Taoist Practice and Experiential Knowledge

[additionnixon]

Hello, my name is Adam. I live in Tucson, Arizona. I'm around thirty years old. I grew up as an Eastern Orthodox Christian, and first encountered Taoism through a book titled Christ the Eternal Tao, written by an Orthodox Christian priest-monk by the name of Damascene. It was Hieromonk Damascene's book that gave me an entirely new and rare perspective on and understanding of Christianity by explaining Taoism, Christianity, prayer, and meditation in terms of one another. It led me on a seven-year search for experiential knowledge of God, with some small moments of discovery and a great deal of despair.

 

After a three-year hiatus from nearly all spiritual practice, I'm in a place where I feel I need to pick up the pieces and renew my pursuit of a deeper connection with myself, others, and our world. Taoism seems like a natural place for me to start again. What appeals to me is that Taoism seems to have an approach that encourages one to submit to reality, rather than attempting to impose a false interpretation on it. In my mind, even the best interpretations are false, if they don't acknowledge how insufficient the mind is in its perceptions of reality. For this reason, I'm more interested in core practices of Taoism, rather than any mythology that surrounds it (I'm not sure what forms of Taoism exist, or which of them contain beliefs I would consider extraneous, but in America it seems to have been brought under a superficial, pan-Eastern umbrella that contains a lot of superstition and misinformation). I'm really looking for something to encourage and revive my desire to experience the world and myself through meditative practice, directly and intuitively.

 

My experience with meditation is almost exclusively derived from the practice of the Jesus Prayer, in which one begins with mindfulness, watching the thoughts; then follows the breath, repeating the words, "Jesus Christ, have mercy on me." I've dropped this last part, and usually just repeatedly guide my mind toward silence. My current practice, then, is just silent, imageless, wordless meditation, following the breath.

 

I hope that isn't too much information for an introduction. Perhaps someone can direct me to a place where I can take this story and find someone experienced who can relate to my general attitude. I would greatly appreciate any input and perhaps resources. I've begun reading the Tao Te Ching, I'm just not sure what translations are considered more authentic, so I've been reading the one here: http://www.taoism.net/ttc/complete.htm

 

Thank you in advance!

[Chang]

Hello additionnixon and welcome to the forums!

 

Glad to have you aboard. Your introduction was not too long and is most interesting. You will find both information and advice on this forum covering all matters relating to meditation, Taoism, Taoist cultivation, the Tao Te Ching and numerous other works from the taoist canon.

 

Please take the time to read the two posts pinned at the top of this Welcome page and take a look at the forum terms and rules. This covers all you need to know when getting started.

 

For the first week you will be restricted to ten posts per day but after that you can post as much as you like. Also, until you’ve posted fifteen times in the forums, you’ll be a “Junior Bum” with somewhat restricted access and will be allowed only two private messages per day.

 

Good luck in your pursuits and best wishes to you,

 

Chang and the TTB team

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Special Note: all female members are more than welcome to join the discussions at our new

Women’s Cultivation forum, moderated by rainbowvein and zanshin

[zgoat]

Good to see you here. I'm a long time lurker, recent poster, but I came from a Catholic background before pursuing Zen Buddhism for about a decade and more recently focusing on studies in Taoism. It's great to see someone else who has come from an interfaith background.

 

In terms of translations, don't sweat "best" too much. Get exposed to a few different ones and you'll get a feel for how each author has approached the translation. I use http://terebess.hu/english/tao/_index.html when I'm hunting for different interpretations, and there's the Textual Studies forum on this board that explores the TTC chapter by chapter with people providing feedback on their readings of the different texts.

 

Much like yourself I focus on a very small core with Taoism, consisting of daily practice, meditation and study of the Tao Te Ching. Happy to discuss things further around this approach.

Edited November 6, 2014 by zgoat

[Brother_Thelonious]

Hi Adam, welcome!

 

I had a feeling I needed to check the introduction forum today. Lo and behold it's another Tucsonian!

 

The desert is an incredible spiritual landscape for me, I do miss it. But I feel that the lessons learned there carry on no matter where you go.

 

Have you read the "the magus of strovolos"? It is perhaps the opposite of what you ask for. Full of neo-Christianity and myth. But I feel like I should share it with you.

 

I was not raised religious in any way, but as soon as I learned what Taoism was and started doing my first few chi kung and tai chi moves I quickly realized that this work was for me.

 

During this time I became very anti-Christianity and religious beliefs in general. At some point I heard about this book and in reading it I began to get interested in how spiritual/energetic practices in Christian religions are approached. I must say that for me this book really turned a key for me that allowed me to appreciate how people of all religious and mythic backgrounds can access this work.

 

Also Grandmaster Mantak Chia, who was raised with both a Christian and Taoist upbringing, has a book coming out on the two together. He basically says that they deal with the same fundamental truths in a different way. Ie: Taoism has the three pure ones, Christianity has the holy trinity. Et cetera.

 

To address your direction question: try wind river tai chi in Tucson. Or work with a few different people practicing chi kung or tai chi in the area, find someone who you resonate with or like their style. Study with them, you will learn so much more by practicing or studying with a group and teacher than by yourself. Though practicing by yourself is also important.

 

Also if you have any health issues I have a extremely high recommendation for a acupuncturist down there. She is the best.

 

Cheers!

-Colin

[dust]

Welcome aboard

 

I hope that isn't too much information for an introduction. Perhaps someone can direct me to a place where I can take this story and find someone experienced who can relate to my general attitude. I would greatly appreciate any input and perhaps resources. I've begun reading the Tao Te Ching, I'm just not sure what translations are considered more authentic, so I've been reading the one here: http://www.taoism.net/ttc/complete.htm

 

A long intro suggests that you're serious about introducing yourself. That's cool!

 

For TTC reading, as zgoat suggests, terebess is a great resource.

 

There is no single, original version of what we call the Tao Te Ching, much less a single "authentic" translation. Anyone claiming to have "the correct" translation is either a liar or a fool. The best course is to read a few, and see where they take you.

 

Personally, I like Addiss, Feng, and Wu

http://terebess.hu/english/tao/addiss.html

http://terebess.hu/english/tao/gia.html

http://terebess.hu/english/tao/wu.html

[zgoat]

One thing I used to narrow down a few translations for deeper reading is to understand the author's background, because each of them bring their own flavor to the text. For example, based on the three I have handy -

 

• John C. Wu - chose it because of his background in Law and Policy (things I'm into), and his history with other religions and religious texts (ie, Christianity).
• Red Pine - being a westerner that transitioned reasonably far into Chinese language and culture, and his involvement in Taoism as a religion
• William Scott Wilson - because of his extensive work with translating Japanese texts and exposure to Zen / Bushido, and the flavor it brings to his translation

This may be a dud metric to assess texts but I find each brings elements of the author's experiences with them in the conversion process.

 

Found Wing-tsit Chan's translation a very nice read as well. Red Pine's is a lot of fun too, it's very rough and abrupt (in a good way).