Virginia Taoism Center
of
Esoteric Tai Qing Sect
 

Mission Statement

1. To promote the Taoist teaching (Tai Sang Men= Gate of Tai Sang) of
    (Tai Qing Dao=Great Pure Taoism Sect).
2. To honor and practice Taoism through researching traditional Taoism.
3. To establish a network among Tai Qing Tao's practitioners in United States and share
    experiences.
4. To establish friendship with other Taoist lineage practitioners.
5. To provide social spiritual work/service to the public.
 

What is The Esoteric Taoism ?
There are two groups of Taoism;
1. Dao Jia / Esoteric Tao
2. Dao Jiao / Religous Tao

Dao Jia / Esoteric Taoism is the spiritual study to improve or revise ourselves to be a better person every moment. The major study in this group is very broad, including six major area of study. When a scholar finish the 'curriculum' study, he/she will become a Taoist spiritual Master/priest.

Dao Jiao / Religious Taoism doesn't study the Taoism spiritually, the members/followers just go to the temple to pray and follow certain ritual and religious tradition. This is the people who take part in taking care of the Taoist temple. When the temple become famous and have many visitor, they formed an organization to manage it. This is the most common group of Taoism which mostly used by the "outsider from different religion" to judge Taoism. In order to standardize the Spiritual material of Taoism, they always invite a Spiritual Master of Taoism.


Purpose of Studying Dao

Your subtle body/soul/spirit is eternal, but it is stuck at "MORTAL REALM" in this present time a.k.a. the incarnation cycle, because you subtle body/soul/spirit has not yet had the ability to transcend this "Human mortal realm" to the "Pure Yang Immortal Realm" and become Immortal.

To release / get out from this "incarnation cycle", You must cultivate  themselves by practice & experiencing Taoism teaching so that we can transform ourselves into the "IMMORTAL REALM" / which is Pure Yang realm. This process  is called "Xiu Dao"

Taoism is all about experiencing Taoist spiritual teaching for the purpose of self-improving ourselves to be a better person everyday. Taoist teaching includes Philosophy, Rituals, Communication with God and Goddess, Chanting, Geomancy, Meditation, Medicine, Talisman, etc.


Studying Taoism is more than just studying philosophy

Taoist Philosophy study is part of Taoism.

Taoism is very rare in the West. What mostly available teaching are just philosophical books such as Dao De Ching, I Ching, etc. Due to this limitation of information, Many western scholar mistakenly saw Taoism as a Philosophical not Religion or Esoteric practice.

These people latch onto Daoism and 'adopt' the Dao De Jing(One example) into their own belief systems. Its a bit like adopting the "Proverb book of Christian Bible" into your belief systems without becoming a Christian. Nothing is wrong with that except that these people are not Daoists.

These self-proclaimed 'daoist', who thinks that Taoist deities are 'non-sense', and they reject God's existence can be seen as Atheist. According to Wikipedia, Atheism entails, minimally, the disbelief in the existence of any deities. Unlike Atheism; Taoism have Gods, Goddesses and Immortals.

Those who reject Taoism as a religion & esoteric practice are of course missing the point. Taoism has Immortals, temples, holy books, rituals, alchemical techniques and all the things that go with religion. To only use its texts and not understand the other elements is like only eating one appetizer during dinner time but never eating the "MAIN DISH" . Meditation especially requires a Master or more experienced Taoist who can guide you in your training.

This is still good too, they are at least moving in the right direction. However, without a proper complete teaching from a proper Master to go to whose learnt from experience they are less likely to be effective. Religious and esoteric Taoism practice is similar to Martial Arts, those who learn from a Master are more likely to become accomplished and skilled martial artists. Those who only ever learn from books/video or trial and error are less likely to become skilled.

Becoming an expert in Taoist philosophy (Professor) does not give their soul/spirit "the ability" to transform themselves into pure yang realm / "Immortal realm". In fact, they could just become a professor in Taoist Philosophical who are very expert in discussing Taoism in general (A Debater).

Unfortunately, many Western Taoist Scholar (and occasionally Easterners) fail to understand this distinct differences. You may gain entrance into the Celestial realms but the chances of doing so is far less likely. This is okay too, not everyone in this lifetime is going to become Immortal but they may still accumulate Merits which get carried over to the next life.


Life's path and Destiny

Destiny means something that is supposed to or meant to happen.
Life's path means all the results that are caused by certain attempts / actions.

Generally speaking, Destinies can't be changed, for example; birth, death and re-incarnation

By studying Taoism, one can cultivate  their spirit by practicing & experiencing Taoism teaching so that we can transform ourselves into the "IMMORTAL REALM" / which is Pure Yang realm. This process  is called "Xiu Dao"
When you successfully achieved that Pure Yang realm, you will become immortal and stop the re-incarnation cycle. Therefore you just change the destiny (Your next life where you are supposed to be born again in certain place).
Therefore, with further study of Daoism, you can manipulate destiny.

To manipulate the 'destiny", you must alter your Life's path for example; Marriage, Success, Wealth, etc.
This attempt or action could be
1. Physical attempt such as higher education or finding good careers.
2. Spiritual attempts such as performing Taoist ritual (Fa Shu) to draw customers into business, talisman for influence/infatuation, etc.

Whether a physical attempt/action or spiritual attempt, both are called a Way. A Taoist WAY is to alter the practitioners' life path, improving karma and to manipulate destiny/fate.

Therefore, with Xiu Dao (self-revising according to Dao), even no matter how bad your life path and destiny, IT ALL CAN BE CHANGED ! Remember, nothing is fixed in this universe, everything is always forever changing !

 

The need for a Taoist Master

A Taoist master is a person who have been studying and experiencing Taoist's teaching for long time. Their experiences and understanding is more advanced than a beginner practitioner.

To become Immortal (that is, entrance into the Celestial Realms) one is better off learning from someone whose cultivation methods are far more advanced than one's own.

Both religious and Esoteric Daoism occurred at least from the time of the Yellow Emperor and even before. Lao Tzu, when he went west, left disciples who followed him to build temples and practice his teachings, these ruins of some of these early temples are still about today!
Daoism is both religion and esoteric and it teaches that one needs a Master. Even the 8 Immortals had other Immortals teach them things. Learning never stops, a good teacher instructs well.


ANNOUNCEMENT:
1. For temporary, there are no longer group meeting.
2. We don't accept anymore students to join Tai Qing Dao.

If you are interested to study more about Taoism, Please go our sister site;
http://www.studytaoism.com   

- Wei Ji Ni Ya Tai Qing Dao Guan -

Virginia Taoism Center of Esoteric Tai Qing Sect

"Dao4 Guang1 Yong3 Ze2, Zheng4 Qi4 Chang2 Cun2"
"Rays of Dao radiate all livings, The truth will remain forever"