The Tao (or Dao) is hard to define but is sometimes understood as the way of the universe.
Taoism teaches that all living creatures ought to live in a state of harmony with the universe, and the energy found in it.
Ch'i, or qi, is the energy present in and guiding everything in the universe..
The Taoist Pantheon
These are the highest gods of Taoism who hold titles like "Celestial Worthy" or "Emperor." These gods hold court in celestial paradises and govern a complex hierarchy of lesser gods similar to the hierarchy of emperor and officials on earth..
The important Taoist principles are inaction, simplicity and living in harmony with nature..
The Tao (or Dao) is hard to define but is sometimes understood as the way of the universe.
Taoism teaches that all living creatures ought to live in a state of harmony with the universe, and the energy found in it.
Ch'i, or qi, is the energy present in and guiding everything in the universe..
Taoist cosmology was shaped by the way in which the Chinese traditionally understood the world.
Taoists believe that when the world began, there was only the Tao, a featureless, empty void pregnant with the potential of all things..
As a cosmic principle the tao bears some similarity to logos, although it is also elusive, deep, and obscure and cannot be expressed in words.
The tao of humanity and that of the universe are one, and in this lies the key to a completely satisfying and harmonious human existence..
The Taoist Pantheon
These are the highest gods of Taoism who hold titles like "Celestial Worthy" or "Emperor." These gods hold court in celestial paradises and govern a complex hierarchy of lesser gods similar to the hierarchy of emperor and officials on earth..
The heart of Taoist cosmology, then, is the cycling between Tao-in-stillness and Tao-in-movement: between the unmanifest Wuji and the manifest Taiji, with its dance of yin and yang.
Polarized phenomena unfold from Wuji and then return to it, via the mechanism of Taiji.
An important thing to keep in mind is that the manifest and unmanifest aspects o.
Philosophers of Taoism are marked by triangles in dark green.
From the advent of Western attention towards Taoism until the latter half of the 20th century, Wade–Giles was the predominant system for writing Chinese words with the Latin alphabet, a process known as romanization.
The Wade–Giles romanization of the Chinese character 道 is tao.
In Taoism, Chinese Buddhism, and Confucianism, the object of spiritual practice is to "become one with the Tao" ( Tao Te Ching) or to harmonize one's will with nature (cf.
Stoicism) to achieve "effortless action" ( wu wei ).
This involves meditative and moral practices.
Important in this respect is the Taoist concept of De ( 德; virtue).
In Taoism, this cosmology is uniquely devoid of symbolic deities, focusing instead on energetic and elemental principles.
The system can seem quite unusual and abstract to those encountering Taoism for the first time.
In the beginning, there was an endless void, known as Wu Chi, or Tao.
The Tao is a universal energy, from which all things emanate.
Today, there are various living Taoist traditions, the largest and most influential are Quanzhen Taoism (Complete Perfection), particularly the Dragon Gate sect, and Zhengyi ("Orthodox Unity") Taoism.
Wuji can be contrasted with and is often confused with Taiji.
While Wuji points to Tao-in-stillness (which is essentially nondual), Taiji refers to Tao-in-motion.
Taiji represents the spark of movement--the emergence, oscillation or vibratory modulation which allows the defined “something” of manifestation to be born of the infinite “no-thing” of W.
