FAQ & Information

It is a most difficult task to define Taoism. It escapes exact definition. It is not one thing, but a collection of many customs, religious practices, traditions, and individuals with often very different interpretations of "Taoism". It is a Chinese phenomenon, an authentic way of life and a vision of life, just as Confucianism is and Buddhism originally was not. One can therefore only be a Taoist if one joins a Taoist tradition or masters its characteristics. So, there is no such thing as 'Western' Taoism (too bad for those who like to abuse the freedom within Taoism to bend it to their own Western ideas). Traditionally, there has never been a central authority or institution or some kind of pope or deity that set the law or drew up absolute norms and generally applicable rules of conduct. However, within the traditions and within the official Taoist organisations, there were and still are 'rules' or regulations that the individual member should adhere to. But the emphasis on individual freedom within Taoism makes the personal experience or application of it very different. Despite the impossibility of defining Taoism precisely, it nevertheless has a number of characteristics that we can describe and that are essential to understand what meaning is covered by this designation and especially what is not. In any case, we can say that Taoism is an art of living, a religion and philosophy that has shaped certain characteristics of Chinese society and the Chinese people: independence in thinking and acting solidarity openness to other cultures and their achievements flexibility and adaptability the joy of living survival instinct and creativity. These are some of the characteristics of Chinese society that Taoism has fostered. These things are mainly found in the Chinese population and not necessarily in the various Chinese forms of government, although these were or are inevitably partly impregnated by millennia-old Taoism. Precisely because of their independence and free thinking, Taoists have often been the most targeted victims of repression throughout Chinese history. Dao / Tao But let's start from the origin of the word 'Taoism'. This word is derived from the Chinese term 'tao' (better: dao 道). 'Dao' stands for 'way', 'path', and 'method'. It is a fairly old term that was used by the classical Chinese philosophical movements of two to three thousand years ago to refer to their method. It is therefore not a term that belongs exclusively to Taoism. Confucianists, Legalists, and many other schools also used this term. We can immediately clear up one of the many misconceptions about Taoism in the West: not all references to 'dao' have to do with Taoism, often on the contrary. Recent phenomena such as books and workshops on, for example, 'the Dao of management' are a good example of this. Dao can refer to the own interpretation and methods of action and thought of any individual or current. Characteristics The origin and historical course of the Taoist traditions are not always clear, but their characteristics usually are. Moreover, we can find a lot of information about traditions and the people practicing them in important collections of Taoist literature. The most famous of these is the so-called 'Taoist Canon' (Daozang, 1445), an extremely complex collection of texts on various subjects that Taoists used to deal with. After the publication of the Daozang, however, many other texts were written and even new traditions emerged, and many of these were collected in other text collections. What is important to a Taoist? All Taoists recognise the importance of the figures Laozi (ca. 7th century BC) and Zhuangzi (CA 5th -4th century BC) and their texts. Historical data about these characters are extremely limited, but they live on mainly in their influential texts. The work of Laozi, the Laozi or Daodejing (Text about the Path and its Power) is a relatively short text of about five thousand characters in a hermetic and poetic style. The Zhuangzi is a more voluminous work with mainly profound prose texts. Both works were and are studied and interpreted by Taoists according to their own tradition. Both texts represent a vision of life that we can call Taoist. This vision is expressed in a boundless respect for life, a deep insight into the mysteries of the cosmos and existence, a creative, humorous and constructive approach to life, and a realisation of these things through the exploration and optimal use of the body (note: by "body" I mean both its external form and all its internal possibilities). Laozi and Zhuangzi were not the first to deal with these things in such a way. They were, however, the advocates and representatives of very old Chinese currents and traditions of which we can no longer trace the origin, but for which there is sufficient evidence thanks to archaeological finds. Moreover, they were not the last, because after them new traditions arose that built on their works and ideas and added other things to them. The oldest surviving historical Taoist tradition began in the first great heyday of unified China, the Han (ca. 200 BCE to 200). This is called the 'Heavenly Masters' tradition. The leaders of this religious popular movement called themselves 'Heavenly Masters' and they created a community with its own structure, its own practices, including its own healing methods, meditative techniques, rituals, etc.). Many practices were based on what Laozi and Zhuangzi had already provided. Misconceptions There is a continuing misunderstanding among some circles of scholars of Taoism. A number of them consider the so-called 'individual' Taoists, such as Laozi and Zhuangzi, as 