THE TAO OR THE I AM

6 posts · 2 participants · started Sep 2, 2025, 9:52 PM

1. E

   EdgarParticipant
   Sep 2, 2025, 9:52 PM

   THE I AM OR THE TAO

   The ”I Am” that can be expressed is not the “Eternal I Am”. The “I Am” that can be uttered is not the “Eternal Name”.
   The principle of the created, heaven and earth, is the “I Am Eternal,” since it is “The Father of all things.” Only he who is free from worldly passions can understand its wondrous essence; he who is a slave to passions cannot appreciate but its external form. These two things, the spiritual and the material, though having different names, are in their origin one and the same thing. This Unity is a mystery, the mystery of mysteries and is the gateway to all mysteries.
   How unfathomable is the I Am! It is the ancestral progenitor of all things. How beautiful and pure is the I Am! It is eternal! I know of none of whom he is the son. He is prior to all Sovereign Force.
   Because we do not see the I Am, we call him invisible. As we cannot hear him, we say he makes no sound. Since we cannot touch him, we call him the formless one. These three qualities, which we cannot apprehend, are nevertheless always united in the I Am.
   Above is not bright, Below is not dark. Tireless in action, not being able to be named, we mistake it for nothingness. We call him the formless, the image without images, the fleeting and indeterminable, his face you cannot see, nothing of the I Am you can see.

   All the greatest manifestations, of active force, flow from the I Am.
   How vague and impalpable is the I Am! in Him there is Form! in Him there is Substance! how deep and dark it is! in Him resides the Vital Principle! This Principle is the Quintessence of Reality, and from Him emanates all Truth.
   Never has His name ceased to exist. He watches over the beginning of all things. How do I know of the beginning of all things? By the I Am.
   He seems to us sometimes chaotic, yet He is not, for He existed before Heaven and Earth. How still He seems, and formless, and not subject to change, being in all things unharmed! He is indeed the Father-Mother of
   the Universe. His name we do not know; I call him, the I Am. In an effort to describe him, I call him the Great One, yet, even being Great, I find him far away, yet at the same time near.
   The I Am is great; Heaven is great; Earth is great; and the Sovereign is also great. In the Universe there are four powers, and the Sovereign makes them One. Man takes his law from Earth; Earth takes its law from Heaven; Heaven takes it from the I Am; but the I Am is the law.
   The I Am in its changing aspect is nameless. Small even in its primordial simplicity, mankind cannot defy its service. If princes and kings knew him, all creation would spontaneously pay homage to him. If Heaven and Earth were to unite in sending down a sweet dew, people would spontaneously become good by their own efforts.
   As soon as the I Am creates order, it becomes nameable, once with a name, men will know how to rest in it. Knowing how to rest in it, they will not be able to suffer any harm.
   The I Am as it exists in the world is like the great rivers and seas, which receive the currents of the valleys.

   All pervades the I Am. It may be on the right or on the left. The whole thing depends upon it for life, and does not reject them. In doing its task, it does not demand credit for it. It loves and nurtures all things, but does not act as an owner. It is always free from desire. We may call it small, all things depend upon it, but it does not seem so. We may call it great.
   When the world comes to the I Am, it receives its powerful form, and only then will it have rest, peace and tranquility.
   With music and refinement we may entertain the guest, but if we open our mouth to speak of the I Am, he finds that tasteless and insipid.
   Though it cannot be seen and cannot be heard, it is nevertheless inexhaustible.
   All things under Heaven derive from the I Am their existence; the I Am is the form of Existence that flows from the I Am, in the form of Non- Existence.
   The I Am is the great square without angles, a great vessel that cannot be filled, a great sound that cannot be heard, a great image without form.
   The I Am is hidden and cannot be called, yet it has the power to transmute and perfect all things.
   The I Am produced Unity; Unity produced Duality; Duality produced the Trinity and the Trinity produced all things. All things leave darkness and come into light, as they are harmonized by the spirit of the I Am.
   The I Am produced all things; his Virtue nourishes them; his Nature gives them form; his Force perfects them.
   There is not a single thing that does not owe homage to him and extol his Virtue. This homage paid to the I Am, this extolling of his Virtue, is never forced, it is spontaneous.
   It is the I Am that engenders all things, nourishes them, develops them, drives them, perfects them, makes them mature, cares for them and protects them.
   Production without possession, action without claiming merit, development without domination, this is the mysterious way in which it operates.

