Out of the darkness and into the light...

Taoism Views of the Afterlife

In Taoism, death is neither feared nor desired--instead a person enjoys living. In a sense, the afterlife doesn't exist in terms of a Taoist belief system--it's in life that we are eternal in Taoism. The afterlife is within life itself. We are of the Tao when living and upon death are the Tao again. Death is the point where your essence is not you--you cease to exist. Yet it's always you as we are always of the Tao, But your expression of your life is within life.

The goal in Taoism is to achieve tao, to find the way. Tao is the ultimate reality, a presence that existed before the universe was formed and which continues to guide the world and everything in it. Tao is sometimes identified as the Mother, or the source of all things. That source is not a god or a supreme being as with Christians, for Taoism is not monotheistic. The focus is not to worship one god, but instead on coming into harmony with tao. Tao is the essence of everything that is right, and complications exist only because people choose to complicate their own lives. Desire, ambition, fame, and selfishness are seen as hindrances to a harmonious life. It is only when one rids himself of all desires can tao be achieved. By shunning every earthly distraction, the Taoist is able to concentrate on life itself. The longer the one's life, the closer to tao one is presumed to have become. Eventually the hope is to become immortal, to achieve tao, to have reached the deeper life. This is the afterlife for a Taoist--to be in harmony with the universe.

Consider these statements:

  • When you die, you still live, in the memories of others.
  • When you die, your essence reincarnates into a new form.
  • When you die, you bounce back into your own life and have the opportunity to experience another variation of your life.
  • When you die, you rejoin the universe and are one with God if you believe in God.
  • When you die, you discover the many truths that exist.

Afterlife in Taoism becomes what you hold as being true. If you hold onto a single truth then this statement is fine within Taoism. Yet if you hold onto only a single truth, you are only holding one color of the rainbow of possibilities.

Many Taoists don't even think about an afterlife, but instead view the Tao as simply "logical." There's no mysticism or need for invisible sky gods or some weird belief that you're important enough to be reincarnated--you simply return to the Tao when you die.

The Chuang-Tzu states:

"The true men of old did not know what it was to love life or to hate death. They did not rejoice in birth, nor strive to put off dissolution. Unconcerned they came and unconcerned they went. That was all. They did not forget whence it was they had sprung, neither did they seek to inquire their return thither. Cheerfully they accepted life, waiting patiently for their restoration (the end). This is what is called not to lead the heart astray from Tao, and not to supplement the natural by human means. Such a one may be called a true man. Such men are free in mind and calm in demeanor."

Make your life what you want it to be now. The rest will follow.

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