Dimensions of the Dao and Onto-Ethics in Light of the DDJ.

The great insight of Daoism lies in its perception and understanding of the dao in its relation to language or thinking. Language is invented for the purpose of representing things in the world and for communication among people. Language, whether in words or in speeches, has reference of extension by limitations and expression of intention by conceptual distinction. Language externalizes and symbolizes the concepts of things and one way to understand things is to conceptualize them and project them as defined entities. The best way to conceive the dao is to consider it as both transcendent and immanent, as both originating and supporting, as both self-fulfilling and others-fulfilling, and to see its transcendence as linked to its immanence and vice versa.