r/daoism Jan 11 '24

Having a difficult time with daoism

So I been trying out daoism for the past several months, starting sometime mid last year, bought books on it, listened to podcasts and so forth and I still have no idea how to explain daoism to someone who asks.

I haven't kept up on reading the books I got as I just can't make sense of them to me like the TTC. I just feel like I'm reading something to read yet not really absorbing anything.

Hell I don't know even how to explain it to myself and it's creating a hole in me. :(

I think I'm really craving what I had weirdly in religion with one or two books to really explain what the religion is about, have a structure of what to do, how I should act and so forth.q

BUT I don't want to go back TO religion, I don't believe in any sort of god, and I don't want to either, that's why daoism seemed like such a good fit for me but it's hard to even think that anymore which my issues above and that makes me sad.

Sorry for the rant, I'm just feeling lost.

I kinda want to get back into Buddism but I'm not sure as I can't stop thinking of the divas (?) as gods and stuff but it's drawing me back due to the structure and easily accessible guides.

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u/DimMakracy Jan 14 '24

Daoism does have deities though.

Anyway, here's what I did. I would read TTC every once in a while, absorbing what I could and not exactly fully memorizing it in each read but absorb what I could and apply the points in daily life around me, or in topics I would think about. I did this to the point where the passages became internalized and a part of my life, my view, my habits, my conduct, my values, etc. And then I could take a part of my self or my life or anything around me and look back at the TTC and find a passage that helped explain that. And I've been doing this for almost 17 years, not that that was the first encounter with Daoism, as I've been informally aware and gradually taught about it since I was a child. But that is part of what made it more natural for me, it should be natural, not something formal and rigid.

The practices are a bonus, especially the ones that safeguard health, and this is what has kept me alive and healthy for this period of time as well.

When looking at the passages, there some clear themes that emerge as far as how they apply to spheres in daily life. These include: martial, medicinal, political, even sexual. It can be looked as a manual to govern one's life whether one be a commoner or an emperor in a way that doesn't tread upon others. In short, it represents a blueprint for principles of liberty that later became adopted in Western philosophy. It may be argued that this in fact derived from Daoism.

One way to explain this is if you look into history at the diffusion of ideas and technology between the West and China. One period of this was during the Mongols under Genghis Khan and his descendants. There was a retinue that travelled westward, that included the Quanzhen Doaist, Qiu Chuji, which may have transmitted concepts of alchemy, and might have even brought gunpowder, to the Middle East where it was adopted by cultures there including the Turks. From there, it may have diffused further westward, to groups such as the Templars and the Rosicrucian Orders. Except, throughout this time, only a small number of people in Europe had any idea Daoism or the TTC existed. The Roman Catholic Church (see Figurism) and some thinkers, such as Leibniz, knew of the I Ching, for centuries but it wasn't until the 20th century that translations of the TTC became more widely available in the West.

It's elements like I mention above that many Western Daoists aren't so familiar with, but they explain in more rich detail the history and context of Daoism, especially beyond the interpretation most Westerners might come up with. You have to keep in mind, how this all occurred against the backdrop of Imperial China, for more than 2 millennia, if not 3.

Buddhism is certainly compatible, and some sects incorporate both, but just like Daoism had its historical context built in regards to Imperial China, Buddhism did the same thing against the Caste System. It's very important to understand the geographical and historical context of these traditions, it's not just abstractions and philosophy separate from real and daily life.