I am a Christian but Christians would have an issue with me. I believe that for me my path to god is through Jesus. But I also believe that god keeps reach to man and I believe that everyone’s religion is like a river eventually it reaches the sea of god. Ie all rivers lead to the sea. So that statement by Jesus (I am the way the truth and the life) has always troubled me. I interpret it as Jesus is the path to god whether you believe in him or not. Ie god is not going to ignore your suffering whoever you pray to. I couldn’t believe in a god who is so limited.
Dao de Jing / Tao te Ching
4/81
This is where it starts to appear that the Dao is the Spirit in Christianity. Translator pointed out that "ancestor" as written in Chinese can also mean emporer or God. So, the Dao is pervasive, the smallest thing, and the first cause.
It reminds me of the spirit whispering in the wind in the mountains - there was a verse somewhere in the Bible describing that.
Compare with the Greek word, 'zoe,' found in John 14:6 (life)
The use of "zoe" instead of "bio" should catch your attention here. This means the cause of life, not the process. Its the thing at the root - without it, the fantastic machine that is a cell doesn't move and the fantastic machine that is a brain carries no Self.
Here's the breakdown of that verse in the original Greek:
https://biblehub.com/text/john/14-6.htm
#Philosophy #daoism #taoism
Discussion
very similar to my beliefs! Anything you pray to - or just appreciate - is God. God is in all things and is all things - this must be true if God is to be God, the infinite and eternal. Nothing could be outside of God because if anything was outside of God, then the context would be larger than God, and that would be a contradiction. But anything you pray to is an image, which could be an idol if you think the image is the thing itself - even if that image is your best attempt at God. This is why I think prayer must be accompanied by meditation, which is the opposite of prayer. The prayer directs or preserves, while the meditation clears images.
What I would question is whether its actually right to try to return to the sea of God, and whether that effort is not yet more idolatry. God made you on purpose. It wasn't an accident that you need to fix. Your spirit wanted to be here and experience the phenomenal world, its polarities and differentiations, highs and lows. Its the hero's journey. Maybe it's enough to just know that there is a God and an eternity and it exists even if your ego-self doesn't exist.