Mr. Powers - Taoism test (Created by bjungl277) edited

It is uncertain whether or not lao tzu ever existed

True

Confucius is said to have sought Lao Tzu's advice

True

The teachings of Taoism, like those of many religious traditions, contain many paradoxes

True

Tao is immense and complex, yet comprehensible

False

Tao is not immanent, and there is no way to approach the divine in a personal way

False

Taoism emphasizes the need to embrace the yin

True

Males are made up of both yang and yin

True

For a Taoist, there is no such thing as an absolute goodness

True

The tao te ching says that personal souls continue to exist in the afterlife

False

Human beings are not a part of the grand harmony of nature in Taoism

False

Taoists advocate simply doing nothing in order to achieve wu-wei

False

Taoist naturalism, unlike some forms of environmentalism, is always a hands-off approach

True

Taoists believe that a good ruler takes a passive approach to governing

True

For over two thousand years, Taoism has been a central part of the religious life of India

False

From a Taoist perspective, the west is fixated on the Yang

True

The Tao Te Ching was originally named for the man credited with writing it, _______

Lao Tzu

The Chuang Tzu is ________

both b and c (the second foundational text of Taoism, equally important to Taoism as the Tao Te Ching)

One of the central themes of the Chuang Tzu is the ________

Relativity of things

The power of virtue an individual acquires through living in harmony with the Tao is called ______

Te

Tao is best defined as ________

All of the above

Taoism regards moral values as _______

Relative

In Taoism life and death are ________

Two harmonious parts of the same whole

The sage attains oneness with Tao through insight regarding its

both b and c

Taoism teaches that when a sage chooses not to compete or argue that he _______

Emerges victorious

Which of the following describes Taoism's view of the conflict or war?

Taoism encourages pacifism but admits warfare is something necessary

Taoism teaches that the best way to govern is to

Simply not to interfere with the nature of the people

Taoism depicts _____ merely as one among nature's many transformations from one state to another

Death

A statement that seems illogical on the surface and yet contains a deeper truth

Paradox

Taoism's foundational text thought to have been authored by Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching

Negative, passive, feminine, earthly component of the universe, characterized by darkness and weakness

Yin

Positive, active, masculine, heavenly component of the universe, characterized by light and strength

Yang

What a perfectly balanced individual is called in Taoism

Sage

The virtue that when practiced leads the individual to be perfectly in harmony with nature that nature's energy infuses and empowers the individual

Wu-Wei

_____ is the power or virtue acquired by the individual through living in harmony with nature

Te

_____ exists before and beyond all else, but it also pervades and orders the natural world

Tao

The _______ strand of Taoism is based almost entirely on classic texts like the Tao Te Ching.

philosophical

The many paradoxical statements in the Tao Te Ching seem to defy the effort of the rational mind, demanding instead dependence on _______.

intuition

The title Tao Te Ching literally means _______.

"the book of the Way and its power (or virtue)"

According to the Tao Te Ching, Tao, or the unified something from which all things arise, is ______________.

not a personal creator god but an unseen force

Taoist cosmology is based on a complementary balance of _______.

yin and yang

The Tao Te Ching demonstrates the relativity of values by noting that no value could exist if not for _______.

its opposite

Taoism counter the problem of imbalance in the individual by advocating _______.

virtues oriented toward yin, such as humility and pacifism.

The primary virtue of Taoism, _______ can be translated as "pure effectiveness" or :"yielding to win" and is demonstrated by virtues such as humility and non-competition.

wu-wei

The Taoist virtue of naturalness promotes the two actions of behaving as nature dictates and _______.

leaving nature alone to thrive by its own power

Taoism holds that the best way to govern is to ___________.

not interfere with the natural way of the people