Calling All Religion Buffs

[IDDQD]

Ok so this summer Im taking a class about world religions so I can get my all my required credits and graduate.
I was selected to do a presentation on Taoism and Confucianism. I have the whole class alotted time to do this presentation. So it can be between 1/2 hour and 3 hours long. I want to fill the 3 hours. I have a whole month to put it together so i want to do an outstanding job on it.

So im looking for video, audio, in depth information, maybe even the contact of someone actually practicing.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thankya kindly.

[TheJake]

GO BUY

The Tao of Pooh.
and
Tao Te Ching

With those two books you can do anthing you want in relation to taoism. Another interesting breakoff of taoism has arisen from something called The Jesus Sutras which were recently found in a sealed cave in china but they are the basis for Taoist Christianity.

When I ventured off from christianity a year or so ago I went straight to Taoism. Ever since studying it in world religions in high school I have been fascinated by it. No deity, so no one you have to appease. The whole concept is relatively simple but very complex in it's gravity to one's life.

Just Exist.

How does one just exist inside the whirlwind that has become our society? How can one not get stressed or freak out but just reach inner peace no matter how hard the storm blows? I don't know yet but someday I'll figure it out.

As far as Confucius

Well Confucius say "man who go to bed with itchy butt, wake up with smelly fingers"

[IDDQD]

Hmmm, i will look into finding those books. Thanks man.

and as far as the Confucius comment. This guy was brilliant! Dont know anything about him but he already figured out my life long morning stink finger problem. Sweet!

[space virgin]

Ask Voyd.

[beergal]

Well this is more to do with Confucism culture...i just researched a final year module on Chinese Culture in Liverpool and was amazed to find out its not accepted for Chinese people with the same surname to marry eachother in case they are related...my research partner made me laugh when i was telling him this and he said:

"imagine telling a girl you couldnt marry her...and when she replies you have to say to her...sorry i cant marry you your all wong for me"

ha ha i was laughin my head off in the library

[Joker]

To second what Jake said, Tao of Pooh is a light-hearted stab at it. Good jumping-off point. From there, getting a copy, preferably well-dog eared of Lao-Tzu (with notes to help explain some of it), and then Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance...

[IDDQD]

sweeet, thanks for the tips everyone

[voyd]

I-Ching (Book Of Changes) - credited to the mystical Fu Xi - who allegedly devised the yin/yang and trigram-based view of reality from oracle tortoise shells. It aims at discerning the true, root nature of reality - in its barest simplicity, variability & persistency.

Taoism - allegedly based upon the far older I-Ching. Its "Bible," the Tao Te Ching, is mythologically credited to an imperial philsopher-librarian, Lao Tzu. It is essentially a verbal interpretation and commentary on similar lines of thought as the more "mathematical" I-Ching.

Confucianism - Some claim Confucious was a contemporary or even a student of an older and wiser Lao Tzu. He was definitely influenced by the I-Ching, at least, and wrote many commentaries on it - as well as his Analects. He was a bureaucrat whose focus was on societal guidelines/ideology.

Anyhow, none of these may fit the superficial Western conception of "religions." In general, these tend to be:

More organic & less personal/anthromorphic
Less dogmatic
Less concerned with tribal beefs/turf wars
More empirical/intuitive and less Socratic armchair deduction
More focused on personal enlightenment than mass worship
Unity with Nature instead of Man Vs Nature
More realitycentric (interested in the true nature of reality) than humancentric (interested in the fate of humans)

And in those days, spirituality and science weren't so segregated and compartmentalized, too. Therefore, there was a lot of crossover between each, as people simply wanted to know how "it all worked." And there wa no reason why you couldn't make scientific insights spiritually or vice-versa. Hence, Taoism and the I-Ching (as well as Zen Buddhism) have appealed to many free-thinking New Age hippies and leading Western physicists (Bohr, Einstein, Oppenheimer, etc) today.

Confucianism is the opposite of Taoism in many ways though - as it tends to dictate rigid social guidelines, ceremonial etiquette and moral codes of behavior. It is more for the masses, whereas the former is more for rugged individualists. Of course, I am more well-versed in Taoism than Confucianism, so I may be a bit biased and underinformed on the latter...

[MeTurk]

Confucianism is a religion?? I thought there was just a Chinese guy called confucious that confused people I didn't know he had a hole religion about him. Well you learn something new everyday, especially if your stupid.

[voyd]

Originally posted by MeTurk@May 18 2006, 04:26 AM
Confucianism is a religion??

[snapback]121479[/snapback]

That snap assumption alone is already a distortional projection of Western beliefs. Really, Confucianism is more a social ideology that focuses on societal behavior than a spiritual one that focuses on the spiritual realms.

So, really - I'm not sure why a collegiate class would even be categorizing Confucianism as a "religion," to begin with? The only slightly "religious" aspects associated with it were mostly older, non-Confucian traditions to begin with.

[MeTurk]

Oh right, I'm not confused atall now thanks

[IDDQD]

lol, i used the term religion just as a blanket statement cause its the best word to draw attention to a thread.

I didnt figure "Calling all social ideology buffs" would garner as much attention.

Either way,l ets not get into what can and cant be considered religion. Those convos tend to be very redundant.

[blinkchick2134]

I looked up some of the local groups in the Toronto area for you. When I worked with the YMCA we had a few members of a group come in and do a presentation for a summer camp - very informational. If anything you could at least have a local source for information (or maybe take pictures of members for a slide show).

International Taoist Tai Chi Society - Canada


*I tried looking for more but I realized my lunch break was almost over*

[IDDQD]

^^^ you are a peach, thank you very much for that link. Im gonna do my best to get someone to come into the class. And this location isnt far from where i work, I could go by after work