Page 52 - Built For God Handbook (Annotated and Explained Edition) - The Christian Edition of the Tao Te Ching - The New Evangelization - Pope John Paul II

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way of the universe, the source of life and power in all nature,
everything we call "good.” The second part of the Tao Te Ching
gives further details about "Te" (chapters thirty-eight through eighty-
one), which is the virtue. Virtue lives in the human soul, our mind,
and the power living within us. It is our will, thinking, choices,
passion, love, joy, reasoning, and conscience. "Te" is the energy or
power a person can cultivate by living harmoniously with the Tao.
Therefore, the Tao Te Ching can be translated as "The Way of
Power," in other words, "The Way of God by the Power of the Holy
Spirit."

In order to spread the message of the Gospel effectively, it
is essential for "Tao" and "Te" to guide us in comprehending and
living out the greatest two commandments we know from Mark
12:30 and Mark 12:31. In the Christian Edition of the Tao Te Ching,
BFG Handbook, the Tao is "The Way" or the "Way of God" which is
love. God is love. Thus, the first half of the book can teach us how
to love God, in Mark 12:30. This is our Spirit's inner life in
relationship to "God or God-Conscious": our faith, hope,
discernment, peace, revelation, and wisdom to understand truth,
knowledge of God, discernment, and perseverance. Our Spirit can
communicate and have a deep relationship with God, empowering
us to love our God with all our heart, soul, and mind.

The second half of the book, Te, teaches us, virtue. Virtue
lives in the human soul. Our soul concerns our inner life in
relationship to our "Own Experience": our mind, heart, will,
imagination, thoughts, desires, passions, dreams, fears, reasoning,
and morals. While we can make distinctions between "soul" and
"spirit," as St. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, they are