As many know, Tao is a concept found in ancient Chinese philosophy. While the Chinese calligraphic character itself translates as way or path, or more loosely as doctrine or principle, it is often used philosophically to symbolise the fundamental or true nature of the world. Whilst Taoism holds that Tao cannot be expressed, it holds that it can be known and its principles can be followed. Taoist writing also focuses on the value of following the Tao, which is called Te, or virtue.

The Tao is like a well:
used but never used up.
It is like the eternal void:
filled with infinite possibilities.
It is hidden but always present.
I don’t know who gave birth to it.
It is older than God.
– Tao Te Ching, Ch. 4

In religious Taoism, Tao is understood in terms of these constituents:
• Jing, corresponding to energy;
• Qi, or flow of energy and
• Shen, or the Spirit.

Jing Qi Shen — the triad Jing Qi Shen constitutes the Tao of all that is, and are represented as deities in the Three Pure Ones.

There are characteristics of Tao that are often used to describe its nature.

Tao is undifferentiated

All distinctions are relative comparisons bound together by their mutual reference. Hence there is no such thing as long except by comparison to short, and vice versa; there is no such thing as non-being except by comparison to being. Because Tao itself has no defined shape or defined size, all comparisons fall within it. There can never be ‘real’ differences.

Tao returns

This concept is often used to describe that Tao will flow back, circumvent, and eventually undo any and every attempt to force it into a particular path.

Tao is subtle and quiet

The most important aspects of Tao are its subtle, unnoticed, everyday workings. The softest thing in the world overcomes the hardest. Many places in the Tao Te Ching underline that dramatic, alluring or extraordinary events may catch the eye and assume significance, but it is the slow, slight, unobserved and continuous movement of the manifestations of Tao that actually accomplish things.

Tao is simultaneously dispassionate and nurturing

Because all beings are manifestations of Tao, Tao gives itself completely to everything and everyone. However, by the same expression Tao is believed to be indifferent to the character of manifestations. Birth and death, happiness and sorrow, and life itself, from the perspective of Tao, are only movements and transformations.

Gems of Tao Te Ching

According to tradition, “Old Master” or Lao Tse (Lao Tzu), a record-keeper at the Zhou Dynasty court, composed Tao Te Ching. Text is essential to the philosophical Taoism and Chinese religion in general, and strongly influenced other schools, including Chinese Buddhism. Many artists, including poets, painters, calligraphers, gardeners have used the Tao Te Ching as a source of inspiration. Its influence has also spread widely outside East Asia, succored by hundreds of translations of Tao Te Ching into Western languages.

The Tao that can be expressed is not the eternal Tao;
The name that can be defined is not the unchanging name.

The Tao is called the Great Mother:
empty yet inexhaustible, it gives birth to infinite worlds.

Since before time and space were, the Tao is. It is beyond ‘is’ and ‘is not’.
How do I know this is true? I look inside myself and see.

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.

A leader is best when people barely know that he exists …

The Master (teacher) has no possessions.
The more he does for others, the happier he is.
The more he gives to others, the wealthier he is.

The Tao nourishes by not forcing.
By not dominating, the Master (teacher) leads.

A journey of a thousand miles started with a first step.

Scholars of the highest class, when they hear about the Tao, take it and practice it earnestly.
Scholars of the middle class, when they hear of it, take it half earnestly.
Scholars of the lowest class, when they hear of it, laugh at it.
Without the laughter, there would be no Tao.

Tao of Universalist Radha-Krishnaism

Although sourcing from progressive Christianity its outlook on dynamics of personal revelation, and from Gaudiya Vaishnavism its enchantment with all-attractive God-dess, in its heart and mind Universalist Radha-Krishnaism is closest to ancient wisdom of Taoism than to either Gaudiya Vaishnavism or Christianity, for it refuses to share their predominantly outdated worldviews (or flow against the Tao).

