Body & Mind Training Center

On Taosim:

Daodejing is a work cocise and full of meaning, in which every single ideogram contains a whole concept.
Tao is translated as the Way, Norma (or Rule), Reason, Logos, but Lao Tze states that is inexpressible, has neither form nor sound.
Te (or De) is Virtue,spiritual strength of virtue.
Jin means Book.
So "Daodejing" means "the book or Tao and its Virtue".
Sima Qian is an historian and wrote that actually Lao Tzu named Li Er, and lived at the times of Confucio (551-479 a.C.), and he was 30 years older.

Main concept of Tao are Tao, its Virtue, yin and yang, the opposing forces of nature (see Yijin, the Book of changings) and Wu-Wei, the not act.

Tao is creator and preserver of the universe, it can be called "Nil" or "mother of every thing"
Men and World are united and influence each other. Harmony is when everything develops without constraints.
Tao can be known by observing the nature and its laws, and to understand Tao means to create vacuum in ourselves, which brings us to an undifferentiated state, unconscious and spontaneous.

Te is Virtue, energy, the spiritual strenght of Tao.
Lao Tze distinguishes between virtue highers and lowers. the first one is that of Tao, who practice it is in harmony with nature, the seconds ar those predicted by Confucio. humanity, justice, rites are lower virtue because the aim of those who practice them do not go beyond the benefits of their products .
Yin and Yang constitute the Tao, and corrispond to the female principle and the male principle.
Mankind lives according to the alternation of two contradictory moments, day and night, light and darkness, life and death, and then once again life, and once again death. So changings are synthesis of two moments, and from them comes the rhythm in which is possible to see Tao.
Wu-Wei means humbleness,do not desire. Mankind must adhere to the spontaneous flow of becoming, it doesn't mean to be passive, but to be receptive.the wise man does not act and becomes like a baby .

"The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named is not the eternal name
Non-being is the beginning of heaven and earth
Being is the mother of ten thousand things
....
The supreme mystery
The door of all the wonders"

Source: Daodejing

Confucianism is something of a derivative. As a matter of fact, Confucius insisted on close adherence to Tao. However, he was pragmatic and concerned with the existential problems of man, hence he deals less with generalities and more with the practical matters of daily and personal relationships. The essence of his system of relationships is fivefold, and fundamental to his social order: ruler and subject; father and son; husband and wife; older brother and younger brother; older friend and younger friend.

The ideal of conduct, ordering all human relationships and resulting in an ideal social structure and harmony is: li. A famous Confucian maxim is: "Never do to others, what you would not like them to do to you." (Golden Rule ?) His disciples later on developed ten attitudes that are to govern the five relationships: love in father and filial piety in the son; gentility in the oldest brother and humility and respect in the younger; righteous behavior in the husband and obedience in the wife; humane consideration in elders and deference in juniors; benevolence in rulers and loyalty in subjects. Confucius did not claim to be the originator of this philosophical/ethical code. Some of the ideas he claims to have derived from classical writings, but he codified them and illuminated them with his own insights and principles. Thus developed one the great and most durable ethical and social edifices in recorded time. It shaped Chinese thought and character.

SHAMANS OF THE AMAZON, is a personal account of filmmaker, Dean Jefferys, returning to the Amazon with his partner and one year old daughter. They journey deep into the heart of the Ecuadorian rainforest to meet two Amazon shamans to learn about and experience the ancient hallucinogenic ayahuasca ritual. The film brings to the viewer an intimate and fascinating look at the shamans of the Amazon, their culture and their rituals that are fast disappearing. The ayahuasca ritual is thousands of years old. It is said ayahuasca allows the shaman to enter other dimensions where complicated healings, shamanic battles, clairvoyance, initiations, ancestral knowledge exchange and communications with the plant, animal and spirit world is possible.

ZOROASTRIANISM

Zoroastrianism is a religion founded in ancient times by the prophet Zarathushtra and was the dominant world religion during the Persian empires (559 BC to 651 AC). It is still practiced world-wide, especially in Iran and India and curresntly there are around 140,000 Zoroastrians.

