Daoism Analysis

Daoism has everything to do with nature. It plays the most important role in human development and knowledge . It states that humans should help

Ancient China has three philosophies: Confucianism, Legalism, and Daoism. These three philosophies explain how people should behave and how the government should rule the people. The philosophies were guidelines to the people. Confucianism, Legalism, and Daoism have different values, beliefs, and ideas of what is important and expected, but the main goal is to work towards peace and harmony. These cultures are the same way in being rewarded due to their actions, but different in government regulation because of the people in command.

Although Daoism believes in modesty, and Confucianism emphasizes honesty, ruling a kingdom effectively during a time of turmoil requires sovereignty. Legalism is a system of pure power that demands restraint and discipline with an emphasis on strict laws. Daoism maintains the balance of nature and embrace harmony by utilizing “The Dao.” Confucianism highlights virtues and morality wanting people to become The Superior Man. For an East Asian Kingdom plagued by famine, war, and civil unrest, Legalism would bring order to the Kingdom by a centralized and powerful government, strict laws that govern the people, and once peace ensues, a secure economy.

Daoism is a daily guide to living so a person can experience the most of their own self. Daoism teaches the follower to look inside and to gain knowledge through self-exploration and to connect with our inner nature. The yin and yang shows the complementary sides of objects and nature, even the human body. The Taoist Sanctuary of San Diego states, “All is Tao. All opposites are in actuality part of one whole, giving rise to one another. Neither is

Amidst the chaos of political instability and constant warring of the Zhou era, arose many intellectual thinkers that brought such a profound impact in the fields of politics, religion, and philosophy. Even to this day, their influence can be seen on the many matters of China. Confucianism became the paramount school of thinking and later significant philosophies such as Daoism and Legalism gained immense recognition as well. Each party had their own proposals for creating an idealistic political society where the many problems they faced in their everyday lives could be eliminated. All three approaches were very distinct but at the same time, they contained similarities as well. In my reasoning, I find that Confucianism and Daoism

Hinduism, Buddhism, and Daoism are all religions that connect in more than one way. One major way that these religions connect is through the afterlife, otherwise known as the unconditioned reality. Hinduism and Buddhism have very similar views on the afterlife while Daoism has a slightly different view. In the end, they all have the same goal which is to achieve the final state that lasts forever. Even though this is true, that does not mean they do not differ in more than one way. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Daoism rely strongly on theoretical, practical, and sociological standpoints. A large part of the theoretical standpoints, are myths about the gods and how things are. A large part of sociological standpoints are festivals, and temples. Lastly, practical is practiced through mediation, yoga, and payers. In Hinduism, there are various sects that worship a total of roughly 360,000,000 different gods. As you could imagine, this would be difficult to generalize in just one essay, so the branch of Hinduism I will go over just includes the basic trinity and Vedic gods. Along with this, this essay will include information on the two major types of Buddhism and how one attains enlightenment. Finally, we will go over how one is to attain immortality through Daoism, along with the beliefs of the traditional Chinese Folk religions.

The yin and yang, opposites, balanced and held together as aspect of an inseparable whole. Is not clear to me how the two are balanced. How could we balance good and evil? Some logic applies to some opposites such as male and female, black or white, life or death. There is a balance between them; however, how could you balance the good and evil around you? I guess is where the meditation techniques and recognizing what is good or bad and how to deal and live with it, is the Daoist belief. The statement that “wisdom lies in recognizing their ever-shifting, but regular and balanced, pattern and moving with them.” This creative rhythm of the universe is called the Dao, or “way.”

While the Way can be considered an intangible idea of how to live your life, others believe it is an omnipotent force that shapes all things and cannot be named. Confucianists believe the former, where they have a superior chance of achieving a better life through ritual. Daoists, however, trust in nonaction, in not interfering with nature, to have a better and longer life. Conversely, the Daoist idea can only hold true in an ideal society, since it would be hard to employ. I will argue that a Confucianist society is better, because it relies on action in a society, the use of virtue with rituals to learn, and the overall betterment of the self to create order in the community as a means of reaching Way.

