Taoism

Taoism at a glance
Taoism is an ancient tradition of philosophy and religious belief that is deeply
rooted in Chinese customs and worldview.

Taoism is also referred to as Daoism, which is a more accurate way of

representing in English the sound of the Chinese word.

Taoism is about the Tao. This is usually translated as the Way. But it's hard to
say exactly what this means. The Tao is the ultimate creative principle of the
universe. All things are unified and connected in the Tao.

Taoism originated in China 2000 years ago

It is a religion of unity and opposites; Yin and Yang. The principle of Yin
Yang sees the world as filled with complementary forces - action and
non-action, light and dark, hot and cold, and so on
The Tao is not God and is not worshipped. Taoism includes many deities,
that are worshipped in Taoist temples, they are part of the universe and
depend, like everything, on the Tao
Taoism promotes:
achieving harmony or union with nature
the pursuit of spiritual immortality
being 'virtuous' (but not ostentatiously so)
self-development

 Taoist practices include:

Meditation
feng shui
fortune telling
reading and chanting of scriptures

Before the Communist revolution fifty years ago, Taoism was one of the
strongest religions in China. After a campaign to destroy non-Communist
religion, however, the numbers significantly reduced, and it has become
difficult to assess the statistical popularity of Taoism in the world.

The 2001 census recorded 3,500 Taoists in England and Wales.

What is the Tao ?

Relating to the Tao
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.
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 most useful words to stimulate an idea of the Tao are found in the Tao Te
Ching and Chuang Tzu:
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao;
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth;
The Named is the mother of all things.

......
There was something undifferentiated and yet complete,
Which existed before Heaven and Earth.
Soundless and formless it depends on nothing and does not change.
It operates everywhere and is free from danger.
It may be considered the mother of the universe.
I do not know its name; I call it Tao.
......
All things in the world come from being.
And being comes from non-being. (form comes from formlessness)?

The Way is to man as rivers and lakes are to fish,

the natural condition of life.

The Tao is not a thing

The Tao is not a thing or a substance in the conventional sense.
It cannot be perceived but it can be observed in the things of the world.
Although it gives rise to all being, it does not itself have being.
Although it's conventional to refer to The Tao, some writers think that the
"the" should be dropped because it isn't in the original Chinese term.
They feel that using 'the' gives Westerners the idea that the Tao is a
metaphysical reality, by which they mean a thing (in the widest sense) or an
absolute being like a god.
But even the name Tao can lead Westerners to think of Tao in the same way
that they think of objects.
That sort of thinking is misleading: Thinking of the Tao as some sort of object
produces an understanding of the Tao that is less than the reality.
It might be more helpful to regard Tao as a system of guidance. And if one
does this one can translate 'achieving union with the Tao' into 'developing

oneself so as to live in complete conformity with the teachings of the Tao'

which is easier to understand, and closer to the truth.

Glimpsed only through its effects

A good way of avoiding the Tao-as-object error is to see the various concepts
of the Tao as doing no more than describing those effects of the Tao that
human beings are aware of. They do not describe its reality.
The Tao is not God
The Tao is not God and is not worshipped. Taoism does include many deities,
but although these are worshipped in Taoist temples, they are part of the
universe and depend, like everything, on 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

Concepts Within Taoism

The One
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
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
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
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 Taoist ideal is to fulfil that which is naturally so, and the way to do this is
Wu Wei.
Wu Wei
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.
So Taoists live lives of balance and harmony. They find their way through life in
the same way that a river flowing through the countryside finds its natural
course.
The world is a spiritual vessel, and one cannot act upon it;
one who acts upon it destroys it.

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."
And certainly pure Taoism requires individuals to live on the basis that the
world is working properly, and that they therefore should not interfere with it.

Yin Yang
Yin Yang symbol
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.
You can see this by looking at the yin yang symbol.
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.

The Taoist body

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
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
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.

Knowledge and relativity

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.

Gods and Spirits

Taoist pantheon
Westerners who study Taoism are sometimes surprised to discover that
Taoists venerate gods, as there doesn't seem to be a place for deities in Taoist
thinking.
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.
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.

