This article examines the concept of the Dao, or Way, in Laozi’s Daodejing and in Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō, in order to clarify the shared ground and the differences between Daoism and Chan (Zen) Buddhism. The author first analyses the character 道, composed of “walking” and “head”, and its senses of moving, process and speaking, and recalls the opening line of the Daodejing, rendered by Léon Wieger as “the constant principle is not the principle that can be stated”. The Dao is presented as both transcendent and immanent, unnameable yet present in everything, and grounded in the transformation (bianhua) of yin and yang, which form a single system of indeterminacy rather than a dualism. A comparison with Michelangelo Pistoletto’s “Third Paradise” highlights that Daoism admits no third mediating element. The article then traces the rise of Chan, which absorbed Daoist spontaneity, and Dōgen’s teaching that each step of practice contains the whole path. The author concludes that Dōgen’s Way moves from lived experience towards self-awareness, whereas Laozi’s Dao moves from daily life towards the universal, and that Buddhism allowed the Daoist Way to flourish.