It doesn’t seek followers yet it gives itself to all who would like to follow the Tao, or God-dess.
As a good traveler it has no fixed plans, and is not hurrying upon arriving.
As a good artist it let its intuition lead it wherever it wants.
Knowing the mark of a moderate man is freedom from his own ideas, it tries to best express itself but also lets go of all those ideas. All ideas eventually fail to describe the indescribable, all-beautiful God-dess.
Knowing the more laws and regulations are made prominent, the more misconceptions, thieves and robbers of truth there will be. Thus it follows no rules, and asks for no rules.

We live our best moments when adaptable, aware of our surroundings and what we need to do to go forward — flowing with the Tao, or God-dess.

It flows effortlessly between different philosophical, existential and scientific ideas, for flow is what Tao is. Tao is ever new. It is able to be experienced in different cultures and different times.

Following the footsteps of Lao Tse, we call Tao also Tao. We call it God-dess. Also Radha-Krishna. We call it God-dess for the sake of mutual understanding with all others who are more familiar with the term God. History made people imagine God as a masculine absolute, dispassionate ruler detached from this world, and have personified that fear from God, ruthlessness and senselessness into wider society. As a consequence world suffers in male dominance, discrimination, wars, crisis and misery.

We desire to walk the path of Tao, the path of understanding and balance. World has had enough suffering and we want it to enjoy itself better. Find a new sensibility and meaning. Hence we emphasise love for the feminine aspect of Tao and its integral part in our lives. God-dess thus describes both masculine and feminine, both Yin and Yang. By observing history we can conclude it existed before God and God-dess, which means, it’s older even than man’s dreams of God, or God-dess, or any other name.

We dub it personally Radha-Krishna, a beautiful name for otherwise indeterminate Yin and Yang, because as persons we’re immensely in love with it. Our earnest desire is to see the embraces and kisses of Radha and Krishna in groves of our hearts; eternal God-dess, Tao, its happiness beyond limits.

– Zvonimir Tosic

Both lines of thought contain strengths and weaknesses. We need both for an adequate, full explanation of the situation. God-dess reconciles beliefs of identity and difference in a higher synthesis outlined by Krishna Chaitanya and developed by his followers like Jiva Goswami.

Simultaneous oneness and difference encourages a high tolerance for ambiguity like quantum theory. Rather than either/or, it is both/and, which gives much room for complementary perspectives and differing interpretations. Chaitanyaism is a diverse heterodoxy despite efforts of certain camps to establish an orthodoxy. Nevertheless, ambiguity is fundamental to the spiritual quest for that which remains unknowable in our present state of existence.

Transcendence and immanence exist as associated aspects of an inherent unity in God-dess, as a form of panentheism. The immanent aspect of God-dess called Cosmic Consciousness exists simultaneously with God-dess’ full splendor of infinite perfection, potencies, and attributes transcending all finite things. Cosmic Consciousness regulates and observes the actions of the finite souls and unifies all things. This is symbolic language used to help us comprehend God-dess’ omnipresence and fullness of knowledge. God-dess exists as the blissful, personal absolute above and beyond the world of our senses. God-dess simultaneously pervades the universe in a hidden form in which all beings exist. He-she supports all, yet exists beyond all as the source of everything.

God-dess remains simultaneously different from the world and identical with it. God-dess creates the world from him-herself and remains separate. Identity and difference paradoxically exist simultaneously.

Simultaneous oneness and difference applies not only to God-dess and his-her energies, but to all objects and their energies. God-dess appears in many forms but remains one. God-dess’ sports, names, and forms are simultaneously different and non-different. Even the various parts of God-dess’ body are one and different. Each part can carry out the functions of the other parts and of the whole. The part is identical with the whole, but still a part, thus different from the whole.

God-dess’ form remains inconceivable because it is infinite and immeasurable, mostly beyond our conception. The Vedic scriptures describe God-dess:

as “the greatest of the great” and “the smallest of the small,” as “one who moves and yet moves not,” as “one who is far as well as near, immanent as well as transcendent,” and as one who does not have the mind or sense organs like ours and yet performs all the functions of these. (Kapoor 156)

God-dess paradoxically indicates union of the opposite ideas of difference and non-difference leading to a higher, fuller unity. This means perfection, or the ability to encompass all extremes of experiencing reality. God-dess’ potency reconciles transcendence with immanence and maintains her-his fullness in relation to the material world by reconciling real difference with real identity. This pertains to God-dess, the living entities, and nature, as well as to all energies and their possessor.

