wisely_xu
Member
Joined: 15 Nov 2004
Posts: 216
Send Message 22 February 2005 · 09:48 PM
i need to point out certain issues.
Taoism base on the teachings of lao tze and uphold Tao Te Ching as
the Bible. BUT it does not have this only 1 scripture. Taoism has
thousand of scriptures written by Sages and immortals. Many of
them, but ALL revolve around Tao Te Ching.
How can we know that? cos those who wrote these classics, are
enlightened beings, such as Partirachs Wang chongyang, Qiu
Changchun, Lu Dongbin, Zhang Sanfeng etc..
Some are heavenly divines, passing down these words
personally.
Tao Te Ching does talk about deities and spirits. Worshipping many
deities is NOT wrong in Taoism view and certainly still consider
orthodox taoism.
We must see the meaning behind worshipping them.
Not that most taoist divines, heavenly ones, are ALL enlighthened.
only certain lower ranked divines are not, but they still follow
the way of heaven, way of tao.
Superstious come in only ppl have lack of proper knowledge on
Taoism and thus add in these unwanted elements.
Taosim rituals and rites are NOT superstious too. It was the Yellow
Emperor who advocate worshipping of heaven, and it was Celestial
Master Zhang Daoling that teaches the ppl rituals and magic.
Rituals and magics are all about easing sufferings, REPENTENCE,
blessings and accumulating of merits.
Achelmy etc..improve standard of living and indirectly assist ppl
in learning the way of tao more convienently.
A healthy body promote and enchance a healthy and clear mind for
cultivating.
Taoism has 3 treasures too, they are the Tao, Jing, and shi, namely
the Tao (Lord of Primival aka Yuan shi tian zun), Jing, teachings,
scriptures(Lord of Numinous Treasures aka lingbao tian zun) and
lastly Shi, Spiritual teachers( Lord of Tao and virtue aka Daode
tian zun, tai shang lao jun or lao tze)
NO rituals or worship in Taoism is complete without acknowledging
the 3 treausres. The heavenly Jade Emperor was from the 3 treasures
aka three pure ones too. Thus worshipping heaven, is equavilent to
worshipping and paying homage to the three pure ones and jade
emperor. both represent the ultimate Wuji and Taiji - the
tao.
Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you going to
get -- Forrest Gump
A journey to a thousand mile begins with the first step - Lao
Tze
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