Comparative Religions

 ____________– born about 604 B.C.E.  Met Confucius who labeled Lao a _______________  Enigmatic  Larger than life  Mysterious  Lao supposedly became upset with the attitudes of the people and climbed on a _________________ and headed west

 On this westward journey he was stopped and was asked to write down his ________________________  Three days he wrote  He produced the Tao Te Ching – The Way and Its Power (aka the __________)  Most scholars don’t believe Lao himself wrote the whole thing  They do agree that _____ man’s thoughts inspired the whole thing

 Tao is the way of ultimate reality  Too vast for reason to __________________  It is the womb from which all _______ springs and to which it returns  Tao is the way of the universe  The norm  The rhythm  The driving power of ______________  It is spirit instead of matter It can’t be _____________________ The more it’s drawn upon, the more it flows  Tao is the way of __________________________  It meshes with the Tao of the universe

 ___________________________Taoism  All three of the above are different, but seek to maximize the Tao’s meaning of ________  Summarizing the three together:  P.T. begins with interest in how life’s normal allotment of ______ can best be used. This leads to how ch’i can be ________ (V.T.). Finally, gathering the ________ energy of Tao is handled in R.T.  See these three as currents in a common _______

 ___________________  Self-help oriented  Teachers are really ______________ training students in what they should understand  An attitude to _______________  Has the most to say to the world  Called “School Taoism” in _______________  Lao Tzu  Chuang Tzu  Tao Te Ching

 ________________________ is sought  P. T. want knowledge that empowers (aka wisdom)  P.T. want to live in a way that _____________ energy by not expending it in useless ways  Avoid ______________ and _________________  Center on _______________ – pure effectiveness  Main objective is to align one’s daily life to the Tao  Ride its boundless tide and delight in its flow  Find Creative Quietude – the balance between supreme _____________ and supreme _____________

 Called Taoist Adepts  Wanted to increase the Tao at their disposal  Center on ____________ – vital energy (breath)  Main objective is to remove _____________ that reduce the flow of ch’i  _________________ is the life force and these Taoists love life!

 Concentrate on three things to maximize ch’i  _______________  Ch’i is taken in it’s matter forms (liquid, gas, solid) through movements like t’ai- chi chuan. The mind increases ch’i through meditation.  The meditation resembles ___________  “To the mind that is ___________, the whole universe surrenders.”

 Religious Taoism __________________the shamans, psychics, faith healers, and soothsayers of the day.  Taoist church was founded in the ________ century C.E.  The Taoist priesthood made cosmic life-power available for _____________________  The church and it’s line of succession continues today in ______________

 _________ impressed the Taoists the most.  Unobtrusive  Adaptive  Assumes the ________ of its containers  Seeks out the __________ places  __________ what is hard and brittle  __________ canyons from granite  Erodes hills  Wisdom of water (wu wei)  “Muddy water let stand still will ____________”

 Taoists value ________________. They honor  Hunchbacks  Cripples  They point out the value of  __________________

 Taoists believe nature should not be ________ and abused, any more than _______________ should be  Nature should be ___________________, not conquered.  Humans are at their best when they are in harmony with their ______________  Man is often seen as climbing with their bundles, riding a buffalo, or poling a boat  The human self with its journey The hill to climb The burden to carry But surrounded by the beauty of __________________

 Yin/yang  Polar opposites Day – _____________ ____________ – death Male – ____________  On cannot _________ without the other  The two meet, mesh, but remain _______________

 Chinese Character is best represented by the two poles of Confucianism and Taoism ConfucianismTaoism CharacterRomantic BehaviorCalculated FocusConnects the human to what transcends it BoundariesConfucius roams within Society