This post contain a discussion of Taoist/Daoist philosophy from one of its big popularize-rs, Alan Watts. Tao/Dao means path or way. If you look at it from the perspective of the platonic form idea, then the tao/dao is that from which all form comes and disappears into and that permeates all things.
In the following lecture Alan Watts goes deeply into the philosophy of Daoism/Taoism devoid of religious or cultist aspects that exists in some cultures. The video below starts from the point of the lecture about 10 mins into the actual video as the first 10:4 minutes is just podcast chatter irrelevant to this post.
Alan Watts' Being in the Way Podcast Ep. 1: Following the Taoist Way
"The great Tao flows everywhere, both to the left and to the right. It loves and nourishes all things, but does not lord it over them. And when good things are accomplished, it lays no claim to them." – Lao Tzu from Tao Te Ching
"The world is a system of interrelated components, none of which can survive without each other. Just as in the case of bees and flowers, you will never find bees around in place where there aren't flowers, and you will never find flowers around in a place where there aren't bees. What that tells us secretly, is that although bees and flowers look different from each other, they're inseparable. To use an important Taoist expression: they arise mutually." – Alan Watts
"Whereas the idea of God involved the control of everything going on, the idea of the Tao is the ruler who abdicates and trusts all the people to conduct their own affairs, to let it all happen. This doesn't mean that there isn't a unified organism and everything is in chaos. It means that the more liberty you give, the more love you give, the more you allow things in yourself and your surroundings to take place, the more order you will have." – Alan Watts
"When you know that this moment is the Tao, and this moment, considered by itself, is without past, without future, eternal, neither coming into being, nor going out of being: there is nirvana." – Alan Watts
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