The best interpretation for ‘Tao’ is the perfect way. Tao is the absolute, the beginning and the end. It is the way of least resistance between two points: that which we see when the rain falls on the mountain and the drops that search for the valley, following the way that reflects the law of least resistance. God is Tao and Tao is God. The cycle of the laws of nature reflect the laws of life in all beings. Tao, therefore, is the natural way of everything and everyone that lives, on their way to their highest spiritual achievement: i.e. enlightenment.

The real Tao is unspoken. All that is felt by our senses and all that the ego desires is unreal. Tao is the beginning of the heaven and the earth. One generated two, two generated three, three generated multiplicity and multiplicity returns to one. This is Tao.

Hence, Tao is God, as it is the origin of everything: the seas, the birds, the continents, the climate, the sun and the moon, life and death. The term Taoism is formed by the Chinese ideograms of Tao and Dao. Tao means way, expressing the idea of the origin of all things, and Dao means teachings. It is an ancestral tradition that reveals the origin of all things. It is a natural religion that bases itself on the observation and synchronization with the organic order of things, from planetary movements and the succession of seasons to our feelings and processing of thoughts.

Taoist masters observed nature and sought to understand her resources and act according to Wu Wei, the “non-action”, or the action without action. Action without action means doing things without putting any effort or individual tendency into the act, merely following its natural course of action. But this does not mean that we should do nothing, as is shown in this ancient Taoist text:

“Do not confuse words, when Lao Tse spoke of Wu Wei, non-action did not refer to a simple inaction or to the lazy contentment of closed eyes, but to the inaction of earthly movements, wishes and aspirations which are deprived of reality, and did not refer to the action of real things. In reality, Wu Wei is one of the most energetic activities of the soul, which needs to free itself from the afflictions of the flesh and logical mind, just as a captured bird in a cage.”

We often try to follow and insist on paths and choices that are not “original”, but rather borrowed from culture, education and the social environment in which we were educated. Frequently, we do not achieve our objectives and feel frustrated. Even when we reach our goals, we still feel frustrated for not following our heart or our “trueness”.

In this moment, we lose our naturalness and we do what is not real. Listening to the heart means connecting to our true path. Respecting and following the natural flow within and without is being in alignment with the divine supreme consciousness that resides in all of us.