The Holy Principles of Tao
From IKTWiki
The Tao represents all that which there is. God created the universe and beyond to function in a continuous clock like manner and the Tao governs this clock. From our human perspective on earth, we are all part of the Tao.
After receiving the Tao, one needs to understand and practice the holy principles of Tao for becoming a high spiritual being. The holy principles of the Tao are:
1. Respect heaven and earth. You exist on this earth with the blessing of heaven. The earth provides you with physical nourishments and heaven offers you opportunities for your spiritual development. Without heaven and earth, you cannot never fulfill the goal of finding your true self.
2. Honor holy beings and saints. All the great saints like Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Muhammad, and Confucius made huge efforts to help many people during their lifetimes. Follow their teachings and greatly honor their efforts.
3. Learn loyalty and responsibilities. A sense of loyalty to society and taking responsibilities are important because civilization cannot exist without people undertaking such qualities.
4. Achieve honorable character. As a natural consequence of cultivating righteous thoughts and actions, you will become more honorable to others in your daily dealings with them.
5. Fulfill the duties of filial piety. Love for your parents can never be denied. There is a most sacred bond between a child and the parents that can never be removed. As such, you have a duty to take care of your parents.
6. Respect your teachers. It is not that a student seeks a great teacher to learn but that the teacher seeks the great student to teach. Respect your teachers for they are showing you the path to enlightenment.
7. Practice trustworthiness among friends. One who has received the Tao can be depended on to be trustworthy. Exercise trust but know the difference between blind and intelligent trust.
8. Observe neighborliness. Be friendly and neighborly to those living close to you. It is they who you see even more so than faraway relatives. Those who are living closest to you can help you faster when the need arises.
9. Convert from bad to good. Having received the Tao, you will realize that your true nature is one of good as you cultivate righteous thoughts and actions.
10. Preach human relationships and virtues.
The five human relationships are:
• Righteousness between superiors and subordinates.
• Proper conduct between husbands and wives.
• Respect between parents and children.
• Harmony between elders and the young.
• Faithfulness and trust among friends.
The eight virtues are:
• Filial Piety
• Brotherhood
• Loyalty
• Trust
• Politeness
• Righteousness
• Integrity
• Shamefulness
11. Spread the true meaning of the five main religions. The five main religions are Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Confucianism. The teachings of these religions are similar in each of their main objectives as identified below.
• Christianity – Brotherhood
• Buddhism – Compassion
• Taoism – Empathy
• Islam – Humanity
• Confucianism – Benevolence
12. Obey moral principles and virtues. If society were to obey all moral principles and virtues, then there would be no war or violence. Do your part in making a more peaceful society by obeying the moral principles and virtues.
The three principles of moral behavior are:
• Superiors respect subordinates and subordinates show loyalty.
• Parents care for children and children love and respect the parents.
• Husbands are dutiful and wives are virtuous.
The five cardinal virtues are:
• Humanity
• Righteousness
• Propriety
• Wisdom
• Trust
13. Purify the mind of evil thoughts and intentions. The continuous allowance of God into your heart through holy ceremonies and spiritual studies will remove evil thoughts and intentions from your mind.
14. Cultivate from the physical body to your true self. You are fortunately to have a human body for your soul to cultivate in. Without the body, physical hardship cannot be experienced by the soul to learn how to better itself for returning to heaven.
15. Recover your original true nature. You are part of God but worldly delusions separate you from God and your true nature. Consistent cultivation of righteous thoughts and actions will remove the worldly delusions so that your true nature can emerge.
16. Develop your potentials to the highest. Your soul is already perfect and of the highest with God but held back by your imperfect human acts. Proper cultivation will remove the human imperfections and allow your true self to unite with the holy spirit.
17. Help yourself and others in cultivation. In the beginning, it is best to cultivate within the Tao community because this will allow for less distraction by bad influences. You will be helped by senior Tao members and as you progress, you can then assist the new members.
18. Show others how to become enlightened. Share your joy and happiness of knowing God through the Tao with others. You will find that this sharing is without much effort because you will naturally project peace and holiness as you continue to cultivate.
19. Help bring peace and order. Having received the Tao, you will be helping others uphold peace and order. It is not about preaching peace and order to others but of others seeing that you are of peace within yourself in the most difficult situations.
20. Refrain from all evil and sin. Your mistakes and faults become less as you cultivate into the higher spiritual levels. As you progress in enlightenment, your spiritual consciousness merges with the holy spirit in such a manner that knowing the right thing to do becomes the norm.
21. Strive for great harmony in the world. Strive for the greatest harmony by following the Holy Principles of Tao and helping others do the same will truly result in a heaven on earth.
