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Is the Tao Sentient?
- Thread starter Sunstone
- Start date
There is no evidence the Tao is not sentinent. "What ever you say the Tao is is not the tao".
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
I never understood that it was meant to be sentient. Then again, I find concepts that are supposed to be "ineffable," to generally mean that they're just not that well thought out or defined. So, who knows? Maybe?
Sentience is the capacity to feel and experience the world subjectively.
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
Proteins are any of a class of nitrogenous organic compounds that consist of large molecules composed of one or more long chains of amino acids and are an essential part of all living organisms.
YmirGF
Bodhisattva in Recovery
IF the Tao were sentient wouldn't that make it uncomfortably like god?
allfoak
Alchemist
yes
paarsurrey
Veteran Member
It could be ascertained from the characteristics/attributes of Tao. Can you please mention them?
Regards
Go read the Tao Te Ching; it will benefit you loads, and it is only 81 short poems.
allfoak
Alchemist
The Tao seems to be akin with the Soul.
The soul is indeed sentient.
Among other things, I'm a geek. One of my favorite geek heroes is an amazing computer scientist named Alan Kay. Among his many pithy quotes is this:
We see the truth in this "meta-perspective" all through our lives. We might be struggling with a tricky problem, and all of a sudden we see it from a different perspective, and the hard problem becomes easy.
I believe the Tao provides one of these powerful, 80 IQ point perspectives.
We see the truth in this "meta-perspective" all through our lives. We might be struggling with a tricky problem, and all of a sudden we see it from a different perspective, and the hard problem becomes easy.
I believe the Tao provides one of these powerful, 80 IQ point perspectives.
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
Ah, I think I understand now.
Jumi
Well-Known Member
What the Tao isn't is another matter.
Sometimes what you are getting at misses me, but what is uncomfortable about finding a way to unify the various wisdom traditions of man and finding more inclusivism. Perhaps with enough broadening of religious positions a meet might occur as opposed to conflicting views. I am comfortable with that.
kierkegaard
The best way out is always through
I think that's what atheists promote. Over on Quora I heard someone question the intentions of "the universe," by not answering their prayer. Many people who talk about the Tao, karma, etc., have actually done practically zero serious inquiry, and are just playing around.
IndigoChild5559
Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
It doesn't really say one way or the other. The Taoists I know say that it is up to the person -- if they want to believe Tao is sentient, its find, and if they don't, that's fine too.