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Lao Tzu

As catholic lay people I believe it is our duty to understand and learn a little about the religions that surround us and impact our daily lives.   Lao Tzu who is known by many names such as Laozi was an ancient philosopher from the 6th century B.C. it is said that he was the teacher of Confucius, the better know philosopher from the Chinese culture.   Lao Tzu is created with several major achievements of which I am ashamed to admit I knew very little about before researching the topic, of all the accomplishments he is created with the most significant one has to be his founding of the teaching of Taoism. The most widely recognizable Chinese symbol the yin and yang are the part of Taoism, the white part the Yang is often described as the masculine side with attributes as aggressive and focus, on the other hand the Ying is the dark side and is described as the feminine with attributes such as tranquility and birth. The two forces are said to act against each other and at the same time complement each other. In the teachings of Taoism the Yin & Yang are said to balance one another and bring about change and restructuring. In the writings of Lao Tzu he makes mention of Men and Women and how they bring about new generations, how one cannot exist without the other and how they both need the counterpart in order to survive and continue to flourish. It is important to understand that the Yin & Yang are not physical forces that occur in the world but rather a universal way of describing the interactions and interrelations of the forces that do occur naturally in the world. If you take a close look at the symbol you will notice a small piece of Yin in the Yang and vice versa, this is a visual aid to show how in the teachings of Taoism they believe not only that they cannot exist separately but that one also gives birth to the other so to speak.

A little history about Lao Tzu, his name which is translated to “The Old Master” was given to him by the King of Zhou. He worked...