Religious and Philosophical Taoism

Religious and philosophical Taoism
The word Taoism is used to refer to both a philosophy and a set of spiritual
doctrines as well as an extensive ritual hierarchy and monastic institution.
Although textbooks often distinguish between 'religious' and 'philosophical'
Taoism, this is an artificial distinction, and is no more than the difference found
in all religions between the practices of the faith, and the theological and
philosophical ideas behind them.
Chinese and Western Taoist philosophy
A more useful distinction might be between Chinese Taoism and Westernised
Taoism because some forms of Westernised Taoist philosophy add unauthentic
new age and other faith elements to Taoism, while removing much of its
religious content; and few Western 'Taoists' include Taoist gods and
goddesses, liturgy, worship, or specifically religious meditative practices in
their religious life.

Religious Taoism
Taoism in the West today is not at all like Chinese Taoist religion. Very few
Westerners have adopted its gods and goddesses, although there are a few
organizations... that have installed altars in their centres, worship Taoist gods,
and celebrate Taoist (and Buddhist) festival days.

Taoism is often taught in the West as an atheist or agnostic philosophy, but in

China and Taiwan particularly, 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.
Taoism's rich palette of liturgy and ritual makes the Tao more real to human
beings and provides a way in which humanity can align itself more closely to
the Tao to produce better lives for all.
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.

Religious Taoism traditions

Two traditions

Religious Taoism follows two main traditions. Each has a clear hierarchical and
well-organised structure with special headquarters, rules, guidelines,
ordination rites and registration procedures.
The celestial masters (Tianshi or Zhengyi) - Temple Daoism are centred in
Taiwan. The monastic branch of the Complete Perfection School (Quanzhen)
has its headquarters in Beijing.
The Complete Perfection School ordains people and provides monastic
communities as a focus for Taoist practice and rituals.
A simple, ascetic lifestyle is the norm in Daoist monasteries. They are ruled by
a strict hierarchy, with the abbot at the head, the prior as the key manager of
personnel (assisted by an overseer and several scribes), the provost as main
administrator (assisted by a superintendent, treasurer, cellarer, as well as
several vergers and cooks), and the meditation master in charge of spiritual
practice (assisted by an ordination master, manager of offerings, and several
overseers).
The time schedule is very rigid: a typical day begins at 3:00 A.M. and ends at
9:00 P.M. It consists of several periods of seated meditation, worship, meals,
and work, including- musch as in Chan Buddhism-work in the gardens and the
fields. Everybody is kept busy at all times, and all movements throughout the
day are exactly prescribed and have to be executed with utmost control.
Usually meditation, sleep periods, and meals are times of complete silence,
and even at other times words are to be used with care and circumspection.
Daoists, moreover, observe the natural cycles of the seasons and often eschew
the use of artificial lights, so that their winter days are a great deal shorter
than those in summer, allowing for more extensive rest in the darker phases of
the year.

Taoist priests
Taoist priests undergo long and intense training to acquire the necessary skills.
They must study music, liturgy and ritual, as well as meditation and other

physical practices; and they must learn Taoist theology and the spiritual
hierarchy of the Taoist deities. During this training they are required to live
highly disciplined lives.

Shamanism
Taoist experts believe that they can journey in spirit to higher realms of being in much the same way that Shamans can journey out of the body.
The Taoist traveller makes such journeys through ritual, meditation, and
visualisation which separate them from this world and harmonise them with
the energy flows of the universe. The journeys gradually move them closer and
closer to the Tao itself.

Ethics
Taoist ethics - theory and practice
Theory
The common view of Daoism is that it encourages people to live with
detachment and calm, resting in non-action and smiling at the vicissitudes of
the world.
Contrary to this common view, Daoists through the ages have developed
various forms of community and proposed numerous sets of behavioral
guidelines and texts on ethical considerations. Beyond the ancient
philosophers, who are well-known for the moral dimension of their teachings,
religious Daoist rules cover both ethics, i.e., the personal values of the
individual, and morality, i.e., the communal norms and social values of the
organisation. They range from basic moral rules against killing, stealing, lying,
and sexual misconduct through suggestions for altruistic thinking and models
of social interaction to behavioral details on how to bow, eat, and wash, as
well as to the unfolding of universal ethics that teach people to think like the
Dao itself.

About eighty texts in the Daoist canon and its supplements describe such
guidelines and present the ethical and communal principles of the Daoist
religion. They document just to what degree Daoist realization is based on how
one lives one's life in interaction with the community-family, religious group,
monastery, state, and cosmos. Ethics and morality, as well as the creation of
community, emerge as central in the Daoist religion.

