Kohn, Livia (2004). The Daoist Monastic Manual: A Translation of the Fengdao Kejie. New York: Oxford University Press.

i.e.: Playing an instrument just for playing, not thinking about the playing, since otherwise one will get in ones own way and interfere with one’s own playing.) Chi Nan Temple, Muzha, Taiwan. A temple may be dedicated to one god, in this case Lü Dongbin, one of the Eight Immortals, but also include figures of the Yellow Emperor, Confucius, Buddha, and Lao Tzu, as well as others. Courtesy of Kasuga Huang The goal of ‘wu wei’ is alignment with Tao, revealing the soft and invisible power within all things.Xinzhong Yao, “Chinese Religions,” in Sacred Place, ed. Jean Holm and John Bowker (New York: Pinter, 1994), 183. Says Chuang Tzu) By a man without passions I mean one who does not permit likes and dislikes to disturb his internal economy, but rather falls in line with nature and does not try to improve upon [the materials of ] living. [9] The highest Taoist deity, Yù Huáng -ti (see: Jade Emperor), is associated with the ancient Chinese god Shang Di, ruler over all Heaven, Earth and the Underworld/ Hell. Another key figure, Taoist alchemist Ge Hong ( c. 283–343) was an aristocrat and government official during the Jin dynasty who wrote the classic known as the Baopuzi ("Master Embracing Simplicity"), a key Taoist philosophical work of this period. [3] This text includes Confucian teachings and also spiritual practices meant to aid in attaining immortality and a heavenly state called "great clarity", which had great influence on later Taoism. [32] Tao is ‘the nameless', because neither it nor its principles can ever be adequately expressed in words.

In Eastern Asia, these stars compose the Northern Dipper. They are colloquially named "The Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper" (Chinese: 北斗七星; pinyin: běidǒu qīxīng). Demerath, Nicholas J. (2003). Crossing the Gods: World Religions and Worldly Politics. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-3207-8. Compared to other philosophical traditions, Taoist philosophy is quite heterogeneous. According to Russell Kirkland, "Taoists did not generally regard themselves as followers of a single religious community that shared a single set of teachings, or practices." [5] Instead of drawing on a single book or the works of one founding teacher, Taoism developed out a widely diverse set of Chinese beliefs and texts, that over time were gathered together into various synthetic traditions. These texts had some things in common, especially ideas about personal cultivation and integration with what they saw as the deep realities of life. [6] I fell into all of these categories until recently, when a friend (of the Geist variety) showed me the ShowTime docuseries on the group. To say I was blown away by RZA’s eloquence and story is an understatement. In the book, he blends Nation of Islam teachings, Christianity, Buddhism, King Fu movies, chess, hip-hop, and even the violence of his youth into a (mostly) cohesive, inspirational belief system. I have rarely, if ever, heard of someone who willed themselves out of trouble and strife with such dedication and faith. Am I totally sold on the numerology and “Mathematics”? Not really, but the details hardly matter; the power of RZA’s message resonates regardless. Let's be honest: if you're not a Wu-Tang fan, I'm already judging you a little. But if you read (and like) this book, I will have a far higher opinion of you.RZA, born Robert Fitzgerald Diggs, is the Abbott of the Wu-Tang; he's their producer and the guy behind the beats, if I understand his role correctly. He also might be the brains of the organization, although they say his cousin the GZA is the genius of the collective. I dunno; RZA strikes me as incredibly introspective and a pretty smart guy, despite much of the crap he ascribes to as a Five-Percenter, although maybe that's just my devilishness rising to the surface. And if you don't know about the Five-Percent Nation, or the Nation of Gods and Earths as it's also called, well, it's a fascinating offshoot of the Nation of Islam founded by Clarence 13X who didn't have a problem with alcohol or drugs, but still prohibited eating the pig. (Frankly, at this point in my life I think I'd take the pork chop over a beer, but I guess that's just the devil in me again.) The best thing to me about the Wu-Tang clan is how they made connections with other mythology and applied it to themselves. RZA doesn’t just like Kung-Fu movies, he feels like they embody his life. To RZA, Chess is Hip Hop, Kung-Fu is Hip Hop, Religion is Hip Hop. He is skilled at absorbing and integrating the things he loves into his music, like the ultimate fan boy. RZA is at heart a just a huge nerd who is extremely talented in emulating his influences. Because of this, he spends most of the time talking about his various obsessions and showing how he uses them in his music. He doesn’t sound humble either, but at least his excitement seems more about his influences than himself. Xuanxue (lit. "mysterious" or "deep" learning, sometimes called Neo-Taoism ) was an important school of thought from the 3rd to 6th-century CE. Xuanxue philosophers combined elements of Confucianism and Taoism to reinterpret the Yijing, Daodejing, and Zhuangzi. Influential Xuanxue scholars include Wang Bi (226–249), He Yan (d. 249), Xiang Xiu (223?–300, part of the famous intellectual group known as the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove), Guo Xiang (d. 312), and Pei Wei (267–300). [3] I like philosophical Taoism because it leads us to think about what it really means to live in harmony with the organizing principle of the universe. The concepts of Tao and wu-wei lead me to a deeper understanding of what it means to live by the Spirit. Religious Taoism, on the other hand, is further from my own religious experiences and has less to attract me as a Latter-day Saint.

