Asian Religions, page 13
The beliefs and values underlying this religion extend far beyond the formal aspects listed above, and many Chinese today exhibit Taoist characteristics apart from these institutional forms. Just as “Confucianism” describes a system of values and behaviors that permeates Chinese society, most Chinese are Taoist to one degree or another, though they may be unaware of the religious origins of their thinking and habits. The Taoistic elements of everyday life can be summarized as follows:
the sense that reality extends beyond the observable realm and includes spiritual power that has physical effects and manifestations;
the belief in harmony, not only among persons but between persons, the natural world, and the cosmos;
the practice of meditation and of physical exercises that emphasize the unity of an individual's psychological, emotional, physical, and spiritual identity; and
the belief that internal and external harmony have practical benefits, from social welfare to individual health and longevity.
Most Chinese today, even after a century of Western influence (not to mention half a century of communist rule), would consider these things to be commonsense; and, while the institutional forms of Taoism almost disappeared in the latter half of the twentieth century, Taoism as an approach to life is still very much alive.
Taoism as a World Religion
Europeans and Americans are increasingly aware of some of the short-comings of Judeo-Christian and Western Enlightenment values. As critics see it, the globalization of Enlightenment values and institutions has had a number of negative consequences:
violence arising from ethnic and political conflict;
urbanization and its attendant ills (from crime to unsightly cityscapes);
ecological degradation and worldwide decrease in forested or virgin land;
medical technologies that preserve life, but often at great material and spiritual cost;
greed and avariciousness, expressed both personally and nationally;
a sexual ethics that is often distorted, on the one hand through demeaning images and attitudes, on the other hand through religiously motivated prudishness;
lifestyles focused on personal achievement in highly artificial environments, with little opportunity for physical exercise, creative expression, or communion with nature.
There is no one thing, or single factor, to “blame” for these ills, and it would be foolish to think that they are limited to the industrialized West. Increasingly they are global issues, experienced by individuals everywhere. Are they the consequence of technological progress and of a world increasingly unified by new forms of communication and transportation? Do they reflect a breakdown in communal structures, including religious institutions, which leads people to measure their interests in purely individual terms? Are they a function of rampant consumerism, greed, and acquisitiveness, and of global values that “commodify” success, health, happiness, and personal well-being? Are they a consequence of demographic changes, including population growth, urbanization, and widening income gaps between the rich and poor? Or have they always been with us, in one form or another, as contemporary manifestations of the more selfish inclinations of human nature?
Whatever their causes, many who have observed these ills have seen in Taoism an alternative religious orientation – one that offers tools for understanding and self-cultivation to counterbalance these destructive trends. With its emphasis on naturalism, holistic development of the physical and emotional aspects of human identity, political and ecological harmony, healthy sexuality, non-invasive medicine, and the “feminine” values of nurturing and caring, Taoism has emerged as a viable religious practice for people all over the world. A number of Taoist masters (usually, but not exclusively, of Chinese ancestry) now live in the West and have adapted Taoist alchemy, physical and psychological exercises, and related practices to Western lifestyles and goals. While Taoism has no institutional base either in China or the West, many individuals are investigating Taoist practices on their own, or have joined with like-minded persons in informal groups for study, ritual practice, and support. In the future it is likely that Taoism will be included among the major religions of the West – as well as of the East.
Is Taoism still a viable religious option in the modern world? After 50 years of communist rule in Mainland China, institutional forms of Taoism have largely ceased to exist. Though several Taoist monasteries of the “Complete Reality” (全真, Quanzhen) tradition have been restored as tourist attractions – most notably the White Cloud Temple in Beijing, which attracts thousands of foreign and domestic tourists – few Chinese are drawn to Taoist monasticism. However, liturgical Taoism remains vital to contemporary Chinese religious life. It is practiced in rural villages and in Chinese communities in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia, as part of the “diffused religion” of traditional China, based upon beliefs and practices surrounding human interactions with gods, ghosts, and ancestors. Taoist priests are still subjected to years of apprenticeship and rigorous training and have mastered the arts of Taoist self-cultivation. They are well educated in the history of Taoism, in alchemical practices, in the preparation of talismans and amulets, and in the conduct of religious ritual. The Taoist priesthood is a vital resource for the preservation of traditional Chinese medicine, religion, and culture.
On a personal level, Taoist values remain strong. In spite of the Confucian ethic that has dominated Chinese social interactions for centuries, Chinese retain the Taoist belief in individual “ease” and freedom against social constraint, conceived of as a counterweight to everyday duties and responsibilities. Many Chinese practice Taoist forms of physical exercise and make use of traditional medicines, which are still favored over Western pharmaceuticals. And Chinese are becoming more appreciative of nature and natural impulses. Young people in China who may be disenchanted with the political manipulation of Confucianism by authoritarian governments, or who have become less sanguine about the “promise of modernity” represented by the West, find in traditional Taoist practices a viable home-grown solution to personal, societal, and global conflict. Increasingly Europeans and Americans, too, have been drawn to Taoist literature and to practices associated with Taoist self-cultivation, from gymnastics exercises (such as the practice of shadow-boxing pictured in Figure 13.1 and Qigong) to herbal medicine and a more naturalistic spirituality.
