Sunday, November 1, 2009

Taoism


Taoism? What is that...? I believe that it is safe to say that most people here in America haven't heard of it. Taoism is an eastern religion, it originated in China around the same time as Confucius (551-479 BCE). Its founder is of a man named Lao-Tse.

Tao is a power that flows through all things, whether living or non-living. It regulates the events and processes of everything, and the existence of opposites are embraced, without hate there is no love, no light no dark, no male without female. This is were the Yin-Yang symbol originated from. Yang being widely accepted as masculine qualities, Energetic, light, hot and aggressive. Yin is more feminine, soft, healing, cool, calm and passive. The comparison of yin and yang can be applied to things from night and day to boiling an egg and freezing one. It is misconceived by westerners that one is evil and the other is good, instead each are specific qualities neither good nor bad.

Taoists are different in many ways from western religions. Taoists do not pray as Christians or Muslims because they don't believe there is a God to hear them. Instead they "pray" in their own way through meditation. They also place emphasis on respect for the environment and nature. In Taoism it is encouraged to let nature flow and not to interfere because if they did it would upset the balance of Yin and Yang. Similar to western religion though virtue is of utmost importance, the three jewels of Taoism are humility, moderation and compassion.

1 comment:

  1. I never knew this about the ying yang sign all i knew was it looked cool and something about a good side and a bad side. This is really good that you wrote this so people accualy figuer out the true meaning and dont draw it or put it as a tatto because it looks cool. really interesting : )

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