In our progressive aesthetic view which uses the amount of sweet taste as a measure of spiritual rapture, Undifferentiated Oneness is considered the lowest manifestation of divine self energy and Radha-Krishna are the highest manifestation.

We cannot develop a relationship with an Undifferentiated Oneness (or unmanifest spiritual potential) because we are manifest and realize some spiritual potential. Since we are capable of so much more, merging ourselves in an Undifferentiated Oneness would mean cessation of our active potential. Such a state resembles dormancy.

Some even like a stronger concept and talk about “cessation of existence.” To them, existence is the source of suffering.

However, we could not think about nonexistence if we did not exist. All ideas about nonexistence are drawn from existence, and we simply imagine what a nonexistence may look like. Existence forms the underlying basis for understanding ourselves, our potential, and the world around us. Thus existence is a wider concept than nonexistence. Nonexistence (as an opposite concept) cannot really take place because its foundation is existence.

An injured person resting in a deep coma may not be aware of anything, including the self, relatives surrounding the hospital bed, or the beautiful spring day in the park. Although alive, such a person remains deeply unconscious. To the conscious world, that person seems almost dead. “Cessation of existence” resembles this. We witness existence only through consciousness. A serious injury may put a person in a coma, but after awakening, a new life of possibilities and potential lies ahead. Spiritual death is impossible because existence denies it, but philosophically it seems possible to cloud the consciousness and put it into deep slumber.

“Emptiness” and all things spring from fullness. Radha-Krishna are identical with God-dess whose potential is fully realized. Between Radha-Krishna and Undifferentiated Oneness, an infinite hierarchy of partial manifestations exists. Each has a different form due to different combinations of majesty and sweetness manifest in them. Different forms do not imply difference in the identity of God-dess. All forms inhere in God-dess.

Cosmic Consciousness is higher than Undifferentiated Oneness in the hierarchy of manifestations as we understand the absolute, personal God-dess. Undifferentiated Oneness constitutes the basic reality underlying all concrete formations.

Cosmic Consciousness cognizes, controls, and regulates the concrete formations. From our perspective, Cosmic Consciousness implies a differentiated, qualified state of God-dess. Cosmic Consciousness is qualified in a limited sense as a partial manifestation of God-dess, who is qualified in endless ways. Cosmic Consciousness exists within the living beings and material nature, consciously maintaining all.

God-dess relates to conditioned living beings and nature through Cosmic Consciousness. God-dess creates the world and enters into it as Cosmic Consciousness. God-dess pervades, sustains, and regulates the living entities and the entire universe collectively and individually as Cosmic Consciousness.

God-dess possesses infinite energies, or modes of distinction, but from our perspective and level of understanding, the three most important are the spiritual energy, material energy, and the living entities. They inhere in the nature of God-dess. Spiritual energy constitutes the essence, or intrinsic self of God-dess, and forms the substratum of the entire transcendental world where God-dess displays transcendental forms and activities. Material energy relates externally to God-dess and causes the material world. It relates to God-dess in the sense that all energies ultimately inhere in God-dess. God-dess’ intrinsic, perfect selfhood transcends the duality of matter and exists totally free of its influence.

We perceive the material universe as a space-time manifestation. It appears real just as the world we inhabit in dream seems real, but when we wake up, we realize it was an illusion. We consider this waking world to be reality, but it is another level of illusory dream.

This does not mean we do not exist. We exist as eternal, individual spirits. The illusion is our false identification with our temporary, material body and its products. Even if life seems one big nightmare, it is good to know we can wake up and a better life awaits us.

