August 28, 2007

Law and the Way

Dharmic religion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dharmic religions are a family of religions which originated in India. They encompass the Vedic religion (now Hinduism), Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism.[1][2] The theology and philosophy of Dharmic religions center on the concept of Dharma, a Sanskrit term for "fixed decree, law, duty", especially in a spiritual sense of "natural law, reality". It is mostly influential across the Indian subcontinent, East Asia, and South East Asia, with lesser influence felt throughout the world. These religions are very closely interrelated in core beliefs and culture.
Taoic religion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the study of comparative religion, a Taoic religion is a religion, or religious philosophy, that focuses on the East Asian concept of Tao ("The Way"; pinyin Dao, Korean Do, Japanese To or Do, Vietnamese Đạo). This forms a large group of religions including Taoism, Confucianism, Shinto, Yiguandao, Chondogyo, Caodaism, Jeung San Do and Chen Tao. Taoic religions as a world religion group is comparable to the Abrahamic religions and Dharmic religions.[1] Taoic faiths claim at least 500 million members worldwide.[2]
Ancient Chinese philosophies defined Tao and advocated cultivating De in that Tao.[3] There are ancient schools that have merged into traditions under different names or are no longer active, such as Mohism and many others of the Hundred Schools of Thought, while some such as Taoism persist to the modern day. Taoic religion is usually polytheistic or nontheistic, but henotheistic, monotheistic, pantheistic, panentheistic and agnostic varieties exist, inside and outside of Asia. Taoic religion has Western adherents, though their interpretation may significantly differ from traditional East Asian thought and culture.

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