[MichiganMat]

First, I think the Tao suggests that we accept death as a part of life.
Second, I think the Tao also suggests that no matter what we attempt do, be it good or bad in our eyes, the cycle of life will be followed and will eventually return to balance.

Those who wish to change the world
According with their desire
Cannot succeed.

The world is shaped by the Way;
It cannot be shaped by the self.
Trying to change it, you damage it;
Trying to possess it, you lose it.


This is one of the main arguments against the Tao and Buddhism because they can be seen as inhumane. Emotion is really seen as a human creation as is seen as unimportant in the big scheme of things. Basically, it says, acknowledge it but do not act on it. Buddhism has much the same belief. Therefore, when it comes to diseases and dying and pain, the Tao doesn't have much sympathy for the involved human emotions other than to feel the pain as a human, then come back to the core understanding.


Men flow into life, and ebb into death.

Some are filled with life;
Some are empty with death;
Some hold fast to life, and thereby perish,
For life is an abstraction.

Those who are filled with life
Need not fear tigers and rhinos in the wilds,
Nor wear armour and shields in battle;
The rhinoceros finds no place in them for its horn,
The tiger no place for its claw,
The soldier no place for a weapon,
For death finds no place in them.