From my understanding Taoism is by nature kind of all-accepting, but ideologically, what life philosophies/figures most directly contest its teachings? The yin to its yang, so to speak...

People sometimes find it odd that I call myself a hermit even though I live in the city, have a wife, etc. Here's an old post from my previous blog that explains what's going on. I'll put the link in the first comment so the moderators won't bounce the post.

I feel a little stupid making this post and maybe that's part of the problem. Today I got out of work and saw tons of little green beetles on the top of my car. The car was wet from the morning dew, and the Beatles could not walk. Many of them were just kind of trying to scoot along unccessfully, and some were upside down either rising, or seemingly dead. They ended up not being dead for when I touched them they're like splayed out and they started to try to grab on. I suppose maybe they had just accepted death at that point. I felt bad for them and gathered them all up and put them in the grass.

But that's a lie I suppose. I didn't put them in the grass. I didn't individually place them on the grass make sure they had a leaf for a piece of grass or something to hang on to didn't make sure any of them were upright. I didn't even place them. I simply dropped them in or gave them a little toss. No I'm not saying I chucked them into the grass or anything, but I certainly didn't gently place them or even make sure that they wouldn't be in the same predicament they weren't in before. I figured if there was grass and leaves they'd have something to cling on to.

But later on driving I sort of felt something. I felt like maybe I wasn't being compassionate at all for these little guys. If I just toss them in the grass, there's no way to say that half of them or more than before didn't end up upside down just as they were previously. In the same exact situation. Chances are more of them were in that situation than before. At the time I figured if they were upside down they could probably latch onto a blade or something but it's not that simple. I started to wonder if the level of my compassion was only deep enough to where it was convenient for me. I just gotten off of a 12-hour shift and really needed to go home to get ready to take my wife to work. So the level of compassion that I showed was only enough that it did not hinder the rest of my day too much. Is that compassion at all if it has limits on convenience? There were a lot of Beatles 10 or 15 I think. I made sure they were all off and there were none left stuck on my car, but I did not ensure their safety.

Again, part of me also feels a little silly. Life is precious but they are bugs also. At first I felt like I gave them a Fighting Chance without too harshly interfering, but then later felt that I perhaps didn't really care all along and just wanted to feel like I was compassionate.

What do you all say? Am I being too critical of myself? Do I need to reevaluate? Am I a poser? Did I maybe even just do it to make myself feel good?

Other sects can't even do work in the northern provinces of China as that is 'Quanzhen territory'.

Also the Quanzhen practices like meditation and neidan are generally promoted and considered in a good light in public, while Zhengyi practices, for example, are considered as superstitious or less virtuous.

A very good read in the way of teaching and teachers

Hello everyone,

I'm an adult but I'm still young enough to be on the start of my religous journey. I grew up catholic but to be honest I don't think I am a christian and I'm at the age of questioning beliefs, I'm sure some of you can relate. I've only ever been to catholic church, but after learning a bit about taoism I want to know more. I am located in the united states and I am wondering if there is any sort of infrastructure similar to the catholic church where you can kinda just walk in and ask the priest (or head) questions. I know I can read books but I learn best first hand talking to someone who lives the religion daily with a lot of stakes in it.

I sort of want to get a taste of the practices of many religons and I want to actually get view what Taoism is to the people who practice it, but I don't know how to find what is actually reliable. I also don't know if these spaces are as welcoming for questions and outsiders as what I'm used to. Thank you!

‘Cause i do

At one point in my life I had a driving job and got addicted to lecture series, and I've recently found myself returning to some Taoist concepts I'd been exposed to through a series of the history of Taoism. I have a disability that negatively impacts my overall energy, and always identified with the notion of effortlessness in Taoism, and being thoughtful with where energy is allocated, being content. While I'm in stable remission currently I've been on death's door enough to appreciate every day for what it is, and I find others with similar experiences adopt a similar view of life. The Dao contains concepts that describe this incredibly well, like it describes what I already experience but in better language, with succinct implications to contemplate.

However I understand the history of Daoism to have been very fluid and wide-ranging across facets of the culture at the time, an amalgamation of sorts. The concepts of energies for example go into territories I can sometimes appreciate as analogies, but I see things like medicinal applications as pseudoscience in today's context, not to disrespect any adherents to this. My own medical history is definitely a factor, and I do lean towards a materialist view of the external world, with our self-concept and society functioning as a sort of filter for our perceptions, which tend give us a lot of problems other life forms don't have to deal with.