Figure 13.1 Taoism is, increasingly, a viable religious alternative in the West. © Anna Furman / iStockphoto.
What Taoist practices and values are still upheld today?
Modern and contemporary Chinese art is significantly influenced by Taoist naturalism, as it has been throughout Chinese art history.
Longevity practices are still evident in Chinese cooking (a diet rich in leafy green vegetables, tubular vegetables such as fungi and mushrooms, vitamins, herbs, and spices).
Chinese people maintain a holistic conception of personal identity and consider a balanced life to be crucial for physical and psychological health: work is balanced with rest and relaxation, sedentary activity with physical activity.
Physical activity, while strongly valued, is not competitive or sports-oriented, as it is in the West: Taoist-inspired physical exercises are aerobic, yogic, and meditative.
Nature is idealized. Though modern China is plagued with pollution problems associated with rapid economic growth, Taoism remains a significant cultural resource for ecological thinking. More and more, Chinese show an appreciation for nature, as expressed in the cultivation of plants, pet owning (traditionally songbirds and singing insects, but now also dogs and cats), hiking, nature photography, and family outings.
While family and profession are prioritized, in keeping with a more Confucian orientation toward life, Taoist ideals of self-expression, freedom from constraint, and recreation are highly valued: Chinese like to have fun and regularly indulge in parties involving alcohol consumption, singing, and composing poetry.
Sexuality, while constrained by Confucian family and marital obligations, is considered natural and healthy.
In the siting of homes and graves, Chinese refer to the principles of fengshui, though they may or may not make use of the services of a fengshui master.
Temple construction and temple-based activities such as festivals, pilgrimage tours, and community rites enjoy more public support than they have in a century of social and political transformation, and they typically involve the participation of Taoist priests, mediums, and shamans.
Taoism has significantly caught on in the West as well. One indication is a highly successful series of conferences and workshops headed by Livia Kohn, emeritus professor from Boston University, and held in Boston in 2003, on Mt. Qingcheng in Sichuan Province in 2004, in Fraueninsel in Bavaria in 2006, in Hong Kong in 2007, on Mt. Wudang in Hubei in 2009, in Los Angeles in 2010, on Mt. Nanyue, Changsha in 2011, and in Utting am Ammersee, Germany in 2012. These conferences combine workshops on Taoist practice with the latest scholarship on the tradition in all its aspects; and they bring practitioners and scholars together, in a creative dialogue. They are but one example of the increasing interest in Taoism as both a philosophical and a religious tradition that focuses on spiritual self-cultivation.
In these chapters on Confucianism and Taoism I have treated Chinese religion as a living cultural phenomenon, not as two distinct systems of thought or historical relics. My goal has been twofold: to understand contemporary East Asian culture in terms of religious thought and practice, and to recognize Confucianism and Taoism as viable and increasingly popular alternatives for spiritual seekers worldwide. While it is impossible to understand East Asian culture fully without knowing something about these traditions, it is true that their legacy is precarious: ethnic identity politics, nationalism, and consumerism all express values that are culturally destabilizing. These values contradict the highest teachings of Chinese tradition. And these destabilizing forces are not limited to China: more and more people see themselves purely in terms of economic agency, or as winners and losers in a global competition. As a scholar of religion, it is difficult to be a mere by-stander to this materialist surge. Rather I hope that the values promoted by both Confucianism and Taoism still have something to say to twenty-first-century life. Briefly, those shared values include
the idea that individuals are something more than consumers and that the value of life should be measured in non-economic terms;
the idea that a person is more than a material being but should also cultivate physical, psychological, and spiritual wellness;
the idea that religious beliefs and practices, while rooted in particular social and historical origins, also teach universal lessons that can be appropriated cross-culturally;
the idea that spiritual self-cultivation can take non-institutional forms and is never limited to simply one nationality, one ethnicity, or one culture;
the idea that the individual can be a powerful source of goodness, integrity, and both personal and social transformation;
the idea that certain values can and should be made to survive and to prosper: these include the Confucian ideals of ceremonial living, co-humanity, moral virtue, and social responsibility and the Taoist ideals of personal balance and moderation, artistic appreciation and self-expression, environmentally responsible lifestyles, and holistic spirituality.
Taken together, these Confucian and Taoist values have great prescriptive force as models for a healthier life – healthier not only for individuals and communities, but also for the world as a whole.
Part IV
The Hindu Tradition
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What Is Hinduism?
