What is Taoism

[silent thunder]

Fire Hands Qi Gong  For its primal foundation, sensitivity enhancing, refurbishing, replenishing.  (this practice rebuilt my body after several years of being crippled, stuck in a chair/walking with a cane).

Heaven/Earth Qi Gong.  Directly linked to Fire Hands.  Next level form: For directing, pulling and manipulating flow.

Both as taught by Zhou Ting-Jue (18th gen)

 

Wuji/Spontaneous (mostly this the last two years) for loss of sense of self in raw presence and emptiness dancing.  Self arising praxis.

 

Druidic Inner Fire (stillness) Third Eye work from decades ago.

Lakota singing and stompin in a circle.  From my time @ Rosebud immersed in the ways of the Plains Indigenous

 

For martial training.  Five Animal Shao Lin and Jeet Kun Do as taught by Richard Huang and Larry Tan

 

Whirling in the Sufi tradition had a massive impact.  A short and very intense practice, about six months during my last show as an actor Off Broadway, we trained with Sufi's for six months in prep for a show featuring the poetry of Rumi.  Too intense to maintain long term... but pivotal in my life.  This came during a fulcrum of internal shift and its timing and manner of flowering proved to me that the teacher is always present... it's only the student is not always listening... when listening... all of life reveals as teacher.

 

Five Organ Circuit/Third Eye Pathing (stillness) as taught by Wang Liping.  Tree work and sleep meditations as well.  Paradigm shifting.  Resulting in complete rewiring of mental relation to notions of reality, conception of self/other.  unwiring of assumptions and projections... deeply uncomfortable, inclucating several years of intense decompression, physical and mental rewiring.  Great benefit, quite unpleasant day to day process.

 

But far above all others... not even a close second among them, my favorite is barefoot walking in the hour or two before dawn.

 

Simply unmatched for overall effect, impact, benefit, equilibrium, elevation, simultaneous expansion/contraction.

Unmatched for me... simple presence while walking dominates.

 

Edited April 1, 2020 by silent thunder
added the martial practices.

[ReturnDragon]

3 hours ago, dmattwads said:

.....what are everyone's favorite styles of Qigong and why do you like the one you do?

I am in favor of Taiji. It is because it exercise my body holistically as well as qigong breathing. At the advance level, the movements are coordinated with the breathing and the breathing is coordinated with the movements. After a long period of diligent practice, the body become very strong and the internal organs are being invigorated. One can tell by no sign of illness. The qigong deep breathing, 24/7, gives ample of oxygen to the body. As in result, the body can continuously produce plenty of energy to do the daily chores or other harsh tasks .

[senseless virtue]

14 hours ago, SirPalomides said:

Images of carefree wandering through clouds and mountains are common, as well as dwelling in heaven or a paradise like in Kunlun.

 

Somehow reminds me of Western hipsters drifting like clouds and buzzing like bees from Starbucks to another and then settling to the new kitsch fad cafe that serves organic avocado toast.

 

14 hours ago, SirPalomides said:

Right, the big goals would be a good rebirth and eventually immortality. Immortality has a lot of different meanings.

 

All the commitment and sustainability that goes with the pursuit. Hipsters are forever.

[Maddie]

7 hours ago, virtue said:

 

Somehow reminds me of Western hipsters drifting like clouds and buzzing like bees from Starbucks to another and then settling to the new kitsch fad cafe that serves organic avocado toast.

 

 

 

 

It makes me wonder if there's a Tao of avocado toast? Kind of like finding the perfect cherry blossom, which if you were to find would not be a wasted life. 😌

[Maddie]

Another question.

 

I realize there are different Taoist sects, but what are they?

 

I know for example in Buddhism you have the Tientai and Nichiren groups the place a lot of emphasis on the lotus sutra as being the most important sutra and sacred in and of itself. Is there a Taoist group that focuses a lot on texts?

 

Another example would be is in that focuses more on meditative practice. Any equivalent in Taoism? 

 

Then you have pure land Buddhism which is more about praying to Amitabha Buddha to be reborn in the pure land. Anything like this in Taoism?  

 

I'm assuming different Taoist groups place emphasis on different things I would just be interested in knowing more about those.

Edited April 2, 2020 by dmattwads
Spelling

[SirPalomides]

There are a lot of Daoist sects and lineages but in China nowadays they are all lumped into two main branches, Zhengyi and Quanzhen. From what I gather there are some sects that don't really fit in either but are classed as one or the other because the government requires that you register that way.

 

The Zhengyi sect is the older one- they trace themselves back to the Celestial Masters sect but it's a little more complicated than that, as they absorbed a lot of other major sects (e.g. Ling Bao, Shang Qing, Qing Wei) into their fold and have changed accordingly. Sort of like how Chan Buddhism ended up absorbing Tiantai, Huayan, and Pure Land in China.

