Study Taoism: Official Web Site of Tai Shang Men Taoism USA Branch - The place where you can study the Philosophy, Religion/culture, and Spiritual side of Taoism.

Topics

   Taoist Philosophy


   Taoist Religion


   Taoist Spiritual


   Major / Skills in Taoism

   History of Taoism

   Sect of Taoism

Click here to enter discussion forum and don't forget to Enroll to be certified for initiation

April 2010 in Northern Virginia.
The next 16 week program will start in April 2010 in N. VA.

July 2010 in Fredericksburg, VA
The next 16 section-program will start in July 2010 in Fredericksburg, VA. This is the last chance to participate on the program in order to participate on the upcoming Initiation Ceremony in year 2010.

September 2010 in Fredericksburg, VA
There will be the Initiation Ceremony in the USA. The Master from Indonesia will come here and conduct the initiation. This is the only chance to learn real Taoism. Candidates must finish their introductory training certification in order to participate in this grand initiation.

Sect of Taoism

The public, mistakenly, thinks there are only two school of Taoism; Northern Taoism School (quan zhen Pai) and Southern Taoism School (zhen yi Pai).

However, historically, there are more than thousand other sect/lineage/schools that doesn't relate to this two school. Many of which existed previous to and were far older than either the Northern or Southern schools.

Today, in our current era, there are still countless schools that can not be classified as Northern(quan zhen) or Southern(zhen yi).

Each of these schools (many thousand) developed their own system and each one has its own uniqueness. The majority, however, of all Taoist sects/schools place Lao Zi (Incarnation of Tai Shang Lao Jun) as their main focus.

Due to the way Taoism was promulgated in the past, it has been classified into 4 distinct groups;

1. Philosophy Taoism - Dao Xue.
     The basic concept of Taoism. These groups primarily study the many Taoist
     books of Philosophy that were left to us by the many different Taoist Spiritual
     Masters.

2. Folk Religion Taoism - Dong Shu Dao Jiao
    Folk beliefs & traditions of Taoism popular with the general public. Within this
     group myth and fact is intertwined.

3. Religion Taoism Sect / School - Dao Jiao
     The public version of Taoist Tradition that is being taught to the
     Adherent (follower)/public.

4. Spiritual Taoism School - Dao Shu
     This group studies the 'nucleus' of Taoism, which is the spiritual side. Every
     great Taoist master in the past had thousands of Adherents/Followers, creating
     a public or generalized Taoist religion. However, the spiritual Taoist teachings
     were only passed down to a few select Disciples..