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Saturday, March 4, 2006

How Does One Become a Taoist?

It's always interesting to see which search terms bring a person to your blog. Today, one of those search terms involved the question: How Does One Become a Taoist?

I suppose there are trillions of ways this question could be answered. For me, the answer is very easy. No one can become a Taoist...because you already are one.

From the perspective of Taoism, everything that exists is part of the one cosmic reality. If you and I are part of Tao, then there's no need to "become" something you are inherently part of.

And here's the best part of being a Taoist, you don't even need to acknowledge it. It doesn't matter one wit if you ever utter the word Tao. The fact that you exist is enough.

This is one way that Taoism is set apart from religion. In order to call yourself a Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, etc., you must subscribe to certain beliefs and understand the world from a particular perspective.

This matters not in Taoism. It's of no consequence as to what you believe in nor how you refer to yourself. It doesn't matter where you live or your position in life. It's not dependent on your age, race or gender. In fact, you don't even have to be human!

The fact that you are is all that matters. So, for anyone (or thing) that is reading this, I say: Welcome fellow Taoist.

10 comments:

  1. Maybe it's a case of people letting things get some mixed up that they lose sight of their connection to the Tao?

    For some reason, over at Quiet Watercourse I seem to get lot of folk searching for Derek Acorah on MSN Search recently.

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  2. Interesting, Trey. So basically calling oneself a Taoist is redundant.

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  3. On a most basic level I do agree. The trouble is
    many people refuse to be themselves. In doing so, you are not living as taoist. So
    on one level yes, everyone is innately a taoist, However, that free choice issue comes into play
    and when someone actively lives against their own nature, then you are not living as a taoist.

    I wrestled with this concept when writing a personal tao, since in effect thats the core of what I am writing about;
    teaching people to be themselves, to flow in a taoist manner in life. Sadly life in a consumer culture especially in modern american western culture has some very
    un taoist baselines.

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  4. Casey,
    Well put. There is a difference in BEING one with Tao and ACTING as if you know it.

    Howard,
    Referring to one's self as a Taoist is no more redundant that a person living in Bellingham who is a naturalized citizen referring to himself as being American or a member of the Boston Red Sox addressing his teammates by saying, "I am a Boston Red Sox."

    Besides, the key word in my moniker is not Taoist -- it's Rambling.

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  5. After thinking about it for awhile, the comment I made for your posting of Wednesday, March 1 would probably fit in here with just a few minor adjustments.

    If there were no religious or philosophical rules written down, we would figure it out over time just by being. "We don't need no stinkin' badges."

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  6. Trey, shouldn't the Red Sox player say, "I am a Boston Red Sock."? ;-)

    Seriously, after I posted that comment about redundancy, I thought a lot about it and about your post and my thoughts led to my whole distaste for labels. One of the main reasons I struggle with religion and spirituality is because I'm pretty sure that I'm really not a Jew or a Buddhist or a Taoist...I'm a human being.

    I think the world would look a whole lot better if we just dropped all the stinkin' badges! (Props to Dino.)

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  7. I discussed the same thing on my blog couple of days ago, since I received the same question. I personally don't think you can ever be a Taoist, simply because there's no ritual to make you one, unlike, let's say christians who have baptism.
    You are inspired by Taoism, you can be inspired by the lyrics of Lao Tze, but still, there is no clear evidence that you are in fact a Taoist.
    I think everyone who thinks about his path of life and tries to life his life as simple as can be, is a Taoist (even if he/she is unaware of the philosophy itself).

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  8. Howard and Bert,
    Don't you see? This is the whole point of the word T-A-O. It's a made up word. It doesn't signify anything specific. It has no true translation. In other words, to call yourself a Taoist has as much meaning as calling yourself a human being.

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  9. Trey,
    I agree that the word Tao has no specific meaning, but I don't call everyone a Taoist, simply because lots of people don't live their life in peace with themselfs. If I look at my generation (24-28), most of them are concerned about money and sex, that's it. I can't call them Taoists. They don't live in the spirit of Lao Tze.
    Most likely, I'm too extreme in my thinking, but it's hard to do otherwise.

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  10. Bert,
    I would refer you back to Casey's point above. There's a vast difference between being part of Tao and living one's life in Tao. The former is inherent; the latter is a choice.

    Besides, there are many people from your generation (you, for an example) that are not consumed with money and sex. And, truth be known, there are billions and billions of people -- both alive and dead -- from every generation who are/were consumed by these two.

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