Taoist ethics are concerned less with doing good acts than becoming a good
person who lives in harmony with all things and people.
Taoist ethics are inseparable from Taoist spirituality - both contain the same
ideas.
If a Taoist wants to live well they should take all their decisions in the context
of the Tao, trying to see what will fit best with the natural order of things.
Taoists thus always do what is required by events and their context, but they
only do what is required, no more.
But what is required may be a lot less than modern Westerners think:
From the perspective of classical Taoism, Western humanism makes the
mistake of assuming that the ability to intervene in life's events translates into
a moral duty to do so.
The constant and unmistakable teaching of the Tao Te Ching is that humans
are indeed capable of intervening in life's events, but the evidence of life,
which humans constantly ignore, is that such intervention is destructive to all
involved, and that we therefore have a moral duty to refrain from taking such
actions.

So, in theory at least, Taoists tend not to initiate action - but wait for events to
make action necessary - and avoid letting their own desires and compulsions
push them into doing things.

Practice
In practice Taoism recommends the same sorts of moral behaviour to its
followers as other religions.
It disapproves of killing, stealing, lying and promiscuity, and promotes
altruistic, helpful and kindly behaviour.
Taoists believe such good behaviour is an essential part not only of selfimprovement but of improving the world as a whole.
Cultivate the Tao within oneself; and one's virtue will be perfected.
Cultivate it within the household, and one's virtue will be abundant.
Cultivate it within the neighbourhood, and one's virtue will be enduring.
Cultivate it within the nation, and one's virtue will be overflowing.
Cultivate it within the entire world, and one's virtue will be universal.

Personal and community ethics

The Taoist ideal is for a person to take action by changing themselves, and thus
becoming an example of the good life to others.
They should develop themselves so that they live their life in complete
harmony with the universe. So the philosophy is not do good things; but
become a good person.
Changing oneself in that way will make the world a better place, because as a
person behaves well towards other people and the world, the community will
respond by becoming better itself.
In the Tao Te Ching, the Taoist life is one in which one achieves self-fulfilment
as one is selflessly benefiting the lives of others.

Women
Taoism is a gender-neutral religion. This is implied by the concept of Yin Yang
which teaches that masculine and feminine are complementary, inseparable
and equal.
The Tao Te Ching uses female images such as the mother of the universe and
the mother of all things when describing the Tao.
Taoism has always accepted that women have an equal part to play in spiritual
life. Women took priestly roles from the earliest days of organised Taoist
religion and Taoist legend has many tales of female deities.
Taoism emphasises characteristics that are usually thought of as feminine such
as softness and yielding, modesty and non-aggression. It teaches that the weak
will overcome the strong.

Politics
Taoist texts suggest that the ideal way for a leader to run their country is by
example and with minimal intervention:
I take no action and the people are of themselves transformed.
I love tranquillity and the people are of themselves rectified.
I do not engage in affairs and the people of themselves become rich.
I have no desires and the people of themselves become simple.

So a good leader is one that the people respect and whose instructions are
willingly followed. The good leader achieves this by living virtuously in private,
and living publicly so as to influence his people for the good.

Human nature
Taoism requires human beings to be humble and recognise that not only are
they not obliged to make the world a better place, they are actually so ignorant

of what is really happening that they are likely to make things worse if they do
take action.
A fuller treatment of Taoist ethics can be found in Responsible non-action in a
natural world, by Russell Kirkland.

Anarchism
Taoism was adopted by the Hippy movement of the 1960s as teaching an
alternative way of life that promoted the freedom and autonomy of the
individual over the constraints of society and government.
Taoism does not teach this.

History
Origins
Taoism has no founder and no founding date. It grew out of various religious
and philosophical traditions in ancient China, including shamanism and nature
religion.
Livia Kohn states that:
Taoism as a religion began in the year 142 C.E. with the revelation of the Tao to
Zhang Daoling or Chang Tao-ling by the personified god of the Tao, Taishang
laojun (Lao Tzu), the Highest Venerable Lord.

