r/taoism

Especially coming from Catholic country where religious indoctrination tries from childhood to hammer into your brain that you are somehow responsible for some primordial disobedience. So you have to acknowledge your sins, gratitude for redeemer and repent. It never made any sense to me whatsoever.

But I am not shopping for religion, lessons how to live, daily practice or - Universe forbid - "wisdom" - Taoism is just interesting departure point and I am aware that without years of studying the language and classical Chinese culture I will never attain any reasonably sophisticated grasp of it. Which is fine - it is an interesting perspective without the need to chant or shave my head. One of my favorite authors found Taoism foundational - so even finding some glimpses of inspiration provide illumination for my own path.

Is it wrong, in taoism, to get a tattoo of a talisman? I am thinking of making one of good luck and fortune. Do u guys know a place for me to search for those talisman that are authentic and not some random copied shit?

The most important practice according to Laozi is cultivating "De" 德.

It's that important, that the Laozi is called Dao *De* Jing.

Laozi and Zhuangzi were shaping their philosophy with negatives and disaffirmation to the other schools of thought like Confucianism, Legalism and Mohism. Zhuangzi and Laozi think, that those schools are misleading man and society by morals and doctrines (Confucianists), by strict and rigid Laws and Power (Legalists) or by meritocracy and universal love (Mohists) and Logics and Linquistic (Ming Jia) - separating Man from Dao 道 (universal principle, natural order / course of the Universe) and De 德 (profound Virtue, quality) and a simple (pu) and natural (ziran) life.

They are going for many "wu"無 - most famous "wu wei" (not doing) but there are also many more "wu" like

- wu ming (not naming)

- bu shi fei (no this and that)

- wu zhi /wu xue (no knowledge / no doctrine)

- wu yi (no self, no selfishness)

- wu yu (no desire)

- wu qing (no emotions)

- wu you (not having / being)

- wu zheng (no quarrel)

- wu yong (no use, useless)

- wu xin (no heart-mind)

Some folks are understanding those "wu" as absolutes (which they are not and never can be) and also don't connect the "wu" to Dao and De. They forget, that "wu wei" isn't just "effortless doing" or "doing just enough" but has to be in line with / according to Dao and De. That's why it is called "wu wei er wu bu wei" = "doing nothing but nothing is left undone".

Those "wu" are *no absolutes* but reminders and finger pointers and of course practice. They are "means" of practice to empty the heart-mind (xu xin /wu xin) and not at the core of Daoism.

At the core of Daoism there are Dao and De:

- to have a clear and calm heart-mind (qing jing xin)

- being natural 自然 (ziran) and simple 樸 (pu)

- to have De (deep / profound virtue, quality, skill, mastery, efficiency, potency)

[like the butcher, the swimmer, the artisan, the gardener and the "true / genuine man" (Zhen Ren) in Zhuangzi 6 and the Sheng Ren (wise man) in Laozi]

Summary:

Wu wei isn't that important as a daoist practice. It is just one of many "wu".

Focus on practicing De 德

Note:

What is "Virtue" 德 ( de) from a Daoist Point of View? : r/taoism

AI disclosure: English isn’t my first language, so i used AI to translate it and help edit the English.

I’m a Gemini myself, so I’m interested in whether looking at the sign from a different angle might help me understand myself better. Most descriptions focus on the same traits: curious, adaptable, always moving between interests and points of view, but also inconsistent and hard to pin down.

What bothered me was the assumption underneath the criticism—that if someone changes often, there can’t be much holding them together. I don’t think that follows.

Wu sangwo appears early in the Qi wulun and is often translated as “I have lost myself.” I read it as putting down a fixed idea of yourself for a while. Sometimes an old position just stops making sense after you’ve seen more. I don’t see much honesty in pretending otherwise.

Also change can be an easy excuse as well. Someone can keep starting over because they don’t want to stay anywhere long enough to deal with what they started. From the outside, that can look a lot like openness. This is the part I still have trouble to judge.

