I've been doing a crap ton of research on BBC and other news sites about some more general parts of Taoism. Over the next few days I will make a quick post addressing Taoist approach to more social and cultural aspects of life, among them practice, theory, personal and community ethics, women, politics, human nature, and anarchism.
For today, here are a few basic points on how to "practice" Taoism. It is, as I've already said, important to note that Taoists have no church or community. It is an individual and communal way of life all at once, but it is mostly about the way one perceives the world. Taoism recommends the same sort of moral behavior that most other religions express, disapproving of killing, stealing, lying, etc and promoting helpful and kindly behavior. By practicing good behavior, one is practicing Taoism. It is an essential part of not only self-improvement, but it is also an essential part of improving the world as a whole. To reference the Tao Te Ching (54): "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 neighborhood, 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."
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Have been having issues where all of my content is deleted when I publish my post.
![]() Here are some notes I took on "The Real Self," a short lecture by Alan Watts. My notes are slightly incoherent, but the video provides amazing insight and focuses on the balances of life at a greater level: the universe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUJtdqa1i68 (the added music is cheesy) NOTES: THE REAL SELF The Real Self we don’t need to remember anything….just as we do not need to know how to work our thyroid glands When you die, you are not going to have to put up with everlasting nonexistence because that is not an experience! (black and white, balance) Try and imagine what it would be like to go to sleep and never wake up (death)…...if you think long enough, you find out that it will pose another question: what was it like to wake up after never having gone to sleep? (birth) You can’t have an experience of nothing! You can’t have any one thing without the other! We all know that after people die, other people are born….and they’re all you! Only you can only experience it one at a time….everybody is “I” You are all of them You know that very well….only, you don’t have to remember the past, just as you don’t have to remember how to work your thyroid gland You don’t know how to shine the sun, you just do it...like you breath….you are all! this fantastically complex thing, and you’re doing all this and you never were told how to do it, you never learned, but you’re this miracle? CONTINUOUS ENERGy and if “I am my foot, I am the sun” but we have this view that I am only something IN this body...the ego… ego = focus of conscious attention……..scan environment….. if you identify yourself with your ego, you will be in perpetual anxiety when we cease to identify with the ego and come to realize how harmonious we are, you realize we are miracles….so what is discord in one level of your being is harmony at another higher level……..the discords in our life...for a greater level of harmony: the UNIVERSE higher level of the universe = healthy and harmonious everything that you are and do is, at that level, as magnificent and as free of any blemish as the patterns in waves, in the markings of marble And that this world is really okay….it can’t be anything else or else it wouldn't exist It is all process, it isn’t “stuff” Life is pattern…….a dance of energy everything is standing right out in the open, it just a course of how you look at it When you realize this, you find extraordinary things……..what you do is what the whole universe is doing……...you are something the whole universe is doing THE REAL YOU IS NOT A PUPPEt…...The real, deep down you…..is the whole universe “Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of them.”
Below I've copied a link to a pretty comprehensive list comparing Taoism and Confucianism. Although I don't plan on going in depth with Confucianism, I think it's important to note how both ways of life compliment each other. In a way, Tao and Confucius are like the yin and the yang, and I think one can learn a lot just looking at those compliments. Confucianism deals with social matters, while Taoism concerns itself with the search for meaning. They share common beliefs about man, society, and the universe, although these notions were around long before either philosophy. Both began as philosophies, each later taking on religious overtones.
"Legend states that Confucius and Lao-tzu did in fact meet to discuss the Imperial Archives. Lao-tzu was unimpressed by the beautiful robes worn by Confucius, and did not agree with looking back on the past. 'Put away your polite airs and your vain display of fine robes. The wise man does not display his treasures to those he does not know. And he cannot learn justice from the Ancients.'" Both Taoism and Confucianism have served as guides though, and it's important to note Confucianism when talking about Taoism because they complimented each other in history. After all, China's history is one of the longest continuing stories on the planet, and that's pretty cool. http://www.diffen.com/difference/Confucianism_vs_Taoism |