Why does the Tao respond to my prayers if it's impersonal?

[agorman]

Every (serious) text I've read about Taoism says the Tao is an impersonal force or source of everything. However that doesn't explain why I get a response when I pray to the Tao these days.

Answers include protection, thoughts, energy (vitality) and temporary healings (after a while symptoms come back). I don't know if I should give more details; because I get the thought "don't tell them very much yet". And I have the sensation of having found some unique invaluable jewel.

Maybe the Tao is somehow beyond the impersonal-personal duality? Maybe what happens is that by asking things to the Tao, I'm really praying to the whole Universe and thus, there's always someone who answers my prayer? If it's not the Source, then maybe it's some spirit guide, some lower god, some ancestor or even my own Higher Self. Which I believe it has the same yin-yang essence as the Source (although it's not directly a part of it).

It also feels differently than praying to "God". Somehow when I use the word "God" I imagine a Zeus-like figure on a far away throne in the sky.

 

[David T]

Every (serious) text I've read about Taoism says the Tao is an impersonal force or source of everything. However that doesn't explain why I get a response when I pray to the Tao these days.

Answers include protection, thoughts, energy (vitality) and temporary healings (after a while symptoms come back). I don't know if I should give more details; because I get the thought "don't tell them very much yet". And I have the sensation of having found some unique invaluable jewel.

Maybe the Tao is somehow beyond the impersonal-personal duality? Maybe what happens is that by asking things to the Tao, I'm really praying to the whole Universe and thus, there's always someone who answers my prayer? If it's not the Source, then maybe it's some spirit guide, some lower god, some ancestor or even my own Higher Self. Which I believe it has the same yin-yang essence as the Source (although it's not directly a part of it).

It also feels differently than praying to "God". Somehow when I use the word "God" I imagine a Zeus-like figure on a far away throne in the sky.

The Tao is not reacting to you, you are reacting to the Tao. There is no action to pray that causes the Tao to behave its wild are you proposing you have magically tamed it? What ever we say is the Tao is not the Tao. So even my words is not that.

On a math side note georg cantor developed naive set theory in the 1800s. It created a paradox of the relationship of sets which was discovered by bertrand russell. The mathmatical work around are axioms. It doesnt remove the paradox or solve the paradox it simply ignores the paradox created. The equal paradox exists in language called the grelling nelson paradox. The existsnce of two paradoxes in the same neurological area points to the notion of mathmatical Realism as being false.

Godels incompleteness theorem is a rather interesting theorem in this regards and basically also ignored or worked around.

 

[agorman]

The Tao is not reacting to you, you are reacting to the Tao. There is no action to pray that causes the Tao to behave its wild are you proposing you have magically tamed it? What ever we say is the Tao is not the Tao. So even my words is not that.

Then it's my connection to the Tao that probably does the trick. Although if you can't totally define the Tao, you can't also deny that it answers to prayers.

 

[David T]

Then it's my connection to the Tao that probably does the trick. Although if you can't totally define the Tao, you can't also deny that it answers to prayers.

Yes absolutely. We can call it the unconscious the logos and god or what ever all true none complete.
Jung called what you experience synchronicity. I say keep walking and allow it, dont try and define it

 

[agorman]

I put a buddha on my altar yesterday and I've got a thought, a concept from him about this topic: "When you pray to the Tao or to the yin-yang, you're asking to the Godess and God that take care of this world; also to the dark and light side of each one, which are also a reflection of the femenine and masculine, dark and light sides of your own Higher Self (buddha nature). The problem is that when you prayed to them in the past, you didn't consider you're a reflection of them, in essence. So if you ask something to them, you have to do it thinking that you are also asking it to yourself."

I don't really know if I'm just imagining that the Buddha sends me teachings, but they make sense to me. Maybe I should try something like Wicca again...

I suppose the God and Goddess in Taoism are the Jade Emperor and his wife the Queen Mother of the West?

 

[IndigoChild5559]

The Taoists I have known have not been picky about the personal/impersonal thing. They were always, "Whatever works best for you."