I-Kuan Tao A Modern Way Of Spiritual Awakening （Ⅰ）

編按：感謝加拿大溫哥華明華道院I-Kuan Tao Ming Hwa Temple
褚楚麟點傳師慈悲提供本文連載，以服務英文道親。

Tao--The Nothingness From Which Everything Comes

As human being we communicate with languages, writings, gestures, body movements, drawings, and so on that can get our idea across. However, there are things that are beyond any sort of human depiction.“Tao”falls into this category. Nothing is Tao but Tao is everything.

Lao Tzu, an ancient Taoist Sage, described Tao as“Mysteriously existing before the Heaven and the Earth, silent and empty, an unchanging Oneness, ever pervading and never exhausted, the mother of all life, without knowing its name, I call it Tao.?In another script he wrote:“ Formless, it creates the Heaven and the Earth;emotionless, it regulates the celestial bodies; nameless, it fosters all lives. Not knowing its name, arbitrarily I call it Tao.?The teaching means that this universe, physical and non-physical, is originated from an unknown supreme being that Lao Tzu named Tao or the Great One. All separate things including human come from this Great One and in the same time are the manifestations of it.

In The Doctrine Of The Mean, it teaches:“ Bestowal from Heaven is our true nature; acting in accordance with our true nature is Tao; cultivation of Tao becomes teaching.?In other words, Tao is embedded in our nature and when in tune with our true nature, we become living models of Tao. If we are to set a didactic example to others, cultivate to reveal our true nature is the best teaching we can do.

The teachings of the sages tell that we all possess the same nature which is part of Tao. This very nature is commonly called inner-self or true-self. It differs with Tao only in the magnitude and the potential. Unfortunately, through our physical senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and consciousness), we conceive the physical world as the whole part of the realm and ignore the spiritual part. With sensible-only attitude, we identify ourselves with our biological body. Our mind then keep on searching sensory pleasure which in turn fortifies our biological being. Our true-selves fade and become inactive. Life then becomes an endless searching for sensory satisfaction from which all the suffering comes.

The Lineage of Tao

The lineage of Tao dates back to more than five thousand years ago at the time of early Chinese civilization. Named after the teaching of Confucius, I-Kuan Tao advocates the same spiritual cultivation that were practiced by the sages like Lao Tzu, Confucius, Buddha Gautama, and other saints. I-Kuan Tao was revealed and promoted in early 1930 by Chang Tien-lan and Sun Hui-chin in Chi-nan City, Shang-dong Province of China. The practice spread in an astonishing pace that by 1946, I-Kuan Tao had prevailed in whole China. There is not an official number of I-Kuan Tao followers by Taiwanese authorities. Unauthorized organizations claim that by Year 2004 there are about four million followers in Taiwan and additional substantial number of the followers spreading over other 75 countries.

（To be continued）