Price: $40.00

Comes boxed and with a card giving the following history

Lao-Tzu, a sixth-century Chinese philosopher, was the legendary author of the Tao-te Ching and is linked with the beginnings of Taoism. He was a functionary in the imperial court who, the story says, one day got on a donkey and disappeared into nature. Taoism seeks to lead people to the Tao: the Way, the underlying principle of the cosmos that is embodied in all things but especially in nature. A principal means of living in harmony with the Tao is meditation, moving down through layers of consciousness and the rational mind until one taps into the Tao. Taoism thus asserts that to live in accord with the Tao one must, first, quiet one’s impulses and obsessions. In this small statue, Lao-Tzu is associated with two Taoist symbols: a water jug and a bird, nature speaking to a human being of the Tao that resides in and connects all things and creatures.