Taoism essentially means to follow the path of least resistance while always maintaining respect and consideration for the welfare and freedom of other beings.
(Barefoot Doctor)
Woman wisdom
Unlike most philosophical traditions, taoism values
women.
Women are considered to be soft,
strong,
yielding and
fluid - like water.
These same characteristics are to be found in tai chi chuan.
Insights of taoism
These are the main insights of taoism:
Force creates force
A person whose needs are simple will find them fulfilled
Wealth does not enrich the spirit
Self-absorption and self-importance are vain and self-destructive
Victory in war is not glorious and not to be celebrated, but stems from devastation, and is to be mourned
The harder one tries, the more resistance one will create for oneself
The more one acts in harmony with the universe (the 'Great Mother'), the more one will achieve with less effort
The truly wise make little of their own wisdom — for the more they know, the more they realise how little they know
When we lose the fundamentals, we supplant them with increasingly inferior values which we pretend are the true values
Stupidity leads to force
Glorification of wealth, power and beauty creates crime, envy and shame
The qualities of flexibility and suppleness are superior to rigidity and strength
Everything in its own time and place
The contrast of opposition - the differences between male and female, light and dark, strong and weak - helps us understand and appreciate the universe
What is a 'taoist'?
Simply a person concerned with feeling the nature of
things.
A taoist is aware of their relationship with every living thing and the
environment around us.
There is no 'religious'
component to taoism in the Western sense of the word; it is not a belief
system or faith of any sort.
It is about oneness with all things.
It is about wholeness.
Taoists try to appreciate, learn from and
work with whatever happens in life, rather than impose order on a
chaotic world.
Just ordinary
Taoism is not about belonging to a group or identifying yourself with some
concept.
It is concerned with removing the barriers between yourself and everything else
around you.
The danger of using a word such as 'taoist' is that names are misleading.
If a person considers themselves to be a 'taoist', in the same way that other
people call themselves a Buddhist or a Christian or green or vegetarian -
then they have missed the point.
Zen and tao are about losing your sense of 'self'.
It is not about
you.
Seeking to be somebody different or
special is one
way of hiding from the reality of yourself.
Strictly speaking there is no such thing
as a taoist, nor could you consider yourself to be taoist.
Taoism is not an approach, method or doctrine - so there is nothing to actually
identify yourself with.
A person who can intuit tao is just ordinary, natural and genuine.
Page created 4 December 1998