Throughout reading The Daodejing, I found it very difficult to understand. I would catch myself reading each chapter over and over again to get a better understanding of what was being said. As I kept reading, to me the book was giving insights on the way of life. There were so many example of how we live life and how we as humans react to life. A main part of this book is not giving Daodejing a name, it cannot be defined through words. We should perceive the way of life and observe the meaning of it. I was actually surprised that even though the book was written thousands of years ago, many of the example are still true today. Thus, the theme of this book is not to understand the way of life through words, but to observe life as we see it, which can be seen through …show more content…
One cannot simply put a name on the way of life and expect to understand it. In the following quote Lao Tzu says, “A Way that can be followed is not a constant Way. A name that can be named is not a constant name. Nameless, it is the beginning of Heaven and earth” (Chapter 1). To better understand the meaning of the way of life, you have to have a deep understanding by observing what we as humans have made of life. If you think about it our life is what we make of it, through our actions, thoughts, and emotions. In Daoism, these are the aspects that grasp the meaning of the way, we must have a deeper connection to understand Dao. We have to look behind the actual meaning of the way. An example would be a car. On the outside you see a figure, to you it’s a car, but there’s a deeper meaning behind it. When you lift up the hood you see all the components that define the car. All the parts inside of the car make up what it is to be a car. One must go behind the outer layer and go to the core to understand the meaning of Dao. It’s not just something one can pick up on, it takes years to understand at least some of the