Rebekah - Confucianism / Toaism

To be quite honest, the elements of Confucianism and Toaism ran together for me. Because they both come from Chinese origins and have ties to ancient Buddhism there are so many similarities that I still get confused sometimes. However, even with these similar origins the two concepts and ideas are very different in mindset and ideals. For Toaists humans are inherently good and would create for itself a problem frees society if government would stay out of the lives of the individual. While on the other hand Confucianists see the people as the problem and it is the governed rules and regulations that keep people in order and in harmony.

For Confucianism the human problem is basic social disfunction. This disfunction is due to an imbalance within relationships. Thus in order to get back to unity and balance in relationships confucianists practice the arts of peace. These are: Jen: Benevolence, which can be regarded as a basic respect and dignity for other humans. Chun Tzu: Mature persons; Li: The way things are done or the golden mean of one’s five constant relationships (parent-child, husband-wife, older sibling-younger sibling, older friend-younger friend, ruler-subject). Te: power and virtue; and finally Wen: the arts of peace.

For Toaism the human problem is an imbalance of yin and yang. The imbalance comes from our constant tendency to fight against the flow of Toa. The question of how to fix it isn’t really addressed because once you try to fix or change the state of situation the Toa (its state) is already changing. To the Toaist there is no place for labels (good or bad) because things are just the way they are, and there’s no need to try to fix or change things because ultimately those efforts are in a sense the same reasons behind the problem in the first place. The only practice that is continually used is the study of Mediterranean Tai-Chi, which allows one to feel the force and harness its power in their life.

For me, there are too many intangibles in both religions. The problem with such open-ended religions is that there are so many missing pieces; a lot of gaps to fill. They also present the same problem that Buddhism did in a sense of if they can truly be considered a religion or just a psychotherapy or socioeconomic ideal. There are no deities or faith based interaction. I can’t buy into either concepts.