The greatest loss of the Western Hemisphere is that we don’t understand what Taoism is, what it means to be Taoist. Â It’s so easily confused with the traditions that spawned it that people associate the customs of people as its meaning. Â This is what also happens with Hinduism, but that’s a topic for an entirely different conversation.

Tao literally means “the way”, but what Taoism teaches is better defined as “the watercourse way”, connecting the points between the way water interacts with its existence, and how we as individuals interact with our existence.

The customs and traditions of the people who historically practice Taoism are quite beautiful and profound, but to confuse this with Taoism itself is akin to reading parables as factual accuracy. Â Parables are meant to teach a lesson indirectly, to take them literally overlooks their meaning.

The mistake that’s been made by the Western world is that we’ve focused too much effort on what’s on the surface, completely missing what our existence here is all about. Â There’s something deeper there, inside us, and it connecting all of us in ways that we, as a people, have yet to really understand.

Physicists understand Tao, because physicists understand water.