I know a bird can fly;
I know a fish can swim;
I know animals can run;
Creatures that run can be caught in nets;
those that swim can be caught in wicker traps;
those that fly can be hit by arrows;
But the Dragon is beyond my knowledge;
it ascends into heaven on the clouds and the wind.
Today I have seen Lao Tzu, and he is like the Dragon!

Lao Tzu was known for his contemplative intellect, and began the Chinese School of Thought known as Taoism. Lao Tzu, saddened and alarmed by China’s cultural condition, is said to have left China on a Water Buffalo and moved out West. Upon his exodus, the gatekeeper at Hankao Pass asked him to reason why he would leave the homeland. Lao Tzu returned three days later with a collection of poetic verses now called the Tao Te Ching, or The Way and the Power.

The Tao Te Ching grapples with the meaning of the Tao. In Chinese Tao literally means the way or path. But the Tao means much more.

The Tao is the way of ultimate reality, and of course, not easily grasped or conceptualized. It is so impossible to understand, that even speaking of the Tao shows that you do not understand its true meaning. The tao that is spoken is not the true Tao.

In being ultimate reality, the Tao cannot be approached with reason or the regular modes of human understanding.

One who searches for the Tao need not look any further than to the reality that surrounds; one that looks for alignment with the Tao must only look within. To become aligned with the Tao means discovering nature through internal perception and understanding. The Tao can also be seen as the way of the universe, the rhythm of nature, the integrating spirit of the whole. The Tao ultimately becomes the Human Way of Life, as a part of the universe and of reality, and most of Taoism is about how to approach the Tao as an individual.