Flavoursome Taoism

[ChrisP]

Having just spent a lot of free time researching Taoism from a philosophical perspective, I'm curious to know how it is practised in the modern world.

Most of my study centred around achieving oneness with the Tao and how to prepare the mind for this. As such I tended towards less flowery translations, but I've heard that in the last 1500 years (or so :biglaugh: ) the Chinese culture has melded most of the original Taoist teachings with a bhuddist perspective introduced from the Indian subcontinent.

I'm most interested to know how contemporary Taoists practice and whether or not they feel their religion has been influenced by Bhuddism and any easy to spot evidence of this within modern versions of the Tao te Ching vs older or more literal translations.

 

[Jaymes]

Honestly, I just spend a lot of time contemplating the teachings in the Tao te Ching and meditating on what I should do to be in accordance with wu wei. That's as far as my 'practicing' goes... I'm not even sure whether I should call myself a Taoist or just someone heavily influenced by Taoism. I know there are Taoists that worship gods, but I see that as counter-productive unless it helps them figure out what they need to do. Different styles of meditation and all that.

Master Vigil would be a good person to talk to on the subject... he's much more knowledgeable than I am.

EDIT: As far as translations and influences go, I'm very leery of translations in general. With a language as subtle as Chinese it's impossible to fully translate a work like the Tao te Ching, I Ching, and the like along with all the subtle meanings and cultural nuances that go with it.

 

[ChrisP]

Are there any translations that you've seen that read as being uninfluenced by bhuddism?

 

[Jaymes]

The ones I've read have been more influenced by Christianity than Buddhism... but I've only read two or three out of many translations, so if I haven't read any with Buddhist influence it's probably because either it's there and I didn't notice it, or I just haven't gotten 'round to that translation yet.

Honestly, I believe the only way to read Taoist works in their fully 'glory' so to speak is to read them in Chinese.

 

[ChrisP]

Looks like I've got some language studies ahead of me :help: !

I've already spent some time with Bhuddism but I think I might revisit to make it easier to pick out bhuddist references/terminology within the Tao te Ching.

 

[Jaymes]

Doubly so... to read ancient Chinese works you need to learn modern Chinese and ancient Chinese characters. If you're seriously interested in studying it I'd be glad to be a study partner with you.

 

[ChrisP]

Definitely Jensa. "We get by with a little help from our friends".

'sides that you sound cute.