Abolish Work

I have always wondered, what is the practice of Taoism? I have been getting into it a lot recently, and it seems to have an amazing wealth of knowledge. Currently I consider myself something of a Zen Buddhist, and of course Zen Buddhist practice is zazen (meditation). I forgot the quote, but in zen the saying is something like "five minutes of zazen is better than 1000 pages of [buddhist] reading", which goes along with the idea that zazen forms a sort of base for philosophical ideas. I'm getting off the track now, but I was wondering if there was any sort of 'practice' for 'philosophical' Taoism (I am aware that 'religous' Taoism has various practices, but are these shared with philisophical?)?

kctan

The only practice I know of which is adopted mainly by both is called "shiu sheng yang xing" (train the body & cultivate one's nature). How one goes about it will depend on what kind of Taoist you are eg. religious type will meditate, chant etc... while those philosophical type will pick up a hobby, treat people better etc...

Philosophical practices are more towards how you view & live in the world & trying to see it as a whole & how you can live in harmony with it.

It is more akin to individualistic cultivation by realising the oneness or self which could lead utimately to immortality. It also provides a view of living in this reality as not suffering in any way & celebrated the joy of being alive as well which makes it so much different from alot of religions out there which views life as suffering & horrible.

telemachus

Abolish Work wrote:
There is something of a dispute among scholars over whether or not a distinction such as i have made is actually valid. In my opinion it is to a degree, but i expect i am mistaken.

KCTAN has explained very well the general understanding; i can only tell you what "philosophical" Taoism means for me.

I am of the opinion, as i stated above, that all systems of religion and ancient philosophy (or at least all those i have studied in any detail) were trying to communicate the same ideas; the differences are more to do with local circumstances at the time of conception than anything else. The most common methodolgy employed was myth, followed by symbolism and allegory. Unfortunately their texts and practices have been taken literally by their modern followers, their skeptics and their opponents.

Taoism is for me the clearest exposition of the ideas contained in all of these teachings. Somehow or other it appeals to me more. I also am convinced that the old Taoists understood and discovered more than any other group, but this is so far only speculation.

In practice i use taiji to a degree. I am no expert as yet of the martial side, but i have succeeded to an extent. I have only had to use these skills once in my lifetime so this is perhaps a measure of my ability in avoiding conflict.

There are also some teachings concerning health and sexual techniques, but not being married i of course wouldn't know anything about that. (If KCTAN provides me with one hundred young and nubile women i may be persuaded otherwise. )

In my opinion the main appeal of Taoism is that there is absolutely no need to set myself apart from the world. The most important thing, apart from keeping a sense of humour at all times, is to try to attain wu-wei, or non-action. In practice this means that i do not seek success for its own sake and yet i become successful; i do not try to show off in any way and yet people consider me wise (you'll have to take my word for it! ); i do not try to set myself above or below anyone, and hence i avoid conflict. Whenever i find myself taking anything too seriously i have a good laugh at what a simpleton i am and start over. In every situation i seek balance and harmony.

On the theoretical side i try to understand more of the teachings of Taoism and the other systems, yet without striving (see the first few posts). At the moment i am working on keeping the following story in mind at all times:

There is a tale in the Zhuang Zi about the impossibility of discussing the sea with a frog sat at the bottom of a well. The point is that most of us are sat at the bottom of our own well, convinced that our view of the universe therefrom is the correct one. Little wonder then that it is so difficult for us to get through to each other, or to learn when we think we already have the answers (c.f. the politics forum). However, if we begin to imagine what it is like at the bottom of other wells, with a different perspective on the universe, it dawns on us (or at least on me) that the wells only exist in our minds.

This isn't an easy thing to accomplish and harder still to maintain, but each time i do i catch another glimpse of the Tao.

I expect this is much more than you wanted, but i am hoping that someone else out there is interested.