Daoism Case Study

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Daoism
Background
Daoism is a religion system that began in China. It started around 200 and 300 B.C. Lao Tzu is said to be the founder of Daoism. There is actually some debate on whether Taoism has a founder, or whether Lao Tzu was a real person (BBC 2014). Daoism is also called Taoism. It is called Daoism because it most resembles the western pronunciation of the word. They follow the sacred text called The Tao-te-ching, which is only 5,000 words. Their sacred text represents the ideology of Taoist quite nicely. It shows that The Taoist, really believe in simplicity. At one point Daoism was a top religion in China right before the Communist Revolution. However, now the numbers have drastically dropped. Daoism also links to Confucianism and
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In order for this to happen, Daoist needs to put aside their own selfish desires and live simple. They should tune their minds into nature rather than into their wants. This does not mean that Daoist need to live lazy lives. Daoist should find ways to be active, productive, and effective; while keeping in mind the ideology of The Tao (BBC 2014). They try to uphold right moral behavior. The do not encourage things like killing, stealing, lying, sexuality. Instead they encourage helpful and kind behavior (BBC …show more content…
Daoism is a gender-equal religion (BBC 2014). Daoism encourages women to play an equal role in the spiritual life. Women can be priests as well as worshiped. This is shown with the Yin and Yang (masculinity needing femininity) (BBC 2014). Daoism usually shows feminism as soft and non-aggressive. Daoism teaches that the weak (feminism) will one day overcome the strong (BBC 2014).
The Daoist have this idea of being at union with The Tao. Daoist should be working their whole life in order to be in union with nature (BBC 2014). They should always practice ways of The Tao. In doing so they are providing themselves with self-development. Daoist encourage self-development in a virtuous way as long as it is sincere. In no way should people brag about their virtues that would make them tainted and in opposed to the Tao (BBC 2014).
Daoist use techniques like mediation, feng shui, fortune telling, and reading scriptures to help achieve union with The Tao (Dickens 2014). Daoist are very focused on clearing the mind and body. Daoist view the body as a small scale universe (BBC 2014). They are very conscious about treating the body well, both physically and spiritually. Practices such as meditation helps cleanse the mind. The Daoist use priests and monks to help them follow the Tao. These priests also lead ceremonies, as well as rituals, to honor the deities they worship.

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