Zhang Daoling became the first Celestial Master and founder of the first
organized Taoist school of thought. This tradition continues to the present day,
with the current Celestial Master living in Taiwan.
Early religious Taoism was rooted in the ideas of the Taoist thinkers, to which
were added local religious rituals and beliefs, both to provide examples of

Taoist philosophy, and integrate Taoism into the existing world views of all
levels of the Chinese people.
Taoism was first recognised as a religious system during the 4th and 3rd
centuries BCE. The publication of the Tao Te Ching and other works provided a
focus for Taoist thinking.
Taoism became a semi-official Chinese religion during the Tang dynasty and
continued during the Song dynasty. As Confucianism gained popularity Taoism
gradually fell from favour, and changed from an official religion to a popular
religious tradition.
After the communist takeover of China, Taoism was banned and its followers
re-educated, with the result that the number of practicing Taoists fell by 99%
in 10 years.
At this time Taoism began to flourish in the greater freedom on offer in
Taiwan.
After the end of the Cultural Revolution the Chinese government began to
allow a small measure of religious freedom. Taoism began to revive in China,
and Taoist temples and practitioners can now be found throughout the
country.

People
Lao Tzo - one man or many?
Lao Tzu (Laozi) is traditionally described as the founder of Taoism, but modern
writers think he is a legendary figure, and that the book attributed to him - the
Tao Te Ching - is actually a collection of writings by many different wise people.
In that way it's like the Biblical Book of Proverbs.
The term Lao Tzu may not be the name of a person, but a reference to 'the old
master', meaning the accumulated wisdom of the elders, the wise old men and
women of the culture in which Taoism originated.

However, at the time the Tao Te Ching was written down there may have been
sound political reasons to give it the prestige of being a philosophical treatise
by a master philosopher, one who could give lessons to Confucius (as he
appears to do at points in the text.)
Over the centuries the legend of Lao Tzu developed. The first biography
appeared around the 1st century BCE. Later mythological developments cast
Lao Tzu in three roles - the original pure manifestation of the Tao as a God, the
human philosopher who wrote the Tao Te Ching, and the Buddha.
To suggest that Lao Tzu had no historical existence doesn't disparage him, or
Taoism, in any way. Myths have great power and value, and things can be true
without having ever actually happened.

Chuang Tzu
The other main figure of Taoism is Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi), 3rd century BCE.
Chuang Tzu has a book attributed to him, called the Chuang-Tzu after the
practice of referring to Chinese texts by the names of their authors.

Practices
Alchemy
Internal and external alchemy
Taoist physical practices, such as breath exercises, massage, martial arts, yoga
and meditation are designed to transform a person both mentally and
physically and so bring them into closer harmony with the Tao.
The writer Norman Girardot puts it like this:

the whole thrust of Taoism has always been in terms of healing methods that
seek to re-establish the original balanced wholeness of human nature and
society.

Many of these practices are called internal alchemy (nei-dun) by Taoists.

Taoists also practice external alchemy (wai-dan), which involves diet and the
use of minerals and herbs to promote long life.

Why call it alchemy?

Alchemists are people who want to transform things into something more
valuable, such as converting lead into gold.
Taoist alchemy is concerned with transforming human beings so as to give
them longer life and bring them closer to the Tao.
The first alchemists were seeking an elixir which could be used to turn cheap
metal into gold. They worked in laboratories, grinding, mixing and heating
various substances together in search of the magical compound.
Other alchemists went in search of a different sort of elixir; a pill, potion or
practice that would make human beings immortal.
Creating this elixir also involved various combinations of ingredients and
particular methods of heating, grinding and mixing, together with other rituals.
This became known as wai-dan (external alchemy) presumably because it
involved adding something to the body from outside.
It was both a literal idea, since some people must have hoped to live for ever,
and a metaphorical one in which the spirit was steadily purified and came
closer to unity with the Tao.
Interior alchemy, which didn't involve external physical compounds, probably
developed slightly later. For a long time both were practiced together (rather
in the same way that some modern patients will use both drugs and
meditation to deal with sickness).

Interior alchemy also seeks to achieve longer life, purity and closeness to the
Tao, but the practitioner works on themselves without the use of chemicals to
transform the elements within their body into purer forms that will promote
the energy of life.
The texts retain the alchemical link by using the language of making an elixir
and of chemical transformation to describe internal spiritual development.

Body and spirit

A true understanding of Taoist practice can only be obtained by studying with a
Taoist master because many of the liturgical and practical elements of Taoism
are taught through an oral tradition and not fully documented.
Taoism doesn't make a rigid division between body and spirit and regards
physical activities, such as yoga, meditation and martial arts, as an important
way to spiritual growth and a long life.
Taoist practice [seeks] to develop the body back toward the level of primordial
energy, to the state at the beginning of creation. The body, no longer a mere
means to live harmoniously in the world, becomes a universe in itself.

