Taoism 101
Introduction
The idea of "tao" has permeated our language, yet few of us in the West have an idea of what is really meant by it. It is one of the religious/philosophical ideas on earth, but only recently has study begun in the West. We've met it in a variety of ways: early Christian missionaries and the modern Chinese government describe it as "superstition", with little regard for the transcendent elements. We find books such as "The Tao of Pooh" and "The Tao of Physics". Intellectuals speak of the "tao" of things in their discussions, thinking it to be analogous to "flow". Though these ideas can be defended, they have very little to do with historical Taoism.
The Chinese word "tao" is most often translated "way" or "path" - while these translations are accurate as far as discussion of conventional Chinese language, they do not truly expose the heart of the matter, the meaning of "tao". Of course, even the casual reader of the Dao De Jing (the quintessential Taoist work) knows that the tao is ultimately inexpressible. The opening verse of this work declares (literally translated) "Way that ways is not way". With a little refining we can see that the Dao De Jing is telling us that the way (or tao) that we can express (in words) is not the true way. This certainly leaves the student of Taoism with a problem - how can the idea of tao be related? The answer is that it cannot - at least, not in words. The tao, like so many other religious principles, has to be experienced first hand to be truly understood. Words can never fully describe the tao.
Is a discussion of tao then guaranteed to be fruitless? Certainly not. One will not experience the tao from reading about it, but one can certainly learn to appreciate what others have gained from their investigation of Taoism. As an attempt to understand the philosophy, culture, mythology, history and art in Taoism, an investigation such as this course is completely sufficient. Thus, though one cannot really understand the "tao" from reading and discussing, one can learn much about Taoism.
Finally, a note on spelling: the spelling of "tao" with a "t" is misleading - the word is in fact pronounced "dao". The Wade-Giles system of transliterating Chinese words has been used for decades to translate Taoist ideas into English; however, it is flawed and becoming archaic. Quickly growing in popularity amongst academia and others is the pinyin system of transliteration, in which words are written basically as we would pronounce them. Unfortunately, the pinyin system has not fully displaced the Wade-Giles system, and thus most people spell "Taoism" with a "t" rather than the more appropriate "d". This brings us to my problem in preparing this course: shall we use the more popular Wade-Giles system or the more appropriate pinyin? I have decided to proceed in this manner: when speaking of "tao", "taoist" or "Taoism", I will use the more familiar Wade-Giles system, and hope the student keeps in mind that "dao", "daoism" and or "Daoism" are the same as the aforementioned terms. However, every other instance of a Chinese word will be transliterated with the pinyin system, and the Wade-Giles equivalent following the first instance of the word in parenthesis. For example: Laozi (Lao Tzu) and Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu). This is for the benefit of the student: many books will use either Wade-Giles or pinyin - with a transliteration of each, the student has a better chance of finding the information they require. As well, please note that some words are the same in both forms of transliteration - "yin" and "yang", for instance.
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Lessons
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