how did i taoism

Taoism is both a philosophy and a set of spiritual doctrines, as well as an extensive ritual hierarchy and monastic institution.

Westernised Taoist philosophy adds unauthentic new age and other faith elements to Taoism while removing much of its religious content; few Western Taoists include Taoist gods and goddesses, liturgy, worship, or religious meditative practices.

Taoism is often taught in the West as an atheist or agnostic philosophy, but in Taiwan and other Asian countries, Taoism still functions like any conventional religion, and not like an abstract philosophy of life.

There are Taoist temples, monasteries and priests, rituals and ceremonies, and a host of gods and goddesses for believers to worship. These are as vital to the survival of Taoism as individual understanding and practice.

The religious elements of Taoism draw much of their content from other Chinese religions (including many local cults), and so enfold a very wide range of culture and belief within the wings of the Tao.

The many traditions within the Taoist framework gives priests the tools to carry out the conventional tasks of any religion: worship, healing, exorcism, intercession, purification, divination and so on.

Most Taoist temple practices are designed to regulate the relationship between humanity and the world of gods and spirits, and to organise that relationship, and the relationships in the spirit world, in harmony with the Tao.

Taoism does not have a God in the way that the Abrahamic religions do. There is no omnipotent being beyond the cosmos, who created and controls the universe. In Taoism the universe springs from the Tao, and the Tao impersonally guides things on their way.  But the Tao itself is not God, nor is it a god, nor is it worshipped by Taoists.  The Tao cannot be described in words. Human language can only give hints that may help the mind to form an idea. The most important thing about the Tao is how it works in the world, and how human beings relate to it. Philosophical speculation about what the Tao actually is, is less important than living in sensitive response to the Tao.  The Tao includes several concepts in one word:

    the source of creation
    the ultimate
    the inexpressible and indefinable
    the unnameable
    the natural universe as a whole
    the way of nature as a whole


This may seem surprising as Taoists do use 'God-talk' to refer to the Tao: "The Venerable Lord, the Tao, was at rest in open mystery, beyond silent desolation, in mysterious emptiness... Say it/he is there and do not see a shape; say it/he is not there, yet all beings follow him for life."  And they conventionally revere Lao Tsu both as the first god of Taoism and as the personification of the Tao.

Nonetheless, Taoism has many gods, most of them borrowed from other cultures. These deities are within this universe and are themselves subject to the Tao.  Many of the deities are gods of a particular role, rather than a personal divine being and have titles rather than names.

Books often describe the Taoist pantheon as a heavenly bureaucracy that mimics the secular administrations of Imperial China. Some writers think that this is the wrong way round and that the secular administrations took their cue from the structure of the heavens. Since the Imperial administrations and the religious culture of the time were closely intertwined this would not be surprising.

The One is the essence of Tao, the essential energy of life, the possession of which enables things and beings to be truly themselves and in accord with the Tao.  Taoist texts sometimes refer to the Tao as the mother and the One as the son.

Wu and Yu are non-being and being, or not-having and having. Wu also implies inexhaustibility or limitlessness. Some writers suggest that Wu can be directly experienced by human beings.

Te is usually translated as virtue, but this translation uses some Confucian ideas and can be confusing.  Another way of looking at te is an awareness of the Tao together with the capabilities that enable a person to follow the Tao.  Professor Victor Mair suggests that a better translation is integrity. He writes: "There is something fundamentally honest and psychologically healthy in being oneself and striding forward with one's vision facing directly ahead, instead of trying at every turn to satisfy abstract standards of goodness established by a reigning orthodoxy. This is what te/de is all about."

Tzu Jan is usually translated naturalness or spontaneity, but this is rather misleading.  One writer suggests using the phrase 'that which is naturally so', meaning the condition that something will be in if it is permitted to exist and develop naturally and without interference or conflict.

