Taoism
The Way to Do is to Be
Tao = Way
 The way the universe works.
 The way of nature.
 The Tao is inexpressible.
Lao Tzu
 AKA Lao-tse, Lao-chun, “Old Master”
 Legendary founder of Taoism
 B. 604 BCE
 Author of Tao te Ching
Legends about Lao Tzu
 Born 604 BCE following 82 years of
gestation.
 One of Confucius’s teachers
 In old age travelled West, was stopped
at the border.
Religious v. Philosophical
 Tao-chiao = religious Taoism
 Tao-chia = philosophical Taoism
 They may be practiced separately or
together.
 Eastman deals mainly with Tao-chia
 In Tao-chiao, Lao-Tzu (as Lao-chun) is
the primary deity.
Taoism v. Confucianism
 Confucian asks “What should I do?”
 Transform society first.
 Transformation of individuals will follow.
 Taoist asks “What kind of person should
I be?”
 Transform individuals first.
 Transformation of society will follow.
The Eternal
 All nature is united in tao
 Immortality CANNOT be achieved by
liberating the soul/spirit from nature.
 Immortality IS achieved by becoming one
with nature, controlling the forces of nature
within one’s own body.
 Taoist writings are hazy on reincarnation
except to suggest that it happens.
On Reincarnation
 Birth is not a beginning; death is not an end.
There is existence without limitation; there is
continuity without a starting point. Existence
without limitation is space. Continuity without
a starting point is time. There is birth, there is
death, there is issuing forth, there is entering
in. That through which one passes in and out
without seeing its form, that is the Portal of
God (Chuang Tzu 23).
Ch’i
 The vital energy which pervades and
enables all things.
 Breath
 Life spirit
Wu-wei
 Active in-activity
 Going with the flow of things, like water
over the rocks.
 “Act in such a way that your action and
the results of your actions are not
noticable…” (Eastman, p. 222)
Yin Yang
 Represents balance
 The universe is an integrated whole
composed of 2 opposing, but
complementary forces.
 Yang = light side, masculine, strong like
the sun
 Yin = dark side, feminine, fertile like the
ground
Chuang Tzu
 Contemporary of Mencius
 Continues, rounds-out the teachings of
Lau-Tzu
 Lessons presented more in story
format, much like the difference
between Confucius’s writing and
Mencius’s.
Suggestion for Study
 Like The Analects and The Book of
Mencius, take Tao te Ching and Chuang
Tzu and go back and forth. Read the
second, looking for the lessons from the
first.
For example:
 Chuang Tzu: “…Where can I find a
man who has forgotten words? He is
the one I would like to talk to.”
(p. 240)
 Tao te Ching: “The Tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao. The name that
can be named is not the eternal name.”
(p. 227)
Last Thought
 Taoism differs from Confuciansim in that
it asserts that nature acts with
spontaneity, and that it is therefore
necessary to cultivate naturalness and
spontaneity.