Reading & the Good Life
Join the conversation! Every Friday at Noon EST, Perennial Meditations readers are welcome to gather for Reading & the Good Life (Register here), a space for connection, contemplation, and conversations on the art of living! This week continues our exploration into Taoism through Tao: The Watercourse Way by Alan Watts (initially published in 1975). Here is Part I, Part II, and Part III.
What is Taoism?
Taoism (or Daoism) stands alongside Confucianism as one of China's two great religious/philosophical systems. Although traditionally traced to the mythical Laozi “Old Philosopher,” Daoism owes more to the “philosopher Zhuang” (Zhuangzi). Daoism is an umbrella that covers a range of similarly motivated doctrines. “Daoism” is also associated with assorted naturalistic or mystical religions. Consider listening to my conversation with Bryan Van Norden (author of Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto) to learn more.
Definitions of Daoism are controversial because of the complex twists in its development as it played a role in China's long history. Even the coining of the term creates ambiguity about what counts as ‘Daoism’. Three to seven centuries after they were supposed to have lived, historians of the Han dynasty (around 100 BCE) identified Laozi and Zhuangzi as Daoists. […]
Learn more: Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy
Selected Passages
The following passages from Tao: The Watercourse Way by Alan Watts will help guide our conversation at the next Reading & the Good Life (Register here).
As it is said that the Tao as described is not the real Tao, so one might say that te (virtue or virtuality) as either contrived or prescribed is not genuine te. Let us remind ourselves that Taoism is based on the recognition that the world as described is included in but is not the same as the world as it is. […]
— Alan Watts, Tao: The Watercourse Way (Ch. 5)
