Tao Te Ching Essays

The Tao Te Ching, Hildegard’s songs and poems, and St. Francis’ Canticle of the Creatures all attempt to express concepts that are ineffable: for Hildegard and Francis, it is the nature of God, and for Lao Tsu it is the elusive concept of the Tao. I will argue that the texts’ complementary treatment of this topic suggests that creating vague art in an attempt to express and share the subject with others is a universal human response to an inability...

Imagery and symbolism are one of the most commonly used styles as far as literature is concerned. Imagery refers to the creation of images or pictures in the people’s minds by use of descriptive or figurative language. Imagery aims at adding weight to literary or artistic work. Symbolism on the other hand refers to representation of the author’s thoughts, ideas, opinions and even qualities by using symbols. Tao Te Ching, translated by Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo, is a historical...

The aim of philosophy is to clarify the answer any question about life on this Earth. Philosophy is a tool to understand the reality and existence, and each philosopher has his own way to analyze it. In this essay, two important philosophy texts of philosophers Plato and Laozi are going to be compared which are Plato Cavern and Tao Te Ching. First, in terms of law, Plato tells us society will be served by its individuals, so Plato relied idealism...

The sage in the Tao Te Ching is someone who is a leader. It’s natural for a Sage to be an influencer or a leader. They use these traits to pass down their own beliefs to other people. Even though they do that, they don’t seek attention. Instead of seeking attention, all a Sage wants to do is influence everyone to be better. In this context, the Sage wants to influence everyone to follow the Tao. Following the Tao includes...