How can I learn Taoism?

If you’re reading this, you have likely heard some snippets or whispers that have led you to look closer at Taoism (or Daoism  - just 2 different ways of translating the word into English letters). As a Daoist practitioner and instructor with over 15 years experience I would like to provide you in this article a clear path; a clear Tao (literally means ‘path’ or ‘way’) to understanding Daoism, how to learn about it and most importantly, how to implement its practical wisdom into your daily life.

What is Daoism?

Daoism is a way of understanding the world and our place in it. Just as a child needs guidance from their parents as they grow up in order to learn how the world works and how to navigate it, Daoism gives one the wisdom and tools to continue this process of growth and development even after one has ‘grown up’. Daoist wisdom is based on the observation of natural laws. Not just observation (yin) but also the Application (yang) of those laws.

One of the most important laws to grasp is that of yin-yang. Everything in the universe is a combination of yin and yang. Yin and yang is a way of describing how the universe moves, how things change, transform, grow and decay. By observing how the animals behave, how the seasons change and how the human body responds both inside and out, Ancient Daoists gained wisdom about the nature of reality and developed various methods that employ the laws of the universe and live harmoniously. Later in this article we will in more detail at yin-yang.

Why live Harmoniously? When you hear a musical master play the piano, you feel something beautiful arise. When you look out to the ocean from a cliff, your mind is silenced by the awe of the vastness you see before you. When your body feels strong and you feel full of energy and enthusiasm, you naturally share the enjoyment of life with others around you. This is recognising beauty; we are naturally drawn to it and it is a sign of harmony. We can all cultivate harmony and invite beauty into our lives.

Chinese Mountains

Different Types of Daoism

We can say that there are 3 main types of Daoism and understanding each type will help you to see a clearer picture of which type you gravitate to most and they relate to each other. To give some cultural context, Chinese culture is based on 3 main pillars: Daoism, Confucianism and Buddhism.

Religious Daoism: This form of Daoism involves the following of rituals, praying and worshipping deities. For example, there is a festival in China where many Daoists gather and Laozi is celebrated and honoured/worshipped as a deity on the date of his birth. Laozi is recognised as the founder of Daoism and wrote the Daodejing (Canon of Daoism) about 2400 years ago. 

Philosophical Daoism: Reading, studying and analysing daoist texts.The Daozang is a canon of over 1500 Daoist writings and scriptures from various periods of Chinese History. It is a repository of Daoist thought and wisdom. The most noteworthy text is the Daode jing written by Laozi. The Daode jing (Canon of Daoism) is the most translated text in the world next to the bible and is universally recognised for its timeless, profound and enigmatic contents. There are many people and scholars who have comprehensively studied and written about the Daode jing and other Daoist texts but at the same time have not or do not practice any of the Daoist methods that are described in the texts. This approach is purely scholarly and doesn’t employ the practical component.

(Original) True Ancient Daoism: Learning practical Daoist teachings for enhancing one’s health, wellbeing, personal power and obtaining wisdom and understanding of Life. We can put this into 4 main categories:

1. Spirituality: Self-cultivation involving growth and development of the Spirit and Vitality of the body

2. Health and wellbeing: Improving the condition of one’s body, energy and thus quality of Life

3. Healing: Recovering from illness, injury and trauma

4. Martial Arts: Strengthen the body using Martial Art Principles and learning self-defence.

All four of these aspects overlap with each other and it depends on what you are most interested in, drawn to or want to focus on the most.

Laozi being visited by students

Understanding How Daoists Think and Live

So that you can get an insight into the Daoist Way of thinking and living, we will look at some key Daoist quotes from the Daode jing and other Daoist texts.

Chapter 1 - Daode jing:

The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao.The name that can be named is not the eternal name.Nameless, the beginning of heaven and earth.Named, the mother of the ten thousand things.Being empty, see the wonder.Being present, see the appearance.These two are the same but have different names,This is mystery.Mystery upon mystery.The doorway to wonder.

The most important detail to highlight in this chapter is that the Dao cannot be spoken. The Dao is the source of life and origin of all things. It is indescribable and infinitely mysterious. If you can name it, it is NOT Dao.Heaven and Earth are not religious references. They are referring to the manifested universe that is composed of yin and yang. Everything is a combination of yin and yang. Heaven is Yang (above) and Earth is yin (below). The human being lives on earth and is being influenced by the Heavenly and Earthly forces.The ten thousand things are the things that have come into existence/manifestation - those things we can speak of and name. They are the things that we can see and interact with in the physical world.Daoists have a simple and humble view of existence; they do not claim to know God or fully understand what all of creation is. For example, in chapter 25 of the Daode jing Laozi says:“I do not know its name;Its symbol is Dao.If I had to name it, I would call it great.”So only if one HAS to put a name on it or talk about it, one can (reluctantly) call it ‘Dao’.

