After a troubled relationship with Judaism, a brief stint with Buddhism, and four years in atheist/agnostic limbo I’ve finally found existential philosophy and interpersonal spirituality that feels right for me. Wish me luck!
I wish you peace and enlightenment. Taoism can bring a release from the tension of struggle between us and them, right and wrong. There is only is, or as the old hepcats said, “Everything is everything.”
Good luck! I try to apply Taoist principles in my everyday life, though I hesitate to call myself a Taoist. (Courtesy of “Those who know don’t say, those who say don’t know.”)
Opening your mind to the Way is the first step in becoming Tai Chi Master Kung Fu King Deadly Skill God.
Good on you. I adopted the Taoist philosophy as my personal religion 15 years ago. I’ve yet to regret that decision – it’s taken me through some rough times.
…after dabbling unsuccessfully in so many religions, why keep trying new ones on for size? The reason I ask is not to criticize, but to try to understand why people do this. I am the same way. Anyhow, good luck! Keep us posted about how things are working out with the tao.
So. Who’s into the Alchemical side of Taoism?
Of course, you do realize that if you think you are a Taoist, you aren’t really one …?
Intriguing. Can you tell us a bit more about what it means to be a Taoist?
www.yakrider.com has a good introduction to Taoism and if you google “dao de jing” you can find a copy of the founder of taoism: Laotse.
Begging all your pardons, but Taoism is NOT a religion. It is a philosophy. It is an approach to life, not a system of religious beliefs. In fact, IIRC, you can believe in God or not and still be a Taoist. Basically the principal behind Taoism is that the flow of energy affects all things, and is similar to buddhism in that it teaches restraint and conservation of personal energy. It is not a passive-aggressive as buddhism though.
Taoism was a great help to me when I was in my early twenties. It helped me to accept my situation and feel less frustrated and angry about it. It helped me move on after a couple of difficult friendship and relationship issues. It helped me train my dog!
Traffic control in parts of asia is based on Taoist theory. The policeman never tells anyone to stop, he simply motions the next person forward. The idea is that promoting the natural flow of traffic helps to alleviate it more than trying to stop and direct it. I don’t know how well Taoism works on traffic flow, but it’s pretty good when it comes to internal tangles.
It’s a little presumptous and condesending to call it “dabbling” don’t ya think?
Does this mean I’m entitled to 10%? In all seriousness, good luck with your new path. Remember “Those who claim to know the way, don’t know the true way.”
There is a lot of confusion over what Taoism is - it can indeed be a “religion”, as it exists in a religious form complete with priests; it can be a form of alchemy, meditation or herbalism; or it can be a philosophy.
I suspect that most will be interested in its philosophical aspects.
Viewed from outside, and objectively as far as is possible, Philosophical Taoism is a form of quietist mysticism. It emphasises intuitive thought as the necessary counterbalance to rational thought; “non-action” as the counterbalance to action. “The way that can be spoken of is not the true way” is a possible translation of the first line of the Tao te Ching.
The point of all of this is to reach an understanding that the self is part of the surroundings - all is One, all is part of “the Tao”. Easy to say; harder to really, truly believe. Yet to really understand this is to understand everything that matters.
While the self is mortal, fallible and limited, this is only true if you consider it as a seperate thing, cut off from the whole universe and alone. Which is, according to Taoism, not the case. Fundamentally, the self is a part of everything else - part of the Tao - which is not mortal, fallible or limited.
The Taoist seeks, by coming in tune with this truth, reality, or way of looking at the matter, to gain a state of what may be called in other terminology “grace”. By seeing that he or she is part of the Tao (by really, really understanding this) the Taoist attempts to act in accord with the way things ought to be.
There are two central paradoxes in Taoism, IMHO. The first is that simply wanting to gain this understanding does little good - you have to go out and actually do it. It is by no means clear how this is achieved, as learning about Taoism, calling yourself a Taoist, etc. won’t cut it - you gotta really “get it”. Similar to the notion of enlightenment in Zen (heavily influenced by Taoism).
The second is why, if the Tao is the natural way things ought to be, and we are already part of the Tao, we have to do anything at all - in particular, why bother about becoming Taoists. Isn’t everything we do part of the Tao, too?
Thanks , everyone ! 
First off, that was an excellent description of Taoism as I’ve come to understand it. For me the jump was simply believing the Tao existed at all. I was stuck in a mindset where existence had no meaning. The universe was a giant unexplained physical phenomena, the mind an unexplained metaphysical one, and the Earth was just a nutrient rich mudball swimming with parasitic growth. None of those things had any deeper meaning that I was willing to accept without some form of empirical evidence.
The Tao has taught to believe in something that I always knew intuitively but tried to suppress for the sake of rationality; that all those things are connected by an indefinable bond. There is force that can’t be measured in a lab, or even fully apprehended in our thought processes, but it can be felt none-the-less. Simply put, after a long hiatus I am able to again take a leap of faith and believe that existence has a mystical element to it.
I’m not interested in scripture, ceremony, or rules. I know good from bad without it being laid out for me by a cosmic policeman. I’m not terribly concerned with the afterlife either. Whether it exists or not does not change how I intend to live my life.
I must say, It’s invigorating to finally quiet the nagging cynic in my head and permit myself to harmonize with the universe on a spiritual level. ::ohm:: 
Oh, I hear you. Most definitely.
The problem I have always had with mysticism is that, while I have felt it, I always want to try to understand it, to explain it, to discuss it. All the while knowing it ain’t really possible or even desireable.
Certainly, for the Taoist there can be no fear of death or hankering after the afterlife. How could there be? The Tao can’t die. Everything that is you will get recycled, rot, and grow in other forms. “You” in the larger sense are immortal.
And of course none of this has any deeper meaning, or rather, it is its own deeper meaning. In a sense, we are like organs that the universe has evolved over time in order to percieve itself in all its complexity - not that there was any will behind this; it was just in the cards that it would happen.
The problem is that, in being able to percive and understand, we find ourselves seperated. That seperation is necessary for understanding but also a burden for perceiving that we are not really seperate.
The first verse of the Tao Te Ching I think speaks to exactly this, I think.
Snatch the pebble from my hand.
something i’ve always found amusing, seeing as one exists in my driveway 
seriously though, after being raised Protestant, i see myself gravitating more towards the Taoist/Buhddist school of thought, in my own personal opinion, there’s just too many discrepancies in the “popular mainstream” religions
I see your point. Sincerest apologies if my choice of words caused offense. I suppose the word “dabbling” applies more specifically to my completely non-commital approach to following the teachings of any one religion/philosophy/school of thought. I hope things are working out well for cainxinth.