The method of following the Tao is called Wu Wei. This can be translated as uncontrived action or natural non-intervention.  Wu Wei is sometimes translated as non-action, but this wrongly implies that nothing at all gets done. The Tao Te Ching says: "When nothing is done, nothing is left undone."  Wu Wei means living by or going along with the true nature of the world - or at least without obstructing the Tao - letting things take their natural course.  This doesn't stop a person living a proactive life but their activities should fit into the natural pattern of the universe, and therefore need to be completely detached and disinterested and not ego-driven.  "Perfect activity leaves no track behind it; perfect speech is like a jade worker whose tool leaves no mark."  This implies that Taoists take an attitude akin to Voltaire's (satirically intended) doctrine that "All is for the best in this best of all possible worlds."

Yin Yang is the principle of natural and complementary forces, patterns and things that depend on one another and do not make sense on their own.  These may be masculine and feminine, but they could be darkness and light (which is closer to the original meaning of the dark and light sides of a hill), wet and dry or action and inaction.  These are opposites that fit together seamlessly and work in perfect harmony.  The yin yang concept is not the same as Western dualism, because the two opposites are not at war, but in harmony.  This can be seen very clearly in the symbol: the dark area contains a spot of light, and vice versa, and the two opposites are intertwined and bound together within the unifying circle.  "Yin and yang are not static, the balance ebbs and flows between them - this is implied in the flowing curve where they meet."

Taoists view the body as a miniature of the universe, filled with the Tao. The parts of the body have their counterparts in physical features of the universe, and: "The body, as much as the larger universe, is ruled and lived in by the gods - the multifaceted manifestations of spirit, the visible and accessible aspect of the Tao on earth."

Ch'i or qi is the cosmic vital energy that enables beings to survive and links them to the universe as a whole.  Qi is the basic material of all that exists. It animates life and furnishes functional power of events. Qi is the root of the human body; its quality and movement determine human health. Qi can be discussed in terms of quantity, since having more means stronger metabolic function. This, however, does not mean that health is a byproduct of storing large quantities of qi. Rather, there is a normal or healthy amount of qi in every person, and health manifests in its balance and harmony, its moderation and smoothness of flow. This flow is envisioned in the texts as a complex system of waterways with the "Ocean of Qi" in the abdomen; rivers of qi flowing through the upper torso, arms, and legs; springs of qi reaching to the wrists and ankles; and wells of qi found in the fingers and toes. Even a small spot in this complex system can thus influence the whole, so that overall balance and smoothness are the general goal.  Human life is the accumulation of qi; death is its dispersal. After receiving a core potential of primordial qi at birth, people throughout life need to sustain it. They do so by drawing postnatal qi into the body from air and food, as well as from other people through sexual, emotional, and social interaction. But they also lose qi through breathing bad air, overburdening their bodies with food and drink, and getting involved in negative emotions and excessive sexual or social interactions.

Immortality doesn't mean living for ever in the present physical body.  The idea is that as the Taoist draws closer and closer to nature throughout their life, death is just the final step in achieving complete unity with the universe.  Spiritual immortality, the goal of Daoism, raises the practices to a yet higher level. To attain it, people have to transform all their qi into primordial qi and proceed to refine it to subtler levels. This finer qi will eventually turn into pure spirit, with which practitioners increasingly identify to become transcendent spirit-people. The path that leads there involves intensive meditation and trance training as well as more radical forms of diet and other longevity practices. Immortality implies the overcoming of the natural tendencies of the body and its transformation into a different kind of qi-constellation. The result is a bypassing of death, so that the end of the body has no impact on the continuation of the spirit-person. In addition, practitioners attain supersensory powers and eventually gain residence in wondrous otherworldly paradises.

Human knowledge is always partial and affected by the standpoint of the person claiming that knowledge. There can never be a single true knowledge, merely the aggregate of uncountable different viewpoints.  Because the universe is always changing, so knowledge is always changing.  The closest a human being can get to this is knowledge that is consistent with the Tao. But this is a trap because the Tao that can be known is not the Tao. True knowledge cannot be known - but perhaps it can be understood or lived.

Many Taoist ideas come from other Chinese schools of thought. It's not always easy to draw accurate distinctions between ideas that are fundamentally Taoist and those that Taoism took in from elsewhere, especially Buddhism.