Understanding Taoism

Religion is a particular topic that will never cease to exist as it is an important part of a vast amount of people’s lives. When religion is mentioned, many automatically think beliefs, traditions, practices, prayers, etc.; however, there are some situations where a type of religion can be viewed as a philosophical way of living. Taoism is an intriguing religion as it can be divided up into philosophical Taoism or religious Taoism, depending on the belief of a particular person. This specific religion can be best understood by going through important concepts that tend to follow Taoism everywhere.

Taoism is a particular interesting religion, as it can be difficult to trace how far back to where it first began. There are speculations to where it began but again they are mostly speculations that are hard to prove. But it can be said that Taoism slowly developed over time between the growths of various other religions as well as ancient traditions in China. Essentially Taoism is an eastern religion that began in China. There are multiple reports that man known, as Lao Tzu was one of the first and most important Taoists in the history of Taoism. A vast amount of people would even refer to him as the founder of this particular religion but again that is a popular belief.

Lao Tzu, which his name translated could also mean “old master”, was born in Ch’u. As he grew older, he decided to leave but in the process of migrating to another area, it was said that he met a gatekeeper. This gatekeeper wouldn’t let him leave until he wrote a book for him. This book would later be referred to as the Tao Te Ching, which is comprised of the term Tao, known as the way, and Te, also referred to as individual power. The Tao Te Ching is ...

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...s do eventually transform into each other and when they are equal, everything is balanced, such as yin and yang.

Taoism is an intriguing religion as it can mean something to one person and then something completely different to another person. Essentially this particular religion is full of a diverse group of people that value life to the fullest. Taoism is different in the sense that it doesn’t focus on life after death but rather life itself or the freedom of the mind, depending on which Taoism that person believes in. Even though they don’t believe or pray to one particular god, they are considered polytheistic so they do believe in a vast amount of gods as well as ancestors and ghosts, which makes this religion slightly different from a large amount of other religions. Either way, Taoism began in China and has slowly progressed to other parts of the world