In this event report, our newsletter editor Frances Lloyd recaps the talk by Alec Jones, Principal of Dragon Spring Taiji School of Taiji and Qigong.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laozi
Alec told us that Daoism – sometimes spelled Taoism – is many things: a religion, a philosophy, and a way of life.
Laozi was an educated man living in China in the 6th century. He was a keeper of archives in the capital of China, able to read lots of information and gain a lot of knowledge. He felt he’d seen enough corruption in the way the country was run and decided to move to the mountains. The guard at the border asked why he’d made the decision and, after talking, the guard asked him to write down some of his words of wisdom. This became the Tao Te Ching and was 5,000 Chinese characters. It consisted of succinct mystical phrases called chapters and there were 81 chapters (some very short). It demonstrated his wisdom. Many people saw it as the way to govern a country.
Everyone has their own views on what Daoism is. The Chinese character for Dao represents a person ‘walking’ along a road. Dao literally translates to a road or a path. It’s the journey not the destination that’s important. Six hundred years after Laozi it was decided to make Daoism into a religion. There are lots of gods who report to a supreme god. It is guidance on how to live a life of quality. There is no supreme being; it’s about the journey (Alec practices Taiji also spelled Tai Chi). The origins of Daoism are lost in the mists of time. There was very little written language, if any, that has survived from 4,000 years ago.
The original Daoists lived in nature and were observers. They observed how plants and animals lived and observed the movement of the stars, the sun and the moon – what could be described as Mother Nature. They also became alchemists with the aim of living longer and some were said to have become immortal. Daoism is about being authentic to one’s self. The book, Tao Te Ching (Dao de Jing), has many translations. Alec has 20. They are each authors’ understanding of what they’ve read and then put into English. Each translation can be quite different. There isn’t a relationship to Buddhism. Some people study Daoism as an academic subject but Alec said it’s a living philosophy and tries to live by it as far as he can in the modern world. There is no figurehead. Alec calls it a life force. He told us that in Chinese philosophy Wuji means Void, or Nothing, and is often represented as an empty circle. Out of this Nothing comes Yin/Yang, which is the symbol of Taiji, negative and positive, light and dark, male and female. Opposites which work in harmony.
Practising Daoism
To be a Daoist you practice something that embodies the symbol – Taiji or meditation. But just following the philosophy of the Tao Te Ching can be enough – following a simple life, go with the flow (follow the path of least resistance), letting go if something can’t change, living harmoniously with yourself, others and the environment. Being yourself. Aim to bring your life into balance. Don’t force anything and just do what needs to be done.
Alec introduced us to The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff, which is a simplified introduction to Daoism and Alec read from it.
How do we know about Laozi? No-one knows if he actually existed!
In Taiwan there are temples and different sects and there are more people practicing religious Daoism than in mainland China. In the 40s and 60s anything that empowered the individual like Taiji or religion was banned by the Chinese government, but they have become softer towards these practices in the last few decades.