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JoeR
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Does anyone know of a good Catholic review of the book “The Tao of Pooh”? I’m also interested in a good explaination of what Taoism is.
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Ahimsa
Guest
You might want to check out some Thomas Merton.
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ahimsaman72
Guest
I’m not Catholic, but I am providing a link to a site that describes the Scripture of Taoism and its early founder with a good overview of the philosophy of Taoism. It may seem odd and abstract, but then that is Asian philosophy
. It is better to go to the source before getting someone’s opinion like mine.thebigview.com/tao-te-ching/tao-te-ching.html
Peace…
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Ahimsa
Guest
Here’s a good introductory webpage to Taoism (also written “Daoism,” which is how it’s actually pronounced).
Merton’s book on Taoism is The Way of Chuang Tzu.
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Scott_Waddell
Guest
I read both the Tao of Pooh and Te of Piglet. The problem with them is like many similar problems when your average Westerner goes in for the spurious glitter of Eastern mysticism: the bring so much of their Wester baggage to it that the end product would be unrecognizable to an Eastern practitioner. In this case, rather than let taoism form his political view, he tries to force taoism to fit in his hard-left ideology. In Te especially, it was hard to suppress eye rolls as the author would make a laughable attempt to show how taoism proves that Ronald Reagan was evil. 
Scott
Scott
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Ahimsa
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Scott Waddell:
I have to agree with you. I really wouldn’t recommend reading either of those books to get an idea of Taoism, or Poohism, for that matter.I read both the Tao of Pooh and Te of Piglet. The problem with them is like many similar problems when your average Westerner goes in for the spurious glitter of Eastern mysticism: the bring so much of their Wester baggage to it that the end product would be unrecognizable to an Eastern practitioner. In this case, rather than let taoism form his political view, he tries to force taoism to fit in his hard-left ideology. In Te especially, it was hard to suppress eye rolls as the author would make a laughable attempt to show how taoism proves that Ronald Reagan was evil.
Scott
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Tlaloc
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Kevin_Walker
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Taoism is the religion of heaven and earth, of the cosmos, of the world of nature in the broadest sense, it can also be viewed as “Naturism”.
Taoism is polytheic (many Gods) and pantheist (nature Gods).
Of the three major religions in China, Taoism is indiginous having developed among Chinese peasant folk religion. It has been said that every Chinese was a Confucian in public life; Taoist in private life; and a Buddhist at the time of death. A Confucian would view a Taoist priest as a witchdoctor.
Taoists go with the flow and believe in bending with the breeze rather than breaking:
A Famous Taoist Poem:
Zhao dreamt he was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes, a butterfly.
Zhao was conscious of only of his happiness as a butterfly, unaware that he was Zhao.
Soon Zhao awoken, and did not know whether it was Zhao who dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly who dreamt he was Zhao.
Comparing Taoism with Buddhism: Taoism emphasizes the internal while Buddhism emphasizes the external; Taoist pursue longevity while Buddhists pursue spiritual development; Taoism emphasizes immortality over Buddhist reincarnation; Taoist priests wear their hair long while Buddhist monks shave their heads; Taoist kung fu is a soft style (Taoists invented ‘Tai Chi’) while Buddhist kung fu is a hard style; Taoist priests get married while Buddhist monks are celibant; the Taoist ‘Wudang’ temple participated in the destruction of the Buddhist ‘Shaolin’ temple in 1768 Fujian (the Taoists & Buddhists did not get along). And Taoism emphasized a controlled ‘macrobiotic’ diet and has heavily influenced the Chinese diet. The octagon shaped pattern you see on placemats in Chinese restaraunts is a Taoist symbol.
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buffalo
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