How to Learn Taoism

Where to start? I teach Taoism in so many ways. Taoism is an interesting system. How one learns it, what it entails and the truth Taoist Teachers impart to students varies for each person.

It can literally be:

As simple as embracing a smile.

As difficult as mastering 60 years of intensive study.

Unlike any other system taught in human history: Taoism accepts no final definition other than the Tao. The Tao by definition is indefinable.

Yet being human, we do define it. Human nature seeks answers and embraces truth towards our place in a seemingly larger universe. We are colorful beings and that means we live to the heart. The human heart leads this journey towards completeness, as each person uniquely finds meaning for their life.

As a Taoist Master I teach a collection of methods that I find help students quickly discover their own personal truth. However, before jumping into new practices, first lets look at how people learn Taoism.

One reason for large differences in learning Taoism is due to the path taken. Everything a person does actually helps to teach Taoism. Along life, each person makes choices on the skills they would wish to learn. Each skill we work towards opens up new insights and new wonders to explore. As a result if a person accepts what they have already experienced in life then it helps speed up the process of learning Taoism.

The other reason for seemingly a large difference in learning times is: for a Taoist time is literally immaterial. In our attitude it doesn’t make a difference if we spend 5 seconds or 30 years to learn a single truth. What matters is embracing truth in our own nature, in our own time.

Unlike other practices which teach in an ‘orderly’ manner, Taoism is probably the only major religion within which the order of learning truth is immaterial. We learn it as we learn it, or often more aptly the case, we unlearn it as we slowly release into it. This is an important distinction since as a person releases into Taoist practice, the heart connects to their truth of being one with the larger universe.

Why limit how to discover truth: when it is already present, wrapped around your very nature and is related to how you accept yourself?

Since everything we do in our life connects us to ‘truth’ it might appear that some people just discover Taoism in a single smile. Yet that smile contains a person’s entire life. It simmers down to how we accept ourselves. Some seekers take a moment to accept themselves others spend a lifetime finding personal acceptance.

Various sects of Taoism will teach in proscribed manners because for some it’s simpler to do so, not because it’s actually required to do so. Think about this for a moment: How can anyone expect that a proscribed manner of learning could actually define the indefinable any faster than any other method? You can’t. Using a proscribed manner of learning actually creates structures that would actually limit our nature within, by defining ourselves to ‘definition’ or ‘form’. Yet some people require a structured form in order to let go later. So it’s as valid of a path to take as any other.

The whole point about practices and learning secret techniques, is that they are tools used to create challenge and provide the opportunity to have some fun while we live. As a result to a Taoist it’s again immaterial if we take an instant or explore an intricate system of practices to learn Taoism within.

The true secret trick is to enjoy life as we explore the nature of being ourselves.

The actual process of learning to release into the “Tao” is often the harder part of living life. We see truth from many angles, many perceptions. This is the rub, and why people work through so many practices in order to get to a place where it is possible to accept release. As it really becomes an issue of reconciling their personal nature first.

Now when I talk about Taoism, don’t think in terms of religion or philosophy.

Think in terms of what it is that you desire to become in life. Taoism teaches life.

Religion and philosophy are structures people place on teachings, to limit and control thought. Taoism doesn’t care about any human defined boundaries. Instead Taoist practice dives into issues of the heart and teaches it all equally.

I will use language from many religions and philosophies because being human, those are references we have in our life to use. As a Taoist Teacher I never limit myself instead as a Taoist I show the potential of being human and then go beyond that statement.

Truth and Taoism

Truth is an interesting topic, one which needs to be talked about from several angles.

Lets start here:

Humans love definition. Definition implies we can find an answer for everything. The problem is making the assumption that an absolute truth exists to every definition. This is not the case. Taoism teaches that from human perspective no absolute truth, no absolute falsehood can be defined or embraced by a person. By human nature we are a smaller part of the larger whole. When examining something, looking for answers, finding a statement: every such examination will contain both truth and falsehoods.

• Even more confusing, the mixture of truth and falsehood is relative to each observer.
• Even more confusing, the mixture of truth and falsehood will shift for each person over time as they change.

So when you look at anything, as a Taoist you accept a view of the world being a mixture of perception. Within that perception there will be elements of truth and falsehood.

What is Truth?

We all think we know truth: something that is immutable and defined outside oneself to the greater whole. Sadly this is why people look to judges and priests to define their own truth.

Taoism teaches us that truth has two different aspects. Inner Truth and Outer Truth.

Outer truth would be the truths defined by a larger universal standard. For instance: The Tao being undefined can be considered to be a universal truth.

Inner truths are truths which are defined by each person relative to their own life.

So for a Taoist, questions fall into two categories: Outer Truth and Inner Truth. Questions that fall in the zone of Outer truth are questions that can be answered outside a person’s personal nature. For example : What is Red? Red is a color, defined by being a particular wavelength of light… pretty clear cut right? Nope.

