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What is Daoism · Abide Meditation App

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  Speaker 1: Sponsored by Wondrium. Daoism is a philosophical and religious tradition
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  Speaker 1: indigenous to China, but it does not easily map onto
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  Speaker 1: Western understandings of either philosophy or religion. And although that
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  Speaker 1: little suffix ism in the word Daoism implies a relatively
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  Speaker 1: unified and well integrated system, Daoism is anything but that.
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  Speaker 1: Daoism cannot be reduced to a few essential texts, concepts,
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  Speaker 1: or practices. In fact, it's been compared to a vine.
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  Speaker 1: Daoism is always changing and growing and branching off of itself. Also,
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  Speaker 1: like a vine, it's entangled in other aspects of Chinese culture, Confucianism, Buddhism,
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  Speaker 1: Chinese folk religion, and more. Daoism has incorporated ancestor veneration,
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  Speaker 1: Chinese shamanism, divination, breath meditation, Chinese traditional medicine, and alchemy.
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  Speaker 1: So the question what is Daoism is not easy to answer,
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  Speaker 1: But in this video we'll try to untangle all of
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  Speaker 1: these complexities, going through a general overview of Daoism, its
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  Speaker 1: two foundational texts, and a few of its religious lineages, beliefs,
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  Speaker 1: and practices. Considering the name Taoism, it makes sense to
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  Speaker 1: start with the concept the Tao. This comes from the
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  Speaker 1: Chinese word, which is most often translated as the way,
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  Speaker 1: but it can also mean path, method, style, or technique.
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  Speaker 1: You might have seen it spelled with a T instead
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  Speaker 1: of a D. This spelling uses a system for rendering
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  Speaker 1: Chinese words in English called the wage Gial system. It's
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  Speaker 1: the same reason why you might sometimes see p King
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  Speaker 1: instead of Beijing, the latter of which uses the so
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  Speaker 1: called pinion system. Academics generally use the pinion system these days,
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  Speaker 1: and this is the system I'll be using in this
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  Speaker 1: video and all future videos on Daoism. So what is
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  Speaker 1: the Tao? Well, it's almost impossible to define, and ironically,
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  Speaker 1: the opening line of the central Daoist text, the dow
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  Speaker 1: to Jing, says, the Tao that can be spoken is
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  Speaker 1: not the eternal Tao, but we're going to try to
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  Speaker 1: speak of it anyway. A few ways scholars define the
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  Speaker 1: Tao is ultimate reality and its manifestations in everyday life,
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  Speaker 1: the underlying cosmic power which creates the universe, and the
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  Speaker 1: energizing process through which everything in the cosmos unfold and
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  Speaker 1: is transformed. It's not accurate to think of the Tao
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  Speaker 1: like a god. It's not an active personal entity, but
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  Speaker 1: rather it's an organic order, an organic process that just
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  Speaker 1: moves along naturally and spontaneously. Taoist thought and practice aims
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  Speaker 1: to find the best way to live in the world
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  Speaker 1: by aligning with this organic, cosmic flow of the Tao,
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  Speaker 1: transforming our thoughts and actions to be in harmony with
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  Speaker 1: its natural order. Now, this might sound very abstract, but
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  Speaker 1: as we'll see throughout this video, aligning yourself with the
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  Speaker 1: Tao is meant to be a very concrete and pragmatic
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  Speaker 1: way of living. Over the past twenty five hundred years,
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  Speaker 1: Daoists have provided all manner of ritualized practices that can
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  Speaker 1: help to align yourself with the Tao that involve medicine, alchemy, divination,
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  Speaker 1: venerating the gods, as well as bodily and mental techniques.
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  Speaker 1: So where did this all start? While Daoism does not
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  Speaker 1: have a single founder or birthplace, there are two foundational
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  Speaker 1: texts where we can start, the dota Jing and the Jonsu.
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  Speaker 1: The formers attributed to Lautzu and is sometimes called the Lautzu,
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  Speaker 1: while the latters attributed to the philosopher junsh also known
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  Speaker 1: as Joan Jou. There's evidence that Junsu was a historical figure,
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  Speaker 1: while Lautsu, which means Old Master, may or may not
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  Speaker 1: have existed. Some scholars think he may be a stand
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  Speaker 1: in character or a personification of ancient wisdom or tradition.
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  Speaker 1: Let's start with Lautzer. Although most scholars view him as legendary.