God-dess’ consciousness pervades the entire material creation, which is God-dess’ dream. Everything is God-dess’ energy and nothing is separate from her-him. Therefore, everything is ultimately spiritual. Because we see things as separate from God-dess, they are called material. When we realize this is God-dess’ creation, simultaneously one and different from God-dess, and only God-dess exists, then we reach enlightenment. Then we remain awake within the dream. We know what’s what.

God-dess regulates and controls material energy through Cosmic Consciousness. Material energy, being unconscious, cannot function by itself. The three modes that set material energy in motion–goodness, passion, and ignorance–exist in a state of equilibrium before creation. According to the Vedic view, God-dess starts the process of creation by glancing at material nature, which disturbs its equilibrium and energizes it. This glance also impregnates material nature with the living entities as an expression of God-dess’ exuberant joy and love. Creation provides the entities an opportunity to consciously evolve and learn to relate with God-dess. Material creation is neither eternal nor unreal. It is real but subject to change and annihilation, unlike the transcendental abode of God-dess.

God-dess pervades all as the ground of all being and cause of all causes. His-her presence in every atom, in every galaxy, in every rock, tree, and person sustains creation. God-dess keeps electrons spinning around the nucleus, stars orbiting in galaxies, and all creation alive with wonder. God-dess manifests as Cosmic Consciousness, and metaphorically speaking, the universe is her-his body.

God-dess remains intimately involved with creation and creatures, rather than a distant High God who set creation in motion and now lets it work according to natural laws with no further involvement. God-dess pervades all as the all-knowing and all-loving Cosmic Consciousness, but not as the all powerful controller.

God-dess is incredibly close and immanent. We can talk to God-dess. She-he hears, knows, feels, and experiences our lives along with us. God-dess talks to us and guides us on the path of life. God-dess remains a constant presence with us. We are free to acknowledge God-dess’ presence and follow God-dess’ guidance or not.

The living entities share God-dess’ spiritual nature but live in the material nature until they are ready to fully enter the spiritual realm. The more we learn to experience God-dess and consciously live in the material world responsibly, the more we spiritually evolve. God-dess uses persuasive attractiveness to entice all beings to the spiritual world to experience the fullness of their existence.

The Vrindaban Goswamins describe the spiritual energy as subdivided into three energies, which correspond to existence, consciousness, and bliss. By the existential energy, God-dess maintains his-her own existence and the existence of other beings. By means of this energy, God-dess exists as an independent substance and forms the ground or support of all other things, which derive their existence from God-dess. The conscious energy makes God-dess omniscient and enables her-him to impart knowledge to others.

God-dess relates to conditioned living beings and nature through Cosmic Consciousness. God-dess creates the world and enters into it as Cosmic Consciousness. God-dess pervades, sustains, and regulates the living entities and the entire universe collectively and individually as Cosmic Consciousness.

God-dess possesses infinite energies, or modes of distinction, but from our perspective and level of understanding, the three most important are the spiritual energy, material energy, and the living entities. They inhere in the nature of God-dess. Spiritual energy constitutes the essence, or intrinsic self of God-dess, and forms the substratum of the entire transcendental world where God-dess displays transcendental forms and activities. Material energy relates externally to God-dess and causes the material world. It relates to God-dess in the sense that all energies ultimately inhere in God-dess. God-dess’ intrinsic, perfect selfhood transcends the duality of matter and exists totally free of its influence.

We perceive the material universe as a space-time manifestation. It appears real just as the world we inhabit in dream seems real, but when we wake up, we realize it was an illusion. We consider this waking world to be reality, but it is another level of illusory dream.

Vedic metaphor suggests something like this: suppose an expansion of God-dess sleeps and dreams this world. God-dess’ dream creates a “reality” that goes on for billions of human years, measures billions of light years across, and seems so solid and captivating that some believe it is all that exists. Yet it is a dream, an illusion.

This does not mean we do not exist. We exist as eternal, individual spirits. The illusion is our false identification with our temporary, material body and its products. Even if life seems one big nightmare, it is good to know we can wake up and a better life awaits us.

