Taoism

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Taoism

• The Way to Do is to Be

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Tao Way

• The way the universe works.
• The way of nature.
• The Tao is inexpressible.

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Lao Tzu

• AKA Lao-tse, Lao-chun, Old Master
• Legendary founder of Taoism
• B. 604 BCE
• Author of Tao te Ching

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Legends about Lao Tzu

• Born 604 BCE following 82 years of gestation.
• One of Confuciuss teachers
• In old age travelled West, was stopped at the
  border.

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Religious v. Philosophical

• Tao-chiao religious Taoism
• Tao-chia philosophical Taoism
• They may be practiced separately or together.
• Eastman deals mainly with Tao-chia
• In Tao-chiao, Lao-Tzu (as Lao-chun) is the
  primary deity.

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Taoism v. Confucianism

• Confucian asks What should I do?
• Transform society first.
• Transformation of individuals will follow.
• Taoist asks What kind of person should I be?
• Transform individuals first.
• Transformation of society will follow.

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The Eternal

• All nature is united in tao
• Immortality CANNOT be achieved by liberating the
  soul/spirit from nature.
• Immortality IS achieved by becoming one with
  nature, controlling the forces of nature within
  ones own body.
• Taoist writings are hazy on reincarnation except
  to suggest that it happens.

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On Reincarnation

• Birth is not a beginning death is not an end.
  There is existence without limitation there is
  continuity without a starting point. Existence
  without limitation is space. Continuity without a
  starting point is time. There is birth, there is
  death, there is issuing forth, there is entering
  in. That through which one passes in and out
  without seeing its form, that is the Portal of
  God (Chuang Tzu 23).

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Chi

• The vital energy which pervades and enables all
  things.
• Breath
• Life spirit

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Wu-wei

• Active in-activity
• Going with the flow of things, like water over
  the rocks.
• Act in such a way that your action and the
  results of your actions are not noticable
  (Eastman, p. 222)

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Yin Yang

• Represents balance
• The universe is an integrated whole composed of 2
  opposing, but complementary forces.
• Yang light side, masculine, strong like the sun
• Yin dark side, feminine, fertile like the ground

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Chuang Tzu

• Contemporary of Mencius
• Continues, rounds-out the teachings of Lau-Tzu
• Lessons presented more in story format, much like
  the difference between Confuciuss writing and
  Menciuss.

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Suggestion for Study

• Like The Analects and The Book of Mencius, take
  Tao te Ching and Chuang Tzu and go back and
  forth. Read the second, looking for the lessons
  from the first.

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For example

• Chuang Tzu Where can I find a man who has
  forgotten words? He is the one I would like to
  talk to. (p. 240)
• Tao te Ching The Tao that can be told is not
  the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is
  not the eternal name. (p. 227)

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Last Thought

• Taoism differs from Confuciansim in that it
  asserts that nature acts with spontaneity, and
  that it is therefore necessary to cultivate
  naturalness and spontaneity.