Taoism

Taoism (simplified and traditional Chinese: 道教; pinyin: dàojiào; literally 'teaching of the way') is a philosophical and of Chinese origin which emphasizes living in harmony with the Tao (simplified and traditional Chinese: 道; pinyin: dào; literally: 'the way', also romanized as dao). The Chinese word 道 tao (or dao, depending on the romanization used), is usually translated as 'via' or 'path', though it has innumerable nuances in Chinese folk philosophy and religions.

The Tao is a fundamental idea in most of the schools that are part of Chinese philosophy; however, for Taoism it is referred to as the principle of absolute unity, and at the same time mutable, which forms the supreme reality and the cosmogonic and ontological principle of all things. Thus, for Taoists the Tao constitutes the source, the pattern and substance of all that exists.

The Dào Dé Jīng (Chinese: 道德經) also known as Tao Te Ching or Tao Te Ching, is the book that condenses the teachings attributed to the philosopher Lao-Tzu, also called Lao Tzu, Lao Zi, Laozi (simplified and traditional Chinese: 老子; pinyin: lǎozǐ; literally 'old master') or Laocio. And although the historical existence of such a personality is still debated, the book is considered a key to the Taoist tradition. Together with the Zhuangzi they are considered the key texts of the tradition.

And although Taoist ethical values vary depending on the different schools, they generally tend to emphasize wu wei ("non-action" or action without intention), naturalness, simplicity, spontaneity, and above all, the “Three Treasures”: 慈 “compassion”, 儉 “frugality”, and 不敢為天下先 “humility”, while placing less emphasis on rules and ritual (as opposed to to Confucianism).

The fundamental objective of the Taoists is to achieve immortality, although sometimes this is not understood literally, but as full longevity. In the same way, people who lived in harmony with nature were said to be immortal. Lao-tzu was deified as a Taoist god - an immortal - heading a huge pantheon of folk heroes, famous generals and sages, all of whom achieved immortality. On the other hand, achieving immortality through external alchemy (waidan) and internal alchemy (neidan) was an important goal for many Taoists historically.

The earliest forms of Taoism developed in the IV century BCE. C., influenced by the cosmological theories of the School of Naturalists and the I Ching. The School of Naturalists was a philosophical school that synthesized the concepts of yin-yang and the Five Elements; Zou Yan is considered the founder. The first organized form of Taoism, the Tianshi ("Celestial Masters") school arose in the 2nd century a. C. Xuanxue ("deep learning", also "neo-Taoism") was a major philosophical movement influenced by Confucianism, which focused on the interpretation of the I Ching, the Dào Dé Jīng and the Zhuangzi and which flourished over the centuries III to VI d. The most important philosophers of this movement were He Yan, Wang Bi, The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest, Ge Hong, and Guo Xiang. Thinkers such as He Yan and Wang Bi focused on the profound nature of the Tao, which they saw it as best exemplified by the term "Wu" (nothing, non-being, negativity). Other schools rose to prominence throughout Chinese history, such as the Shangqing school during the Tang dynasty (618-907), the Lingbao during the Song dynasty (960-1279) and the Quanzhen school, which developed during the 13th-XIV and during the Yuan dynasty.

Later, Taoism was mixed with elements of Confucianism, Buddhism, and traditional Chinese religion. The particular form of Taoist religion that was brought to Taiwan in the 17th century century is typical of this tradition. The most distinctive feature of the current practice is the veneration of ancestors.

Taoist concepts influenced traditional Chinese medicine and various disciplines such as tai chi chuan, chi kung, and various forms of martial arts. Later Taoist traditions were also influenced by Chinese Buddhism.

Fundamentals of Taoism

Synogram of the word dàoliterally 'camino'.

Taoism establishes the existence of two forces: one passive, the other active. Yin and yang apparently oppose each other, but in reality they simultaneously complement each other, that is, they are absolutely interdependent and function as a unit. They are yin (passive/subtle, feminine, moist force...) and yang (active/concrete, masculine, dry force...), they represent dynamism of nature, the origin of all manifest or existing things. Not to be confused with the duality of opposite and irreconcilable extremes as "good vs evil". (See yin-yang.)

The oldest existing meaning of the tao says: “Yi yin, yi yang, zhè wei tao”, that is, "a yin aspect, a yang aspect, that is the tao".

