TAOISM (OR DAOISM)

MONOTHEISTIC OR POLYTHEISTIC?

• The Taoism is a Polytheistic religion. Deities are known as Gods in the religion.
• It is spiritual and it focuses on nature, relationships between humans and cosmos.
• It also focuses on health and longitivtiy

FOLLOWERS

• There are about 2,700,000.
• Compare that to world wide religions like Christianity (3 billion people) The amount of followers is very small

FOUNDER

• The religion was found by Zhang Daoling he founded the way of the celestial masters
• Which was formed before Taoism. The religion was founded in C.550.B.C.E.
• It's headquarters is white cloud temple. It's in Beijing China
• The book they use is the Zhaungzi Daide Jing Yi Jing.
• This book Covers spiritual motions like meditating and other religious practices.

SUBDIVIONS NORTH AND SOUTH TAOISM

• Southern Taoism is the one of the only liturgical tradition surviving today.
• This tradition includes praying, testimonies, and emotionalism.
• Northern Taoism was discovered in the 1980s but it was believed to be around since the 12th century
• This type of Taoism teaches moral and spiritual discipline and continues self preservation practices.

HOLIDAYS

• The Chinese New Year is celebrated by Taoists.
• They have a spring festival that begins on the new moon and lasts until the full moon.
• This festival lasts about 1 week,
• They also use the the lunar calendar which represents a certain animal. 2015 will be the sheep.

BELIEFS

• The main belief of Taoism is finding your identity.
• Taoists believe that there are 3 characteristics that they should life by.
• The three characteristics are compassion, moderation, and humility.
• Compassion leads to courage, moderation leads to generosity, and humility leads to leadership.
• The ultimate goal of Taoism is to become one with the Tao. This means leading a natural and simple life.

MORE BELIEFS

• Taoists seek the the solution in life's problems through meditation.
• Being in harmony with the Tao allows the person to return to the original state of all things and become the Tao.