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UNDERSTANDING TAOISM: A Beginner’s Guide to Discovering Harmony, Balance, and Inner Peace in the Taoist Faith
133 pages, Hardcover
Published February 22, 2024
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June 5, 2024
Informative although a little thin in places
What I liked about this book is that it gave a clear overview of Taoism, both with respect to its philosophy as well as its liturgical and spiritual side. All too often books tend to focus on one set of issues to the detriment of the other, but this book pulled the issues together to feed both mind and soul.
Chapter 6 was particularly informative, with its detailed listing of the different approaches to Taoist meditation.
However the book was also repetitive. I think I read about Wu wei in each of the first half a dozen chapters, and then it cropped up periodically in the rest of the book. Yes its an important principle of Taoism, but couldn’t the book have been organised more carefully to avoid that repetition?
A similar set of issues arose with matters such as tea ceremonies. It was mentioned in chapter 9 under rituals and symbols, then it cropped up again in chapter 11 which was dedicated to the tea ceremony.
Some of the key principles were also a little vague, and they raised questions which were not properly addressed. For example, an important principle in Taoism is the idea of living in accordance with nature. But what exactly does that mean? Take the development of GM crops like Golden Rice. Is manipulating nature to improve crops a living in accordance with nature? If not, then where do we draw the line? Arguably taking any form of medicine could be considered to be an interference with nature.
When it comes to living in accordance with nature there is also a well known fallacy which arises. Just because nature works in a certain way, it doesn't mean that it must or should work that way. For example, ancient peoples lived in caves, but there is no (natural) requirement that people continue to do so. So, just because some aspects of nature operate in certain ways, that does not mean that people should continue to live that way. Yet the book seemed to assume the opposite. This set of issues really needed discussing and explaining.
On the issue of medicine the book also focused upon traditional practices, rather than modern medicines. The book was very positive about the traditional practices but readers may also be aware that some of those practices are now considered to represent Pseudo-science. That issue really needed dealing with, but the book largely ignored the whole controversy about what should count as medicine.
Overall there was some useful information in the book but there were also some organisational problems, and some holes where more information would have been helpful.
What I liked about this book is that it gave a clear overview of Taoism, both with respect to its philosophy as well as its liturgical and spiritual side. All too often books tend to focus on one set of issues to the detriment of the other, but this book pulled the issues together to feed both mind and soul.
Chapter 6 was particularly informative, with its detailed listing of the different approaches to Taoist meditation.
However the book was also repetitive. I think I read about Wu wei in each of the first half a dozen chapters, and then it cropped up periodically in the rest of the book. Yes its an important principle of Taoism, but couldn’t the book have been organised more carefully to avoid that repetition?
A similar set of issues arose with matters such as tea ceremonies. It was mentioned in chapter 9 under rituals and symbols, then it cropped up again in chapter 11 which was dedicated to the tea ceremony.
Some of the key principles were also a little vague, and they raised questions which were not properly addressed. For example, an important principle in Taoism is the idea of living in accordance with nature. But what exactly does that mean? Take the development of GM crops like Golden Rice. Is manipulating nature to improve crops a living in accordance with nature? If not, then where do we draw the line? Arguably taking any form of medicine could be considered to be an interference with nature.
When it comes to living in accordance with nature there is also a well known fallacy which arises. Just because nature works in a certain way, it doesn't mean that it must or should work that way. For example, ancient peoples lived in caves, but there is no (natural) requirement that people continue to do so. So, just because some aspects of nature operate in certain ways, that does not mean that people should continue to live that way. Yet the book seemed to assume the opposite. This set of issues really needed discussing and explaining.
On the issue of medicine the book also focused upon traditional practices, rather than modern medicines. The book was very positive about the traditional practices but readers may also be aware that some of those practices are now considered to represent Pseudo-science. That issue really needed dealing with, but the book largely ignored the whole controversy about what should count as medicine.
Overall there was some useful information in the book but there were also some organisational problems, and some holes where more information would have been helpful.
Displaying 1 of 1 review