Later in the same chapter comes huan zhong. The pivot sits at the center of the ring and can respond to what comes without end. That image makes more sense to me than a fixed identity does. Plans change, moods change, even the story someone tells about themselves can change. I keep coming back to whether they still stand behind what they do. That seems closer to a center than holding the same opinion forever.

The Gemini example is what got me here, but the astrology isn’t really the part I’m most interested in. What stays with me is huan zhong in normal life. I suspect a person’s center is easiest to see after the familiar parts have changed, though I haven’t worked out exactly what that means yet.

This was full of simple mind blowing wisdom.

I successfully unionized my work place in the last 2 years, sat on bargaining comittee and we have a mediocre contract that has improved a lot of our working conditions but there is still work to be done.

During the last 8 months or so I found myself drawn time and time again to dao and daoist thought. I would not call myself a daoist though I would like to start practicing more and more. However it seems to me that being a trade unionist and a taoist is almost uncompatable. Wu wei states we should act without acting and allow the Dao to simply be. However I cant sit down and allow myself or my coworkers to be manipulated. Thus contradicting my understanding of the Dao.

Ive read a few comments in this sub before that wu wei is a general term and doesnt actually mean passively accepting violence or discrimination while doing nothing so I would like some direction or anything to point me in the correct direction. Hell give me a book title and ill read it.

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AI disclosure: English isn’t my first language. I developed the idea in my own language, then used AI to help organize it and write it in English. I reviewed the final post to make sure it still reflected what I meant.

Gemini is usually described as curious, flexible, and quick to move between ideas. Taoism doesn’t necessarily treat movement as a problem—but it raises a harder question: what allows movement to stay responsive without becoming scattered?

I don’t think Gemini and Taoism line up neatly, and I’m not trying to force them into the same system. I’m using Gemini as a familiar example of a broader tension: the difference between staying open to change and being pulled around by every new possibility.

Chapter 28 of the Daodejing repeatedly uses the image of “returning”—returning to the infant and returning to the uncarved block. I don’t take the infant image to mean becoming childish. To me, it suggests recovering a kind of openness that existed before we became too fixed in one identity.

That made me think about the way Gemini is often described.

The ability to shift perspectives can be a real strength. It can help someone notice connections other people miss, understand different sides of a situation, and change direction when the old path no longer makes sense.

But the same flexibility can also become restless. The moment one path stops feeling new, another possibility starts looking more alive. Sometimes that is genuine adaptation. Sometimes it is just leaving before anything has time to deepen.

Taoism doesn’t seem to answer this by saying, “Stop changing and become more disciplined.”

Water adapts to the shape of the land, but it doesn’t need to chase every direction at once. Cook Ding moves with incredible freedom in the Zhuangzi, but that freedom comes from paying close attention to the spaces already present. It isn’t random movement.

So perhaps the real difference isn’t movement versus stillness. It’s responsive movement versus restless movement.

Responsive movement changes because the situation has changed. Restless movement changes because discomfort has appeared. One becomes more precise as it moves. The other keeps starting over.

From this angle, Gemini’s gift may not simply be speed. It may be the ability to move between several perspectives without becoming trapped in any one of them. The challenge is letting those different perspectives gather into understanding instead of scattering your attention.

Maybe “returning” is what matters.

Not going backward, and not forcing yourself into one identity forever. Just having somewhere to come back to—a question, a practice, a relationship, or a value that remains steady while everything else moves.

For people who identify strongly with Gemini—or simply have a restless mind—where do you feel the line between healthy openness and avoiding commitment?

Source note: Daodejing, chapter 28, uses the phrases 復歸於嬰兒 (“return to the infant”) and 復歸於樸 (“return to the uncarved block”). The Cook Ding example appears in Zhuangzi, Inner Chapter 3. I’m paraphrasing these ideas rather than quoting a particular English translation.

A constant state of eternal flux, with no beginning and no end.

as the days go by and I progress in my mental journey I realize how much choice we have over ourselves and how letting fear control you is engaging the loop, ingating this cycle feeling you have control over your fears stops you from actually dealing with it

Less taoistic and more so psychological but still worth mentioning since it’s yet again another one’s of life wonderful paradoxes.