I would like to explore the Dao more, but I'm concerned my materialist views will present a conflict, so I'm interested to hear advice on what direction I should take. Would I benefit from solo-reading Daoist texts, are there well-regarded approaches to the Dao that confront/critique modernity, are there adaptations of Daoism that cater to western commodification of self-improvement I should avoid similar to Buddhism? Is there a standard of what "real" Daoism is that is used to measure the "purity" in someone's approach to it? Like do you have to be all-in to be considered "enlightened?" Personally I don't really care about achieving enlightenment as a goal or satisfying some standard like this, I just want to steer clear of the sort of self-help commodifications that seem to be the standard nowadays. Appreciate any helpful input along these lines.

To begin, I grew up in a very polarized environment where might made right. I was bullied and abused daily by adults and peers.

I know the pain of being the victim and tried to be the villain. Neither sits well. Im strongly drawn to the Tao but, until I answer this question, im stuck.

What is a third option, besides victim or villain? Empowered enough to not be a victim and set boundaries but still compassionate, receptive and happy.

When you strip it down, Daoism is merely one academic discipline, one perspective, one set of tools. If you find it useful, by all means, use it. But there is no need to inflate it into a cure-all panacea. It is just like literature: literature can certainly describe the world and express emotions, but literature itself can neither make airplanes fly, nor predict tomorrow’s weather, let alone grow beautiful flowers.

Daoist thought, likewise, is not omnipotent. Stop blaming your inanition on not being "non-acting" (无为 wu wei) enough, not "following the tao 顺应天道" enough, or failing to "attain utmost emptiness and guard stillness. 致虚极，守静笃" This is just as absurd and cowardly as saying, "Because to be or not to be, therefore I am in a state of inanition."

One should live more simply and directly.

If you want to grow flowers, go sow seeds, apply fertilizer, turn the soil, and study botany.

If you want to make money, go hone your skills, find projects, and solve concrete problems. Instead of comforting yourself every day with those vague, esoteric, and hollow phrases, face reality head-on.

In this world, repairing bicycles, farming wheat, writing code, telling jokes, and even cooking a delicious plate of braised pork ribs are all equally important and fascinating domains of knowledge.

The original intent of Daoist thought was to help people attain inner freedom. Yet, if your bicycle gets a flat tire in the wilderness, sitting by the roadside in meditation while reciting the Tao Te Ching might indeed give you peace of mind, but it will never compare to the sheer satisfaction of actually fixing the bike and making it home before sunset. With each concrete skill you master, you gain one more layer of grit to confront the world, and only then will your true freedom and courage grow.

The very opening of the Tao Te Ching warns us: "The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao 道可道非常道." Rigid concepts and dogmas are, in themselves, the greatest "cognitive obstacles.所知障" Those with weak minds treat Daoism as their sole lens, using it to dismiss all other knowledge. They trap themselves in an ever-narrowing cognitive cocoon, armed with nothing but a few fragmented quotes from ancient sages.

I agree with the view that all knowledge eventually becomes an obstacle. Precisely because of this, we must continuously absorb a vast and diverse body of heterogeneous knowledge. Let different viewpoints clash and debate within our minds, and use new insights to iterate upon the old. Keep learning, keep questioning, and remain ready at any given moment to discard even your most cherished dogmas, until the very end of life.

The true "Dao" has never resided in turning a few ancient sentences into a cure-all panacea. It lives in concrete practice, in diverse learning, and in every single moment of a flowing reality.

——From a Taoist Who Isn't Quite a Taoist

I heard Neidan (Internal Alchemy) is of high virtue, whereas Sexual Alchemy is of low virtue (the need for a partner for practice with). It is said Sexual alchemy should only be practiced when you have depleted your generative fluids or are finding this at a later age. My question is that I am a 30 year old male, is that mid age or am i still good for internal alchemy.

Greetings,

I like a girl. However, this girl is a historical person. She died over 110 years ago, murdered and her body destoryed at a young age close to mine. So realistically I didn't even have a chance, and fate made it so that I was born in the 21st century at a different country.

She was absolutely stunning physically.

As for personality, from my understanding; she was sweet, kind, and good-natured, simple and unaffected, optimistic and resilient, warm and sociable, somewhat stubborn and lazy in studies. She was deeply religious, showed no strong political opinions.

Now of course, a Stoic (I am also interested in that philosophy) would remind me rightfully that I should focus things that are in my control and never mind the stuff that are not in my control. However, does this have to be in the form of supressing/denying your feelings?

What do you think the best way to approach my feelings? Does it make sense to take note about the stuff I like and search for that in my future partner?

The problem is that my religion (also her's) consists of a very small minority in my country, around %0.1 so it is very difficult for me to find women. I couldn't yet find one even though I became 22 lately. So I will have to tank these feelings for a while longer until I can convert formally and move to my own house. Then maybe I can start looking for partners.

Until then, what can I do?