'daojia' (masters of Taoist philosophy) and see them as a separate branch of Taoism, completely different from the popularreligious Taoist movements where religion is said to be central. Thorough research by other scholars, such as Kristofer Schipper (and the author) has clearly shown that both religion and philosophy are equally present in both the one and the other and that the only distinction one can make is a distinction in traditions, not in the essence. This brings us to the next delicate fact. In circles of Western religion (and in their wake Western philosophers, scientists and sinologists) the rituals and religious aspects of Taoism in general were dismissed as the 'superstition' of the Chinese. This ideological position (a very persistent prejudice) may have arisen for various reasons that indeed have to do with the characteristics of Taoist traditions. The Taoist religious movements have always taken elements from the religion of the people (e.g. ancestor cult, the cult of the earth, deities, the heavens, and the whole cosmos, ritual practices and objects) and reinterpreted them. This is how Taoist temples came into being, which are full of Taoist and often local 'idols'. Taoists, however, do not know such a thing as what is called 'God' or 'gods' in the West. The Taoist gods live as forces and possibilities in the body of the Taoist, which is his real temple and cosmos. External personification through images makes communication with and the folk community easier. Therefore, aspects of local cults (including some elements from Buddhist and Confucianist traditions) were integrated. Taoist Practice: Making Whole and Keeping the Qi One The unification of things is a fundamental Taoist practice. Taoist train their bodies to reunite the constituent parts into a well-cooperating whole. The Taoists have collected a lot of information of the body in a very complete way and have developed many techniques to study and influence the body. All kinds of health exercises, forms of self-defence, healing methods (massage, needles, diagnostics, pathology, surgery, etc.), visualisations of the internal body, interaction between body and cosmos, etc. have arisen and/or adjusted within Taoism precisely for this reason. Representations of what the inner body looks like and how it functions (either drawn on paper or on stelae or mental representations conjured up by the Taoist master) were traditionally drawn by the Taoists, passed on internally and used in training and rituals. In many cases they represent the body as a small cosmos with miniatures of all the ingredients of the macrocosm: people, animals, plants, rocks, rivers, stars, sun and moon, planets, etc. These function in this inner world as they do in the big world. This body is freed by the Taoist from the harmful influence of the (large) environment. It is his/her world where he/she rules in complete freedom according to a natural order. Actually, this body is ruled by the shén, the inhabitants who are generated from the qi of the body. This core concept from Chinese culture, the qi, is essentially vapour and in the human context it is mainly about the breath and the possibilities that man gets through this 'ventilation' (in the first instance: life). This qi circulates throughout the cosmos and therefore also through the human body. Within the body, this can be converted into a 'driving force' to allow the body to function and develop the many possibilities of the body (such as moving, thinking, feeling, fantasising, dreaming, etc.). In a refined form, this qi is called shén and this term stands for everything that we consider to be the psycho-emotional, spiritual and mental aspects of the body, as well as its material manifestations. 'Taoistically' speaking, shén designates the administrative control of the inner world and this can be symbolised by a bodily administrative apparatus that, at least in form, shows strong similarities with the classical Chinese bureaucracy (some Confucianist influence is present in this). In terms of content, however, it is a very free, soft ('feminine') and spontaneous government that constantly tries to work on maintaining a healthy, peaceful and harmonious body. As long as this qi holds the body together, man continues to live. If it separates, man dies. Preserving and keeping the qi one is therefore of vital importance and this explains the great efforts that the Taoists do in this area: through the art of living, rituals, medicines, (self) massage, meditation and many other techniques, he/she tries to make his/her life pleasant and long. Methods The concrete methods to achieve this are much more about unlearning things instead of learning. The Taoists call this wuwei: not acting for the sake of individual goals, but re-adapting man to a spontaneous order of the cosmos. As a result, man returns to ziran in his small cosmos (his body), a state in which everything is just itself and all conflicts are resolved by fusion. Every individual (and every tradition) has specific methods for this. The Taoist who embodies this way of life often obtained a prolongation of life as a result. Extending life was seen by some Taoists as unlimited, if one had the right means. Taoist experimental alchemy was developed to achieve this goal. In later times, the development of internal possibilities (spiritual development and health) became the main scope of alchemical practice. To the community or the external world in which the Taoists lived, their knowledge was translated through rituals (in which the people participated) and through the important contributions to medicine in China (among other things). Unfortunately, modern Chinese