Russell Kirkland
[1] As is so often the case, the issue of death and its transcendence reveals that the Taoist tradition did not typically formulate or promulgate specific positions, nor demand adherence to common positions as a criterion of “membership” in “Taoism”.Those who were attracted to Taoism seem to have been those who were not interested in laboring to determine better or worse, much less “correct”, ways of conceptualizing the Taoist life.Rather, they seem to have been those who would gladly draw upon any combination of traditional and contemporary cultural elements to facilitate their effort to live the Taoist life as fully as possible.
[2] Such was the case in regard to practice as well as belief.What the tradition did, from the fifth century onward, was to collect and preserve all the models of and for the spiritual life that anyone had ever suggested.Practitioners would then follow the model that held the most appeal to them, with of course whatever modifications or enhancements seemed appropriate in light of current realities.
[3] Yet, it would be wrong to surmise that all those many models of and for the spiritual life had no underlying commonalities, or that they shared no fundamental perspectives regarding what life is and how one should live it.It is possible to identify, on very broad terms, elements of a common “Taoist worldview”, as well as a con-comitant “Taoist ethos”, which informed and stimulated Taoist practice in all its many forms, as well as Taoist modes of engagement with other elements of Chinese culture and society.
[4] At the most basic level, one assumption common to Taoists of most periods is that most people live fundamentally unaware of the true nature of the reality within which their lives take place.As a consequence, most people live their lives on terms that are not in accord with the true nature of their own reality.Their lives are therefore inherently flawed and ultimately fruitless.And, for such people, there is no hope for anything good to ensue when their biological existence ends.Their lives are essentially wasted.