Does god exist?

[mewtwo]

Hi I was wondering to be a true taoist do you have to beleieve in the gods? cuase I have been studieing buddhism and I am not sure if I believe in gods anymore. Is this worng?

[Taoist81]

Hi I was wondering to be a true taoist do you have to beleieve in the gods? cuase I have been studieing buddhism and I am not sure if I believe in gods anymore. Is this worng?

 

Define "true taoist". Some sects would say yes, others no. Lao Tzu said the Tao was the "forefather of the gods." Of course, even if you don't believe in the gods, you have to admit they exist, if only in the mind of humanity.

[Taomeow]

Hi I was wondering to be a true taoist do you have to beleieve in the gods? cuase I have been studieing buddhism and I am not sure if I believe in gods anymore. Is this worng?

 

Most people in China throughout history would have trouble defining a "true taoist" -- one was either a taoist or not a taoist. If you were a taoist, it meant you had been ordained into one of the taoist sects and trained to communicate with gods and spirits as part of your taoist education. If you were a taoist-educated taoist, you could "work" as a taoist priest or monk, or you could work as something else. If you worked as a taoist priest, you had to communicate with gods and spirits as part of your job description: in a village, a birth, wedding, funeral, supernatural possession, natural disaster, and all seasonal holidays throughout the year were your responsibility to attend and perform an appropriate ritual in which all the residents participated. Life in China was concerned with gods and spirits at all times, but Confucian doctrine asked everybody to respect them from a distance without getting personally involved, so taoists served as intermediaries between the population and all the countless Chinese gods, spirits and demons. If you invited a taoist to perform such a ritual, believed in it, and so on, it didn't make you a taoist; a "taoist" was understood as the doer of certain deeds, not as the believer in certain doctrines. If you did those deeds after having undergone special training, you were a taoist. If you did them without such training, you were a fake. What you believed or disbelieved simply didn't count.

 

Hope it helps.

Edited May 2, 2008 by Taomeow

[Pero]

Mewtwo, buddism doesn't say there aren't any gods, just that there is no creator god and that those gods are still in samsara so you shouldn't take refuge in them. So I don't see a problem.

[Jedi777]

THE EXIITENCE OF GOD IS SELF EVIDENT

[gendao]

What is God?

 

God is our Highest Self.

[Spectrum]

[exorcist_1699]

By grasping "qi" in your hands, you can do some supernatural things; you act god-like; there is no huge gap between man and god in Chinese culture as it is in the West. This is also why in Kung fu movie, you can find so many supernatural actions ; in fact, the theory and mechanism underlying kung-fu is same as Taoism. Have anyone ever got experience in waking up in midnight and performing some kind of Kung-fu-like movement subconsciously , but naturally (follow qi's movement in your body)?

 

In Greek mythology, it seems , the gap between god and man is not so big , however, due to the incapacity of discovering of qi ( however, they do raise the concept of atom) , and , later the dominance of Christianity , it later becomes widening ...of course, this time , the relation is between God , a creator of the whole universe , and man .

 

I think , part of the miracles that Jesus did and what are well described in Bible , if they happened in the Chinese cultural context, the Chinese would just describe them as qi gong therapy ; There are , in fact, some records in ancient texts about healing others' diseases without using herbs, instruments , or even having any touch of others' body ; the Chinese just call it " distributing qi " for healing.

Edited May 9, 2008 by exorcist_1699

[Spectrum]

[rain]

[thelerner]

There is no satisfying intellectual answer for this.

 

There are a wide range of practices, most involving prayer and quietude that don't exactly solve the problem as much as explain the question.

 

The short answer is yeah , now find a method (religious, mystical, modern), stay with it; beyond boredom and intellect -surprises await.

 

 

Michael

[Patrick Brown]

God and Gods? I think it's like the Tao! We can talk around it and even point at it but...

 

Some mystics like to dwell on the idea that infinite beings are within each of us as well as without us. This is kind of a child like hippie dream which most of us will have remembered but have forgotten. So those that follow the Tao care for all things but not because, but just because.

 

So what is beyond the boundless? Err the boundless! LOL

 

What is small and what is big? Is the fool a great king?

 

[doc benway]

Hi I was wondering to be a true taoist do you have to beleieve in the gods? cuase I have been studieing buddhism and I am not sure if I believe in gods anymore. Is this worng?

The word "God" certainly exists.

Can you define what it is that words is trying to describe?

If you can, it is not God.

[Yoda]

Imho, God/Tao is like water is to fish or air is to humans, so it's easy and appropriate for a taoist to ignore God completely, focus on her exclusively, or anything in between.

[seadog]

Yes I do

[exorcist_1699]

What are the reasons that make man no god?

 

First, man is entangled by social relations. As Marx once put it, the essence of man is the totality of social relations.

 

Second , man is entangled in a physical body.

 

Getting rid of the limitation of social relations is difficult; getting rid of our physical body is more difficult.

 

However, taoist practice, starting from eliminating the necessity of sex, dreaming, eating, breathing...in fact, step by step , is emancipating us from the physical body and makes us god-like. I think , the process and feeling of becoming god should be something wonderful :-)

 

Are you prepared to taste it ?

[dirtypunk]

What is God?

 

God is our Highest Self.

 

 

Agreed. God comes from within us, I think.

 

The notion God is irrelevant to realizing the highest potential of humans, and no one can say that any "Supreme Being" exists or not. If we realize our Highest/True Self, we become God.

[doc benway]

What are the reasons that make man no god?

 

First, man is entangled by social relations. As Marx once put it, the essence of man is the totality of social relations.

 

Second , man is entangled in a physical body.

 

Getting rid of the limitation of social relations is difficult; getting rid of our physical body is more difficult.

 

However, taoist practice, starting from eliminating the necessity of sex, dreaming, eating, breathing...in fact, step by step , is emancipating us from the physical body and makes us god-like. I think , the process and feeling of becoming god should be something wonderful :-)

 

Are you prepared to taste it ?

Here is a slightly altered perspective of your points for what it's worth:

Man is God entangled by social relations.

Man is God entangled in a physical body.

I don't believe that we are any more God-like to be emancipated from the human condition nor any less God-like during our life as humans.

 

It is there for us to taste. It is sometimes sweet, sometimes bitter, always miraculous.

[exorcist_1699]

Hi, Xuesheng, your point is interesting and full of Buddhist sense . Man is , in fact, Buddha getting lost in an earthly world; once awaken (Enlightenment) ,he will return to to his originally privileged position easily.

Edited May 9, 2008 by exorcist_1699