i.e. the harmonious complexity of natural ecosystems- the tao- works well without man made changes- wu wei. One final example of wu-wei in the above passage is found in the words “crooked becomes straight.” Anyone who has ever traveled in the Far East knows that scaffolding is usually made from bamboo and not from steel or aluminum. Why? Because bamboo bends. In a typhoon, bamboo bends before the wind but does not break, whereas steel or aluminum would bend permanently and henceforth be useless. But as the natural force of the wind subsides, the bamboo straightens and is once more useful. This is wu-wei. David S. Noss and John B. Noss, A History of the World’s Religions, 9th ed. (New York: Macmillan College, 1994), 299.The late Ming and early Qing dynasty saw the rise of the Longmen ("Dragon Gate" 龍門) school of Taoism, founded by Wang Kunyang (d. 1680) which reinvigorated the Quanzhen tradition. [47] Longmen Taoist writers such as Liu Yiming (1734–1821) also simplified Taoist “Inner Alchemy” practices making more accessible to the public by removing much of the esoteric symbolism of medieval texts. [48] It was Min Yide (1758–1836) though that became the most influential figure of the Longmen lineage, as he was the main compiler of the Longmen Daozang xubian and doctrine. [47] It was Min Yide who also made the famous text known as The Secret of the Golden Flower, along with its emphasis on internal alchemy, the central doctrinal scripture of the Longmen tradition. [47] Another influence to the development of later Taoism was Huáng-Lǎo (literally: "Yellow [Emperor] Old [Master]"), one of the most influential Chinese school of thought in the early Han dynasty (2nd-century BCE). [27] It was a syncretist philosophy which brought together texts and elements from many schools. Huang–Lao philosophy was favoured at the Western Han, before the reign of Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BCE) who made Confucianism the official state philosophy. These intellectual currents helped inspire several new social movements such as the Way of the Celestial Masters which would later influence Taoist thought. Among scholars there is debate about the founder of philosophical Taoism to the extent that some question whether Lao Tzu, the traditional founding figure, even existed. Interestingly, modern scholars of religion have become more and more skeptical about knowing anything about the religious figures of the past. This is true even of Jesus, many scholars claiming that the Gospels contain no historically accurate information about him. It is the sense of the current author that this “doubting Thomas” attitude has gone too far. Thus for the purposes of this chapter, we will accept Lao Tzu as the founder of the philosophical Taoist school, and we will accept him as the author of the foundational text, the Tao Te Ching (or Dao de Jing).