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Chinese ้ๅพท็ถ. The word Tao (Dào/้) means way, as in process or "the right way to do...". In our spiritual philosophy Tao is the essential, unnamable process of the universe. Tao is not the Source, but the process, the energy that flows from the Source. This energy gives rise to and upholds all of creation. The word Te means "inherent qualities" as in the word virtue without the moral quality. The word Jing (ching) means classical book. Therefore, we translate Tao Te Ching as The Tao and its Characteristics. Chinese Wayists often refer to it as "the LaoTze".
The Tao Teh Ching does not profess to speak of God. The Tao is not God, is not the Source, or the One, but an observation of the Way that results from the Source. It flows out of God and returns back to God. This flow of the Way gives birth to things and receives things again when it ceases to be. All things, seen and unseen are in one or another way part of the Way.
The Tao is the flow of the intention the Source has for the universe that we experience. The Way is a plan, a process, and energy which essentially emanates from, and flows back to Source.
The author, Lao Tzu, states that human understanding of the Way is older than our understanding of Source (Ch 4). Humans first came into contact with, and started understanding The Way, before they eventually formed concepts of Source which emanates The Way. The author is however not content with the notion of naming God, making the Ultimate One a particular, in human terms. How can we know The Way? The Way is the natural order of the universe, the character of which must be discerned through human intuition. It is in existential mingling in the Way how the Wayist comes to discern the nature of realities and the potential for individual wisdom arise. This intuitive knowing of "life" cannot be grasped as just a concept but is known through actual living experience of one's everyday being. Tao is the inherent natural order of the universes whose ultimate essence is difficult to explain because in one hand it is non conceptual, yet in the other hand it comes to life in one's being as we live life.
The Tao Te Ching deals exclusively with the knowledge of observed characteristics of the Way.