Daoism means “Followers of the way”, although Dao does not means only “way”. According to the BBC religion, the word Dao or Tao can include several concepts such as “the source of creation”, “the ultimate”, “the unnameable” ,“the way of nature as a whole”, “the natural universe as a whole” and “the inexpressible and indefinable.” In Taoism they believe in way of living in which there were not many rules and believes in the philosophy of inaction. They say that you can find happiness through nature and harmony. Also this is where yin and yang come from. As we can see, there are major differences between Daoism and Confucianism, but one of them is very important, the life after death.

Before parallels can be drawn between ideals and paths in Daoism, Daoist philosophy and Dao must be defined. It is hard to put Daoist Philosophy into a nice, neat sentence because of the complexity and vast amount of information on the subject. For the intent of this paper, Daoist philosophy is defined as a Chinese philosophy that takes a more naturalist approach to religion and way of living. It is the connection between imitating nature and harmony. Dao is defined in Chapter 1 as the constant moving “everything” that surrounds us. It is not tangible, it is just what it is, and you do not know exactly what this something is.

The Luohan are characterized in Buddhist scriptures as forest or mountain dwellers, descriptions which made them sound like the Daoist masters who withdrew to the mountains in search of immortality. Chinese works of art often present luohan in landscape settings like those used in the portrayal of Doaist masters. The association of Buddhist monks and Daoist sages was made not only on the basis of their similar preference for wilderness retreats, but also because both were believed to have wonder-working powers over life and death and over the immense forces of nature. Buddhist writings make much of the correlation between enlightenment and supernatural abilities such as controlling nature and extending one’s life, powers associated with Daoist

The basic concepts that are the most important for understanding the Daoist view of reality is described simply in our Revealing World Religions courseware. Essentially, Daoism teaches that there is an ultimate reality. This ultimate reality serves as the basis for everything and everyone in the universe. This is a trait of the religion that is similar to that of other ancient wisdoms. The introductory lecture on Daoism introduces the translation of the Dao. The Dao is representative of “the path” or “the way”. The concept relates specifically growing power that surges and flows through all things, living and non-living. The idea of the Dao is to serve as a regulator for natural processes, nourisher for balance within the Universe, and an embodiment

Life during the Warring States period was harsh and chaotic. The people longed for the peaceful days which had preceded the Warring States period. As a result, the great minds of the time focused their energies on regaining peace and stability in China. Their efforts culminated in philosophies, which were mainly blueprints for government which would hopefully bring the land out of chaos and back under a stable, unified rule. Here are brief summaries of the two in your question but the Legalism school of philosophy should have been included. Daoism is the most mystical of the major schools. As the name suggests, the focus on the Dao, or the Way.

In “The Daodejing,” Laozi, similar to many prominent Chinese philosophers before and after his time, discusses his unique perspective of the “Way.” There is much controversy, however, regarding whether Laozi was the actual author of this text or was even a real person, and “his” work is thought to have been a composite. (For the purpose of clarity, throughout this paper, the author(s) of “The Daodejing” will be mentioned as Laozi.) Laozi’s vision of the “Way” is exceptionally challenging to define using words because of its metaphysical nature. Although this term is somewhat difficult to envision, it is what mankind should aspire and take action to be aligned with. According to Laozi, in “readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy,” the “Way” (or dao) is the “source, sustenance, and ideal state of all things in the world” (Laozi 158). It can be best thought of as the underlying guiding force of all events that occur in the universe, and mankind is closer to the “Way” when they realize that all things are interconnected and have an effect on one another. As might be expected, this vague definition isn’t a foolproof depiction of the eighty-one chapters in the “Daodejing,” but one is able to grasp a basic understanding of Laozi’s ineffable doctrine. Although numerous chapters are meaningful and could provide substantial analysis, this paper will focus in on Chapter Twelve. Ultimately, this chapter adequately and efficaciously compresses the teachings of “The Daodejing” into

“Banish benevolence, discard righteousness: People will return to duty and compassion (Daoism 1, pg. 15).” Laozi wants people to forget about all the ideals of wisdom we have learned that supposedly leads to us to the good. Instead, these concepts cause people to lose focus on living fulfilling lives.