The central scripture in zoroastranism is the Avesta. The most sacred sections of the Avesta are the Gathas or Hymns of Zarathushtra; they are also the most enigmatic. Later sacred literature includes the Pahlavi Texts, which contain extensive quotations and paraphrases from lost Avesta texts.

The supreme being is called Ahura Mazda (Phl. Ohrmazd), meaning "Wise Lord." Ahura Mazda is all good, and created the world and all good things, including people. He is opposed by Anghra Mainyu (Phl. Ahriman), meaning "Destructive Spirit," the embodiment of evil and creator of all evil things. The cosmic battle between good and evil will ultimately lead to the destruction of all evil.

The religion was founded by Zarathushtra, the prophet. His date is uncertain, but is probably somewhere around 1200 BC. He lived and preached in the Inner Asian steppes. Zarathushtra received his revelations directly from Ahura Mazda, and from his Archangels (Amesha Spentas).

Prayer is often done in front of a fire, and is the symbol of "Asha", that can be straslated ad truth, righteousness, world-order, eternal law.

Differently from Christianity, in which Gesus state more than once that those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted will end in Geenna, the inextinguishable fire in which both body and soul will die, for Zoroastranism the Hell is only a temporary place of suffering for sinners, untill the time in which the evil is definitly defeated and at the end they will join the congregation of God and saints.

Regard lying,for Zoroastrians lying is a great sin and everyone has the responsability to save its soul.

Shinto is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written historical records of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki in the 8th century. Still, these earliest Japanese writings do not refer to a unified "Shinto religion", but rather to disorganized folklore, history, and mythology. Shinto today is a term that applies to public shrines suited to various purposes such as war memorials, harvest festivals, romance, and historical monuments, as well as various sectarian organizations. Practitioners express their diverse beliefs through a standard language and practice, adopting a similar style in dress and ritual, dating from around the time of the Nara and Heian Periods.

The word Shinto ("Way of the Gods") was adopted from the written Chinese (神道, shén dào), combining two kanji: "shin" (神?), meaning kami; and "tō" (道?), or "dō" meaning a philosophical path or study (originally from the Chinese word tao). Kami are defined in English as "spirits", "essences" or "deities", that are associated with many understood formats; in some cases being human-like, in others being animistic, and others being associated with more abstract "natural" forces in the world (mountains, rivers, lightning, wind, waves, trees, rocks). Kami and people are not separate; they exist within the same world and share its interrelated complexity.

There are currently 119 million observers of Shinto in Japan,although a person who practices any manner of Shinto rituals may be so counted. The vast majority of Japanese people who take part in Shinto rituals also practice Buddhist ancestor worship. However, unlike many monotheistic religious practices, Shinto and Buddhism typically do not require professing faith to be a believer or a practitioner, and as such it is difficult to query for exact figures based on self-identification of belief within Japan. Due to the syncretic nature of Shinto and Buddhism, most "life" events are handled by Shinto and "death" or "afterlife" events are handled by Buddhism—for example, it is typical in Japan to register or celebrate a birth at a Shinto shrine, while funeral arrangements are generally dictated by Buddhist tradition—although the division is not exclusive.

Judaism is the ancient tradition of a relatively small community of people originally called Hebrews, or Israelites. Judaism was the first religion to hold as its central dogma the idea of monotheism: the belief that there is only one God, an infinite, omniscient source of all power and righteousness who has shared a special relationship with God's "chosen people" since the days of the biblical forbearers Abraham and Sarah. Judaism as a religion has developed over thousands of years, but has always emphasized the oneness of God, the observance of commandments, the study of Torah and the importance of community and family. The word "Jew" itself is taken from the name Judah, who was one of the biblical Jacob's twelve sons (and a great-grandson of Abraham). Judaism has become the manifestation of a multi-ethnic, religious and social community, with an emphasis on action supported by beliefs.