“Hinduism” refers to “the religion of the Indus Valley” or, more generally, the religion of the Indian subcontinent. There is no term like it for Chinese religion; nor for Japanese religion; nor for any of the Western religious traditions. As a descriptive noun for the religion of a place, the word suggests a false unity. It reflects a failure (on the part of the people who came up with the label) to perceive a remarkable variety of ethnicities, languages, beliefs, practices, deity cults, institutional organizations, worldviews, and cosmologies. In fact it is a stretch even to say that the word describes a single religion at all. The word “Hinduism” was the invention of outsiders, from the Muslim Moguls of the sixteenth century to the British Empire, which ruled India from the early 1800s until 1947. It was employed as a grossly general term to name a religious tradition that has existed, in its numerous forms, for thousands of years.
Should we go so far as to say, as some postcolonialist scholars have done, that “Hinduism” therefore does not really exist, that it is a speculative invention and a forced generalization that has no use or applicability? There are two reasons not to discard it. First, it is useful to have a single term to refer to the religious traditions of a geographic and cultural entity; in fact one might wish that there was such a term for the Chinese religions, which display much greater unity than the separate terms “Confucianism” and “Taoism” would imply – not to mention “Buddhism” or “Chinese folk religion.” It is more accurate to say that there is “one religion” of China than that there are “four,” and we can be grateful that, at least for India, we do have such a term. Second, at least since the nineteenth century, Hindus in India and around the world describe themselves as “Hindu” and, even if they did not invent the term, they have now embraced it. In fact some Hindus – especially those of the modern Hindu Nationalist (Hindū rāravāda) movement – identify themselves adamantly as Hindu and would reject the idea that the term is a foreign imposition. So, whether or not it was invented by others, Hindus today regard it as an autonym, a self-referential term. Moreover, there can be no doubt that the word has entered the common vocabulary, being employed by scholars and seekers alike to describe one of the great religions of the world, now practiced both in India and across the globe.
The Three Margas
Given the great variety of religious institutions, beliefs, and practices that the word “Hinduism” envelopes, difficult choices must be made in a book such as this one when it comes to what and what not to include. Some Hindus are so inclusive in their thinking that they would label virtually every religion that has ever been practiced in India as “Hindu,” even Buddhism and Christianity! And in many respects they would be right: Buddhism has so many Hindu elements that the two religions are as interconnected as the three religions of the Abrahamic tradition – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Even Christianity takes on a distinctly Hindu flavor in India, adopting the Hindu practices and terminology of the bhakti (devotional) tradition. To be sure, though, Indian Buddhists and Christians see themselves as distinct from Hindus, and we will let the self-understanding of religious believers themselves be our guide in naming and describing the Hindu tradition in contrast to other religions that may have been practiced in India, whether Buddhism, Christianity, or Islam.
But, even as a distinct religious tradition, Hinduism is diverse and multifaceted, and not all Hindus do or believe the same things. Scholars have devised a number of ways to address this diversity, all somewhat arbitrary. Since this book attempts to make Asian religions accessible, at the level of both belief and practice, to Western readers, the way we will organize this unit is based on a traditional categorization of Hindu practice. Hindus identify three margas, known collectively as the Trimarga (“the three paths”) or the three yogas: the path of duty and responsibility (literally, the path of action, karma-marga); the path of philosophical insight (literally, the path of knowledge, jñāna-marga); and the path of faith and devotion (literally, the path of love, bhakti-marga). What unites these three paths is both historical and philosophical. Philosophically, the “three” are unified as “one” in the sense that all three paths lead to a single goal: the experience of a liberated self, in union with sacred reality. Though Hindus vary widely in how they think of sacred reality, in how they represent it in images or words, and in how they interact with the sacred dimension of life, generally they believe that all of these three paths lead to one goal or destination: the experience of unity with something greater than oneself, and the erasure of individuality.
Chapter 15 will address the path of duty and responsibility (karma-marga), including a discussion of karma and rebirth and of the law (dharma) of personal responsibility, which is based upon one's caste and stage of life – a moral system that Hindus refer to as varna-āśrama-dharma.
Chapter 16 will address the path of philosophical insight (jñāna-marga) and discuss the ultimate destiny of the soul (Ātman) as union with the sacred (Brahman), a union experienced as “freedom from embodied existence” (moka). In its long path to this realization, over the course of many lifetimes, the soul experiences wants or desires (puruārthas) that become increasingly “selfless” as the individual matures spiritually. The ultimate realization – “liberation” – reveals that this world of embodied, material, and separable persons and things is an illusion that springs from ignorance of the true nature of reality.
Chapter 17 will address the path of faith and devotion (bhakti-marga), discussing two of the most widely venerated Hindu gods: Krishna (Ka) and Shiva (Śiva). In both instances the symbolism, iconography, and worship practices associated with the sacred help the devotee to overcome individuality or independence – or, more accurately, the illusions of individuality and independence. Devotion to gods such as Krishna and Shiva is at the heart of Hindu religious practice, and it is expressed through offerings made in a temple service (pūjā).
Finally, this part will conclude, as the others have, with a discussion of Hinduism in the contemporary world (Chapter 18).
