Taoism Practice (What is and What is Not?)

If you ask a layman what he thinks it means to practice Taoism, you will find that you have to go to the church, pray to God, bring sacrifices, fast and participate in certain rituals.

This is nothing new because it does not differ from what is happening in any church like the Christian one.

Yet we know about a Taoist "school", called tao-chia (the school of uniting one with the Tao), which has nothing to do with a religious system but because it is inspired by the writings of ancient Masters such as Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu , and is mainly based on the practice of wu-wei and emptiness.

Some may know what these terms mean but do not know how to practice what they designate.

So you may ask: "are they really practices"?

You can ask this question because you are aware of the meaning of the word "practice" as it is understood in our modern schools, referring to a kind of development of intellectual skills and knowledge.

Indeed, we go to school to develop our intellectual aptitudes we will use later, as adult persons.

In this respect the answer is yes and no.

Yes, we can practice nondoing and emptiness and no - these practices are not concerned with the development of intellectual skills.

Rather they run contrary, though there is something about the mind (please, don't mistake "mind" for "intellect") in these practices too.

Therefore, I wrote a course about these practices and their appliance in our everyday life.

Just click here to learn more.

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Paper by Jhian.
Updates 28.10.2026
Picture by Goalcast.com