What Taoism Means to Me By Bill Mason

I first began my search for wisdom in high school, for it was then that I learned that there are more ways than one to do something, and the ways that I was taught weren't necessarily the best.

I began my quest by making several basic decisions, my "minimum working hypothesis," as Aldous Huxley calls it. First and foremost was my decision to be open-minded. There was no way I could gain any wisdom if I didn't accept the potential validity of anything I discovered. However, I also decided to be skeptical. I didn't want to just accept something at face-value, and have faith in the fact that it will work, unless I have some sort of experience with it working. Finally, and probably most importantly, I decided that there exists some sort of pattern to which everything conforms, and anything in violation of this pattern produces anguish, while anything in harmony with this pattern produces peace.

Created are not only the worlds and the beings but also the laws which govern them. Applying both in the physical realm and in the psychological realm, these laws govern human conduct. Insofar as we are able to understand and bring our lives into harmony with these laws, our lives will be in harmony. Insofar as we disobey these laws, we create difficulties for ourselves by our disobedience. (Peace Pilgrim, "Steps Toward Inner Peace")

Be this pattern in the form of a god I was open-minded to, but I also knew that it was possible for such a pattern to exist not being in the form of a god, and, even if it was in the form of a god, may not be anything like a person, or that which is depicted by popular theology. My goal, however, was to find the pattern, whichever form it be in.

In my quest, I stumbled across many, many different forms of wisdom, each one expanding me a bit more, although not all were right for me, and very few passed my requirement for working under skepticism. There seemed to be things that turned out okay that went against these forms of wisdom, or things that harmonized with these forms of wisdom, but only created anguish. But anything that doesn't work still expands one's education simply because knowing what doesn't work brings one closer to what does work.

I explored everything I could find: Protestantism (my former religion), Mormonism, Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, Taoism, Buddhism, Humanism, Satanism, Wicca, Atheism, Agnosticism, etc. I explored everything from "good, wholesome religions," such as Protestantism, to "bad, evil religions," such as Satanism. I forced myself to be open-minded to everything, and they all seemed to have something to offer, but few passed my skeptical test for finding a basic, true law of nature, or even supernature, whatever is real.

Only one which I have found lasted through this skepticism. At first, there were some things that didn't seem right, but when I looked at them in relation to everything else, I learned that the only reason that it didn't seem right was because my limited perception didn't show me the whole picture. Everything I did, everything I saw, everything I felt, confirmed this wisdom which I have only begun my education of. It took me three years of constant curiosity before it finally all dawned on me that everything that went wrong was in violation of this wisdom and everything that turned out well was in harmony with this wisdom. I found my great law, to which everything conforms, and for purposes of communication, the law is refered to as the Tao.