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From: alms@cambridge.apple.com (Andrew L. M. Shalit)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: Re: Taoism
Message-ID: <14669@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 19 Mar 90 14:34:28 GMT
Sender: mukund@phoenix.Princeton.EDU
Lines: 24
Approved: mukund@phoenix.Princeton.EDU
In-Reply-To: gilstrap@swbatl.sbc.com's message of 16 Mar 90 14:31:59 GM

There are three facets of Taoism to consider:

  1) Taoism as it is presented by original scripture (Lao Tzu, etc)
  2) Taoism as it is currently practiced in China
  3) Self-styled western `Taoists' who have read (1) but don't know
     anything about (2)

I believe (2) is a lot more complex than (1).  There is a fair amount
of ritual, relationships with spirits, magic kinds of things, etc.
It doesn't have the pristine simplicity of (1).

It's naive of Westerners to think that Taoism could retain its purity
any more than Christianity (wrt to being a direct expression of
the scriptures).  Also, (1) is such an anarchic system, it would be
difficult for real `schools' to remain true to it.

If anyone's interested, there is a vegetarian Chinese Restaurant
in San Fransisco's China Town, which is run by traditional Chinese
Taoists.  There is a Taoist temple upstairs.  When I ate there, there
was a death ceremony going on, with lots of incense and gongs and
embroidered robes. . .

   -andrew
    alms@cambridge.apple.com