Taoism At A Glance

What is Taoism?

Taoism
Taoism from its root Tao signifies the meaning The Way. An Ancient Chinese belief. Chinese belief of Taoism was from 2000 years ago. Tao Te Ching Believed to be the Bible of Taoism

Taoism
Emphasizes various themes of the Daodejing and Zhuangzi, such as naturalness, spontaneity, simplicity, detachment from desires, and most important of all, wuwei (non-doing). It emphasizes on spiritual harmony within the individual complements.

Components in the emergence of Taoism

Components
1. Philosophical Taoism (Daodejing and Zhuangzi) 2. Techniques for achieving ecstasy

3. Practices for achieving longevity or immortality; and 4. Exorcism 5. Naturalness 6. Three treasures or three jewels

Philosophy

Taoism
Taoism provides an aspect or truth to human beliefs such as the following:
When there is a positive there will always be a negative. Humans tend to believe in EQUALITY or balances. There can never be dark without light or hot without cold. Some are practiced today such as Feng Shui and FortuneTelling which are practices by the Taoist.

Yin-Yang
Visualization of Light and Dark The representation of how things work How things actually do apply in life

Yin (Black) Weak, Cold, Passive, Deflating & Downward Yang (White) Strong , Hot, Active, Expanding & Upward

Tianshi School
Founded by Zhang Daoling
Celestial Masters School

First School Later known as Zhengyi School

**There are two main strands and schools within Taoism, usually labeled "philosophical Taoism" (Tao-chia) and "religious Taoism" (Tao-chaio).

Quick Fact Details

Formed: As with many ancient religious traditions, an exact date is impossible to determine. Taoist ideas and early writings long precede any organizational structure. The date given here (c. 550 B.C.E.) is generally the time period when a variety of spiritual thinkers were putting their ideas into writing. These writings were not collected as a composite teaching of the "Tao" until the 4th or 3rd century B.C.E.

Quick Fact Details

Taoism has no founder although believed to grow from different religions such as Shamanism and other nature religions.

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Deity: While Taoists recognize a vast pantheon of gods and goddesses, they do not acknowledge any that are omnipotent or eternal. All the gods, including Laozi, are divine emanations of celestial energy.

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Headquarters: Taoism has no centralized authority and different sects have different headquarters. However, the White Cloud Temple in Beijing is a key center for training for priests and for administration.

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