First off, I wish to extend my thanks to Professor Paul Crowe for sitting down with me this morning and talking about Taoism and his experiences living it and teaching it.  This post is a direct result of our talks and his past lectures.

Taoism is very hard to define.  It isn’t really a religion, and I don’t mean that in the same way that Satanism or atheism “aren’t really religions.”  Atheism is, strictly speaking, just a statement of belief, an idea that can be part of a wider whole, like theism.  Satanism is a religion, but it comes without the familiar myths and components of every other faith.

Taoism is more of a process, a word that can describe a very long trend through Chinese thought and history, which intersects with Confucianism, Buddhism, and various folks beliefs and practices.  Now there are certain texts that can be called Taoist, like the Chaung-Tzu and the Tao-te Ching, but these don’t contain prescriptions for living and for belief like other religions do.  Nothing is really codified here.  It is almost better to call it sage advice, wise words that can be picked up and tried out.  It’s not dogmatic, but it isn’t completely ambiguous either.

It is very hard to define, but basically Taoism, as I am going to treat it here, is a practice through which you learn to settle your own mind in order to listen to your body, to your surroundings, and the people around you, so that you can respond to them properly, and treat them as they need to be treated.  Taoism’s morality could be called a kind of virtue ethics, in which one strives to live up to certain standards and perform to the best of one’s ability, but no where are these golden rules dogmatically laid down.  Instead you try to be completely receptive to each given situation, so that you can respond in the best possible way.  The standard you are striving towards is not to be moral, right, virtuous, or good, it is to be.

This is going to be somewhat difficult to practice, as there are no set things that I can check off like ‘going to church’ or ‘read the Qur’an.’  Things like reading Taoist literature and doing things like sitting meditation or tai chi will certainly help, but none of them are necessarily required in order to be a Taoist.  I will still be doing all of these things, as I always want to be getting the most out of this month.  But when you get right down to it, Taoism is about balance within your own mind and body, and maintaining that throughout your daily life.  This can be awfully trying in average day to day existence, and so things like meditation help maintain that steady clam and responsiveness.

On the plus side this means I don’t really have to give up the things I learned that I enjoyed last month, or really do anything strenuous or out of the ordinary (unless I feel like testing my newly found Taoist resolve).  However, actually trying to explain Taoism is going to be difficult.

There are parts of Taoism that can certainly be called religious- there is a long history of hermitages, ceremonies, chants, priests, etc.  Separated from everything else, these bits of Taoism, if observed and practiced by a group of people, could be called a religion, and I don’t mean to discount that.  It just doesn’t fit our standard expectation of what a religion is and how it manifests in human thought and behaviour.  Or perhaps it does…

All that I’m trying to say is that I think I get it now, and am more confident in moving forward now than I was at the beginning of the month.