The Dao and the Dao-De-Jing

"The Dao" is a unique concept in Laozi’s "Dao De Jing," the classic book everyone is talking about these days, but no one so far can claim a true understanding of it.  According to my professor of Chinese philosophy, "the Dao" refers to the laws behind everything in the universe that integrates the unnamed (our intuition) and the named (our reasoning) together. This can only be truly understood or comprehended through our intuition with experience.  All the languages and names are attached to certain reasoning and manifestations, therefore "the Dao" that can be told or communicated by language is not the original or real Dao.  All the books, stories and talks about "the Dao" are just some examples of, or the path toward, the Dao.  In other words, the true Dao can only be illuminated through our own cultivation, meditation and comprehension.

Students who attended the medical qigong training by World Institute for Self-Healing (WISH) may remember master He’s only recommendation of additional reading after qigong cultivation, the Dao-de-jing (DDJ) in its original Chinese version.  All translations have already added the translator or author’s own understanding and commentary, which is most likely to lead you far away from the true Dao.  According to some Daoist masters or practitioners, even though you may not understand the words well when you read the DDJ the first few times, just read it through, and remember those words. You will have a better chance to understand them once you continue your qigong cultivation-practice since the real Dao cannot be expressed in words any way….  For those who understand Chinese, this is a possible way to illuminate the Dao. However, for those who do not understand Chinese, how are they going to illuminate the Dao effectively?