Tao means "the way." It is basically indefinable. It has to be experienced. It refers to a power, which envelops, surrounds and flows through all things, living and non-living. The Tao regulates natural processes and nourishes balance in the Universe. It embodies the harmony of opposite, in other words there would be no love without hate, no light without dark, no male without female. According to the Tao Te Ching, it is the first principle of the universe, the all-embracing reality from which everything else arises. The Tao cannot be defined in words and is not an idea or concept. Chuang-tzu said, "It may be attained but not seen." Its presence is everywhere, not as a spiritual being, but as the basic stuff which all things have been issued. It gives life to all living beings and maint
ains them with no likes or dislikes. The back of our textbook puts it best: Accept what is in front of you without wanting the situation to be other than it is. Study the natural order of things and work with it rather than against it, for to try to change what is only sets up resistance. Nature provides everything without requiring payment or thanks, and also provides for all without discrimination. In other words: Simply be.
Above all the word Tao suggests a way to be followed and moral guidance or a code of behavior for social harmony and political order. The principle is that if everything is allowed to go its own way the harmony of the universe will be established, since every process in the world can "do its own thing" only in relation to all others. This is like Kropotkin's theory in an
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