Quotations Regarding the Tao - I

The following are excerpts from the book, “Tao: The Pathless Path” by Osho.

“Tao means the way—they don’t talk about the goal at all.  They say: The goal will take care of itself; you need not worry about the goal.  If you know the way you know the goal, because the goal is not at the very end of the way, the goal is all over the way—each moment and each step it is there.  It is not that when the way ends you arrive at the goal; each moment, wherever you are, you are at the goal if you are on the way.  To be on the way is to be at the goal.”

“That’s why Taoism is not an organized religion—cannot be.  It is an organic religion but not an organized religion.  You can be a Taoist if you simply live your life authentically, spontaneously, if you have the courage to go in to the unknown on your own, individual, not leaning on anybody.  Not following anybody, simply going into the dark night not knowing whether you will arrive anywhere or you will be lost.  If you have the courage, that risk is there—it is risky, it is adventurous.

Christianity, Hinduism, Mohammedanism, are superhighways; you need not risk anything, you simply follow the crowd, you go with the mob.  With Tao you have to go alone, you have to be alone.  Tao respects the individual and not the society.  Tao respects the unique and not the crowd.  Tao respects freedom and not conformity.  Tao has no tradition.  Tao is a rebellion, and the greatest rebellion possible.

That’s why I call Tao “the pathless path.”  It is a path but not like other paths.  It has a very different quality to it: the quality of freedom, the quality of anarchy, the quality of chaos.”