The Tao of Ecology: Wisdom from Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching In a Time of Environmental Crisis

The Tao of Ecology

Wisdom from Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching
In a Time
of
Environmental Crisis

Taoism is fundamentally ecological. Its foundational Chinese
text, the Tao Te Ching, is essentially an instruction manual on how
to live harmoniously with nature and ourselves. Both nature and
society are ecologies that deserve our special attention for we are
so dependent on them that we can neither thrive nor survive if
their relationship is not sustainably integrated and balanced.

These natural and social ecologies are now under such stress
that the viability of our present civilization is threatened. Global
environmental changes are currently disrupting the reliability of
the natural world that allowed us to fourish, while the onslaught
of technological innovation is confusing and disorienting us.
Such disturbances have contributed to a pervasive anxiety and to
our growing sense of impending disaster.

The Chinese encountered their version of such a crisis more
than 2,500 years ago as the changes initiated by the Agricultural
Revolution generated chaos in their natural and social ecologies.
The challenges of living peacefully with nature and themselves
almost destroyed their culture. Along with Confucianism, the
other transformative model of thinking that reorganized their
awareness and saved them was Taoism, inspired by Lao Tzu's
Tao Te Ching.

The wisdom in this old Chinese classic can be applied directly
to the same ecological predicaments that confront humanity in
the 21st century. Perhaps it will instil in us enough of its attitudes
and values to save us from becoming the victims of ourselves.

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