World Religions- Taoism

The essence of Taoism is Tao, the way, who is not the eternal Tao, (not God the Father); he is the way, the truth and the life (does it sound like Christ?). the translation of the Bible in Chinese reads, In the beginning was the Tao, and the Tao was with God, and the Tao was God.like John1:1. the Tao is infinite profundity, the origin of all things, a stabilizing force, for where Tao is equilibrium. it existed before heaven and earth, it is eternal, stands alone, and never changes, pervades everywhere, Tao is the source of all things, the treasure of good men, and the sustainer of bad men. He is the Word, Jesus Christ!.

    However there is a great difference: Tao is not a person, it is a force, a principle. Jesus is a person, he is God, the creator of all things in heavens and earth, and he wants to live in your heart, and you in him, in his Mystical Body, in his Church. come to Jesus, just have faith in him and you will be saved. he is the real living Tao!.

    Tao (pronounced Dow)  is basically indefinable. It has to be experienced. It refers to a power which envelopes, surrounds and flows through all things, living and non-living. The Tao regulates natural processes and nourishes balance in the Universe. It embodies the harmony of opposites (i.e. there would be no love without hate, no light without dark, no male without female.)

    In Taoism, Tao, roughly translated as path, is a force which flows through all life and is the first cause of everything. The goal of everyone is to become one with the Tao. Tai Chi, a technique of exercise using slow deliberate movements, is used to balance the flow of energy or chi within the body. People should develop virtue and seek compassion, moderation and humility. One should plan any action in advance and achieve it through minimal action.
    Yin (dark side) and Yang (light side) symbolize pairs of opposites which are seen through the universe, such as good and evil, light and dark, male and female. The impact of human civilization upsets the balance of Yin and Yang.
    Taoists believe that people are by nature, good, and that one should be kind to others simply because such treatment will probably be reciprocated.
    Taoism’s focus on nature and the natural order complements the societal focus of Confucianism, and its synthesis with Buddhism is the basis of Zen.    

   The concept of a personified deity is foreign to Taoism, as is the concept of the creation of the universe. Thus, they do not pray as Christians do; there is no God to hear the prayers or to act upon them. They seek answers to life’s problems through inner meditation and outer observation Each believer’s goal is to become one with the Tao.

2- The men of Tao:

    He who lives in Tao, and Tao in him, is a good men: He keeps in good terms with men, takes things easy, loves the world as he does his own person; he is simple like an infant, cautious, modest, yielding. He is humble, and thus he remains entire. He is subtle, penetrating and profound; avoids excess, extravagance, and indulgence. He makes the self of the people his self. he acts to the good or to the bad with goodness, and to the faithful or the faithless with faith. He returns love for great hatred.

   All these quotations from the Tao-Tee King certainly sound like Christ and Christianity!.

    The Three Jewels to be sought are compassion, moderation and humility.

3- The third part of Taoism: The Old dualism:

    The old dualism of life stems from Tao, as the competition of complimentary opposites, Yin and Yang; these two competing energies are found in all things, but both must be kept in balance. Excess of any energy is harmful. When the 2 forces are in balance within the human personality then the perfect ideal human will exist. But always Tao, the spirit, will prevail over the physical, material nature, for Tao will never die.

    Tai Chi:
    There is a long history involvement by Taoists in various exercise and movement techniques.  Tai chi in particular works on all parts of the body. It stimulates the central nervous system, lowers blood pressure, relieves stress and gently tones muscles without strain. It also enhances digestion, elimination of wastes and the circulation of blood. Moreover, tai chi’s rhythmic movements massage the internal organs and improve their functionality. 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.

4- The other site of Taoism: PRIESTS, MAGIC, SPIRITS, EMPEROR.

    Lao-Tze left no church, no priests, no rituals and services. but today, it is lived in syncretism with the old Animism of China, and it is demeaned by polytheism, witchcraft, demonology, spiritism, spirit spells, and a degenerate papacy.

    – The Yin and Yong represented as a dragon and a tiger, live in a sort of cosmic struggle of gestation and have to be controlled in life by the priests rituals, plus the medium, the shaman, and the oracle. and the Emperor

    The priests head the rituals in the temples, and an incense burner is essential to every magic rite and exorcism. these temples, besides of the religious rituals, are as well a cultural axis, providing fairs, puppet shows, story-tellers, opera. and most Chinese have they altars at home, to the ancestors, and to spell the bad spirits.

    The medium whose body is occupied by a spirit while in trance, communicates with the ancestors, makes divination.

    The shaman travels into the afterlife, either to heaven or hell, and makes healing rituals, alchemical formulae, medicine, herbal texts.

    The oracle speaks in the words of a by standing spirit, and fulfills the role of a seer, healer, and keeper of justice mainly in the villages, providing more stability than the rapidly political and industrial forces of Communism.

    The Emperor is the only one who can communicate with Tao, so, for centuries, became the Emperor-god, the actual god of the people of China. and when the Emperors were dethroned by the Communists in 1950, Mao and his successors became the actual atheist gods of the Chinese.

After-Death:

    Each Chinese, after death, wants to be an important ancestor. in their Heaven. but there is Hell, like Purgatory, with 9 stages of punishments, each one governed by a demon king; and the prayers can help them to get out of there.

HOLY SCRIPTURES:

    Lao-Tze was not successful in China, so he decided to leave. and he went away, no body knows where. but before leaving, at the request of his friend Yin Hsi, he wrote the Tao-Te King which means the Way to Virtue Canon, and it is the main holy scripture of Taoism, and very beautiful!. Two centuries latter Chuang Tze spread Taoism, and his writings are also considered holy scriptures.  Tao te Ching,  Chuang Tzu
 

FESTIVALS:     Most of them are to honor the ancestors, who can help us in this life, or to pray for them, because they are either in heaven or in a kind of Catholic Purgatory DENOMINATIONS or Traditions:

    1- Orthodox: Tao masters and Black Headed Taoists. Stress the importance of rituals, cosmic renewal, and controlling spirits.
    2- Spirit Claud Taoists: Masters of methods or Headed Taoists. Concentrate on meditation, not rituals.

TAOISM AND CONFUCIANISM:     Taoism, was founded in the 604 BC in China by Lao-Tze, which means old philosopher or old boy, but his real name was Li-Uhr.
    It is actually practiced in China by most of the 2 billion Chinese, in syncretism with Confucianism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam. and even by those who call themselves Communists.

    Lao-Tze was the teacher of Confucius. and both Taoism and Confucianism complement each other: Lao-Tze is the mystic who spoke chiefly of the unseen and intangible; Confucius is the great realistic and moral philosopher who preferred not speaking of things unseen, rather he set a system of moral axioms rather than religious dogmas.    

Two different religious ways:

    For Confucius human conduct must be righteous, and the man’s relation with God and the universe would take care of itself. for Lao-Tze, man must establish himself in harmony with the universal principle, with Tao, through his own Tao, and good human conduct will follow.
    – Which way will be better to become a good person?. to try to be good, or to try to unite with God?.

    For Christianity the way is to live in Christ and Christ in you. because all persons are essentially selfish, we love ourselves, which is the opposite of the real love; but if Jesus is in you, then you are going to feed the hungry, help the sick or the one in need. but it is not you, it is Christ who lives in you (Gal.2:20). however, when Christ is in you, you do not become a robot, you are still the only one responsible for yours actions, and you have to strive to be pure and good, living every minute of your life with faith in Jesus, who lives in you, without fear to nobody and to nothing. the greatest sin of a Christian is to do something without faith in Christ, trusting in himself or in money or in human power instead of trusting in Jesus Christ (Rom.14:23