 

The Quanzhen sect came about in the late Song, early Yuan period- they didn't introduce much in the way of new revelations or scriptures themselves but gave their own synthesis of it.

 

To speak in very general terms, Zhengyi Daoists tend to be house-dwellers and a lot of their activity is related to public ritual, exorcism, and magic. However a Zhengyi master is also expected to be highly trained in meditation. Michael Saso's book Daoist Master Zhuang gives a great overview of a Zhengyi priest's activities, showing how a lot of esoteric meditations and self-cultivation are integrated in the very dramatic public rituals.

 

Again, to speak in very general terms, Quanzhen is more ascetic/ monastic, with higher emphasis on meditation in seclusion and inner alchemy. The early Quanzhen movement had an interesting quality of demanding very rigorous, some might say harsh, asceticism while opening Daoist teachings to the public in a way that hadn't been done in a while.

 

However Quanzhen Daoists can be trained to do the same public rituals as Zhengyi, and Zhengyi monastics are not unheard of.

 

The historical sects did have their various emphases. Shang qing was focused on individual cultivation through intense visualized meditations. Ling Bao was focused on ceremonial magic (I read somewhere that most Daoist rituals today draw from the Ling Bao tradition rather than the earlier, much simpler Celestial Masters rites).

[Maddie]

Thank you Sir Palomides for that very nice answer! 😌

[SirPalomides]

I also forgot to mention the Red Hat sects which are closer to the level of popular religion. Officially the "orthodox" Daoists of Zhengyi see these guys as deficient or heterodox in some way but on the ground there seems to be more cooperation. Of course the orthodox Daoists themselves absorbed things over the centuries they would previously have considered heretical.  

[C T]

The origins: 

The earliest Daoist school emerged during the Later Han period 後漢 (25-220 CE), when the political centre lost its grip on the provinces. It was especially the northern region of Shu 蜀, the modern province of Sichuan, where numerous religious movements blossomed. The leaders of these movements were healers that promised their followers the liberation from diseases if the believers repented their sins, underwent a series of exorcist sessions and ingested charms dissolved in water. The two earliest movements were the Way of the Five Pecks of Grain (Wudoumi dao 五斗米道), called so because their leaders, the Heavenly Masters (tianshi 天師), levied a certain tax from their believers in the shape of millet or rice, and the Way of Great Peace (Taiping dao 太平道).

 

Present time: 

It is hard to tell the exact number of Daoist schools. There were greater, famous and more influential schools like the Quanzhen or Zhenyi Schools, and also some less known ones like the Bojia School 帛家道 or the Lijia School 李家道, and others are actually only side-branches of one tradition, like the Xuanjiao School 玄教, the Longmen School 龍門派 or the Tianxin School 天心派. In some instances, it can be said that some schools were later stages of earlier schools and had developed out of them, like the Five-Pecks-of-Grain School, the Longhu Church 龍虎宗 or the Zhenyi School 正一道, or the Shangqing School and the the Maoshan Church 茅山宗, the Lingbao School and the Gezao Church 閣皂宗. Depending on the grade of difference in their teachings and practice, they are described here as different schools. Concerning some of the Daoist schools, there is not a sufficient amount of historiographical material to provide a deeper insight into their teachings and history, like the Wudang School 武當道, the Laoshan School 嶗山派, the Sanfeng School, the Sazu School, or the many branches of the Quanzhen School, like the Longmen 龍門, Suishan 隨山, Nanwu (or Namo) 南無, Yuxian 遇仙, Huashan 華山, Yushan 嵛山 or Qingjing 清靜 schools. For some younger schools, doctrinal differences are so small that they can barely be called separate schools, like Lu Xixing's 陸西星 Eastern School of the Inner Alchemy (Neidan dongpai 内丹東派( and Li Xiyue's 李西月 Western School of the Inner Alchemy (Neidan xipai 内丹西派) which are both currents in the Quanzhen tradition.

 

 

Open to being fact-checked. 

 

[Maddie]

I wonder what was between Lao Tzu and the Heavenly Mater's school? Was it more of an individual thing?

[ReturnDragon]

Please keep in mind that Lao Tze is a philosopher. He wrote the Tao Te Jing classic based on Yijing. Yijing is another classic written  based on the observation of nature from the yin-yang concept. The Tao Te Jing used the human eyes to observe nature and came up with a set of principles. All the principles are categorized and summarized by Lao Tze and called Tao(the Principles of Tao.) The principles of Tao were used and applied to the human level of life.

Some people treated the Tao Te Jing as a classic of philosophy; and some used few chapters to convert them to practice their religious beliefs. BTW This is how the Taoist religion(道教) was originated in China. They treated Lao Tse as their all mighty deity(太上老君, Tai Shang Lao Jun). 