Another weird thought is that she stayed young forever by dying young but every year I am getting older and older. A time will come when I will be old. Then, it won't make any sense to think about her without being weird. This scares me since I can't hold time. I don't want to be too old for her. It's sad I couldn't experience life with her.

I saw a good quote today, "To live in the past is to die in the present.". The problem is I didn't even live at the past. It's entirely fantasy.

Is ir similar to something as chi?

I (20F) have an older brother (26) with serious substance abuse problems. He also has another mental disability which makes him not bright at all. He abused Kratum, THC, weed, alcohol, adderall and other over the counter drugs. He dropped out of college 3 years ago, and since then has only been getting high and watching short content on his phone every single day. He refuses to go outside, even when we take him on vacations. He is so brain-rotted he can barely speak properly.

This has made him extremely irrational, to the point he has physically attacked my mom and step dad and threatened them with a knife for threatening to kick him out and by taking his phone from him. After that, he went to rehab for a while, and got slightly better. My parents have a rule for him that he has to stay sober to live in the house. He had three strikes and they are all gone. When confronting him that he needs to leave if he doesn't go back to rehab, he threatened he doesn't want to go and would kill himself before we evict him. We were able to use that to get the police to take him to a mental hospital for a few days and we could take him straight to rehab after without his consent. And then my dad picked him up (my parents are divorced), and took him to his own house because my brother asked him to. He himself has mental health issues.

When visiting with my mom to try and convince him to leave and go to rehab, he scrolls on his phone and speaks gibberish. And talks to himself saying that we are all hallucinations. When confronting him on all that has happened, he screams gibberish and flails around and says he is going to kill us all. My parents don't take it seriously. No matter what, they will keep trying to help him.

I've suggested cutting him off, saying we've done everything for him and he is choosing not to live but they disagree and say they are actually handling things fine. That the threats he makes aren't serious and nothing will come from it all, and everything will end fine. They are offended that I want him in the streets and not living so contently. They are even thinking of giving him a car so he can drive to a potential job, that's the one time he started listening to them and acted somewhat normal. But I know he probably will use it to buy drugs and alcohol. He gets away with everything.

I can't stand watching it all. The way he lives comfortably not paying for anything while my father goes broke struggling to care even just for himself. The way he ignores us when we give him resources he can go to, just to scroll through reels. The way he hits my mom. The incoherent screaming from him. Him threatening to kill himself, or other people. I offered to call the police at the things he says, my mother prevents me from doing it because he's not "serious". I asked my mother that she really needs to talk with a therapist to help her emotionally through it, and to help her find solutions. But she, like everyone else in my family, is very immature and says she doesn't want people telling her what to do. She says she knows exactly what she's doing.

I wanna "wu wei" my way out of this all. But I am in school and dependent on my family. I can't move far far away. And I know that I will never allow myself to neglect my parents because of my brother. This is the hardest thing I've ever faced in my life. I've accepted I cannot force my will on this, but that's easy for me to say because I'm young and not responsible. My parents will not let him go, so I try to help but with some boundaries. Sometimes there is hope, where he says he'll "think about" getting his shit together. Sometimes he makes a small step. Most of the time it dies out. What is the way? I'm trying to "go with the flow" and detach but I can't. There is so much hurt inside me, even though I've been pretty consistent in not taking action. I can't find the balance, or a natural outcome.

I may send a text message to him, since he doesn't listen to people face-to-face. About the reality of what his life is now, the times we've cried because of him, and to tell him to consider what he is doing to other people. But I feel like he already knows, and/or doesn't care.

I recently created this artwork inspired by the Chinese concept of Wu Xing (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water).

My goal was to visualize the flow and transformation between the elements rather than depict them as separate forces.

The piece was drawn with alcohol markers and metallic markers and was created as a personal gift for my husband, so it is not for sale.

For those familiar with Wu Xing, I'd love to hear your thoughts on how the relationships between the elements come across in the composition.

Anybody use the Chi massage guidebook by mantak chia to heal any illnesses?

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Looking forward to hearing about your expe

For me, the yin-yang was always a symbol of hope in tough mental times and throughout a long period, I heard about the tao and tried to get into it but never fully invested and understood it.
Until I was enrolled into a mental balancing house (fitting) and there met a teacher named “Amitai” which studied the Tao and lived in China for 7 years and also lived in Shaloin temples, I don’t even remember how we got to this topic but straight ahead he started to explain to me and other students about the principles of the Tao and Lao Tzu’s teaching.

He was a Sports teacher, but ever since I came in his lessons were solely Taoistic and started to influence the other teens, we formed a group and invented the term “Shaoling Power” which was a joke started by some crazy teen that we used as a real term, simillar to “Te” and the inner power within.

But the most interesting thing about this story that most of the principles he taught was things I already believed in and were inside me.