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  Speaker 1: Ancient Chinese histories say he lived during the sixth century BCE,
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  Speaker 1: but accounts of his life are full of inconsistencies and legends.
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  Speaker 1: The Grand Historian of the Han dynasty tells a story
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  Speaker 1: of Confucius consulting Lautsu for advice on the meaning of
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  Speaker 1: li or propriety, a very important concept in Confucianism. Lautsu
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  Speaker 1: reproaches him for being self righteous, and Confucius leaves profoundly impressed,
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  Speaker 1: which is a common theme in these legends. Lautsu is
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  Speaker 1: frequently depicted correct and Confucius, and Confucius is depicted as
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  Speaker 1: deferential to the Old Master's authority. Since the Han Dynasty,
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  Speaker 1: Lautsu became venerated as a deity and seen as a
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  Speaker 1: personification of the Tao, and High Lord Lao is still
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  Speaker 1: worshiped widely today. Although the Douta Jing is traditionally attributed
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  Speaker 1: to Lausu. Most scholars now believe that it was composed
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  Speaker 1: by multiple authors during the Warring States period, an era
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  Speaker 1: of warfare and military consolidation from four seventy five to
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  Speaker 1: two twenty one BCE. Shorter earlier versions of the text
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  Speaker 1: must have been circulating in the late fourth century, while
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  Speaker 1: the text as we have it today was not compiled
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  Speaker 1: until around the third century. The Doubta Jing is a
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  Speaker 1: collection of short sayings. It consists of eighty one verses
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  Speaker 1: and around five thousand words. However, although it's a relatively
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  Speaker 1: short text, it's a famously difficult text to understand and
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  Speaker 1: covers a huge range of topics. As the scholar of
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  Speaker 1: Daoism Livia Cone says, you can read the text as
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  Speaker 1: a religious, political, military, or naturalistic treatise dealing with psychology,
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  Speaker 1: the natural world, or society, and it often juxtaposes ideas
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  Speaker 1: in contradictory ways. This is illustrated in one of the
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  Speaker 1: most famous lines of Chinese philosophy, which comes from the
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  Speaker 1: first line that we referenced before. The Tao that can
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  Speaker 1: be spoken is not the eternal Tao. The name that
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  Speaker 1: can be named is not the eternal name. Most scholars
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  Speaker 1: interpret this line as expressing skepticism toward our ability to
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  Speaker 1: convey the meaning of Tao with human language. The Douta
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  Speaker 1: Jing is the first text that articulated a Taoist vision
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  Speaker 1: of the Tao as an absolute principle or source of existence.
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  Speaker 1: One of the main themes is that the Tao is
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  Speaker 1: a wellspring of creative power for a universe that is
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  Speaker 1: constantly experiencing transformation. This process of ceaseless transformation is represented
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  Speaker 1: in the famous Yin and Yang's symbol. Yin and yang
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  Speaker 1: originally referred to the shady and sunny sides of a hill.
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  Speaker 1: Throughout the day, one side is bathed in sun and
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  Speaker 1: the other in shadow. One side is not necessarily superior
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  Speaker 1: to the other, but rather they exist together in harmony.
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  Speaker 1: In order to live in harmony with the Tao, humans
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  Speaker 1: must embrace this constant transformation of the universe and realize
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  Speaker 1: that opposites in the world are Complementaryan how to achieve
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  Speaker 1: this harmony with another important concept called oohway, which is
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  Speaker 1: often anglicized as wuwey and is translated as non action
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  Speaker 1: or effortless action. This means refraining from action when it
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  Speaker 1: would interfere with the natural expression of different things and
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  Speaker 1: their potential outcomes. In accordance with the Doo, action should
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  Speaker 1: be natural, spontaneous, and free of ingrained habits. The Dotaging says,
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  Speaker 1: act but as wu way, be active, but don't let
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  Speaker 1: your conduct be intentional and deliberative. In other words, wuwe
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  Speaker 1: promotes an attitude of stillness and non intervention, but it
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  Speaker 1: does not advocate for being completely passive. Rather, it's a
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  Speaker 1: spontaneous way of acting that lets go of your own
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  Speaker 1: self interested concerns and guards against behavior that is too
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  Speaker 1: assertive that could lead to bad outcomes like hatred, greed, violence,
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  Speaker 1: or aggression. Water is a common metaphor for the Doo,
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  Speaker 1: and the Dotaging highlights it in chapter eight as the
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  Speaker 1: highest good. The greatest good is like water. It benefits
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  Speaker 1: all life without being known noticed. It flows even to
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  Speaker 1: the lowliest places where no one chooses to be, and
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  Speaker 1: so it is very close to the Tao. It adapts
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  Speaker 1: to all necessities, It moves at the right moment, It
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  Speaker 1: never flaunts its goodness, and so it never attracts any blame.
