On the Tao Te Ching

Since humanity first was able to form a rational thought, we have tried to find reasons for everything in the world. This is where philosophies and religion came into being. Humanity needed to find an explanation and some form of path. Be it Christianity, Druidism, Buddhism, the Zen or the Tao. All in one form or another offer a purpose to our existence as well as a guide on how to truly fulfill out purpose. By offering a set of morals or virtues, each philosophies/religion sets the steps of our life path. In the case of the Tao, these virtues are immortality, health and long life.
For starters the Tao’s definition of health is not strictly the physical well being of  
the body, but also the mind/spirit as well. One passage, “To know and yet (think) we do
not know is the highest (attainment): not to know (and yet think) we do know is a
Disease” (pg 67). This brings to mind another, more common saying of “Ignorance is
bliss.” This passage is not literally saying that we will feel physically ill from believing
to know something we in fact do not, but that arrogance is in people to the point that with
our lack of knowledge, it is like we have been overcome with disease.
Knowledge is what can lead us to obtaining mental health. “The sage has not the
disease” (pg 67) The sage does not have this disease because he has knowledge and
wisdom.  The more we understand something, the more comfortless we can be with it.
     For example, the most powerful human emotion is fear, and the strongest fear is the fear of the unknown. The thing we are the least educated as a race is death. For most people
death is a very unnerving subject that causes fear and uncomforted. That un-comfort is
due to our lack of understanding. Now, if we look at say a person who has their entire
faith in some sort of after life they are less afraid of death. Why? Because they have a
form of understanding or believe they know exactly what will happen once they die.
      It is this type of health that the Tao refers too. The mental/spiritual health that is obtained is a worried free relaxed sort. And in turn this is received by gaining knowledge and a better understanding of all that is around us. “The sage has not the disease” (pg 67) The sage does not have this disease because he has knowledge and understanding. He does not worry about what will happen, because he understands what will happen, as well as why. He knows there is reason for what will happen to him.
Long health and immortality are not one in the same. Long health is temporary; the person shall die at a given moment. With long health it Is both the mind set and the physical body that exist for a longer amount of time in way free of worries or illness.  The Tao claims that long health can be achieved through following and understanding the Tao. “He who posses the mother of the state may continue long. His case is like that (of the plant) of which we say that its roots are deep and its flower stalks firm: - this is the way to secure that its enduring life shall long be seen” (pg 57). Here the Tao says that by having a deep understanding in the Tao of all things, that we will be reinforced and strengthened by this understanding to the point of living longer.  The Tao as all thing will nourish us and help support us, much like the deep roots of a plant. When we have trouble or suffer from worries, the Tao will be there for us, if we understand it, or set our roots in. It is also possible to obtain long health by not being selfish and find a purpose to continue existing other then ourselves. “heaven is long-enduring and earth continues long. The reason why heaven and earth are able to endure long and continue thus long is because they do not live of, or for, themselves. This is how they are able to continue long” (pg 6). This passage is not simply saying that earth and heaven are long lasting, but is showing the reader (by example) that long health can be achieved when you don’t love selfishly for your selves.
Immortality on the other hand is not the same virtue as long health. Long health refers to the continued good health (mental and physical) of the subject but is finite. The person will die at some time. Immortality however is not as finite but is a permanent existence. Though it may not be the immortality we see in movies and read in books (such as Dracula’s cursed immortal ness, or Highlanders take on it) it is a permanent existence in the world, as part of the Tao. “all things depend on it for their production, which it gives to them, not one refusing obedience to it. When its work is accomplished, it does not claim the name of having done it. It clothes all things as with a garment and makes no assumption of being their lord: - it may be named in the smallest things. All things return (to their root) and disappear), and do not know that it is it which presides over their doing so; it may be named in the greatest things.” (pg 30).
We are all part of the Tao from the beginning, whether we know it or not. In the end, once we cease to be in this world, we are not completely gone. We live on as once more as part of the Tao, brining our experience and understanding back to it. Not unlike the Christian idea of living in Heaven after death, but with more purpose and definition in action to it. The common idea of heaven is once you have died, and if you lived a good, virtuous life, that you may wander the paradise of heaven. Depending on the person’s belief, that paradise may take different forms. The Tao Is not unlike this fact but a bit more complicated. Instead of simply roaming about in our version of paradise, much as we would roam around the house or such, we rejoin a part of something grander ( the Tao) and offer our experience, understanding, and our being to it. We become one with a collection of knowledge brought from everyone else who rejoins it. In doing this there is more knowledge and experience there for those that know the Tao and follow it. In that way we serve a bit more of a purpose in our existence, and we can see a tie in with the Tao’s virtue of long health. In not living for ourselves ( we live more for the graeter good of the Tao) we are able to gain more knowledge and experience that we can bring back to the Tao with us.
The Tao is a lot of things. Perhaps that is why there are som many different explanations, and definitions of it. Through every translation and interpretation we can see an almost completely different idea or conclusion of the Tao. It’s not unlike many religions actually. Just how many versions and translatiosn of the Christian bible can you think of? But, the important thing to keep in mind, and the whole purpose of the Tao te Ching is the purpose for it. It is a guide, a personal map for loving your life to the fullest. He three virtues, health, long health, and immortality are simply destinations. The Tao is an understanding of anything ( there are even books on the Tao of Poo) and is a wqay to reach understanding of either a general article or a specific thing. That is the Tao Te Ching.