   The World has a First Cause, which can be called the Mother of the World. When one has a Mother, one can know the Son. If one knows the Son and the Mother, even if one’s body dies, one will live.
   It is the Way of Heaven not to fight, and yet to know how to get ahead; not to speak, and yet to get an answer; not to call for things, and yet they come; it is slow to move, and yet its work is excellent.
   The net of Heaven is vast; its meshes are wide, and it leaves nothing out.
   The Way of Heaven is like that of a bow; it brings down that which is above, and carries up that which is below. It is of the Way of Heaven to
   take from those who have much, to give to those who have little. But this is not the way of man, for he takes from those who have little, so as to increase more than he already has. What man can do otherwise? Only he who follows the path of the I Am.
   The I Am has no favorites. The I Am gives to all without distinction.
   Things grow strong and then decay. This is a way contrary to the way of the I Am. That which is contrary to the way of the I Am, soon perishes.

   Published in Amazon in spanish in 2003
   by Edgar Paternina

2. E

   EdgarParticipant
   Sep 2, 2025, 9:55 PM

   THIS WAS PUBLISHED AT AMAZON IN SPANISH IN 2003

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3. E

   EdgarParticipant
   Sep 2, 2025, 10:14 PM

   The original one was taken from Giles, Lionel(TAOISM Ultimate)The Collected Works

4. M

   MaraParticipant
   Sep 3, 2025, 12:06 AM

   Welcome back Edgar.

   As a complement to your topic, I add additional info from the UB for our mutual edification, beginning with this reference.

   94:5.0 [Part III]

   5. The Struggle for Truth in China

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   ^{(1032.3) 94:5.1} As the Salem missionaries passed through Asia, spreading the doctrine of the Most High God and salvation through faith, they absorbed much of the philosophy and religious thought of the various countries traversed. But the teachers commissioned by Melchizedek and his successors did not default in their trust; they did penetrate to all peoples of the Eurasian continent, and it was in the middle of the second millennium before Christ that they arrived in China. At See Fuch, for more than one hundred years, the Salemites maintained their headquarters, there training Chinese teachers who taught throughout all the domains of the yellow race.

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   ^94:5.2 It was in direct consequence of this teaching that the earliest form of Taoism arose in China, a vastly different religion than the one which bears that name today. Early or proto-Taoism was a compound of the following factors:

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   ^94:5.3 1. The lingering teachings of Singlangton, which persisted in the concept of Shang-ti, the God of Heaven. In the times of Singlangton the Chinese people became virtually monotheistic; they concentrated their worship on the One Truth, later known as the Spirit of Heaven, the universe ruler. And the yellow race never fully lost this early concept of Deity, although in subsequent centuries many subordinate gods and spirits insidiously crept into their religion.

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   ^{(1032.6) 94:5.4} 2. The Salem religion of a Most High Creator Deity who would bestow his favor upon mankind in response to man’s faith. But it is all too true that, by the time the Melchizedek missionaries had penetrated to the lands of the yellow race, their original message had become considerably changed from the simple doctrines of Salem in the days of Machiventa.

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   ^{(1032.7) 94:5.5} 3. The Brahman-Absolute concept of the Indian philosophers, coupled with the desire to escape all evil. Perhaps the greatest extraneous influence in the eastward spread of the Salem religion was exerted by the Indian teachers of the Vedic faith, who injected their conception of the Brahman — the Absolute — into the salvationistic thought of the Salemites.

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   ^{(1033.1) 94:5.6} This composite belief spread through the lands of the yellow and brown races as an underlying influence in religio-philosophic thought. In Japan this proto-Taoism was known as Shinto, and in this country, far-distant from Salem of Palestine, the peoples learned of the incarnation of Machiventa Melchizedek, who dwelt upon earth that the name of God might not be forgotten by mankind.