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  Speaker 1: This leads us to the other major theme in the
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  Speaker 1: Douta Jing, the sage through non action and aligning with
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  Speaker 1: the Tao, someone can become a fully realized person, attaining
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  Speaker 1: the perfect way of being in the world, and this
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  Speaker 1: is not an ideal just for individuals, but an ideal
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  Speaker 1: for all of society. A ruler who's a sage can
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  Speaker 1: help a community align with the Tao, and thus harmony
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  Speaker 1: and order can arise in an entire society. The second
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  Speaker 1: foundational taois philosopher Is Duons. He lived during the Warring
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  Speaker 1: States period and is said to have abandoned a career
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  Speaker 1: as a minor government official and instead lived a life
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  Speaker 1: as an impoverished hermit. The Dunsa is a collection of
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  Speaker 1: colorful stories and often very funny anecdotes that embrace a
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  Speaker 1: bunch of different voices, including those of animals, trees, and thieves.
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  Speaker 1: He didn't write the entire book, though, and is credited
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  Speaker 1: with only seven of its thirty three chapters. The remaining
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  Speaker 1: chapters come from different groups of authors that may represent
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  Speaker 1: different schools of thought, partially because it's a composite text
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  Speaker 1: to the jointsu does not put forward a single doubt
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  Speaker 1: that everyone must follow, but it does focus on several
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  Speaker 1: major themes. One theme is inner freedom in the midst
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  Speaker 1: of ordinary life and a return to a life of simplicity.
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  Speaker 1: This is demonstrated in the story Free and Easy Wandering,
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  Speaker 1: which is also one of the main inspirations for the
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  Speaker 1: Chinese animated epic film Big Fish and Bogonia. This anecdote
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  Speaker 1: tells the story of a fish who transforms into a
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  Speaker 1: mythical bird, who then tries to migrate far away to
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  Speaker 1: the south. But the other animals mock the bird for
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  Speaker 1: embarking on a seemingly impossible journey. Yet the story describes
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  Speaker 1: the naysayers as small and short lived, praising the migratory
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  Speaker 1: bird for being able to feel at home within an
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  Speaker 1: expansive realm and for setting its sights on an incredibly
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  Speaker 1: far off destination. This story illustrates the importance of traveling
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  Speaker 1: beyond convention. It involves outward movement beyond familiar spaces and
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  Speaker 1: transforming one's focus to be more aligned with the cosmos.
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  Speaker 1: Another major theme in the Dronksu is the Daoist principle
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  Speaker 1: the equality of things, a sense of equilibrium, and willingness
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  Speaker 1: to let go of attachments to temporary states of being.
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  Speaker 1: The most famous story illustrating this is Dunsu's Butterfly Dream,
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  Speaker 1: a story about the radical instability of our supposedly unique
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  Speaker 1: identities and perspectives. As the story goes, Duangho dreamt he
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  Speaker 1: was a butterfly, fluttering around, happy with himself and doing
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  Speaker 1: as he pleased. But suddenly he woke up, and he
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  Speaker 1: didn't know if he was a human who had dreamt
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  Speaker 1: he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was
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  Speaker 1: a human. This story teaches us to reject absolutes and
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  Speaker 1: consider all things as relative to one another. Dreaming and waking,
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  Speaker 1: life and death. These are merely transformations from one state
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  Speaker 1: to another. One is not necessarily more real or more
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  Speaker 1: significant than the other, and so one should not be
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  Speaker 1: so attacked to life or bothered by death, and strive
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  Speaker 1: to embrace transformations as they occur, which leads us to
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  Speaker 1: another major theme in the Junsa, the genren, which we
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  Speaker 1: can translate as the perfected person or the realized person,
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  Speaker 1: a person who is aligned with the Doo and who
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  Speaker 1: lives spontaneously, embraces transformation, and is at peace with the world.