God-dess’ consciousness pervades the entire material creation, which is God-dess’ dream. Everything is God-dess’ energy and nothing is separate from her-him. Therefore, everything is ultimately spiritual. Because we see things as separate from God-dess, they are called material. When we realize this is God-dess’ creation, simultaneously one and different from God-dess, and only God-dess exists, then we reach enlightenment. Then we remain awake within the dream. We know what’s what.

God-dess regulates and controls material energy through Cosmic Consciousness. Material energy, being unconscious, cannot function by itself. The three modes that set material energy in motion–goodness, passion, and ignorance–exist in a state of equilibrium before creation. According to the Vedic view, God-dess starts the process of creation by glancing at material nature, which disturbs its equilibrium and energizes it. This glance also impregnates material nature with the living entities as an expression of God-dess’ exuberant joy and love. Creation provides the entities an opportunity to consciously evolve and learn to relate with God-dess. Material creation is neither eternal nor unreal. It is real but subject to change and annihilation, unlike the transcendental abode of God-dess.

It is primordial sameness, but not a barren stillness; it is indeterminateness, but not an indeterminateness that totally denies distinctions and definiteness; it has distinctions, but the distinctions are not clearly brought out; it is a creative potentiality, but a potentiality that is eternally actualized in its most perfect state as [God-dess]. (92)

God-dess’ attributes and potencies exist in him-her essentially and eternally and are not unreal or superimposed. God-dess and her-his attributes and energies remain inseparable.

God-dess indulges in spiritual pastimes eternally. God-dess manifests a spiritual body, an eternal abode, and eternal companions. Followers of the path of devotion realize God-dess’ highest, most perfect form. From our perspective, followers of the path of knowledge realize Undifferentiated Oneness, which symbolizes the outward glow or divine luster of God-dess’ spiritual body. Similarly, followers of the path of meditation realize Cosmic Consciousness pervading all.

God-dess’ majestic qualities include:
*supporting and protecting the universe
*unfolding and sustaining the natural function of devotion
*leading devotees to attainment of the transcendental realm
*containing all beings
*existing within all.

God-dess possesses inconceivable power to manifest different forms without losing his-her oneness. God-dess remains one and indivisible yet expands innumerable forms and manifests in infinite ways to persons according to their different tastes, aptitudes, and modes of realization.

God-dess manifests on three clear levels, as Undifferentiated Oneness, Cosmic Consciousness, and personal God-dess according to the three paths of approach–knowledge, meditation, and devotion. Of these three forms, each succeeding form supersedes and philosophically speaking, includes the preceding. God-dess, the highest manifestation, supersedes and includes Undifferentiated Oneness and Cosmic Consciousness.

We identify God-dess with the supreme persons, Radha-Krishna, the source of all incarnations, the ultimate ground of being, in whom infinite grandeur, infinite powers, and infinite modes of divine bliss exist. All scriptures, either explicitly or implicitly, speak of God-dess as the Ultimate Reality. God-dess constitutes the only reality that exists without change before, during, and after the end of creation.

Since the Absolute is infinite, everything exists within it. The infinite existence of God-dess logically excludes the existence of anything other than God-dess. All existence consists of the energy of the Absolute, which remains intrinsically related to it. Everything exists within God-dess, and she-he exists within everything. Anything we speak or think must exist as part of the infinite.

Infinity and personality coexist as essential features of the Absolute. Mere denial of qualities and attributes to the Absolute remains imperfect and limiting. God-dess manifests infinite attributes and forms. God-dess’ inconceivable nature implies levels of being and intelligence higher than our own. Naturally, the power of unlimited God-dess appears inconceivable to our finite minds.

God-dess remains without second. God-dess exists as the only reality. Pure self-luminous consciousness forms God-dess’ body. God-dess constitutes the eternal principle, the highest good, and the highest bliss.

God-dess exists as an essential unity above categorical difference. The Absolute is one, but different religions call God-dess by different names. For example, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam acknowledge the same eternal, indivisible, immutable, and perfect Being, immanent in the hearts of all, but they use different names, forms, and attributes to describe God-dess.

