Terms and Concepts of Taoism
Introduction to Terms and Concepts of Taoism: The origins of Taoism are explained in the book, The Taoist Vision (William McNaughton, 1-5): of the main Chinese religions, Buddhism originated in India but Confucianism and Taoism were both from China originally. Taoism, McNaughton explains, is the philosophy "of the Tao," or "Lao-Chuang philosophy." It's called Lao-Chuang because the two most important philosophers in the Tao faith were Chuang Tzu (from the fourth century B.C.) and Lao Tzu (from the sixth century B.C.). Hence, Lao-Chuang.A few of the basic concepts of Taoism (also known as Daoism), which are not always easy to understand, and need careful, thoughtful examination, are found in McNaughton's book, and presented as follows: a) "Tao" means that knowing you don't know is a superior realization (10) (the sage "takes his flaws to be flaws, and that's how he lacks flaws"); b) "darkness of the Tao" ["Hsuan"] is that something was produced before heaven and earth called "Tao"; man's rule "is earth," earth's rule "is heaven," and heaven's rule "is Tao"); c) water is "the highest good" and "approaches the Tao"); d) nothing under heaven can govern "the uncarved block"; e) the "emptiness of the Tao" (Hsu) means the space between
The metaphor is interesting: "Continually becoming empty, continually being fulfilled, continually becoming humble, continually being elevated, so that one is empty yet full, full yet empty, low yet high, high yet low..." And from that empty-full, full-empty condition, "one attains a state in which above and below are in communion, emptiness and fulfillment correspond." While on the subject of misunderstandings of Taoism, which was brought to light by Kirkland, it is worth noting that in many Taoist texts there is mention of the importance of avoiding "grains," according to the book, Asceticism in Early Taoist Religion (Eskildsen, 43). That early Taoist emphasis on avoiding "grains" has led "many modern scholars" to assume that somehow Taoists had a particular taboo against consuming the "five grains" (rice, glutinous millet, panicled millet, wheat, and soybeans). On the other hand, Chen explains that the Taoist conception of an individual's authenticity is focused on "being true and being original" (25). To "lose" one's self in the "dao" is to become truly within the Taoist belief system. The Confucian "authentic person," Chen describes, is "heroic" and "engages intensely with the society and with others." The Taoist "true person," on the other hand, is "non-heroic," and "engages with the world in a detached manner." The Confucian authentic person is constantly cultivating his or her own self in terms of "moral character, substance, and subjectivity"; as for the Taoist "true person," he or she doesn't self-cultivate, but rather, "follows the course of nature; liberates the self from the social self." As to the concepts of "truth and virtue," on page 29 Chen describes a notion from the Taoist philosophy that explains very well how the strategy works: "The person of perfect virtue is not conscious of his virtue, and in this way he truly has virtue" (from the Dao De Jing).
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2847
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
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