This
article will avail you with important explanations on the nature of Taoism. It
elucidates the concept of The Tao and the meaning of immortality in Taoism. We shall helps you to make the distinction between knowledge and relativity.
The Nature of Taoism
<
p style=”line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;”>Taoism
is an ancient
tradition of philosophy and religious belief that is deeply rooted
in Chinese customs and worldview.
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. 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
- fortune
telling - reading
and chanting of scriptures
Before
the Communist revolution, 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.
What is the
Tao?
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 less important than living in
sensitive response to the Tao.
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 a being.
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.
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
Gods and
spirits
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.
Immortality
doesn’t mean living for ever in the present physical body. The idea is that the
Taoist draws closer and closer to nature throughout his or her life and 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 other worldly 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.
Religious Taoism
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.
Conclusion
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. 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.
En savoir plus sur Umuco Nyarwanda
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