While some may say the material world is categorically different from God-dess, it is not self-existent. It depends on God-dess for its existence. God-dess possesses the explanation for its existence within itself–it necessarily exists.  It cannot fail to exist.  It is its very nature to exist.

God-dess’ body and its owner are not two different principles like the difference between the body and soul of living entities in the physical world. God-dess’ body and its owner both consist of consciousness and bliss. The same eternal spiritual principle manifests God-dess’ names, attributes, activities, and abodes. God-dess is not different internally or externally.

God-dess possesses inconceivable power to manifest different forms without losing his-her oneness. God-dess remains one and indivisible yet expands innumerable forms and manifests in infinite ways to persons according to their different tastes, aptitudes, and modes of realization.

God-dess manifests on three clear levels, as Undifferentiated Oneness, Cosmic Consciousness, and personal God-dess according to the three paths of approach–knowledge, meditation, and devotion. Of these three forms, each succeeding form supersedes and philosophically speaking, includes the preceding. God-dess, the highest manifestation, supersedes and includes Undifferentiated Oneness and Cosmic Consciousness.

We identify God-dess with the supreme persons, Radha-Krishna, the source of all incarnations, the ultimate ground of being, in whom infinite grandeur, infinite powers, and infinite modes of divine bliss exist. All scriptures, either explicitly or implicitly, speak of God-dess as the Ultimate Reality. God-dess constitutes the only reality that exists without change before, during, and after the end of creation.

God-dess, the highest being, perfectly manifests all auspicious qualities. Undifferentiated Oneness exists as the incomplete manifestation of God-dess, in which the divine attributes and potencies lie dormant. Dr. Kapoor explains:

It is primordial sameness, but not a barren stillness; it is indeterminateness, but not an indeterminateness that totally denies distinctions and definiteness; it has distinctions, but the distinctions are not clearly brought out; it is a creative potentiality, but a potentiality that is eternally actualized in its most perfect state as [God-dess].

God-dess’ attributes and potencies exist in him-her essentially and eternally and are not unreal or superimposed. God-dess and her-his attributes and energies remain inseparable.

God-dess indulges in spiritual pastimes eternally. God-dess manifests a spiritual body, an eternal abode, and eternal companions. Followers of the path of devotion realize God-dess’ highest, most perfect form. From our perspective, followers of the path of knowledge realize Undifferentiated Oneness, which symbolizes the outward glow or divine luster of God-dess’ spiritual body. Similarly, followers of the path of meditation realize Cosmic Consciousness pervading all.

God-dess’ majestic qualities include:

• supporting and protecting the universe
• unfolding and sustaining the natural function of devotion
• leading devotees to attainment of the transcendental realm
• containing all beings
• existing within all.

Since the Absolute is infinite, everything exists within it. The infinite existence of God-dess logically excludes the existence of anything other than God-dess. All existence consists of the energy of the Absolute, which remains intrinsically related to it. Everything exists within God-dess, and she-he exists within everything. Anything we speak or think must exist as part of the infinite.

Infinity and personality coexist as essential features of the Absolute. Mere denial of qualities and attributes to the Absolute remains imperfect and limiting. God-dess manifests infinite attributes and forms. God-dess’ inconceivable nature implies levels of being and intelligence higher than our own. Naturally, the power of unlimited God-dess appears inconceivable to our finite minds.

God-dess remains without second. God-dess exists as the only reality. Pure self-luminous consciousness forms God-dess’ body. God-dess constitutes the eternal principle, the highest good, and the highest bliss.
God-dess exists as an essential unity above categorical difference. The Absolute is one, but different religions call God-dess by different names. For example, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam acknowledge the same eternal, indivisible, immutable, and perfect Being, immanent in the hearts of all, but they use different names, forms, and attributes to describe God-dess.

While some may say the material world is categorically different from God-dess, it is not self-existent. It depends on God-dess for its existence. God-dess possesses the explanation for its existence within itself–it necessarily exists. It cannot fail to exist. It is its very nature to exist.