educate me on Daoism /x/

>>19390678
Bruce Kumar Frantzis "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body."

/thread

>>19390678
This is the origin of Daoism:

無極生有極、有極是太極、
太極生兩儀、即陰陽;
兩儀生四象: 即少陰、太陰、少陽、太陽、
四象演八卦、八八六十四卦

Wújí shēng yǒu jí, yǒu jí shì tàijí
Tàijí shēng liǎngyí jí yīnyáng
Liǎngyí shēng sìxiàng: jí shǎo yīn, tàiyīn, shǎo yáng, tàiyang
Sìxiàng yǎn bāguà bābāliù shísì guà

The Limitless (無極; wuji) produces the delimited (有極; youji), and this demarcation is equivalent to the Absolute (太極; taiji).
The Taiji (the two opposing forces in embryonic form) produces two forms, named yin-yang (陰陽) which are called Liangyi (the manifested opposing forces).
These two forms produce four phenomena: named lesser yin (少陰, shaoyin), greater yin (太陰; taiyin, which also refers to the Moon), lesser yang (少陽, shaoyang), and greater yang (太陽; taiyang, which also refers to the Sun).
The four phenomena (四象; Sìxiàng) act on the eight trigrams (八卦; Bagua).
Eight 'eights' results in sixty-four hexagrams.

>>19390678
Just read the Tao Te Ching, it's an incredibly easy read that contains most of the core Taoism beliefs

Essentially Taoism states that life and nature are already perfect, and difficulties in life stem from trying to unnaturally fight the flow of life and leading a complex life.

>>19390678
The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao
Or, put simply, there exists a substance to the universe that escape our grasp, yet we are capable of knowing it as unknowable. Any word to describe it fails by nature, for any word is not the Infinite.
It is a religion/philosophy devoted to understanding the true nature of reality by relinquishing concepts of the Absolute, instead recognizing existence as paradoxical by form. All aspects contain aspects of the other, and vice versa, leading to unity by acknowledgement of separation. Wisdom by accepting certain limitations of ignorance.

>>19391385
>Just read the Tao Te Ching, it's an incredibly easy read that contains most of the core Taoism beliefs
Definitely. It's practically a coffee table book. Good for a few quick reads here and there when you've got time to spare.

>>19390678
There is no education to be had. It already is.

>>19390678
a very cool branch of buddhism, which is laid out in a simple and small treatise, the Tao Te Ching.

Alan Watts lectures on YT are not daoism-specific but often refer to 'the tao' etc. etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtVrxjjyfoc

>>19390678
At the most basic sense it's the belief that everything has a "way" (the Tao) and that by knowing the Way you will have an easier time at doing things. Every little thing has its own Way, but there's only one Way that pervades everything. Unfortunately explaining the specifics of the Way and how it pertains to everything is essentially impossible, which is why you'll hear the phrase "the Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao" or something similar thrown around a lot.

It also emphasizes the Yin/Yang thing, as a symbol of both how everything is separate and everything is the same (including how being separate and same are the same), as well as transformation. Like how without darkness we have no concept of light, and without light we have no darkness, so the concepts of light and dark are opposites, but they only exist when the other exists at the same time. A lot of it is about not thinking of things as "good" or "bad" just as "existing". This ties back into the Way, since you have to just accept it all as being part of the Way, not fighting it or clinging to it.

That's the core of philosophical Taoism, and more "superstitious" Taoism is a complicated set of beliefs and practices generally revolving around the idea that by discovering the Way of certain things or by understanding the whole way well enough, you can perform seemingly supernatural acts. For instance someone might understand the Tao of a wall well enough that they could just walk through it, or they could transmute metals into other ones by understanding the Tao of each of the metals and how they would transform. There is generally also the belief in a number of various human-like deities and a heaven.

As for how to learn about the Tao, meditating about how things work is good. Try to simply experience things without and judgement, that way you can enjoy everything for simply existing. The Tao Te Ching and Zhuangzi are also worth a read, they form the core of philosophical Taoism.