This conception can be exemplified from the meaning of the words: literally, yang means 'the luminous (sunny) side of the mountain', and yin 'the dark (gloomy) slope of the mountain'; understand the idea of mountains as a symbol of unity. Thus, although they represent two apparently opposite forces, they are part of a single nature; being represented in some traditions also through religious beliefs, such as the Three Pure Ones.

The equality between these two forces entails the equality of their manifestations considered in the abstract. For this reason, the Taoist does not consider life superior to death, does not grant supremacy to construction over destruction, nor to pleasure over suffering, nor to the positive over the negative, nor to affirmation over negation.

Everyday and insignificant things have a much deeper meaning than we give them.

On the other hand, the Tao cannot be defined as a "conciliatory force", although indeed that is one of its expressions, the Tao by nature is indefinable, indescribable and unattainable by human thought. It is the first thing that the Tao te king teaches:

The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be pronounced is not the eternal name.

So although the Tao is eternal, immeasurable and indescribable transcendent, it precedes multiplicity, contains and sustains everything, it is also immanent and is present in the plurality of all impermanent things:

The Tao breeds one,

One begets two,

The two beget three,

And the three begets at ten thousand things.

Ten thousand things carry the yin and embrace the yang,

They reach harmony by combining these forces.

Therefore Lao-Tse distinguishes two aspects of the Tao, on the one hand there is the Eternal and indescribable Tao, and on the other hand there is the Tao as the impermanent manifested as existence. One cannot speak of the eternal Tao since its nature is unknowable and transcends the capacity of human comprehension, but of the Tao as a manifestation or existence if one can speak and it is from there that philosophical Taoism is built. However, both aspects of the Tao are inherently inseparable, they are the same reality.

The unnamed is the beginning of heaven and earth.

The name is the mother of ten thousand things.

Without desire you can see the Mystery;

With wishes you can see its manifestations.

They both spring from the same source, but they have different names for the same reality.

For this "something" eternal there is no name, since the names derive from experiences; finally, and due to the need to be described or expressed, it manifests itself in existence and was called tao, which means 'path'; or 'path [straight or virtuous]' that leads to the goal.

When Lao-Tzu talks about the Tao in its transcendent aspect, he tries to distance it from anything that could give an idea of something specific. He prefers to frame it on a different plane from everything that belongs to the world. Because the tao is like the empty space for the whole to manifest. "It existed before Heaven and Earth," he says, and indeed it is not possible to say where it came from. She is the mother of creation and the source of all beings.

Something confused and mysteriously formed,

Born before Heaven and Earth.

In silence and in the void, Just and immutable, Always present and moving,

Maybe she's the mother of the ten thousand things. I don't know his name, Call him Tao.

In the absence of a better word, I call it big.

The tao is also not temporary or limited; when trying to observe it, it is not seen, heard or felt. It is the primary cosmic source from which creation comes. It is the beginning of all, the root of Heaven and Earth (the mother of all things). But if we try to define it, look at it or hear it, it would not be possible: the tao returns to non-being, there where it is unfathomable, unattainable and eternal.

All things under Heaven enjoy what is, what is arises from what is not and returns to non-being, with which it never ceases to be linked.

The Tao of non-being is the force that moves everything in the world of phenomena, the function, the effect of everything that is: it is based on non-being.

The world of beings can be named with the name of non-being and the world of phenomena with the name of being. The differences lie in the names, since the name of one is being and the other is not-being, but although the names are different, it is a question of a single fact: the mystery from whose depths all prodigies arise.

By finding the path that leads from the confusion of the world to the eternal, we are on the path of the Tao.

Taoism excludes the concept of law and replaces it with that of order. That is to say, things are in a certain way because their position in a universe in permanent movement gives them a nature that forces them to that behavior. This is how Dong Zhongshu, a Chinese philosopher from the 2nd century BC, explains it. c.:

When water is poured into the ground, it avoids the dry parts and goes to the wet ones. If two trunks are placed in the fire, it prevents the wet and lights the dry. All things reject what is different and follow what is equal.

Likewise, beautiful things call other things in the class of the beautiful, the repulsive call others in the class of the repulsives. This comes from the complementary way in which the things of the same class correspond. Things are called one another, the same with the same; a dragon bringing rain; a fan separating heat; the place where an army has been, filling itself with bushes... Things, beautiful or repulsive, have all a origin. If you think they build destiny is because no one knows where their origin is. There is no event that does not depend on your beginning of something earlier, to which it responds because it belongs to the same category, and that is why it moves.

