Taoism and the feminine divine

[Ramon25]

You know it seems like a large part of daosim has a large amount of female as opposed to male symbology.

http://www.adishakti.org/_/tao_te_ching_do...l_the_while.htm

Edited May 27, 2009 by Ramon25

[gendao]

You know it seems like a large part of daosim has a large amount of female as opposed to male symbology.

http://www.adishakti.org/_/tao_te_ching_do...l_the_while.htm

Well, not really digging the feminist revisionism here. It's simply historically inaccurate.

"The reader will notice in the many passages where Lao-tzu describes the Master, I have used the pronoun 'she' at least as often as 'he.'

 

The name of its faithfully nameless author, Lao-tzu (pronounced "Laozi"), means simply "old master."

Unfortunately, Laozi was an actual flesh-and-blood man - and not a fanciful genderless metaphor.

The Founder of Taoism was Lao-Tze. Lao-Tze was born in 604 B.C. in the village of Chu-Jhren, in Li country, belonging to the Ku province of the State Chu. He was born under the plum tree (in Chinese `Li'). He adopted it as his surname. The hair of the head was white when he was born. Hence he was called Lao-Tze (old boy) or philosopher, one who is child-like even when old.

 

He was popularly called Lao-Tze. His name was Er (ear). He was called Tan after his death. `Tan' means `long lobe'. He had peculiar long ears. His appellation was `Po Yang' or "count of positive principle". He was a keeper or recorder of the secret Archives in the Royal court of Chore. He was a State Historian.

Daoism certainly does honor both male and female, so there is no need to falsify the facts to further promote a feminist agenda. That's plain annoying.

[Ramon25]

What happends in internal alchemy? You give BIRTH and make a immortal fetus. If thats not feminine symbology what is? The yin and yang symbol by all accounts of known symbology is a predominent female symbol. It does include the yang but the symbol is feminine. Water which holds laot of emohasis in the dao de jing is a femeinine elements. All the talk of be soft and yeilding in the dao de jing is feminine. Also he does refer many times to the dao as a mother or having feminine qualities. So how exactly is there not a feminine spin on all this? Also so what if lao zi was a flesh and blood man? There are male divine mother worshipers. Im not saying the male is not there but there is quite a female spin on things. Even the sexual practices of daoism are made to help us preserve our essencse and keep it within like a women and not release it like a man.

[Ken]

I got to the point where it said Laozi was an imaginary person then i stopped...*shake head*.

 

Scholastic taosim is only good for publishing in academic journals, complete waste of time to read for any practitioner.

[doc benway]

Based on everything I've read, there is no conclusive evidence that the Laozi we always refer to as the author of Dao De Jing ever existed as a historical individual. Most literary scholars lean toward the Dao De Jing as being a compilation of traditional wisdom, multiple authors, and a variety of sources compiled over an extended period of time based on themes, styles of writing, usage of characters and so forth. Same goes for Zhuangzi (and the Torah and the New Testament for that matter). I don't think there's any reason why this would lessen the significance of the writings but if Daoism is about anything it's about clarity and the absence of delusion.

[Ramon25]

Nah hey I just thought the whole thing was kind of cool thats all! I find alot this kind of stuff cool. Its hard to deny the huge amount of feminine symbology in taoism.

[findley]

Yes, I also believe that even if Laozi existed, the actual tao te ching (in its current form,) is the work of multiple others.

 

In my studies I have found passages that are obviously confucian-- even in somewhat of a contrast to the philosophy that is pure taoism. (for example.)

 

Yes, the feminine is a huge super-big idea in taoist theory!! you could say, that in my practice, I am pursuit of the mysterious feminine-- and am consequently fucked by the mysterios masculine, whereby bliss, peace, and potentially 'magic' capacity will be accorded to my being =p

 

(god, don't even say it...)

[River Gazer]

"Those who speak do not know, those who know do not speak"

 

Here on taobums we not-do speak, in otherwords, we talk without goal, without plan, without intent. My expereience is that when you seek to prove something, you make an arse out of yourself. Been there, done that, was worried id get kicked out by dad for mentioning outlandish claims such as that, i.e. japan is cool, the best politics are a healthy balance between left and right, etc.

 

Seriously, we aint likely gunna judge ya here, but this stuff can be interpeted as feminism. My experience with everything is:

 

A man of peace must know the sword.

He rarely executes fallen might,

and sometimes allows it uncrippled,

But darkness cannot be defeated by a flower.

And so forged steel sings in the air,

and rends flesh.

-me, of course

 

I dont know whether feminism has basis, i wasnt around in the 60s, but to defeat something, you must exeed it one way or another. To defeat darkness you must be strong, to defeat fear you must understand it.

And as a peice of advice, 90% of people will just view you as a silly, annoying (im assuming) girl that thinks she's mystical.

 

Thats why taoism preaches speaking rarely and speaks obscurely, as if secretly, because we all know what the world thinks of us, and are simply doing our best to avoid such conflict and keep them from fueling their self-damned machine.

[xenolith]

Yin energy is key to transformative goal of SKF...and most Taoist cannons were written by men...therefore its to be expected that the yin component of the Tao is revered in Taoist tradition.

 

As do I for the same Taoist/SKF...and myriad other...reasons.

[Ramon25]

Dude it was not an interpretation but an observation, not femanism just seems like alot of feminine qualities in daoism. whos the female you talking about? Im a guy and why are you so condasending as to call me a silly girl who thinks im mystical?

[doc benway]

Oh, and I should have added to my earlier post Ramon25 that I agree with you.

Daoism is well balanced betwee the male and female - that's what it's all about - balance, mutual arising, and going with rather than against...

[Unconditioned]

I think it's a matter of perception.

 

In the west we tend to be more masculine (although you can make an argument the other way too) so it may seem as though there is MORE yin in the TTC.

 

It's an interesting observation though and I'm actually pretty happy that no one has tried to argue that one is BETTER than the other, very good stuff

 

Formless Yin is only one half, it's the space between the Yang. Can't have one without the other.

 

As others have said, it's a balance between the two, or perhaps a balance underneath the two.

 

I see the circle when looking at the Yin/Yang symbol. Within that there are the labels Yin and Yang. The whole structure contains both and both make up the structure.

 

What are you left with? What IS. That's about as descriptive as I can get and even then words don't work like I want them to.

[Ramon25]

It is balance, Better yet intergration. Intergration is a more balanced type of balance. In symbology there are things that are excepted a true among virtually all symbologist. That is that str8 lines are male and ANY type of curved line is female. Now what does that mean of the yin and yang symbol? Any thoughts?

[Stigweard]