The Books of Taoism

Disclaimer: This is all written by me as an essay for my world religions class. It has been graded by my teacher and is now being posted purely for your entertainment.

The most common first language in the world is Chinese. One of the many Chinese religions is Taoism. Though Taoism as a religion might not be well known by the westernized civilization, many westerners use symbols and words from Taoism every day including chi and yin-yang. However, despite its influence on Chinese civilization, Taoism has been hard to define. Taoism talks about how life is ever changing. This being said, most of our contemporary understanding of Taoist philosophy is deeply rooted in the Tao Te Ching and the Chuang Tzu, but there are many other Cannon books that have been a part of Taoist culture throughout the ages.

The Tao Te Ching is also known as the Daodejing or Dao De Jing and provides the basis for Taoism. It is a brief text of just over 5,000 Chinese characters. Literally translated Tao Te Ching can be broken into Tao, the way, Te, strength or virtue, and Ching, scripture. The Tao Te Ching has been translated into English more times than any other Chinese document, this being said it is almost impossible to render an ancient Chinese text properly into English without losing some part of it. The Tao Te Ching is thought to be written in the sixth century BCE by Lao-tzu. Disappointed with court life, he left for the western mountains on top of an ox. When a guard asked for his teachings he gave him the Tao Te Ching. The text is now thought to be written by multiple people and was possibly started in the fourth century BCE.

The second most influential book in Taoism is the Chuang-tzu. The Chuang-tzu was named for its fourth-century BCE author, Master Chuang, otherwise known as Chuang Chou. The Chuang-tzu is addressed more towards the individual than to the ruler. This work took the Taoist position of Lao Tzu and developed it further. He even speaks of the Immortals, which are the “perfected individuals who live on mountains, feed on the wind, sip the dew, and experience ecstatic flight.” In the Chuang-tzu, a new notion was brought into Chinese philosophy. He believed in life as dynamic and ever changing. Like the Tao Te Ching, it is thought that only seven of the chapters were written by Chuang Chou and the other twenty-six chapters were the works of his students.

Other than the Tao Te Ching and the Chuang-tzu, there are many other widely accepted Canon texts. In the year 471 CE, the first Tao Ts’ang or Taoist Canon was brought together. The first Taoist Canon had some of the Tao Te Ching in it, but also had interpretations by later masters in it. This first Taoist Canon had 1,200 scrolls and included writings on alchemy and immortality as well as philosophical essays and folktales. The second Taoist Canon was compiled in 748 CE. The Tang emperor Tang Xuan-cong ordered scholars all over China to collect Taoist works. The scholars returned with 7,300 scrolls. In 1016, the Second Canon was revised under the direction of the Song dynasty. Some of the works that were collected in the Second Canon were thrown out and so the Third Canon was then only 4,565 scrolls long. The final Canon was produced in 1444 by the Ming dynasty. This work of 5,318 scrolls is the largest body of scripture in the world. However, much of the Tao Ts’ang is not able to be understood today. The Tao Ts’ang is full of cryptic symbols and has many references whose meanings have been long lost. The modern Tao Ts’ang is still the primary source for Taoist thought. It still contains the root of Taoist belief. It also contains the tales and parables as well as rituals and practices.

Though the Tao Te Ching and the Chuang-tzu are the root to Taoist thought, the modern Tao Ts’ang is still the primary source for Taoist thought. Though some of these books are impossible of being perfectly translated to English, there are many that are close enough to be read by English speaking people. Although the Tao Te Ching is the most translated Chinese text and is regarded by Taoist as the essential guide to living an ethical life, all three text are very important to the Taoist religion.

Meditation and Buddhism

Disclaimer: This is an essay I wrote for my world religion class. It has been graded by my teacher and is now being posted purely for your entertainment.

           Meditation in all forms has been known to be very peaceful. Meditation, in many religions, can be used to center a person and relax their senses, as well as bring someone closer to their believe form of god. In a religion such as Buddhism there is a discord in what a person should be achieving when meditating. True Buddhist meditation should not be done in an attempt to escape from daily activities of life, nor should it be done to gain some sort of mystical or spiritual power. In Buddhism, meditation is used to achieve three main things, Shamatha, Vipashyana, and perfect mental health.

            In Buddhist culture, Shamatha literally means “calm abiding”. When trying to achieve this, it is best to achieve the proper body position. A small, but firm cushion should be put under the buttocks. The legs should then be crossed in a Full Lotus position with one leg crossed over the other and both of the feet should be positioned such that the sole of each foot is faced upward. If this is uncomfortable, the Half Lotus position can be taken. The Half Lotus position, similar to the Full Lotus position, has only one sole on top of the other leg. However, in both positions the knees should be touching the floor, creating a tripod with the buttocks. A person’s back should be straight, but not too stiff such that the back as a slight natural curve. Shoulders should be loosely dropped from the neck and neck should be straight with the head balanced easily on top of it. The meditator’s eyes should be slightly closed, restricting vision. Face should be altogether soft and relaxed. Hands and arms can be set in multiple different ways. The most common ways are all with the palms of the hands facing upwards. The purpose of this positioning is to create a position conductive to relaxed alertness. From this, a person may then practice breath observation. In Buddhist meditation, unlike Hindu or Taoist meditation, the breath is to be just observed. It should not be judged or try to be controlled. This is very difficult to do at first because people would rather be doing something more fun than observing their breath. From this a person may then move into Vipashyana.

          The second thing wished to achieve in Buddhist meditation is Vipashyana, or insight. With insight a person wants to open their awareness to everything in general and not judge or select. Two of the more popular insight trainings are Zen and Tibetan. In Zen insight training, a meditator just sits. In Zen meditation, it is not even necessary to observe breathing. If thoughts come into the meditator’s mind, the meditator should just let them disappear. Though this sounds much like making the mind blank it is nothing like that. In Zen meditation, it is not possible to blank one’s mind because if they were to do this they would destroy consciousness. Tibetan meditation is the opposite of Zen. In Tibetan meditation visualization is the key. An entity of purified mind in the Buddhist culture is visualized and the meditator interacts with this entity. People that might be visualized as this entity of purified mind could be Buddha (pictured on the left) or Bodhisattva (pictured on the right). When a meditator is finished with their visualization, they dismiss it my dissolving it into light and then into space. When westerners protest asking if the being visualized was really there the answer is that nothing has inherent existence. This is why the visualization is dissolved into space.

        Perfect mental health is the last thing to be achieved in Buddhist meditation. Meditation aims to cleanse the mind of disturbances and impurities. These disturbances include lustful desires, hatred, and ill-will. It is used to cultivate qualities such as concentration, awareness, energy, joy, and tranquility. It is in hope that this will lead to the final attainment of the highest wisdom to see the nature of seeing things as they are and realizing the Ultimate Truth, Nirvana.

        Buddhist meditation, contrary to popular belief, is used to achieve three things, Shamatha, Vipashyana, and perfect mental health. This is different from the popular believe of obtaining spiritual powers or mental escape from everyday life. This kind of thought is known as spiritual perversion in Buddhism.

Work Cited 

Corless, Roger. "Meditation: The Centered Mind." The Vision of Buddhism: The Space Under the Tree.
          New York: Paragon House, 1989. 144-52. Print.
Rahula, Walpola. "'Meditation' or Mental Culture: Bhavana." What the Buddha Taught. New York: Grove,
         1959. 67-75. Print.
Snelling, John. "Meditation (Samadhi)." The Buddhist Handbook: A Complete Guide to Buddhist Schools,
         Teaching, Practice, and History. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1991. 51-53. Print.