So awhile back I bought a copy of the Tao Te Ching,complete with additional commentaries on each chapter. This was around tax time. It sat around for a little while and then I finally read it (well, most of it, still reading the commentaries). It truly intrigued me as a work of writing. I never thought I would find any Chinese writings that I would enjoy. What intrigues me about this book is how some people apply Taoism as a religion or as a philosophy. Myself, I consider Taoism as my philosophy, but Christianity as my religion. So technically speaking, I guess I would be a Christian Taoist, lol. However, I consider myself Spiritual, not religious. How do you perceive and apply the ideas presented in this book? What are your favorite chapters? Any other general comments or discussion on the Tao Te Ching?
World religions are an academic interest of mine. I read some of the Tao Te Ching for my World Religions class. I'm interested (and I mean this in an actually intrigued, not skeptical way) as to how you can be both a Taoist and Christian. I myself am a Christian, but it seems to me that the two, as religions, are mutually exclusive. Christianity demands a commitment to love, and Jesus Christ, but Taoists are far more stoic, even to the point of being passive, and "like water" -- which i suppose itself has similarities to Christianity. But fundamentally, the Tao is neutral. He is both hate, and love, and neither. God is love, and evil is the result of free will that we were given to make our love genuine. How do you resolve this issue? On a side note, I also like Taoist philosophy. I find the idea of a cyclical, action equals reaction, good is overthrown by bad which is then usurped by good-type deity quite intriguing, and see evidence of this in the world. The good leads to the bad, and vise versa. Everything that comes up must come down. Anyway, happy readings.
Christian Taoism First, thank you so much for your sincere interest. I actually get asked those things a lot lol. I actually hold Taoism as a life philosophy to go by while on this world because a philosophy founded in religion only feeds fires. I consider Christianity my religion my life philosophy to go by in the afterlife and my own perception of death. I am but I'm not either one of them in particular. That is one fundamental idea of Taoism, being but not, existing but being non-existent. Take the symbol of the Yin-yang, which is a Taoist symbol btw, as a perfect example of this. Look it up on Wikipedia. But you ever notice how the dot in the middle on each side is its opposing color? This is actually supposed to represent a sense if duality and being but not. However, my sense of understanding duality is written in the stars because I am a gemini. I like to think that makes it a little easier. Almost all of your questions can be easily answered, its just a matter of seeing nothing so to speak. Sometimes you do more by not doing anything