The two most common Taoist sects are Zhengyi(正一) and Quanzhen(全真). The former is more religious and the latter is more philosophical and righteous. The Heavenly Mater is more toward the Zhengyi(正一) sect. The Quanzhen(全真) sect would like to be more humane by the cultivation of the mind and body to become a true man(真人). The true man(真人) status is the highest realm for a Taoist to be attained.

[GSmaster]

4 minutes ago, ReturnDragon said:

Please keep in mind that Lao Tze is a philosopher. He wrote the Tao Te Jing classic based on Yijing. Yijing is another classic written  based on the observation of nature from the yin-yang concept. The Tao Te Jing used the human eyes to observe nature and came up with a set of principles. All the principles are categorized and summarized by Lao Tze and called Tao(the Principles of Tao.) The principles of Tao were used and applied to the human level of life.

Some people treated the Tao Te Jing as a classic of philosophy; and some used few chapters to convert them to practice their religious beliefs. BTW This is how the Taoist religion(道教) was originated in China. They treated Lao Tse as their all mighty deity(太上老君, Tai Shang Lao Jun). 

The two most common Taoist sects are Zhengyi(正一) and Quanzhen(全真). The former is more religious and the latter is more philosophical and righteous. The Heavenly Mater is more toward the Zhengyi(正一) sect. The Quanzhen(全真) sect would like to be more humane by the cultivation of the mind and body to become a true man(真人). The true man(真人) status is the highest realm for a Taoist to be attained.

 

Divine truths are repeatedly rejected by you as you have succumbed in your numbskulled clinical poopheadedness.

[ReturnDragon]

4 minutes ago, GSmaster said:

 

Divine truths are repeatedly rejected by you as you have succumbed in your numbskulled clinical poopheadedness.

Is this one of the westerner's point of view? Please observe what the OP was asking and looking for.

Edited April 2, 2020 by ReturnDragon

[Starjumper]

On 4/1/2020 at 10:15 AM, dmattwads said:

I know some will say to obtain the Tao, but what does that mean?

 

That is explained in the video I posted about Nei Kung.

[GSmaster]

3 minutes ago, ReturnDragon said:

Is this one of the westerner's point of view? 

 

Who told you I am a westerner? I am asian overlord 

[ReturnDragon]

Just now, GSmaster said:

 

Who told you I am a westerner? I am asian overlord 

Your thinking was not.

[GSmaster]

Just now, ReturnDragon said:

Your thinking was not.

 

Ascended Masters dont think.

[silent thunder]

12 hours ago, virtue said:

 

Somehow reminds me of Western hipsters drifting like clouds and buzzing like bees from Starbucks to another and then settling to the new kitsch fad cafe that serves organic avocado toast.

 

 

All the commitment and sustainability that goes with the pursuit. Hipsters are forever.

 

5 hours ago, dmattwads said:

 

It makes me wonder if there's a Tao of avocado toast? Kind of like finding the perfect cherry blossom, which if you were to find would not be a wasted life. 😌

My son just told me about a Donut Cafe in East Hollywood.

Apparently they've mastered adding mashed potatoes to their donut batter and offer "Blood Orange Blueberry Potatoe Donuts"

 

oh. my. god.

 

I told him, next time I'm on location anywhere near there, I'll bring home a dozen.  Though I'm an early year Gen X, not a hipster... I'm still all in on that shiz!

 

 

Edited April 2, 2020 by silent thunder

[ReturnDragon]

Just now, GSmaster said:

 

Ascended Masters dont think.

I thought so.

 

[GSmaster]

5 minutes ago, ReturnDragon said:

I thought so.

 

Sadly you aint one of us.

[ReturnDragon]

On 4/1/2020 at 8:15 AM, dmattwads said:

I know some will say to obtain the Tao, but what does that mean?

It means one have followed and abide by the principles of Tao.

[Maddie]

3 hours ago, ReturnDragon said:

It means one have followed and abide by the principles of Tao.

 

Yes, but what does that mean?

[ReturnDragon]

4 hours ago, ReturnDragon said:

It means one have followed and abide by the principles of Tao.

 

51 minutes ago, dmattwads said:

 

Yes, but what does that mean?

OK! It's time to look at the principle of Tao. The Tao Te Jing was evolved around the principle of Wu Wei (無為). Wu Wei is a very famous term which was patented by Lao Tze, so to speak. His definition is take no action to interrupt nature; just let nature take its course. 

If you have taken an action against nature, then you are considered to be not being Wu Wei. Can you think of anything that you had done was not so Wu Wei lately? I'll let you go from here! 

[Starjumper]

1 hour ago, dmattwads said:

Yes, but what does that mean?

 

Hopefully this will give some perspective on the relationship between nature and Taoism

 

 

[C T]

On 4/2/2020 at 10:03 PM, dmattwads said:

 

It makes me wonder if there's a Tao of avocado toast? Kind of like finding the perfect cherry blossom, which if you were to find would not be a wasted life. 😌

 

speaking of avo on toast....