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  Speaker 1: When you hear the perfected person, you might think of
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  Speaker 1: wise philosophers, or maybe even superheroes, and the Jaunson and
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  Speaker 1: later Dawis literature in general, elevate certain people as immortals
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  Speaker 1: or transcendents, people who have achieved a state that transcends
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  Speaker 1: earthly existence and its limitations. The Jaunza says that such
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  Speaker 1: people are godlike. Though great rivers freeze, they cannot chill him.
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  Speaker 1: Those swift lightning splits the hills, and howling gales shake
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  Speaker 1: the sea, they cannot frighten him. A man like this
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  Speaker 1: rides the clouds and mist, straddles the sun and moon.
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  Speaker 1: Even life and death have no effect on him. Later
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  Speaker 1: Taoists speak of immortals being able to fly, shape shift,
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  Speaker 1: control the weather, and of course live forever. But the
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  Speaker 1: Jaunsa frequently holds up ordinary people as ideal examples of
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  Speaker 1: the perfected person. There's a butcher whose knife never goes
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  Speaker 1: dull because he cuts meat in accordance with the doo,
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  Speaker 1: following the natural lines of the animal, and practicing his
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  Speaker 1: art ignoring his senses and following his spirit. There's a
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  Speaker 1: swimmer who does not get tired in the water because,
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  Speaker 1: as he says, I started with what I knew, matured
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  Speaker 1: my innate nature and allowed destiny to do the rest.
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  Speaker 1: I go in with the currents and come out with
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  Speaker 1: the flow, just going with the dow of the water
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  Speaker 1: and never being concerned. And there's a woodworker who becomes
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  Speaker 1: so calm and empty while working. He says, I am
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  Speaker 1: so still, I forget I have for limbs and a
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  Speaker 1: form and body. My skill is concentrated, and all outside
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  Speaker 1: distractions fade away. Each one of these ordinary people exemplifies
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  Speaker 1: the perfected person, people who have aligned themselves with the
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  Speaker 1: Doo and have achieved the ideal way to exist in
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  Speaker 1: this world. So that's a brief overview of the physical
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  Speaker 1: underpinnings of Daoism. But what about the aspects that might
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  Speaker 1: be more stereotypically classified as religious temples, gods, rituals, and
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  Speaker 1: so on. Western scholars used to categorize Daoism into two modes,
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  Speaker 1: philosophical and religious Daoism, and equated these two categories with
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  Speaker 1: two Chinese terms found in Daoist texts, dao jia for
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  Speaker 1: Daoist philosophy and dao jiao for Daoist religion. But this
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  Speaker 1: distinction is increasingly viewed as inaccurate. Part of the reason
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  Speaker 1: is because Daoist texts themselves make no such distinction. Daujiao
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  Speaker 1: directly translates to Daoist teachings rather than Daoist religion, while
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  Speaker 1: daujiad to Daoist family or lineage rather than Daoist philosophy.
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  Speaker 1: Daoist used both terms interchangeably to refer to the same thing,
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  Speaker 1: and the separation between the two is only useful insofar
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  Speaker 1: as it translates the Daoist tradition into a more familiar
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  Speaker 1: Western framework of religion. To account for a more nuanced
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  Speaker 1: understanding of Daoism, some scholars propose alternative models, such as
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  Speaker 1: mystical versus liturgical Daoism. Others avoid the distinction entirely by
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  Speaker 1: throwing in a sneaky hyphen and calling it a philosophic
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  Speaker 1: spiritual tradition. The scholar gil Roz summarizes it well when
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  Speaker 1: he says Daoism is not a clearly definable religion. We
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  Speaker 1: should consider the Daoist religion not as a unitary phenomenon,
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  Speaker 1: but as an assemblage of intersecting textual and ritual lineages
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  Speaker 1: centered on core concepts like the tao. Rather than drawing
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  Speaker 1: a sharp line between philosophical and religious Taoism, we can
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  Speaker 1: more accurately identify specific Daoist movements as organized Taoisms Taoist
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  Speaker 1: movements or communities with a more systematized set of beliefs, practices,
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  Speaker 1: and shared identities. While there are many we can cover,
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  Speaker 1: we'll focus on the two main organized Daoist movements today,
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  Speaker 1: Tianshudao and Tuengendao. Let's start with the former, Tianshudao or
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  Speaker 1: the Way of the Celestial Masters, also called Orthodox Unity Taoism.