And can therefore be “solved” with more of less.

I've read Tolstoy's War and Peace many times. And each time I do, I find new things to think about. He had a wide life experience and I think he had learned many things. He wasn't perfect or even perfected. But I do think he had a wisdom that many people lack.

One thing I noticed in his novel was the way people under a great deal of stress tend to consciously distract themselves in order to do what they have to do. A veteran cavalry officer focuses his attention on the beauty of the apple flowers in an orchard they are riding through on the way to battle. Marshall Kutuzov reads novels to pass the time while waiting for a horrendous battle that he knows will kill huge numbers of his people.

I also remember reading a book by Phillip Kapleau (I know, Zen not Daoist---but sorta in same vein) where he talks about a woman who was dying of some disease looking at new dresses in the newspaper when she had a relatively good day.

Tolstoy also talks about a parable of a man rushing across the step to get away from a wolf, only to fall over a cliff. He manages to grab a sapling to keep from falling. He looks down and sees a tiger waiting for him at the base of the cliff. Above him the wolf is waiting. But to his left he sees a strawberry plant. He reaches out and grabs one of the berries. Nothing ever tasted so sweet!

I mention the above because they all seem to be talking about being able to survive life without going mad by learning how to distract yourself from the horror all around you. Some people see the examples I've given as being how frivolous we all are. They say we do things like sitting and forgetting meditation so we can stop being like this and instead focus on 'important stuff'.

But could meditation instead be partially about understanding the way we get through life by distraction and learning how to consciously use it instead of it using us? The old sweat soldier knows if he thinks about the battle he'll go crazy--so he focuses on the apple blossoms. Marshal Kutuzov knows he is sending thousands of people to horrible deaths, but if he thinks about it, it will incapacitate him--so he digs up the latest French novel and reads it. The woman laying in her hospital bed knows she'll never wear one of the latest dresses--but it distracts her and gives her a few minutes of peace before she enters the last stage of suffering before death.

I was reading some Chuang Tzu today, and it struck me that most modern people see wu wei as a tool. This is wrong. The whole point fo Chuang Tzu's way is that we find no way, that we don't situate happiness in the future or as the product of a certain method or program. Wu wei isn't a flow state in the modern sense of entering into a state of effortless productivity. This is still ego-centered. To see wu wei merely as a means to self-production, a way to achieve goodness and life through your own activity, is an awful misreading. Wu wei is effortless act divorced from one's desires. It is act without activity. Action that isn't limited by the narrowing of the ego, desire, attachment, seeking. It is a pure being in the moment. It can also be just doing nothing. It is a state that isn't resistant to reality as it happens. It is a dissolving into the harmony of nature, a oneness. In the same way a bird is effortlessly a bird or a tree is effortlessly a tree, just here and now.

Wu wei is an escape from the trap of the future, it is a releasing of one's constant grasping for something else that isn't here. It is abandoning the project of always chasing what is out of reach. It, simply put, is just HERE. It is being as you are HERE, not for some future self, not with any mind for a goal or achievement, it is perfect joy, here and now.

If you want to see a good example of this, I suggest watching the film Perfect Days. You will see wu wei in practice.

Hello so i recently started reading on taoism out of curiosity and it felt so beautiful to me, i readed (Tao the watercourse way - Alan Watts) and i loved everything, it was my introduction to this way of life but some things i dont really understand how are applied in life.

Id consider myself a pretty ambitious person and i dont know how to approach my dreams in a taoist way of life, but im trying to live in this calmness that i recive when reading about taoism. I dont really understand how wu wei and no action applies to pursuing a dream, should you give up or surrender to your dreams, can someone help me?

Sorry if its not very well written im from europe

Probably seems obvious, but I spent so many time in the zen mindset I started to develop a resentment towards capitalism thought and the other side of the coin, it only now hit my mind that the more Taoist approach is to accept what that opposites are what creates development, and the more I hate and try to ignore the other side I therefore create unnecessary friction and only hurt myself.