How to Seek the Tao

Xuefeng

August 6, 2007

Having understood what Tao is and where it resides, the next question is how to seek the Tao.

There is a famous saying in Taoism: "Fish are in water, and people are in Tao," meaning that Tao exists within people, and people exist within Tao. Therefore, seeking Tao is like searching for a donkey while riding on one. The problem lies in the fact that we are unaware that we are already on the donkey, or even inside the donkey's belly. So, what should we do?

Finding Your Own Coordinate System and Coordinate Point From the perspective of space and time, the entire universe is a large coordinate system. This coordinate system has 24 quadrants, and every LIFE form resides in one of these quadrants, each with its own coordinate point. For example, ants are in the insect quadrant, wolves are in the wild animal quadrant, cows are in the livestock quadrant, and humans are in the human world quadrant.

As humans, there are eight types: perfected persons, ultimate persons, celestial beings, saints, sages, mortals, worldly people, and ignorant people. Since perfected persons, ultimate persons, and saints have already entered the ranks of celestial beings, we usually divide humans into five categories: celestial beings, sages, mortals, worldly people, and ignorant people. These categories represent the coordinate points for humans.

Seeking the Tao, or looking for a donkey while riding on one, the first task is to determine your coordinate system and coordinate point. It's similar to trying to find a place in a big city; first, you need to know your own location.

How to Determine Your Location Relying solely on your own feelings or understanding will never accurately determine your position. The only effective way is to first find a reference system and reference objects. For example, by using wild animals as a reference system, we can compare and realize that we do not belong to the wild animal category. By using a horse as a reference object, we find that we are not in the livestock category either. So, "Who am I? Where am I?"

This leads to a series of questions.

We must ask questions such as, "Why is my middle finger longer than the other four fingers?" "Why are my eyes not on the back of my head?" "Why do I have only two legs?" These questions will lead us to ask ourselves, "Where did I come from, and where am I going?" Once we solve this problem, we then need to understand the meaning of space. For instance, we might think: "Dreams and reality are two different spaces, so how many different spaces are there in the universe? We call our place the human world; are there heavenly realms and the netherworld? If so, where is the heavenly realm? How many worlds does the heavenly realm have? Where is the netherworld? How many layers of space does the netherworld have?" Solving these problems is like obtaining a map of the universe's administrative divisions, which helps us understand our position.

At this point, the question arises, "Why did I come to the human world? What am I here to do? Have I completed my tasks in the human world? What tasks are left?" And we need to ask: Where is my next destination? How do I get there?

This inquiry leads to the question of time. What is time? What are its attributes? How do we utilize time?

Understanding the concept of time is like boarding a vehicle for travel, such as a spaceship, to proceed towards our destination.

Then the question arises, "How far is the destination? Does the spaceship have enough fuel? Do I have enough food? What risks will I encounter on the way? Will I get lost halfway since I’ve never been there before? Should I find a guide? Will I need any documents like a passport or visa at the border?"

After solving these questions, we need to prepare for the journey. How do you know how far along you are in your travel preparations? To what extent have you prepared? At this point, we need to find reference objects for comparison. How do you find reference objects?

By understanding where we come from, we learn that throughout human history and in the present, there have been some "extraordinary people" who came with a mission, such as Jesus Christ, Buddha Shakyamuni, Laozi, Prophet Muhammad, the spiritual Seth, and others. They left us with information. By listening to their teachings, we find that people are fundamentally different; truly, "like attracts like, people form groups." Some people are perfected people, some are ultimate persons, some are saints, followed by sages, mortals, worldly people, and ignorant people. By comparing ourselves with the coordinate system of space and time, we can understand where celestial beings go, where sages go, and where mortals, worldly people, and ignorant people inevitably go. Knowing this, we can discern which category we belong to.

Once we know which coordinate quadrant and category we belong to, our position becomes clear. The remaining task is how to quickly reach the standard.

The process of exploration and effort described above is the process of seeking the Tao. This is what it means to seek the Tao.