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In his autobiographical essay, "From Taoist to Infidel", Carrier discusses his upbringing in a benign Methodist church, his conversion to Taoism in early adulthood, his confrontation with Christian fundamentalists while in the United States Coast Guard, and his deeper study of religion, Christianity, and Western philosophy, which eventually led to his embrace of naturalism. [11]
During the medieval period (中世紀) Taoists developed the idea of the "true form" or zhenxing.The term "true form" denotes the original form something has as a part of the Dao (道, dào), which Taoists refer to as the "Great Image without form" (大象無形), [5] and can be applied to a broad range of things such as a deity, an icon, a purified self, a talisman, or a picture.
The term Tao means "way", "path" or "principle", and can also be found in Chinese philosophies and religions other than Taoism. In Taoism, however, Tao denotes something that is both the source and the driving force behind everything that exists. It is ultimately ineffable: "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao." [1] Also called Daoism.
Calligraphy of Tao (道)The word "Tao" has a variety of meanings in both the ancient and modern Chinese language. Aside from its purely prosaic use meaning road, channel, path, principle, or similar, [2] the word has acquired a variety of differing and often confusing metaphorical, philosophical, and religious uses.
Since the initial stages of Taoist thought, there have been varying schools of Taoist philosophy and they have drawn from and interacted with other philosophical traditions such as Confucianism and Buddhism. Taoism differs from Confucianism in putting more emphasis on physical and spiritual cultivation and less emphasis on political organization.
The term dàojiàotú (道教徒; 'follower of Dao'), with the meaning of "Taoist" as "lay member or believer of Taoism", is a modern invention that goes back to the introduction of the Western category of "organized religion" in China in the 20th century, but it has no significance for most of Chinese society in which Taoism continues to be an ...
Daozang (Taoist Canon) and Subsidiary Compilations (Judith M. Boltz), sample entry from The Encyclopledia of Taoism; The Taoist Canon - maintained by David K. Jordan at UCSD. See also his overview of the canons of all three major Chinese religions, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism, here.
Chinese theology, which comes in different interpretations according to the Chinese classics and Chinese folk religion, and specifically Confucian, Taoist, and other philosophical formulations, [1] is fundamentally monistic, [2] that is to say it sees the world and the gods of its phenomena as an organic whole, or cosmos, which continuously emerges from a simple principle. [3]