing to do in the moment no matter what that might mean for what we have at stake in the moment at hand.

The Tao and the profit motive are strictly incompatible. Living in the service of what we want rules out any possibility of living to do what is called for. As Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden so clearly demonstrate. And as Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane so clearly exhibits what needs to be done all along the way with his, “Thy will, not mine, be done!”

This is what is asked of us as “circumstances beget circumstances” in each situation as it arises and what needs to be done is ours to see, and hear, and know, and do, time after time, all our life long.