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   ^{(1033.2) 94:5.7} In China all of these beliefs were later confused and compounded with the ever-growing cult of ancestor worship. But never since the time of Singlangton have the Chinese fallen into helpless slavery to priestcraft. The yellow race was the first to emerge from barbaric bondage into orderly civilization because it was the first to achieve some measure of freedom from the abject fear of the gods, not even fearing the ghosts of the dead as other races feared them. China met her defeat because she failed to progress beyond her early emancipation from priests; she fell into an almost equally calamitous error, the worship of ancestors.

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   ^{(1033.3) 94:5.8} But the Salemites did not labor in vain. It was upon the foundations of their gospel that the great philosophers of sixth-century China built their teachings. The moral atmosphere and the spiritual sentiments of the times of Lao-tse and Confucius grew up out of the teachings of the Salem missionaries of an earlier age.

   > > >

5. M

   MaraParticipant
   Sep 3, 2025, 12:25 AM

   Continuing the UB references . . .

    

   94:6.0 [Part III]

   6. Lao-Tse and Confucius

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   ^{(1033.4) 94:6.1} About six hundred years before the arrival of Michael, it seemed to Melchizedek, long since departed from the flesh, that the purity of his teaching on earth was being unduly jeopardized by general absorption into the older Urantia beliefs. It appeared for a time that his mission as a forerunner of Michael might be in danger of failing. And in the sixth century before Christ, through an unusual co-ordination of spiritual agencies, not all of which are understood even by the planetary supervisors, Urantia witnessed a most unusual presentation of manifold religious truth. Through the agency of several human teachers the Salem gospel was restated and revitalized, and as it was then presented, much has persisted to the times of this writing.

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   ^{(1033.5) 94:6.2} This unique century of spiritual progress was characterized by great religious, moral, and philosophic teachers all over the civilized world. In China, the two outstanding teachers were Lao-tse and Confucius.

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   ^{(1033.6) 94:6.3} Lao-tse built directly upon the concepts of the Salem traditions when he declared Tao to be the One First Cause of all creation. Lao was a man of great spiritual vision. He taught that man’s eternal destiny was “everlasting union with Tao, Supreme God and Universal King.” His comprehension of ultimate causation was most discerning, for he wrote: “Unity arises out of the Absolute Tao, and from Unity there appears cosmic Duality, and from such Duality, Trinity springs forth into existence, and Trinity is the primal source of all reality.” “All reality is ever in balance between the potentials and the actuals of the cosmos, and these are eternally harmonized by the spirit of divinity.”

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   ^{(1033.7) 94:6.4} Lao-tse also made one of the earliest presentations of the doctrine of returning good for evil: “Goodness begets goodness, but to the one who is truly good, evil also begets goodness.”

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   ^{(1033.8) 94:6.5} He taught the return of the creature to the Creator and pictured life as the emergence of a personality from the cosmic potentials, while death was like the returning home of this creature personality. His concept of true faith was unusual, and he too likened it to the “attitude of a little child.”

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   ^{(1034.1) 94:6.6} His understanding of the eternal purpose of God was clear, for he said: “The Absolute Deity does not strive but is always victorious; he does not coerce mankind but always stands ready to respond to their true desires; the will of God is eternal in patience and eternal in the inevitability of its expression.” And of the true religionist he said, in expressing the truth that it is more blessed to give than to receive: “The good man seeks not to retain truth for himself but rather attempts to bestow these riches upon his fellows, for that is the realization of truth. The will of the Absolute God always benefits, never destroys; the purpose of the true believer is always to act but never to coerce.”

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   ^{(1034.2) 94:6.7} Lao’s teaching of nonresistance and the distinction which he made between action and coercion became later perverted into the beliefs of “seeing, doing, and thinking nothing.” But Lao never taught such error, albeit his presentation of nonresistance has been a factor in the further development of the pacific predilections of the Chinese peoples.

