Taoism
Ancient Traditions
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Lord-on-High
Ruler of the universe
Supreme ancestor of the Chinese
Deities governing aspects of the cosmos and
the local environment are subordinate to him
• Conceived as Masculine
• Closely involved in human affairs
• But not a Creator God
Lao Tzo: (604-500’s BC)
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Founder of Taoism
“Old Philosopher”
“Old Master”
Older contemporary of Confucius
Key Writing:
• “Tao Te Ching”: “The Classic of the Way and
its Power”
Tao (Dao)
• The Way
• The first principle of all things
• The source of all thing coming into existence
• Ineffable
– it cannot be defined
From the Tao Te Ching
• “The Tao that can be spoken of, is not the
everlasting Tao”
• “The name that can be named is not the
everlasting name”
• there is no personal creator God
• The Tao in a impersonal force
• All things are an expression of the Tao
Te (De)
• Principle of spontaneity
• Natural expression of the Tao
• Actualization of Tao in specific things
Wu-Wei
• Not Non-action, but natural action
• Allowing the natural course of things to
unfold
• Letting go
• Yielding to the natural flow
• Opposed to any aggression
• Waterfall / River examples
• “The Way of heaven helps and does not
harm. The Way for humans is to act without
contention.”
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• “Tao invariably takes no action, and yet there
is nothing left undone.”
• "The tao of heaven does not strive, and yet it
overcomes. It does not speak, and yet it is
answered....The world is ruled by non-action,
not by action.“
• “The sage never strives for the great, and
thereby the great is achieved.”
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• “Do non-doing, strive for non-striving, savor
the flavorless, regard the small as important,
make much of little, repay enmity with
virtue.”
• Each person must follow their “te” natural
Power thru Wu-Wei
Yin / Yang
• http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-hiddenmeanings-of-yin-and-yang-john-bellaimey
• Opposites that compliment each other
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Light + Dark
Hard + Soft
Male + Female
Has always been this way
No beginning, no end
Ch’i
• impersonal self-generating energy of the
universe
• Each person must nurture the Ch'i (air,
breath) that has been given to them.
• Taoists strongly promote health and vitality.
• Traditional Chinese medicine teaches that
illness is caused by blockages or lack of
balance in the body's "chi" (intrinsic energy).
• Tai Chi is believed to balance this energy
flow.
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• Ch’i energy travels throughout the body
along channels, or “meridians”.
Acupuncture
• The method of selecting points along for
acupuncture anesthesiology:
• "where a meridian traverses, there is a place
amenable to treatment.”
Immortality
• At certain points in Taoism’s History, the
quest for Immortality took the form of much
experimentation of this sort.
• The results were sometimes less than ideal and death by poisoning not an altogether
uncommon outcome.
Key Writing:
• “I Ching” – “Book of Changes”
– Divination
– Mysticism
• One of the most ancient books in existence
– some of it is 3000 years old.
• It is not about religious beliefs, nor about
fortune telling, or simple tribal beliefs.
• Rather it is a profound study of change as it
occurs in human life and the universe as
understood by Chinese thinkers.
• Within the great Chaos or the Unexpected
that is a basic fact of life and the universe,
there also exists Order.
• The interaction between these two great
processes brings about patterns and cycles.
• These patterns we call “Change.”
• The I Ching presents skilful ways of riding
these currents, and surfing the waves of such
changes
• The I Ching does this by giving responses to
simple questions that help us to clarify our
decisions and calm ourn emotions in meeting
our life situations or making important
decisions.
I Chang Reading
• http://www.psychicrevelation.com/reference/i_l/i_ching/i_ching_
interpretation.html
• http://www.psychicrevelation.com/reference/i_l/i_ching/i_ching_
consulting.html