Animal And Human Rights In China

[Moriko]

Hello! I am still very new to Taoism and have many questions as well as confusion, but thats to be expected

From my understanding Taoism is pro human and animal rights. Why is it then that China (where Taoism was born) is so inhumane? I know other countries are just as bad and most often worse, but you would think that since Taoism and Buddhism promote peace and nonviolence China would be a little more pro human and animal rights.

I'm sorry if I sound ignorant, but one of the main things that lead me to seek out a spiritual path was my belief in nonviolence.

I undestand that Taoism came about thousands of years ago when China was a much different place, but can someone tell me where it all went wrong?

[thelerner]

Yeah, yeah, the West seems predominantly Christian yet we seem to get into a lot of wars? So answer A. Countries and people don't walk the talk. In China's case Taoism is a fraction of 1% of the acknowledged religion(pretty low anyhow). Not that it doesn't have a much wider influence on China's culture, but card carrying taoist are rarer then you might think there, at least compared to the population at large.

 

Random Thoughts- I don't think there's many animal rights doctrines in taoism. You might imply them, but that might be looking at Taoism through your own lense. As far as Human Rights the Taoist religion certainly got the fuzzy end the lollypop during China's cultural revolution. Monasteries burned, monks killed or sent out for re-education at labor camps.

 

 

Michael

[gendao]

Agreed with thelerner...

 

You won't find Taoists or Buddhists warmongering or abusing others...but most such abusers in China are not Taoist or Buddhist. The government is officially Marxist and atheist. Who actually cracked down on a lot of spiritual systems in the Cultural Revolution. So, the overblown abuses you are seeing now are due more to Marxism than Taoism or Buddhism. And plain realpolitikal Machiavellian powermongering (just like in many other countries).

[林愛偉]

Hello! I am still very new to Taoism and have many questions as well as confusion, but thats to be expected

From my understanding Taoism is pro human and animal rights. Why is it then that China (where Taoism was born) is so inhumane? I know other countries are just as bad and most often worse, but you would think that since Taoism and Buddhism promote peace and nonviolence China would be a little more pro human and animal rights.

I'm sorry if I sound ignorant, but one of the main things that lead me to seek out a spiritual path was my belief in nonviolence.

I undestand that Taoism came about thousands of years ago when China was a much different place, but can someone tell me where it all went wrong?

 

 

Simply because China is run by those seeking money and control. Any manner where the people are empowered individually is shut down, and or stripped of any meaning. Daoism and Buddhism are the most oppressed cultivation in China. I hear it from the Daoist monks themselves. Buddhism and Daoism have become money making organizations; tourist traps and cultural commercialism.

Buddhism didn't come from China in this world. Because of China's societal ways, Buddhism changed to fit the minds of the people at the time, as it changes in the modern world as well. Daoism also changes to fit the manner inwhich people can grasp it.

 

China isn't a country of peace and prosperity as we had all once thought. A civilization that makes its profit from oppressing living beings, harming the land, and murder for the sake of face, is not prosperous despite their culture.

And their culture is nothing more than a money making scheme now. Do not believe what you see in movies about China and society. It is not that way. Sky scrapers, big business and selling out to make the next Yuan is the mindset of the vast majority.

 

Everything thing of China is being , and has been , refaced, to meet western civilization standards, and acceptances. Chinese style architecture is partially built into to western style architecture.. alittle. The main face of China isn't their culture, it is their modern mannerisms of the west now. Anything not Chinese is seen as great, expensive, and ...oh I am going to say it.. Cool.

This is how it is.

 

I can be wrong.. then again I live out here.

 

Peace,

Aiwei

Edited July 17, 2007 by 林愛偉

[Oolong Rabbit]

Simply because China is run by those seeking money and control. Any manner where the people are empowered individually is shut down, and or stripped of any meaning. Daoism and Buddhism are the most oppressed cultivation in China. I hear it from the Daoist monks themselves. Buddhism and Daoism have become money making organizations; tourist traps and cultural commercialism.