Physical practices
Because Taoism doesn't make a rigid division between body and spirit, it
recognises that physical actions have a spiritual effect.

Purity
Taoist texts teach the importance of keeping the body pure in order to ensure
spiritual health. To remain pure a person should avoid certain activities and
foods. Greed, lust, pride and dishonesty are examples of things that should be
avoided.

Meditation
Meditation is important to many Taoists. Complex meditation rituals are
practiced in various temples.
A vital use of meditation is to create mental stillness and enhance mindfulness.
This can give a person the mental space to know the Tao directly.

Breathing
Man practising tai chi
Breath is the most easily perceived form of ch'i, and there are many Taoist
breathing exercises. Taoist breathing exercises are called Qui Gong(qigong).

Energy flow
The flow of life energy - ch'i - within the body can be enhanced, regulated and
harmonised by various forms of exercise, meditation, and techniques such as
acupuncture and moxibustion.

Martial arts
Tai Chi (taiji) originally derived from Taoist exercises created by Chang SanFeng (Zhang Sanfeng) (1127-1279 CE). Modern forms of Tai Chi are more likely
to be secular exercises than Taoist practices.

Diet
Classical Taoist teaching recommends abstaining from alcohol, meat, beans
and grains.

Recitation
Reciting passages from the Tao Te Ching has been a spiritual practice for over
2000 years. For people who couldn't read and write it was an important way to
learn the text, but even for those who could read, recitation was a vital
expression of devotion and a way of spiritual growth.
As Taoism became more religious, various groups taught that recitation could
do more than make the reciter a better person: the words of the Tao Te Ching
were thought to have the power to cure sickness, banish evil spirits, and bring
good luck.
For the Celestial Masters group, the Tao Te Ching was a liturgical tool as well as
a source of philosophical wisdom.
Many other Taoist groups gave the Tao Te Ching a central place in the liturgy
and chanted it ritually in the belief that doing so under the right conditions
would prolong life and bring human beings closer to complete unity with
the Tao.

Conservation of sexual energy

Classical Taoist sexual techniques are designed to increase a person's sexual
energy and to retain it. This is because sexual energy is life-enhancing.
Taoist texts recommend that men should conserve their sexual energy by not
ejaculating during sexual activity, as this involves losing sexual energy. A similar
practice is recommended for women by some writers, although other texts
teach that the female orgasm does not involve losing sexual energy but in
some way increases it for both the woman and her partner, and that there is
therefore no reason for women to avoid it.
This second philosophy leads the texts to recommend that men should have
many sexual partners in order to gain access to the female release of beneficial
sexual energy.
To Western eyes there may be a contradiction between the basic Taoist
philosophy of not interfering in the natural course of events, and the highly

interventionist sexual strategy recommended by Taoism. To Western eyes

there may also be a rather distasteful favouring of the sexual experience of
men against that of women, although it can be argued that the prolonging of
intercourse by delaying male orgasm may in fact benefit women.
Taoist teachings on sex are clearly intended for adepts rather than ordinary
people - if ordinary people practiced this level of sexual control all the time,
then Taoism would cease to exist in a few generations.

Talismans
Talismans are objects thought to have the power to bring good luck. They can
also be used to remove or keep away evil spirits.
In Taoist tradition talismans are strips of paper on which are written words of
power and religious symbols which focus benevolent spiritual energies to
purify, heal the sick and drive away demons.
Talismans can only be written (the word normally used is drawn) by highly
qualified people, who have undergone long training and who are in a state of
purity.

Rites
Rites and Rituals Of Taoism
Order and harmony
At the heart of Taoist ritual is the concept of bringing order and harmony to
many layers of the cosmos: the cosmos as a whole (the world of nature), the
world or human society, and the inner world of human individuals.
Taoist rituals involve purification, meditation and offerings to deities. The
details of Taoist rituals are often highly complex and technical and therefore
left to the priests, with the congregation playing little part. The rituals involve

the priest (and assistants) in chanting and playing instruments (particularly

wind and percussion), and also dancing.
One major Taoist ritual is the chiao (jiao), a rite of cosmic renewal, which is
itself made up of several rituals.
A shortened version of the chiao is a ritual in which each household in a village
brings an offering for the local deities. In the ceremony a Taoist priest
dedicates the offerings in the names of the families, performs a ritual to
restore order to the universe, and asks the gods to bring peace and prosperity
to the village.