Yin-yang

Also from Chapter 25:“People obey earth,Earth obeys heaven,Heaven obeys Dao,Dao obeys what is natural.”Because Dao is the source of all things, everything ultimately obeys it. People obey the earth because we live on the earth and rely on it and its resources but the earth is subject to greater cosmological forces from heaven and heaven must follow Dao. As a human being, you can learn to align yourself with these powerful forces.

Let’s now examine a quote from the Yellow Emperor’s Canon of Internal Medicine:“Those who knew the way of keeping good health in Ancient times always kept their behaviour in daily life in accordance with nature. They applied the principle of Yin and Yang and kept in tune with the art of adaptation based on the interaction of Yin and Yang. They were able to modulate their daily life in harmony with the way of recuperating the essence and vital energy (Qi), thus they could master the way of preserving good health. Their behaviours in daily life were all kept at regular patterns and they never overworked. In this way, they could maintain both in the body and in the spirit substantiality and were able to live to the old age of more than one hundred years.”

Daoists Living According to Nature

The quote above clearly portrays the healthy and harmonious way of living that emerges when one knows how to listen and live in accordance with the natural rhythms of nature.

Chapter 76 - Daode jing:

People are born soft and weak,They die hard and strong.All creatures, grass and trees are born soft and fragile,They die dry and withered.Hard and strong are disciples of death,Soft and weak are disciples of life.Big and strong dwell below,Soft and flexible dwell above.”

When considering this quote we can specifically consider Daoist practices such as Qigong and Taiji. These methods employ a deep understanding of the human body and how to optimise it. One of the fundamental features of practice is to learn to move the body in such a way that promotes deep relaxation of body and mind. This relaxation leads to some specific internal changes in the human body that greatly improve the health and strength of the body and sharpen and clear the mind.Interestingly, when we see the words ‘soft and weak’ it seems like it is something negative and when we see ‘hard and strong’ that sounds like something to aspire to. When we consider the approach of ‘modern’ exercise, the goal is to become hard and strong but in the quote above, the ‘Hard and strong are the disciples of death’!. This is because through time, bad habits and not looking after one’s body and health properly, one’s body gradually becomes stiffer and harder and inflexible. One can learn to employ the opposite which is a special principle used in Daoist exercise such that the ‘Soft and weak are disciples of life’. This seemingly paradoxical principle is employed in all Daoist methods and it is incredible how effective it is in enhancing one’s health and understanding of the vitality of the body. In fact, learning this ‘softness’ leads to a very strong body with robust health if you learn how to apply this principle.

The ‘Big and strong dwell below’ because these characteristics are heavy, sluggish and ultimately lead to death, below and underground (yin) whereas the ‘Soft and flexible’ are light and thrive above the ground (yang). Life is a state of yang and death is a yin state.

Ge Hong (another famous Daoist) said in his book ‘Bao pu zi’:

"Nobody in creation is cleverer than the human being. Possessed of the most accessible techniques, he can make all creation his servant; having attained the deepest, he can enjoy Fullness of Life and everlasting vision. Since he knows that the best medicines are potent for extending his years, he takes them in his search for sainthood. Knowing the great  age attained by tortoises and cranes, he imitates their calisthenics so as to augment his own life span.”

Ge Hong also said:

“Animals in general cannot imitate the tortoise and the crane; therefore they are short-lived. Man, however, possesses intelligence; if he can practice the same divine process as did other great sages; he can achieve the same results." 

And:

“It is clear that in special areas many creatures far surpass man; this is not only true for the tortoise and the crane. Accordingly, when weaving a net, Fu-hsi used spiders for his teachers. Shao-hao relied upon the nine quail to determine the seasons. The Yellow Emperor awaited the cry of the phoenix in order to tune the pitch pipes."

Human beings can learn secrets from nature and apply them in their lives. Humans possess something that animals don’t. The human Shen (spirit) is powerful and has the ability to self-cultivate. In other words, the human can engage in self-guided spiritual work. Animals (and most people) experience spiritual growth through the chaos of life as one navigates through hardships and challenges. To Daoists, the spirit is something that should be encouraged to ‘grow up’, mature and evolve through special techniques of self-cultivation.