Buddhism didn't come from China in this world. Because of China's societal ways, Buddhism changed to fit the minds of the people at the time, as it changes in the modern world as well. Daoism also changes to fit the manner inwhich people can grasp it.

 

China isn't a country of peace and prosperity as we had all once thought. A civilization that makes its profit from oppressing living beings, harming the land, and murder for the sake of face, is not prosperous despite their culture.

And their culture is nothing more than a money making scheme now. Do not believe what you see in movies about China and society. It is not that way. Sky scrapers, big business and selling out to make the next Yuan is the mindset of the vast majority.

 

Everything thing of China is being , and has been , refaced, to meet western civilization standards, and acceptances. Chinese style architecture is partially built into to western style architecture.. alittle. The main face of China isn't their culture, it is their modern mannerisms of the west now. Anything not Chinese is seen as great, expensive, and ...oh I am going to say it.. Cool.

This is how it is.

 

I can be wrong.. then again I live out here.

 

Peace,

Aiwei

 

Hi Aiwei,

 

I read similar views in the book Road to Heaven: Encounters With Chinese Hermits. The monasteries have become tourist attractions, to the point where it is difficult for the monks to perform their meditation etc... Even the remote sanctuaries are having roads built to make them more easily accessible to tourists.

 

I am also told that Master Moy Lin-Shin and many other taoist monks believed that the most fertile ground for the future of taoism was in the West. They viewed the West as coming down from a long wave of capitalism, and that western society was beginning to see the emptiness of it. The East on the other hand was just beginning of their wave of capitalism, and people are turning away from the spiritual traditions.

[林愛偉]

Hi Aiwei,

 

I read similar views in the book Road to Heaven: Encounters With Chinese Hermits. The monasteries have become tourist attractions, to the point where it is difficult for the monks to perform their meditation etc... Even the remote sanctuaries are having roads built to make them more easily accessible to tourists.

 

I am also told that Master Moy Lin-Shin and many other taoist monks believed that the most fertile ground for the future of taoism was in the West. They viewed the West as coming down from a long wave of capitalism, and that western society was beginning to see the emptiness of it. The East on the other hand was just beginning of their wave of capitalism, and people are turning away from the spiritual traditions.

 

 

This is true.

 

Because people in both directions are going on the ups and downs, without knowing so, it is nothing but the

manifestation of the process of transformation of Yin and Yang. THe pendulum swings boths ways, and the momentum of the actions and such in the Eastern directions are pulling into the less wisdom mind and more wasteful mind. The manners of the Western directions are swinging from the wasteful mix of wisdom and ignorance to a more intuitive wisdom mind.

Just because it is two extremes, doesn't make it good, or bad. It is just living beings going up and down endlessly because they are not awakened. THere are some, but not enough to transform the pendulum into neither stillness or movement.

 

If proper teachings are planted in the west, it will eventually reach the east again, and interesting things happen.... But there will still be a weeding out of egos, and views and the like.

China is moving fast...with the help of western influence...financial influence. But the quality of people coming around in the last several generations does not hold good root to sustain. It is empty development, but not empty through cultivation.

It will fall just as fast as it developed. What is known as chaos and the like will be as an outcome, but it is only the outcome. People will do it again out of ignorance..until they don't.

 

What is considered proper teachings? It is the teachings that hold no commercial face, no egotist development, and the non interplay of views into personal attachment. These teachings get to the point of what cultivation is for... and that doesn't mean Spiritual Powers (those are inevitable). It means realizing that which we have done to ourselves, erradicate the idea of self and others, being and life and awaken!

No more no less.... Whatever path leads to it is proper, whatever path doesn't isn't proper..no matter how much those who have spiritual powers say so.

 

A being with spiritual powers doesn't make them a realized being. Question them endlessly ...even when they make sense.. until you just feel its time to stop questioning.

 

Peace,

Aiwei