Daoism - the path of harmony

Daoism (also spelled Taoism) is one of the 3 main spiritual philosophies of China alongside Buddhism and Confucianism. It's roots stretch way back in time, long before the famous book the Dao De Ching came into being.

Daoism is not an easy philosophy to explain but has had an enormous impact on Chinese and, more recently, Western civilisation. For example, one of the key concepts of Daoism is the yin and yang - complementary forces that balance each other out. Often they are misunderstood in the West as being polar opposites but this is far from the case. Think of day and night, even at night there is still some light as you can find darkness in a windowless room during the day. Both have their place in a balanced universe. Daoism doesnt' recognise the concepts of good and evil - nobod is all good or all evil as no situation is either. All situations that people label as bad will have had beneficial effects somewhere t. future. One of the teachings of Daoism therefore is to live in and enjoy the 'now' not wasting time or precious energy regretting the past or fearing the future.

The Daoists of ancient China were the scientists, philosophers, inventors and artists of their day. They invented or discovered so many things that we take for granted today and which were then often discovered centuries later by Westerners. These discoveries were wide ranging from engineering to medicine, astronomy to nutrition and so on.

They were mostly fascinated by mankind - how we work and our place in the cosmos. Their quests to develop mind, body and spirit - to go beyond our limitations knew no bounds. They ingested all kinds of substances to try to find an elixir of immortality. They experimented with food and fasting, breath control, extremes of physical development and so on. They wrote down and followed many methods to physcial and spiritual mastery and these were jealously guarded in their temples. These were treasures that could have benefited all of mankind but most of it was lost in the Cultural Revolution. There are few complete methodologies left - most of what we have are isolated exercises and principles. One of the only surviving methodologies I am aware of is the 8 levels of accomplishment that we follow in the Jade Dragon School.