Taoism

The word Tao means the path or the way of the universe or ultimate reality. In this religious approach, there is a transcendental world of the spirit. The concept is to take on a passive, unforced, yielding attitude which allows one to remain in harmony with the Tao. The bible of Taoism is Tao Te Ching, and it is attributed to the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, who was contemporary with Confucius (6th century B. C.). This religion separates the universe into the female and male principles or the yin and yang. Both are equal to each other, and both need each other. Yet, in other ways, the yin and yang are opposites. Huston Smith states: "This polarity sums up all of life's basic oppositions: good/evil, active/passive, positive/negative, light/dark, summer/winter, male/female. But though the halves are in tension, they are not flatly opposed; they complement and balance each other" (Smith 214). There is an eternal wholeness to all of this. There is no dichotomy of the sexes as there is in the Western philosophies. In Taoism, there is no such thing as a superior or inferior sex. The yin and yang are complementary, as well as contrastive, and in their togetherness make up every whole. Also, yin and yang are not merely cosmological principles, but characterize the content of human existence.

A central theme in Taoism is the concept that what is important is nonbeing rather than being. In this approach, it is the emptiness that is useful in a room, not the walls

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clean, thoroughgoing statement about their equality in the Buddhist community witnesses to a loss of a fine opportunity" (Carmody 72). Hinduism Unlike the religions already mentioned, Hinduism has no creed and no known founder. Hinduism is a religious and social system organically interrelated by dharma, or the natural order. Dharma involves belief in karma, or the principle of cause as affecting a future existence. Past karma can be "burnt away," and future karma can be destroyed by the performance of the "pure act" (selfless, detached, dedicated action), which leads to its by-product moksha or liberation (in Buddhism called Nirvana), a condition of release from the painful dualities, polarities, and ambivalences of the phenomenal world. Unlike the religions previously discussed, Hinduism has a caste system based on heredity. Smith states: "Few contemporary Hindus defend the lengths to which India eventually went in keeping the castes distinct. Her proscriptions regulating intermarriage, interdining, and other forms of social contact made her, in her first prime minister's wry assessment, 'the least tolerant nation in social forms while the most tolerant in the realm of ideas'" (Smith 57). The situation between the sexe

Category: Philosophy - T