Since many questions still end up being relative:

For instance What is Red? Well depending on how you perceive the world, Red can still mean something different. So to someone who is color blind their RED may not be the same as your RED.

So questions which are dependent on your nature fall into the category of Inner Truth.

So questions can have different answers depending if you are trying to answer relative to an Outer Truth or Inner Truth such as the “What is Red?” question illustrates. When considering this: of course a person can get stuck in endless loops chasing questions. A Taoist knows answers are infinite. A person can spend an entire lifetime chasing answers only to be left still chasing after more. So a Taoist instead uses release as a way to work around this infinite chase. Release doesn’t require “answers” to work, it’s instead a process of letting go. Chasing answers often will cause additional problems to crop up. Yes at times knowing an answer can help a person resolve an issue. However, most of the time it’s easier and quicker to just release and move on.

A problem is when a person tries to force questions which are strictly Inner Truth in nature as if they were Outer Truth problems.

This is the root reason religions cause so many problems: trying to force personal answers as an universal truth upon others.

The problem is many Inner truths are defined by ego and personal need. For example some questions such as acceptance of homosexuality are rooted in ego in scope. Ego based questions cannot be answered from a universal perspective: despite ego’s insistence that it’s universal in nature. So in the end, “ego” based questions must be answered by each person. Giving a general answer actually creates interpersonal conflict. To a Taoist this problem is easily avoided by leaving the question unanswered from a larger perspective. To recognize this question is personal in scope for each individual to balance in their life.

Taoist practice teaches a person how to only embrace ego lightly. In this manner Taoist practice resolves many questions into not mattering.

This is very important and has implications for many other questions.

What is Falsehood?

Seemingly the answer is: something that isn’t true. This is a good starting point.

Lets briefly look at this a little more. People often say the light is truth. That truth is projected out from a larger universal source. Fair enough, since, we are all one with the universe, part of our nature is to project out our own truth. This leads to quite a bit of conflict as people then fight over their “projected” truth.

Delusions are when a person projects out their own reality: changes outside truth to fit their needs. Every human does this, it’s a matter of degree. In Taoist practice we release ego, in this release, remove the need to live in delusion. The nature of ego is projection. The projection of falseness / delusion is deeply rooted in the ego’s nature of being projection and using projection to control the larger world.

If you are ever looking for a definition between being human and animal, this is it: the ability to project out delusion. To have ego. If you ever come across any life form that has ego, then it is as human as you in its base nature.

The interesting thing about falsehood is it also has two sides to it. Falsehood reflects the nature of Truth after all. Outer Falsehoods: Are the delusions which humans project outward. Inner Falsehood: something which isn’t true to your own perception of life.

The Yin and Yang of truth & falsehood

So from all of this comes a very important teaching tool that Taoists use. We call this the eye of truth. This is very important since it means: you can discover truth within everything. It’s a matter of perspective. Over time this merges in the third eye. Since with the third eye we can relax and merge into being one with the larger universe. From this we get the larger universal perspective to balance out our own inner perspectives.

Everything created by human endeavor will contain a mixture of truth and falsehood. This means everything is open to a Taoist to learn from. We learn as much truth reading a science fiction book as a science text book of nature. Everything ripples and contains reflections of our world.

As a Taoist, it’s possible to learn everything you need with what is around you right now. You don’t need Masters, well thought out PHD degrees or Leaders to teach you what is right.

As an example:

The Chinese government before 1990 worked to suppress the Taoist teachings. Yet they could never destroy Taoist teachings, as Taoist teachings are weaved into the fabric of society itself, you will find many references and aspects of Taoism even within western culture.

A Taoist embraces the negative as much as the positive since (think yin and yang) it all plays part to opening up our understanding and spreading truth. So the fact that the Chinese government once tried to suppress Taoist teachings also actually helped to serve to spread Taoism also.

The world is always our teacher that all the lessons and truths are at our disposal: always. It’s just a matter of being open to seeing things for many perspectives, from many voices. Coming to our retreat or finding a Master might help speed up the learning curve but the information is already around you now to help open up doors.

Now also be careful (think yin and yang) if you embrace your ideas of truth too hard, you will push your truth into falsehoods. This is the projection of delusion mentioned earlier.

Embrace truth lightly to have the clearest view of the world.

When learning from a person, strangely even when being taught incorrectly: a Taoist will learn from that and reverse it back into truth.

Also you must listen to your body, essence, and mind. People listen to others too much… even true masters at the price of hurting themselves, at the price of lessening their own nature… Listen to yourself as much as the master. At some point you learn enough and grow. You learn from everyone. It’s just that from some people you learn what you need to know in 5 seconds and then move on.

Earlier in this article I stated:

Taoism teaches that from human perspective no absolute truth, no absolute falsehood can be defined or embraced by a person.

This is not quite correct. That’s the problem with any statement … truth is relative to intent and that intent always shifts with each moment…

Taoism teaches that from human perspective one absolute truth can be defined or embraced by a person.

We are…
Who we actively live to our heart to be…