The immortal soul of the Taoist adept.

Tao is the global name given to the natural order. The objective of the Tao is to teach man to integrate into nature, to teach him to flow, to integrate himself in harmony and harmony. The tao is not a creator because nothing in the world is created nor is the world created. Teach to penetrate with this nature and harmony in such a way that he gets to experience in his own body his vital rhythms. Tuning the human body through a series of exercises with these rhythms, thus gaining mental serenity and physical energy.

At the beginning of the IV century a. C. Chinese philosophers wrote about yin and yang in terms related to nature.

Observing from the perspective of the Tao, one sees how all things rise up, become great, and then return to their root. Living and dying is simply going in and out^{[citation needed]}. The forces of the mind have no power over the one who follows the Tao. The path of non-being leads to stillness and observation, and leads from the multiple to the one. To be able to walk that path requires internal preparation. Through spiritual practice^{[citation required]}, perseverance, recollection, and silence, one reaches a state of relaxation^{[citation required]} which must be so serene that it allows the contemplation of the inner being, the soul^{[citation required]}, and thus it is possible to see the invisible, hear the inaudible, feel the unattainable.

A representative story of Taoist thought would be the following: (Adapted from The World's Religions, by Huston Smith.)

A farmer's horse ran away. To the commiseration of his neighbor, the farmer told him: "Who knows if he is good or bad?" And he was right, because the next day the horse returned accompanied by wild horses with whom he had become friends. The neighbor reappeared, this time to congratulate him on the gift from heaven, but the farmer repeated: "Who knows if he is good or bad?" And again he was right, because the next day his son tried to ride one of the wild horses and fell, breaking his leg. The neighbor again showed his regret, and received the previous question again: "Who knows if he is good or bad?" And the peasant was right a fourth time, because the next day some soldiers appeared to recruit his son, but they exempted him because he was wounded.

Far from an amorality or a latitudinary morality, Taoism advocates harmony, there is balance, an absolute over relativities.

This ethic is reflected in art.

When Buddhism arrived in China, the contact between Buddhism and Taoism produced, among other effects, the Chán Buddhist religious and philosophical school (sinicization of the Sanskrit word dhyana, which means: meditation) and, when it passed to Japan originated zen.

Taoism influenced numerous areas of knowledge such as medicine and certain schools of meditation, and even martial arts. There is a parallelism in certain conceptions of Taoism with Tantra, especially the vision of the world as an ecosystem, and the consideration of a path of enlightenment within the sexual act.

The great Taoist Lin An defines the path of happiness as follows:

The vast majority of people,

how empty and evil they feel, because they use

things to delight his heart,

instead of using your heart to

enjoy things.

.

Main features and elements

• Lao-Tse: CenturyVIIa. C., main work Tao te ching.
• Preconiza: Harmony of man with tao, the ethereal and dialectical course of events.
• Rejects: War, resignation, greed, prejudice, conventionalism, taboos, inequality, submission, dogmatic subjection to absolutist or prejudiced norms (subsidiary loy, nationalism, legalism, submission to worship, etc.).
• Precepts: It does not possess a dogma to which the faithful must be limited.
• Virtues: Pity, magnanimity, abnegation, goodness, personal sacrifice, planting trees (delivering something to nature or other humans), making paths (in the same ways as trees), being introspective, being analytical, contemplative and meditative, promoting honesty and equity, teaching the one who does not know.

Subdivisions

The two main "branches" of Taoism are religious Taoism and philosophical Taoism. While the former emphasizes ritual, ceremonial, and spiritual aspects, the latter takes a more secular approach. However, some authors question this division and consider it artificial. to Taoism of ritual and religious elements that were not typical of original Taoism.

In addition, each of these two aspects is in turn subdivided between multiple orders and schools of thought.

History

The Seven Wise of the Bamboo Forest, Embroidered, 1860-1880

The roots of Taoism can be traced back to the IV century BCE. C. Early Taoism took up the cosmological notions of the Ying-Yang School (Naturalists) and was profoundly influenced by one of the oldest texts of Chinese culture, the I Ching, which exposes a philosophical system about how human behavior should be maintained in accordance with the alternate cycles of nature. The member of the school "Fajia" or "Legalist" Shen Buhai (c. 400 BC - c. 337 BC) may also have been a major influence in putting the concept of wu wei into practice in politics.

