What is the human condition?
According to Taoism and Confucianism, the importance of life is finding and maintaining the balance between good and bad as well as up keeping morals. Taoism says that the human condition is living out balance of nature while Confucianism maintains the notion of balance of life but with a twist of social dysfunction that can be eliminated by finding and seeing our right place in society. In a nutshell, the human condition can be boiled down to finding a balance of right and wrong in oneself.
What is the solution to the problem?
I would argue that both Taoism and Confucianism would agree that the simple solution to life is to simply live life. Become a good person by making intelligent and wholesome choices. While there is a cause and effect in life, people will reap what they sew, not in a karma sense, but in a sense of the world having balance in consequences.
How do we move from the problem to the solution?
Well this question runs parallel to the last one. With each choice, one must accept the consequences and simply enjoy the ride that is this life. Make choices that move towards the betterment of mankind but do not worry long on hardships because the world will move on and balance it all out.
Both of these remind me of Buddhism in that there is not really an emotional draw to religion but simply more of a philosophical view. Especially with the ideas of the yin and the yang, and the I Ching, which both seem to be a devotion to a form of ideas.
True, these are more philosophical systems than ritualistic or creedal religions. There is a more religious Taoism that the masses may practice but it is a far cry from the sophisticated teaching of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu.
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