The Tao that can be told of
Is not the Absolute Tao;
The Names that can be given
Are not Absolute Names.

The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth;
The Named is the Mother of All Things.

Therefore:
Oftentimes, one strips oneself of passion
In order to see the Secret of Life;
Oftentimes, one regards life with passion,
In order to see its manifest forms.

These two (the Secret and its manifestations)
Are (in their nature) the same;
They are given different names
When they become manifest.

They may both be called the Cosmic Mystery:
Reaching from the Mystery into the Deeper Mystery
Is the Gate to the Secret of All Life.

I have discussed traps in some recent blog posts. Here’s another one: turning the Tao into a God or other spiritual Being—a related trap I will discuss today concerns acting “holier than thou” about it.

This also applies to Buddhism, so what I say here can be used there.

Lao Tzu was a wise master. Yet, in his quest to devise a practice (or lifestyle), he moved away from the Tao concept described above to focus on its peaceful and quiet aspects as the superior way to live.

I have no problem with people living a Taoist Lifestyle. A Buddhist lifestyle is similar.

I do have a problem, though, when people criticize other ways of life or people who say things about the Tao, the Buddha, or any other path that they don’t like.

I say this not because they are bad people but because they have fallen into another mind/ego trap.

These people first elevate the Tao or the Buddha to the status of a “God.” Then, they are self-righteous about it, acting superior to others and even belittling them because they don’t see “the truth.”

First, the Tao is not a god. The Tao has no consciousness of its own. It is an energy force that flows through all things. It exists beyond the universe. Everything in the universe is contained within it: the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful.

As Lao Tzu explains, the Tao is like water. But water has many states. It may be a quiet pool or a pleasant babbling brook, or it can be a raging river tearing through cities and farmland, a massive storm surge, hail stones of enormous size, or endless rains that flood the land.

Water can also cause damage if there is a lack of it. Droughts damage crops and make living in certain areas difficult, if not impossible.

Lao Tzu’s idea of following a peaceful Tao is his view of the Tao. That’s fine. I have no problem with that if that’s what one wants to do.

It’s the same with followers of the Buddha. Buddha was a great man and is now in the highest planes of consciousness. But he is not a God. Buddhism is a practice, a way of life, not a religion. True Buddhists don’t pray to the Buddha. They meditate and live the life as Buddha taught.

That said, many get caught in another mind trap. This one is about self-importance. Declaring yourself a Buddhist or Taoist, for some, is a way of saying, “I am superior to you because I follow Buddha or the Tao.”

Again, this is a mind trap. Creating a sense of self-importance feeds the ego and distracts from the reality.

To advance on the path, you must overcome this trap. You must know that there is nothing “holy” or “spiritual” (in the religious sense) about the Tao. As I said, the Tao is just energy. It flows through everything. It existed before the universe and will exist after the universe is gone.

Remember, the physical plane is only one of several planes of existence.

Consciousnesses are the drivers. They use the Tao to create everything that exists in the universe. They have been doing so for billions of years. Time, of course, exists only in the physical domain. Fourteen billion years means nothing to an immortal consciousness.

It also means nothing to the Tao. Following the Tao or the Buddha does not bring salvation; there can only be enlightenment, which does not “save” anyone from anything.

There is no heaven or hell in the religious sense. These are constructs created by a priestly class to give their followers something to hope for or be fearful of.

However, it is possible to create a heaven or hell on earth in the here and now. It all depends on your point of view and how trapped you are by your mind. I will discuss this in more detail in another blog post.

Following the Tao or the Buddha does not make you better than anyone else, and being at a higher level of consciousness does not make you unique.

If you are locked into that kind of thinking, it’s your mind/ego at work trapping you in that kind of thinking.

How do you get beyond this trap? Like any other trap, you must work through it. Trap removal is discussed in my book Break Through To Your True Self and will be the topic of an upcoming blog post.

Namaste,

Michael Tavella, author of

“Break Through To Your True Self”

Yourtrueself.blog