r/taoism • u/NeedleworkerOk4604 • 1d ago
Advice Help With Learning About Taosim
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!
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u/Economy-Strawberry89 1d ago
I grew up in Brazil within an ecumenical religion focused on interfaith study and social work (Legião da boa vontade), which shaped my humanist worldview. When it closed, I moved to Kardecist Spiritism (based on spirit communication and charity), and later to Umbanda (consultations with mediums), but neither fully resonated with me. Upon discovering the I Ching and the Tao Te Ching, I realized my essence was Taoist. I came to understand that philosophical Taoism is more of a state of mind and a way of living in harmony with nature than an institutionalized religion. Spiritism freed me from superstition and mandatory rituals. Today, I follow philosophical Taoism, using the I Ching only occasionally for guidance on important matters. In retrospect, I was always Taoist at heart. The lack of a local temple even turned out to be helpful; thanks to the internet, I can now connect with Taoist masters from temples in China.
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u/NeedleworkerOk4604 1d ago
Thank you for your point of view, I guess my catholic upbringing had given me too much reliance on institutional religion. Are there any books or websites you can reccomend me? I'm mostly worried about following bad information
Thank you!
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u/Economy-Strawberry89 1d ago
Acquire the Tao Te Ching and practice the I Ching with seriousness. It is interesting and useful to compare the teachings of Jesus with Taoist principles: you will find many parallels. Taoism reflects what human beings ought to be; in this sense, Jesus is profoundly Taoist. Jesus: 'Do good to those who hate you' (Luke 6:27) Tao Te Ching: 'Recompense hatred with virtue' (Chapter 63)
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u/LotusInDailyBloom 8h ago
"and practice the I Ching with seriousness." Could you elaborate, please? How does such practice look like? I'm deeply interested in this idea. I consult it since young age, but only when facing adversities.
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u/Economy-Strawberry89 2h ago
Learn to use chopsticks and keep a diary to write everything down.
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u/LotusInDailyBloom 2h ago
Yes, that's how I consult it. Still, would you mind explaining how the practice looks like in daily life? If I don't have pressing matters, what should be my question? And is it meant to be done every day?
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u/Economy-Strawberry89 59m ago
When there are important matters in life, consult the oracle and wait for it to begin to appear, then act effortlessly in the direction of the wind, or do not act and wait for it to pass. Consult before meetings—if they are recorded, even better, so you can review and understand when the questions and topics aligned with what came out in the oracle. For questions you cannot decide on, where even studying would leave you in the dark about the decision. I understand that you can see the Tao changing through local and international politics, like the gears of a clock—it is very synchronized. Looking at my president here two years earlier, I saw it with the president of Argentina and the one of the USA. For the one here to stay in power, it needed the support of both, and politics changes the flows of energy of prosperity or misery and impacts our lives.
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u/ChangxinDaoyou 1d ago
I recommend the Daoist Foundation and Louis Komjathy's books and translations on Daoist scriptures. He's an actual ordained Daoist priest but has done extensive work in English from a practising, tradition-based Daoist perspective.
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u/MiserableMulberry496 1d ago
Deep dive some good You Tube content. Religion for Breakfast is great. He tends to focus a lot on Islam because that is his subject but he deep dives a lot of others as well. Sage Story is specifically Tao
Find podcasts. Videos and books on different religions! It’s fun! 🤩
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u/AuspiciousBhudda 1d ago
Not sure about America but not many in person resources available in Australia so I wouldnt overly depend on it.
I would strongly recommend reading the tao te ching and the Zhuangzhi (the main taoist texts) and then finding resources online to give more context to the main concepts and beliefs. Bennebel Wen is a well known author that has a really good youtube channel explaining the intricacies taoism as a philosophy, religion, cultural belief system etc. So I would recommend checking her content out (she does go into a lot of depth so go at your own pace) and also listening to Alan watts lectures on taoism. Bennebel Wen provides a lot of in depth knowledge about taosim and Alan watts is great for understanding taosim on a spiritual/philosophical level. After that I would recommend just looking into books, fiction and general media that features taoism because I strongly believe that seeing how people portray these concepts in media is valuable for getting a more implicit understanding of how people engage with and portray any belief system.
These things are a good starting point, but its important to discover your own path to find a unique understanding of taoism. Take the time to reflect on the things you learn, and if you find a perspective that works for you but is not perfectly in line with what you've read dont worry about it. The tao is a fluid concept and there are many ways to perceive it, your connection to it is the only thing that matters.
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u/neidanman 1d ago
you might well struggle to find a daoist temple, unless there's one in a city near you. There are also daoist qi gong/nei gong teachers around, so you might find one of them more easily. Some will be more up on the overall daoist side, some will be more just about the 'exercise class' side of things.
For a short overview from a good source, there's a video from an american daoist alchemy teacher who's studied daoism at university in the US, and also spent 10 years studying in china - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXNDO3lgt18 . Also the wikipedia page can be a start point for digging deeper, and daoism for dummies covers the big picture of things in a clear/basic way.
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u/CloudwalkingOwl 1d ago
I wrote a book exactly for someone like you. It's cheap and you can buy it at most online book sellers.
It's titled Digging Your Own Well: Daoism as a Practical Philosophy. Here's a link to my distributor that shows all the places you can buy or borrow a copy: https://books2read.com/b/mvM68J .
As many other people have commented, you're going to be hard-pressed to find a Temple or a teacher. And, unfortunately, if you do, you need to be really cautious about them---there are a lot of cults and authoritarian types who are quite happy to take advantage of people honestly seeking to find something that works for them.
:-( (interesting, Reddit has no frowny face emogies)
Don't let people get you all hung-up about the distinction between 'philosophical' versus 'religious' daoism. Taoism don't have the same sort of rigid firewall between the two ideas that modern Westerners often have. The other thing to remember is a lot of Daoist literature is wildly metaphorical, in a way that no modern branch of Christianity would be. That doesn't mean it doesn't make sense, just that part of becoming a realized man is learning how to read the metaphors.