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  Speaker 1: This tradition began in one forty two BCE when a
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  Speaker 1: healer and religious leader named John Dao Ling, while living
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  Speaker 1: in isolation on Crane Call Mountain, had a vision of
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  Speaker 1: Lord Lao, the deified L'autsu. Lord Lao gave to him
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  Speaker 1: the Tao of Orthodox Unity and appointed him the first
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  Speaker 1: Celestial Master. Joan Daoling went on to found the Way
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  Speaker 1: of the Celestial Masters, gathering tens of thousands of people
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  Speaker 1: into the first communal Taoist organization that started to look
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  Speaker 1: more like the Western understanding of an organized religion. The
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  Speaker 1: movement had specific gods, texts, officials, and ethics, all founded
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  Speaker 1: upon the teachings of the Tao. The dowda Jing functioned
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  Speaker 1: like a holy book and was recited for devotional and
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  Speaker 1: magical purposes. They worshiped gods like Lord Lao as manifestations
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  Speaker 1: of the Tao, and they eventually instituted leadership ranks and
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  Speaker 1: organized into twenty four administrative regions in China, kind of
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  Speaker 1: like Perishes and Catholicism. Many scholars even say it functioned
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  Speaker 1: like a Taoist theocracy, a deocracy, if you will, a
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  Speaker 1: semi independent state with a form of taxation, a ritual calendar,
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  Speaker 1: and a moral code for all members to follow. Orthodox
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  Speaker 1: unity Daoism is still around today as a community based priesthood.
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  Speaker 1: Daoist priests ordained in this tradition traced their lineage back
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  Speaker 1: to Joan Dahling as the first celestial Master, and they
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  Speaker 1: can deduct a variety of communal rituals for the communities
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  Speaker 1: at local temples. There are plenty of other examples of
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  Speaker 1: organized Taoisms that I could mention, but will briefly cover
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  Speaker 1: the other main branch of Daoism today, Queen Gen Dao,
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  Speaker 1: which we can translate as complete reality or complete perfection Daoism.
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  Speaker 1: This is the major monastic form of Daoism today and
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  Speaker 1: was found in the twelfth century CE by the philosopher
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  Speaker 1: and teacher Wangju Chuenjen Daoism originated as an austere ascetic movement.
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  Speaker 1: Wang Ju taught his disciples to abstain from the so
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  Speaker 1: called four hindrances, alcohol, sex, wealth, and anger. At first,
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  Speaker 1: it was a movement of hermit monks living in near isolation,
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  Speaker 1: but by the year thirteen hundred it evolved into a
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  Speaker 1: communal monastic movement, with thousands of monasteries around China and
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  Speaker 1: tens of thousands of monastics, both monks and nuns. It
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  Speaker 1: was also a mystical tradition, as Tweenjen monks and nuns
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  Speaker 1: developed complicated meditative and alchemical practices that will explore the
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  Speaker 1: next section. Today, the White Cloud Monastery or Bayungwan, located
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  Speaker 1: in Beijing, is the headquarters for a branch of Chuenjen
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  Speaker 1: Daoism called Dragon Gate Daoism. The White Cloud Monastery is
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  Speaker 1: also the headquarters of the China Daoist Association, the Chinese
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  Speaker 1: government's official supervisory body for Daoism. Along with the rise
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  Speaker 1: of these more organized, systematized Daoisms, we also see an
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  Speaker 1: effort to delineate an official Daoist canon of texts, which
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  Speaker 1: took shape in fourteen forty five under the Ming dynasty.
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  Speaker 1: The Daois canon is huge, way bigger than the Bible
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  Speaker 1: or the Koran. It consists of around fifteen hundred different
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  Speaker 1: texts and fills thirty six volumes. The genres in it
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  Speaker 1: range from hagiographies and liturgies to pharmacological and alchemical texts
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  Speaker 1: about making drugs and elixirs. Only a tiny fraction has
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  Speaker 1: been translated into English, and in fact, according to the
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  Speaker 1: scholar James Miller, there are probably many more texts we
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  Speaker 1: don't even know about because they were passed down over
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  Speaker 1: the centuries in secret. Turning now to the pantheon of
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  Speaker 1: Daoist gods. Now, it'd be difficult to list all of
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  Speaker 1: the gods in the Daoist tradition in one video, because
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  Speaker 1: many are shared with folk religion and they differ according
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  Speaker 1: to time and location. But the most important gods in
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  Speaker 1: the Daoist pantheon are the three pure Ones, also known
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  Speaker 1: as the Three Clarities or san Ching, which some scholars
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  Speaker 1: call the Taois Trinity. First, there is Lord of Primordial
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  Speaker 1: Beginning also called Jade Purity, who is considered the creator
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  Speaker 1: of heaven and earth and the personification of the Tao.
