Not Fear.

People are fear-experts. With very few exceptions.
They consider it essential: this capacity to be afraid.
Anyone not manifesting the capacity for fear, is thought to be insane.
Not realizing, no doubt, that fear is dread of what may happen in the future.

Feeling fear is relinquishing the present, to dwell, uncomfortably, in the future.
Engagement with whatever the present presents, eliminates fear.

Taoism is: life lived in the present.
Taoism is not: a dread of things to come.

Not Intelligence.

Intelligence is: the ability to perceive patterns.
Intelligence is not: to be used for everything.
Taoism is: the ability to perceive directly.
Taoism is not: the use of intelligence to perceive the world.

Being a Ghost.

I find I am suddenly unable to post a comment, on my own blog.
Strange! Initially exasperating, and then...

Taoism is: being unconcerned about such things.
Taoism is: allowing amusement to replace irritation.
Taoism is not: jumping up and down, tearing my hair out, over mysteries.

It's a bit like a power-cut. Electricity is something that rapidly gets taken for granted, and then "poof" it is gone. Aieeee! What do I do now?
Something that does not require electricity...

Not Saving The World.

I get around, quite a bit, on the internet, trying to discover something, somewhere, pertaining to taoism, that is actually about taoism.
With very limited success.
It would appear that pretty much the entire Western world has no faint clue what taoism is about. Especially those calling themselves "taoists".
What I do see, again and again, are people behaving as-if  they are ever-so-nice, while carrying-on about how "we" should all be "behaving", usually in relation to "saving the world".

There are some key concepts here:
We: Not I, me, what involves my autonomous self, but all of us.
Behaving: Not being real, true, spontaneous or open. To behave is to act out a part.
Saving the world: It needs, apparently, to be saved. By us, of all things. The ones who are so busy wrecking it, to begin with.

I saw a post along these lines, just today, in fact. It was like so many others. Utterly predictable...
We are causing Global Warming.
Global Warming will inevitably result in the deaths of billions of people.
We must act now to avert these deaths.

It went on to describe the guilt felt by the "taoist" writer, to be associated with such a murderous society, and how it was all the fault of Conservatives and Republicans, going on to name the usual names...
The usual left-wing stuff.
But wait a minute: this was a taoist post on a taoist blog. It is this that makes it interesting; and not a little repugnant...

Taoism is: 
Non-interference with the natural unfolding of things.  
If there are too many people, wrecking the ecology, then some - lots - will have to go.
Who knows? You may be one of them. As may I.
Balance:
Neither right, nor left, but somewhere in-between.
Freedom from mind:
The mind is strictly a tool for one's own problem-solving. No problem? No mind.
Freedom from emotion:
Emotion is for children who know no better. Rages, desires, guilt, likes and dislikes. Maturity removes these things. Unless maturity never occurs, as is so often the case, in the West.
Ego-less:
Ego is who you think you are. And you think you're far more important than you really are.
Your opinion is the only way of seeing things. Solve your ego, and you solve yourself.
Good luck.

Taoism is not:
Feeling compelled to fix the world.
Morphing reality into something you think would be better.
Demanding everyone agrees with your opinions.
Acting as-if you are ever-so-nice.
Or acting, at all.