The Taoist Tradition

"Thanks and praise for our Taoist brothers and sisters, for their ancient and contemporary encouragement of meditation and balance in life."

Taoism is the sister to Confucianism in the family of Chinese philosophical and religious systems. The Teaching drives from the Tao-te-ching, a book traditionally ascribed to Lao-tse.

It sets forth an ideal human condition of freedom from desire, of spontaneity, and of effortless simplicity achieved by following the Tao, "the path" or "the flow" -- the spontaneous, creative, effortless way of natural events in the universe.
When Indian Buddhism came to China, its encounter with Taoism's contemplative relationship to nature gave rise to the tradition later known (in Japan) as "Zen." Taoist reflection profoundly influenced the Chinese artistic tradition.

Taoism also provided the essential ground for the development of the body-mind systems later known as the martial arts. The tradition of Chinese healing and pharmacology also owes its origin to Taoist observational skills. Attention to the natural and dynamic course of events is the animating practice of the Taoist way.