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  Speaker 1: Then there is Lord of the Numanus Treasure, the deity
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  Speaker 1: responsible for spreading the knowledge of the Tao, marking the
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  Speaker 1: passage of time and sacred books. Then there's Lord of
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  Speaker 1: the Way and its Virtue, the deified Lautsu and the
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  Speaker 1: mythological teacher of the Tao, who had existed even before
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  Speaker 1: the universe came into being. He occupies the lowest position
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  Speaker 1: of the Sanching trinity. These three gods have been worshiped
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  Speaker 1: together since the ninth century CE, and are typically depicted
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  Speaker 1: as old men. Other important deities include Yu Huang, the
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  Speaker 1: Jade Emperor, who occupies the highest position in popular religion
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: and was incorporated into the Daoist pantheon during the Song dynasty.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: Also there's Si wang Mu or Queen Mother of the West,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: the ancient mother of immortals and sometimes considered the mother
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: of the Jade Emperor. Then there's Matsu, a goddess popular
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: and khost regions who protect sailors and fishermen. She is
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: the deification of a woman named Lynn Moel, who is
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: said to have been born during the Song Dynasty in
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: the tenth century, and who is said to have saved
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: her brother and father during a typhoon with her spiritual powers. Now,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: there are many more gods that we could mention, but
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: it's important to emphasize that many of these gods are
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: not necessarily Taoist gods in any exclusive sense. One of
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Daoism's defining characteristics is its adaptability and relatively non exclusive
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: attitude toward other spiritual traditions. As the scholar James Miller says,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: all religions in China have traditionally functioned in relation to
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: a common substrate of popular religion. This includes the Chinese calendar,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: traditional Chinese festivals, and ancestor veneration. At the same time, however,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Daois have historically held contradictory attitudes toward Chinese folk religion,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: sometimes incorporating certain practices and gods into its pantheon, while
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: other times prohibiting cults to minor deities and attempting to
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: educate the masses into venerating gods that personify the Tao.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: So sometimes the relationship between Daoism in Chinese folk religion
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: was antagonistic and sometimes symbiotic. Much of Daoism is not
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: so systematized as the two main branches today, though throughout
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: history people have engaged in more individualized practices that we
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: can call Taoist self cultivation techniques. These are practices that
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: are thought to align oneself more in harmony with the
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: tao balance internal energies, promote health and even help to
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: attain longer life or immortality. As with the Daois pantheon,
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: self cultivation techniques are not necessarily exclusive to Taoism. For example,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: many of these techniques draw from the vast and complex
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: world of Chinese folk medicine. But we can categorize Daois
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: self cultivation into three types, meditation, alchemy, and practices called
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Yamshin translated as nourishing life. Nourishing life encompasses a bunch
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: of different practices that aim to benefit the body. This
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: includes Chi goom, which is a set of physical practices
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: involving slow flowing bodily movements, rhythmic breathing, and a meditative
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: state of mind. This physical practice is thought to cultivate
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: and rebalance the vital force the body called chi. Chi
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Gong is closely related to tai chi, a Chinese martial
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: art that encourages the chi to circulate freely through the body.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: According to Daois, thought, chi must flow unobstructed and remain
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: in balance for people to reach an optimal state of
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: health and well being. Daois temples today will even sponsor
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Chi Gong sessions during which participants can practice the techniques together.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Nourishing life also encompasses different breathing and healing techniques, dietary guidance,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: as well as sexual practices generally aimed at healing the body,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: extending your life, or promoting overall well being. Daois meditation
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: is an equally vast body of traditions that we can
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: only briefly summarize here, but all forms of meditation generally
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: are viewed as methods for balancing energies in the body
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: and aligning oneself to the tao. On one level, Daoist
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: meditation can simply involve concentration, focusing your attention on a
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: single object, sound entity, or your breath. But there are
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: more complicated forms of Daoist meditation that can involve inner
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: journeys where you visualize gods or energies inside your body,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: or extra journeys, what we can call ecstatic excursions or
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: shamanic soul travel. This involves the meditator traveling to the cosmos,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: visiting constellations like the Big Dipper or the Sun and Moon.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: The last form of taois self cultivation that will explore