medicine has stripped itself of its Taoist roots, and in those phenomena that are now known under the misleading name of 'Traditional Chinese Medicine', there is virtually nothing left of Taoist influence. In doing so, this version has resolutely opted for Westernization and this may threaten its own existence. Within some Taoist circles, authentic Chinese medicine has still been kept alive in secret, although the number of practitioners has become very small. Nowadays we see that people are looking for the original sources again and there is more interest in this. Taoism and Ideological Dialogue Modern, non-racist and even non-Chinese thought and practices were and are constantly being incorporated into Taoist culture, but these do not destroy the original Taoist achievements; they strengthen them by supplementing or deepening them. In all its aspects, we can describe Taoism as a treasure trove of Chinese culture and its influencing factors. All forms of the art of living and philosophy, science, fine arts, religions and much more that have ever existed in China have been preserved at least partly in the various cultural expressions of Taoism (including artefacts, practices and texts). All religions and philosophy have therefore been able to leave their mark on the evolution, form and content of Taoism. Especially with Confucianism and Chinese Buddhism there has been a fruitful interaction. For example, what is known here under the Japanese name 'zen' (Chinese: chan) is originally the most Taoist form of Chinese Buddhism. On the other hand, Taoism has also suffered a lot of damage and mutilation when these other philosophical religions had a strong influence on the Chinese government and the religious orders or structures organized by it. The relationship with Christianity and other Western visions has often been difficult. The West has not been an example of openness either in terms of religious-philosophical position or in terms of politics. China has therefore mainly been confronted with the political, military, economic but also intellectual and religious colonization policy of the West. The most difficult subjects to convert were precisely the free-thinking, independent Taoists. Despite frantic and well-sponsored attempts to dismiss Taoism as a lot of nonsense and superstition, it is still very much alive and even the West has become 'infected' with strongly Taoist-inspired visions and phenomena such as yinyang and health practices that are called qigong. A nice proof that Taoism succeeds in realizing its main raison d'être: living and surviving.

Taoist-Lifestyle.Com draws its information and practices mainly from the Jindan Nanzong Tradition (Southern Tradition of the Golden Cinnabar) and its interpretation by the Yinyangpai (Yinyang Current). This is a Taoist alchemical tradition developed in the Song, by Ziyang Zhenren, Zhang Boduan (984 - 1082). Zhang first passed on his knowledge to Shi Tai (1022 - 1158), who (like the generations after him) further developed the tradition. It is a critical and practical tradition that aims at an integration of Taoist alchemical practice into everyday life. Its origins lie in Zhejiang province, in the Tiantai Mountains. The fundamental text is the Wu Zhen Pian ('Piece on the Understanding of Authenticity') by Grandmaster Zhang Boduan. The most popular branch of the tradition was later integrated by the Quanzhen Taoists and Zhang Boduan was posthumously made one of the five great ancestors of the Quanzhen Taoists. In addition to this main source, Taoist-Lifestyle.Com draws on other traditions for its practices and backgrounds, such as the Fu Qinglong tradition of Yuanqigong (also derived from Jindan), Taoist influenced versions of the Yang/Wŭ traditions of taijiquan (early Dong Yingjie tradition and Yue Huanzhi substyle), the Henan and Hebei traditions of xin(g)yiquan, the Liang and Cheng traditions of baguazhang and various trainings from the Longmen tradition of Quanzhen Taoism, etc.

Taoist-Lifestyle.Com is a representative of Taoist practices and traditions and much more. We mainly want to bring science about and from Taoism with respect for the original sources and we emphasise authenticity. Taoist-Lifestyle.Com is therefore clearly positioning itself as a Taoist-inspired online training institute, where we offer scientifically based programs to our students. We are certainly not in favour of superficial, Western reinterpreted approaches to Taoism, such as those found in some Chinese and Western scientific circles, and especially in the New Age world. We are not in favour of mixing all kinds of different practices with little depth or good research into the backgrounds. Taoist-Lifestyle.Com offers direct access to authentic Taoist practices and traditions and allows the interested persons to immerse themselves in part or in full. Authentic results and the highest professional quality are the hallmarks of the research and what we strive for in our teaching. Southern Taoist alchemy is the main way to development within Taoist-Lifestyle.Com and anyone who feels attracted to it can get started with it. We are well aware that our path is not the only one and probably not the most appropriate path for everyone. But those who embark on this path will soon notice that we do not make empty promises and that this method remains extremely fascinating. You don't have to be a Taoist to participate in our programs. We do provide clear information about where we get our information from and why this is important to us. We work with various institutes that promote other philosophies and religions, we are always open to co-operation based on thorough scientific research.