Temple rituals
Temple rituals can be used to regulate ch'i and balance the flow of yin and
yang both for individuals and the wider community.
Other rituals involve prayers to various Taoist deities, meditations
on talismans, and reciting and chanting prayers and texts.

Subdivisions of Taoism
Modern Taoism falls into main categories: 'Southern' Taoism, popular in
Taiwan and South China and 'Northern' Taoism, a tradition largely unknown to
Westerners but widely practised among modern Taoists in mainland China.

Southern Taoism
Southern Taoism is an offshoot of Cheng-i Taoism, the only liturgical tradition
surviving today. The modern Cheng-i tradition dates back to the 11th century.
Its priests still perform liturgies like the chiao, believed to harmonise the local
community with the cosmos. They also perform healing rituals and exorcisms
in public. But these activities are frowned upon by 'Northern' Taoists.

Northern Taoism
The outside world knew little about the existence of Northern Taoism until the
1980s because few foreigners were allowed to enter mainland China under
conditions that allowed them to experience the country's religious culture. For
a time there was also a question mark over whether Taoism had survived the
crackdown on all religions in China from 1966 to 1976.
Northern Taoism grew out of the Ch'an-chen tradition. It was founded in the
12th century by Wang Chu'ung-yang. It emphasises moral and spiritual
discipline and also continues self-preservation practices that date back to the
classical Nei-yeh. Its headquarters are at White Cloud Abbey in Beijing.

Other groups
There are other Taoist groups but none of them is believed to exist in its
original form. Some of them are listed below:

Chin tan (Golden Elixir) Taoism - a tradition strong on meditation or

'Inner Alchemy'. Much of this practice was absorbed into the Ch'an
chen tradition.

Ch'ing wei (Clarified Tenuity) Taoism - A complex of ritual traditions that

trace back to a young woman, Tsu Shu.

T'ien hsin (Heart of Heaven) Taoism - A tradition of ritual healing based

upon scriptures discovered in the early Sung period by a retired official,
Jao Tung-t'ien.

Shen hsiao (Divine Empyrean) Taoism - A liturgical tradition established

by Lin Ling-su at the court of the Sung emperor Hui tsung (early 12th
century).

T'ung-ch'u (Youthful Incipience) Taoism - An obscure tradition of

therapeutic rituals founded by a young man in 1121, claiming continuity
with the Shang-ch'ing tradition.

T'ai i (Supreme Union) Taoism - Founded by Hsiao Pao chen in the 12th
century, it stressed ritual healing and social responsibility.

Chen ta (Perfected Greatness) or Ta-tao (Great Way) Taoism - Founded

by Liu Te-jen in the 12th- century. It combined the basic moral teachings
of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism and was patronized by the Chin
government.

Information in this section was provided by Russell Kirkland.

Taoist groups
Schools and Sects
Taoism is not a centrally organised and structured religion, but consists of
many schools or sects that follow a common theme.
Because there have been so many different Taoist groups, no particular
doctrine should be regarded as unarguably 'orthodox Taoism'.
Taoism has never been a unified religion, and has constantly consisted of a
combination of teachings based on a variety of original revelations.

Within the Daoist tradition, one can distinguish three types of organization and
practice: literati, communal, and self-cultivation.

Literati Daoists
Literati Daoists are members of the educated elite who focus on Daoist ideas
as expressed by the ancient thinkers, commonly known as daojia or "Daoist
school" after an early bibliographical classification.
They use these concepts to create meaning in their world and hope to exert
some influence on the political and social situation of their time, contributing
to greater universal harmony, known as the state of Great Peace (taiping).
The lineage and legitimation of such literati Daoists comes from the devotion
and dedication to the classical texts, which they interpret in commentaries and
essays, and whose metaphors they employ in stories and poetry.

They may live a life of leisure or be active in society as local officials, poets and
writers, or teachers at academies, but in all cases their self-identity derives
from ideas centered on Dao.
Literati Daoists have been part of the tradition since its inception, and the
ancient thinkers Laozi and Zhuangzi may well be considered their first example.
But they also appear among commentators to the texts, patriarchs of religious
schools, thinkers of Confucian or Buddhist background, and academics today.