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   ^{(1034.3) 94:6.8} But the popular Taoism of twentieth-century Urantia has very little in common with the lofty sentiments and the cosmic concepts of the old philosopher who taught the truth as he perceived it, which was: That faith in the Absolute God is the source of that divine energy which will remake the world, and by which man ascends to spiritual union with Tao, the Eternal Deity and Creator Absolute of the universes.

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   ^{(1034.4) 94:6.9} Confucius (Kung Fu-tze) was a younger contemporary of Lao in sixth-century China. Confucius based his doctrines upon the better moral traditions of the long history of the yellow race, and he was also somewhat influenced by the lingering traditions of the Salem missionaries. His chief work consisted in the compilation of the wise sayings of ancient philosophers. He was a rejected teacher during his lifetime, but his writings and teachings have ever since exerted a great influence in China and Japan. Confucius set a new pace for the shamans in that he put morality in the place of magic. But he built too well; he made a new fetish out of order and established a respect for ancestral conduct that is still venerated by the Chinese at the time of this writing.

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   ^{(1034.5) 94:6.10} The Confucian preachment of morality was predicated on the theory that the earthly way is the distorted shadow of the heavenly way; that the true pattern of temporal civilization is the mirror reflection of the eternal order of heaven. The potential God concept in Confucianism was almost completely subordinated to the emphasis placed upon the Way of Heaven, the pattern of the cosmos.

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   ^{(1034.6) 94:6.11} The teachings of Lao have been lost to all but a few in the Orient, but the writings of Confucius have ever since constituted the basis of the moral fabric of the culture of almost a third of Urantians. These Confucian precepts, while perpetuating the best of the past, were somewhat inimical to the very Chinese spirit of investigation that had produced those achievements which were so venerated. The influence of these doctrines was unsuccessfully combated both by the imperial efforts of Ch’in Shih Huang Ti and by the teachings of Mo Ti, who proclaimed a brotherhood founded not on ethical duty but on the love of God. He sought to rekindle the ancient quest for new truth, but his teachings failed before the vigorous opposition of the disciples of Confucius.

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   ^{(1034.7) 94:6.12} Like many other spiritual and moral teachers, both Confucius and Lao-tse were eventually deified by their followers in those spiritually dark ages of China which intervened between the decline and perversion of the Taoist faith and the coming of the Buddhist missionaries from India. During these spiritually decadent centuries the religion of the yellow race degenerated into a pitiful theology wherein swarmed devils, dragons, and evil spirits, all betokening the returning fears of the unenlightened mortal mind. And China, once at the head of human society because of an advanced religion, then fell behind because of temporary failure to progress in the true path of the development of that God-consciousness which is indispensable to the true progress, not only of the individual mortal, but also of the intricate and complex civilizations which characterize the advance of culture and society on an evolutionary planet of time and space.

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   94:7.1 [Part III]

   Contemporary with Lao-tse and Confucius in China, another great teacher of truth arose in India. Gautama Siddhartha was born in the sixth century before Christ in the north Indian province of Nepal. His followers later made it appear that he was the son of a fabulously wealthy ruler, but, in truth, he was the heir apparent to the throne of a petty chieftain who ruled by sufferance over a small and secluded mountain valley in the southern Himalayas.

6. E

   EdgarParticipant
   Sep 3, 2025, 12:39 PM

   Thanks for the references, dear Mara, that as a UB reader since 1994 I have read them all… but my point was to show, how even before UB was reveled, in 1905 Lionel Giles translated this version of the TAO TE KING by LAO TZU that I found so interesting and beautiful that I adapted it in a small book I published in Spanish at Amazon in 2003 that I named EL TAO O EL YO SOY(THE TAO OR THE I AM), which in a certain sense is a Real Prayer to the Universal Father, I AM, or the First Source and Center.

   Best Regards

   Edgar

   PD You can find it in english at

   https://www.researchgate.net/publication/375635294_THE_TAO_OR_THE_I_AM

   and

   https://www.researchgate.net/publication/384882870_ON_UNITY_DUALITY_MULTIPLICITYAND_THE_URANTIA_BOOK

    

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