A brief explanation of Taoism - the ancient Chinese religion and what we can learn from it

The topic of this page is the ancient Chinese religion of Taoism. The other major religion of China is Confucianism. Buddhism also flourished in China but that made its entry from India and at a later date.

The philosophy of the ancient Chinese religion of Taoism reads amazingly like the Sermon of the Mount. Lao Tze, the founder of Taoism says: "He that humbles himself shall be preserved entire. He that bends shall be made straight. He that is empty shall be filled. He that is worn out shall be renewed. He that has little shall succeed. He who has much shall go astray."

This is one of the core concepts of Taoism - the ancient Chinese religion.

Compare this with the saying of Jesus: "Those who are first in this world shall be the last in the kingdom of my God, and those who are last shall be the first."

The only way I can make sense out of these statements is by considering the ego to be false. The conviction, the sense that we all have that we are beings separate from the rest of existence is an illusion. Thich Nhat Hanh, the Zen Buddhist master encourages us to think of ourselves as waves in the ocean. If a wave had consciousness, it would imagine itself to be having an independent existence. It might compare itself with other waves; think itself to be superior of inferior to other waves. And yet the wave has two characteristics immediately obvious to us. One is that its existence lasts for, but a moment and then it ceases to exist. And the other is that it is part of the ocean, will merge with it, and was never at any time separate from it.

All of us are caught up in the illusion that we are independent beings, separate from the rest of existence. Thus we strive for wealth, for prestige and for power, which makes us feel special, out of the ordinary. It boosts our ego. We want to be the first in this world. But even if we achieve this we will be further caught up in the illusion of the separate self. And it is only by dissolving this sense of a separate self that we can experience our oneness with the Universe. This is the message of the ancient Chinese religion of Taoism. Hence, "Those who are first in this world shall be the last in the kingdom of God." That is, those who have a strong sense of separation with the rest of existence will never experience their oneness with all of existence.

"And those who are the last will be the first." Those who have dissolved the ego, who have experienced their oneness with the Universe, will be the first in the kingdom of God.

This is one of the main concepts of Taoism - the ancient Chinese religion and also that of Buddhism, Christianity and most other world religions.

There is a beautiful book written by Thich Nhat Hanh, the Zen Buddhist master. It is on the Buddhist Heart Sutra and the title of the book is The Heart of Understanding. In the commentary to the Sutra he clearly explains how the sense of a separate independent self is an illusion and how all of us live in a state of interdependence with the rest of existence. To give you a taste of the book I will quote from it: "If you are a poet you will clearly see that there is a cloud floating on this sheet of paper. Without a cloud there would be no rain; without rain the trees cannot grow; and without trees we cannot make paper. If we look even more deeply, we can see the sunshine, the logger who cut the tree, the wheat that became his bread, and the logger's father and mother. Without all these things this sheet of paper cannot exist. In fact we cannot point to one thing that is not there - time, space, the earth, the rain, the minerals in the soil, the sunshine, the clouds, the river, the heat, the mind. Everything co-exists with this sheet of paper. So we can say that the cloud and paper "inter-are". We cannot just be by ourselves alone, we have to inter-be with every other thing." Meditation on the Heart Sutra - according to Thich Nhat Hanh - will dissolve the sense of the separate self. And give us the gift of fearlessness. This book is available at Amazon. I highly recommend that you read this book.

Persons interested in Taoism - the ancient Chinese religion may also take to learning and understanding the philosophy behind Tai Chi. Tai Chi is an ancient, internal Chinese martial art which has many benefits. It improves health and longevity and leads to peace of mind.

Some more information on the religion of China.

Regarding the ancient Chinese religion of Taoism please also read this page on Taoist meditations.

Back to the top of Ancient Chinese religion
Back to home page Eastern philosophy and meditation