Communal Daoists
Communal Daoists, too, are found in many different positions and come from
all levels of society.
They are members of organized Daoist groups that follow daojiao or the
'Daoist teaching'.
They have priestly hierarchies, formal initiations, regular rituals, and prayers to
the gods.
Some communal Daoists organisations are tightly controlled fraternities with
secret rites and limited contact to the outside world.
Others are part of ordinary society, centred on neighbourhood temples and
concerned with the affairs of ordinary life-weddings and funerals, protection
and exorcism.
Their expression tends to be in liturgies, prayer hymns, and moral rules.
Historically, they have been documented from the second century C.E. onward
and shown a high degree of continuity over the millennia.
While specific rites and organizational patterns changed, there is a distinct line
from the early millenarian movements to the Celestial Masters today, and one
can see a clear link between the ritual of medieval China and contemporary
liturgies, both lay and monastic.

Yangsheng
The third group of Daoists focus on self-cultivation and are known as
practitioners of yangsheng or "nurturing life." They, too, come from all walks of
life, but rather than communal rites, their main concern is the attainment of
personal health, longevity, peace of mind, and spiritual immortality-either in
mystical oneness with Dao or through visions of and interaction with the gods.
They tend to pay little attention to political involvement, and their organisation
depends strongly on the master-disciple relationship.
Their groups can be small and esoteric, with only a few active followers (as
certain Taiji lineages), large and extensive with leanings toward organized
religion (as the contemporary Falun dafa), or vague and diffuse with numerous
people practicing a variety of different techniques (as in modern Qigong).
Again, historical continuity is strong. The earliest examples of self-cultivation
groups are found before the Common Era, tentatively among the followers of
Laozi and Zhuangzi and quite evidently among the magical-practitioners and
their lineages.
These groups, moreover, gave rise to religious schools, beginning with a few
dedicated immortality seekers and growing into leading Daoist organizations.
Interconnected from the beginning, these three types of Daoism-literati,
communal, and self-cultivation-although distinct in their abstract description,
are not mutually exclusive in practice.
On the contrary, as contemporary practitioners often emphasize, to be a
complete Daoist one must follow all three paths: studying worldview and being
socially responsible, performing rituals and praying to the gods, and
undertaking self-cultivation for health and spiritual advancement.

Text
Key Books in Taoism
Tao Te Ching
The key book of Taoism was compiled around the 3rd century BCE. It's called
the Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing or Daode Jing) - The Way and Its Power, and is
also known as the Lao-tzu.
This short book of around 5,000 Chinese characters is divided into 81 brief
chapters filled with short, enigmatic paragraphs of advice on life, and poetic
descriptions of the nature of the universe.
Taoists regard the Tao Te Ching as the essential guide to living a full spiritual
and ethical life.
No one person wrote the Tao Te Ching. Although elementary textbooks usually
say it was written by Lao Tzu (Laozi) this is untrue. The book is probably a
collection of the proverbs and sayings of many anonymous people over a long
period of time.
The earliest Western version of the Tao Te Ching was a Latin translation made
by the Jesuits in the late 18th century.

Chuang-tzu
Another important book is the Chuang-tzu. Although this was published after
the Tao Te Ching, its compilation began earlier. Like the Tao Te Ching, although
it is attributed to a man named Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi), it is a collection of the
wisdom of many different people.
The thinking that led to the Tao Te Ching was probably influenced by an older
book called the Nei yeh. This includes early writings on some key Taoist ideas,
particularly ch'i, although some of the ideas differ from their later Taoist form.

Quick Fact Details:

Formed: As with many ancient religious traditions, an exact date is

impossible to determine. Taoist ideas and early writings long precede
any organizational structure. The date given here (c. 550 B.C.E.) is
generally the time period when a variety of spiritual thinkers were
putting their ideas into writing. These writings were not collected as a
composite teaching of the "Tao" until the 4th or 3rd century B.C.E.

Deity: While Taoists recognize a vast pantheon of gods and goddesses,

they do not acknowledge any that are omnipotent or eternal. All the
gods, including Laozi, are divine emanations of celestial energy.

Headquarters: Taoism has no centralized authority and different sects

have different headquarters. However, the White Cloud Temple in
Beijing is a key center for training for priests and for administration.