Considering the ‘growing up’ of the spirit, one of the defining features of Daoism is that the strength and development of the physical body is not only Not ignored, but it is considered an integral part of spiritual development. This is related to needing energy to be plentiful and flowing freely in order to help the spirit grow. Being born as human is also considered to be extremely rare and lucky and thus the opportunity should be used for self-cultivation.

If we look at an excerpt from Wuzhen Pian, 'Awakening to Reality' by Zhang Boduan, we can see that Daoists observed something amazing in Nature that humans can cultivate and which forms the basis of Daoist Teachings, Methods and Way of Life:"All people on their own have the Medicine of long life; it is only for insanity and delusion that they cast it away to no avail."

This ‘medicine’ is something that is already inside everyone! Something extremely precious that goes unnoticed by most people for their whole life.Through the Daoist teachings, one can learn how to harness it.

Multitude of Creatures of Earth

10 Daoist Values

Based on the Daoist way of thinking and living, we can summarise what Daoists value most through the ‘8 Daoist Values’:

• Daoist Value 1: Health – Enjoy a calm, sharp mind and strong body

• Daoist Value 2: Longevity – Live with quality and quantity

• Daoist Value 3: Sensitivity – Get more feedback from your body, being able to sense Qi movements, what foods to eat, the inner state of other people, natural cycles, understanding of yin-yang dynamics

• Daoist Value 4: Harmonious Living – Reducing Human suffering due to ignorance through careful studying of one’s self and nature

• Daoist Value 5: Practical approach – It must help you in your daily Life and solve the problems encountered by Modern Life

• Daoist Value 6: Self-Reliance – Rely on your inner state as a source of personal power, become a leader to others

• Daoist Value 7: Self-cultivation – Actively practicing and applying the learnings from Internal Alchemy, Qigong, Taiji, Meditation

• Daoist Value 8: Balancing the Internal/external World – Discover the value of finding happiness by balancing the inner and outer world

Daoist Temple in Chinese Mountain

Summary and Our Recommendations

Daoism is one of China’s main cultural pillars and its wisdom is embedded in the everyday life of Chinese people. It can be observed in their language, medicine, architecture and daily habits. By virtue of living in China one is already naturally living and breathing Daoism and benefiting from it. To some, that is not enough which is why one can actively take further steps to delve deeper.

At our School, we value practice as the most crucial component. Through practice, one can directly apply the precious knowledge contained in the writings. Only reading the texts leads to a limited form of understanding.Our Daoist School is called WuLiupai; ‘School of Wu and Liu’ also known as ‘School of Immortals and Buddhas’, established during the 16-17th Century. The name is based on the founders who are Wu chongxu and Liu Huayang. Our mission is to preserve Daoist knowledge and help people from all around the world practice Daoism.

Our Western branch is officially permitted to teach classes live online to people around the world! The LIVE online classes started as an experiment and now, 10 years later, we can say that this format of teaching has been just as effective as teaching in-person, using the right approach and methodology. One key aspect to this methodology is that all classes must be LIVE; we do not record classes or post videos of classes. Joining group classes we establish a connection between the instructor, class participants and school. Through this, instructors are trained to carefully observe each student and give individualised guidance and corrections.

The process of practicing and learning together is a LIVING thing and the instructor’s role is to nurture, guide and weave this together into every unique class. This way we ensure maximum benefit and results by moving and growing together. We also organise yearly trips in China to do in-depth Daoist practice together as a group.

If you would like to take the first step into learning about and practicing Daoism, our School has many different classes available every week, all-year round in Daoist Internal Alchemy, Qigong, Taiji, Meditation and Daoist theory. Aside from the regular weekly classes we also run various seminars each month and free classes for those who want to try out or get a taste of the various methods. Feel free to contact us and schedule a free zoom consultation where you can learn more about our school or sign up to one of our seminars or free classes. Please see some useful links below:

• Free consultation sign-up: https://www.daodeqigong.com/free-consult-offer

• Free class and seminars sign-up: https://www.daodeqigong.com/seminars-and-free-events

• Class Schedule: https://www.daodeqigong.com/class-schedule

• Daode Jing study guide and 3 different translations: https://www.daodeqigong.com/read-dao-de-jing

About the Author

Luis De Florio has been practicing and teaching Daoism for over 10 years. He is a private disciple of the WuLiupai School under the guidance of his teacher Master A.A. Khokhlov.

Instructor profile: https://www.daodeqigong.com/dao-de-qigong-instructor