Philosophical Taoism developed out of the writings of Lao-tzu and Zhuangzi. According to Chinese legend, Lao-tzu lived during the 6th century BCE. C. and traditionally the writing of the Dàodéjing is dated in that century, although according to some current research it is much later.

• CenturyIVa. C.-centuryIIa. C.: influences alchemy, traditional Chinese medicine, magic and divination, so it becomes popular worship. It subsequently influenced martial arts, with its chi concepts applied to both health and combat, thus emerging various taoist kungfu styles (mainly in the Wudang Mountain), and also disciplines such as chi kung and taichí.
• CenturyIId. C.: the imperial priest Zhang Daoling is the first pontiff of Taoism as a religion; it syncretizes the traditional Chinese religion with Taoism, to renew the imperial religious cult and to impose its form of theistic taoism as a doctrine of worship; this religious interpretation is considered by some contrary to the original, clearly philosophical, Taoist ideology proposed by Lao-Tse and Zhuangzi.
• 1927: The imperial pontificate is abolished by the Chinese government.
• It promises immortality, in its religious sense as a form of eternal life, but in its philosophical sense as an allegory of an ontological concept that promotes self-improvement.
• Fundamental observation: To attain immortality, longevity in full, people living in harmony with nature are immortal.
• Lao-Tse is deified as an immortal Taoist (folkloric heroes, famous and wise generals), taking as such this idea of deities only by the followers of religious taoism, being such allegations rejected by philosophical taoism.
• It was mixed with elements of confucionism, Buddhism and local beliefs (religious taoism), forming a religious syncretism that some consider incompatible with the original concepts of Tao te king from Lao Tse.
• The new: worship of the ancestors, is only accepted by religious taoism; but it is not assimilated by philosophical taoism.

Taoist texts

• Dào Dé Jīng (also known as Tao Te King or Tao Te Ching), is the main Taoist book that condenses the teachings attributed to the philosopher Lao-Tse.

Similarly, other outstanding texts of Taoism are:

• Hua Hu Ching, Taoist text written or compiled in the centuryIV by a Chinese taoist named Wang Fu, although also traditionally attributed to Lao-Tse; it is considered as a complement to the text Dào Dé Jīng.

• Wen TzuWenzí), Taoist text written more than two thousand years ago, known as the "I understand the mysteries of the Tao", which is attributed to a disciple of Lao Tse, (who would have directly collected the words of the teacher); it is a writing that presents the teachings of the Tao Te King, as a form of continuation thereof, by penetrating into the understanding of the mystery of the Tao described in the Tao Te King.

• Zhuangzi, one of the two founding texts of Taoism - together with the Dàodé jīng (Lao-Tse) - and is generally considered as one of the most important Taoist writings for the teaching of the Tao.

• Lie Zi, Taoist text attributed to Lie Yukou (Lie Zi), who is considered a legendary character. It is generally considered the most practical of the main Taoist works, in front of the most philosophical Dàodé jīng or the most poetic Book of Zhuangzi.

• Qingjing Jing, literally 'Classic of clarity/purity and stillness/tranquility') is a classic short taoist text of anonymous author written in the Tang dynasty, which combines philosophical themes of the Tao Te Ching with the form of logical presentation present in Buddhist texts; and with a literary form that reminds the Sutra of the heart. Instruct Tao students to practice the elimination of desire to cultivate spiritual purity and the stillness of Tao.

• Tai Yi Jin Hua Zong Zhi, Taoist text that focuses on Taoist practices to refine the essence and transform qi, through meditation. To do this, it deals with describing a method of relieving thoughts and exercising qi, advocating abstinence and reducing conscious activities, to avoid the "outside of consciousness". In its essence it postulates that there are two things intangible in humans, "primitive spirit" and "spirit consciousness". Its best-known version is the translation made by Richard Wilhelm, known as The Secret of the Golden Flower.

• I Ching, Chinese oracular book whose first texts present are supposed to be written about 1200 BC. Its original content is of Taoist origin, but it is also considered one of the Five Confucian Classics.