Liu Da asserts that the Tao is properly understood as an experiential and evolving concept and that there are not only cultural and religious differences in the interpretation of the Tao but personal differences that reflect the character of individual practitioners.
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Tao can be roughly thought of as the flow of the Universe or as some essence or pattern behind the natural world that keeps the Universe balanced and ordered.
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The Tao is a non-dualistic principle—it is the greater whole from which all the individual elements of the Universe derive.
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Keller considers it similar to the negative theology of Western scholars, but the Tao is rarely an object of direct worship, being treated more like the Hindu concepts of karma, dharma, or Rta than as a divine object.
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The Tao is more commonly expressed in the relationship between wu and yinyang, leading to its central principle of wu wei.
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Tao is usually described in terms of elements of nature, and in particular as similar to water.
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Tao was shared with Confucianism, Chan and Zen Buddhism, and more broadly throughout East Asian philosophy and religion in general.
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The Tao is intrinsically related to the concepts yin and yang, where every action creates counter-actions as unavoidable movements within manifestations of the Tao, and proper practice variously involves accepting, conforming to, or working with these natural developments.
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Particular things that manifest from the Tao have their own inner nature that they follow in accordance with the Tao, and the following of this inner nature is De.
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The Tao is the fundamental and central concept of these schools of thought.
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The Tao T'i Lun is an eighth century exegesis of the Tao Te Ching, written from a well-educated and religious viewpoint that represents the traditional, scholarly perspective.
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The manifestation of the Tao is De, which rectifies and invigorates the world with the Tao's radiance.
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The self steeped in the Tao is the self grounded in its place within the natural Universe.
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Tao explicitly paired "Dao" and "De", focusing on humane nature and righteousness.
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Tao framed and elaborated on a daotong in order to reject the traditions of Buddhism.
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Tao would seem, then, to be etymologically a more dynamic concept than we have made it translation-wise.
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