A Personal Tao: Taoism Questions

Questions About Taoism

This section of the site has been opened up so people can freely ask questions  about the Tao and Taoism.

Please note: When possible I will refer the reader to other information sources first when other sites have already crafted a well thought out answer.

• Ask a new question about Taoism...
  
  
• How can I find inner peace in Taoism?
  
  
• How does one keep up an energetic practice in Taoism?
  
  
• How should a Taoist act within periods of crisis?
  
  
• In Taoism, is the Afterlife what one personally believes it to be?
  
  
• Taoist perspective on failure
  
  
• What is Taoism's view on homosexuality?
  
  
• What is Yin Yang?
  
  

My initial personal reaction is:

It doesn't matter what Taoism or any other religion says about homosexual behavior. Religion doesn't stop people from being people. People will always contain in their nature: all the Yin Yang aspects of humanity itself. Some people will embrace with acceptance homosexual activity as being natural. Others will find homosexual activity to be a threat to their own ego, their own sense of self, and hence attack the behavior.

Some people will embrace a religion just to support their personal views and justify their feelings as right or wrong. Taoism steps away from this and reminds us we are human first. That in being human, we will have this wide range of nature to accept. This isn't a religious issue no matter what anyone says... it's an interpersonal issue. People are always people for both good and bad... Learn to understand people, not religion, to help find a peaceful answers to such questions. Taoism is a practice of acceptance. It's not for Taoism to define how you accept. It’s a personal issue for finding wholeness.

Some questions are rooted in ego in scope. These ego based questions cannot be answered from a universal perspective: despite ego's insistence that it's universal in nature. So in the end, the question must be answered by each person. Giving a general answer would actually create interpersonal conflict. To a Taoist this is a problem easily avoided by leaving the question unanswered from a larger perspective. To recognize this question is personal in scope for each individual to balance in their life. Taoist practice teaches a person how to only embrace ego lightly. So while Taoism doesn't answer the question directly, Taoist practice resolves the question into not mattering.

This is very important and has implications for many other questions.

Taoism Teaches:

Not every question should have an answer .

When this answer bothers a person, then it's a sign that their ego is working against issues which are personally hard to find acceptance towards. Such feelings indicate a personal internal conflict deeper than the question itself. In fact this is often why a person seeks an universal answer to this question: as a means to end some deeper personal conflict. To move the issue outside of the internal realm to find final absolution or solutions outside their own nature.  There are many paths to finding answers to our personal dilemmas.

Continue for the complete answer.