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: here is alchemy, which encompasses a range of different physical, meditative, ritual,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: and ecstatic practices for achieving immortality and union with the Tao.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: We can divide Daois alchemy into two forms, external and
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: internal alchemy. External alchemy or why done, involves the manipulation
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: of natural substances, such as creating and ingesting or carrying
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: elixirs that confer transcendence and immortality, as well as protection
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: from evil spirits and the ability to summon benevolent gods.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Internal alchemy or nadan involves meditative techniques that aim to
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: refine the body's energies and transform your inner self. It's
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: called a form of alchemy because it's believed that through
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: these practices you can actually change your form and substance,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: transforming yourself into a transcendent or immortal being. Let's turn
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: down to the modern situation of Daoism. Here in the
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: twenty first century, you might be wondering how many Daoists
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: are there today? Well, this is kind of the wrong
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: question to ask when it comes to sociologists trying to
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: measure religious affiliation. Things get very complicated, very quickly with
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Chinese religion. As one study says, in China, folk religion
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: and institutional religions are not discreet, but overlap and interweave
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: with each other. And although the Chinese government recognizes Daoism
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: as one of the official religions in the country, asking
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: a question like what is your religion on a survey
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: will not get you an accurate snapshot of Daoist practitioners,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: especially because many Chinese people would interpret that question as
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: asking if you yourself are a Daoist priest or monastic.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: But sociologists have tried anyway. In twenty twenty, the World
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Religion Database estimated that there were almost six million Daoists
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: in mainland China and three million in Taiwan. But these
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: are people officially affiliated with Daoist organizations. Daoist practice is
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: diffused throughout Chinese culture. When you expand that search to
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: people who practice Daoist inspired rituals or hold to beliefs
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: inspired by Dawis without actually identifying as a Daoist themself,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: that number explodes to four hundred and thirty nine million
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: people in mainland China and ten million in Taiwan. Scholars
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: call these people wider Daoists, or even use more clunky
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: terms like believers of diffuse Taoism. As for Dawis priests
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: and monks, we don't know how many there are, and
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: the sources I read for this video offered very different figures.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Low estimates say they're around twenty five thousand Taoist monks
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: and priests in China alone. High estimates say it's around
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: forty eight thousand, but no one knows for sure. Daoism
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: has gone global as well, especially via immigrants from Taiwan,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Hong Kong, and mainland China teaching Taoist inspired body cultivation
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: techniques to foreign audiences. The Chinese Daoist martial artist Daliu
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: became a minor celebrity of the nineteen sixties teaching taichi
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: in New York City. In the nineteen seventies, the Daoist
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: monk moilin Chin moved to Toronto and founded the Daoist
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Taichi Society, which still operates today. And Daois thought made
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: its way into a bunch of different pop philosophy books
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: in the later twentieth century, which has led to all
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: sorts of debates in the Academy about whether or not
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: we can call any of this authentic Taoism. Some scholars
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: even differentiate between self described Taoist adherents and so called
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Taoist sympathizers, people who don't affiliate, don't call themself Taoist,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: but who might practice Daoist inspired meditation or something like
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: tai chi. The scholar Elijah Siegler even defined American Daoism
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: as a new religious movement that emerged in the seventies
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: and eighties, which continues Daoism's long tradition of defying easy definition,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: a tradition marked more by constant transformation than rigid categorization,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: as it twists, turns, and branches off in countless different
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: directions over its twenty five hundred year long history. Thanks
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: to Wandrium for sponsoring this video. Wondrium is an online
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  Speaker 1: learning platform with a ton of educational video content. This
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: includes documentaries, do it yourself tutorials, and lecture series that
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: are basically as long as a university course. Wondrium's library
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  Speaker 1: is constantly evolving too, as they're always adding new content.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: For example, they just published an awesome new series called
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  Speaker 1: Traveling the Roman Empire. It's hosted by my friend and colleague,
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  Speaker 1: the archaeologist doctor Darius Ariya. You might remember that Darius
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  Speaker 1: even made a cameo on my channel a few years ago,
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  Speaker 1: so it's really exciting to see his new partnership with Wandrium.
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  Speaker 1: Head on over to wondrium dot com slash Religion for
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  Speaker 1: get started. Thanks everyone,