Separation of doctrines and teachings

The doctrines of Taoism are an organic whole, and fundamentally speaking, it is not good to separate them from the text. The spiritual essence of doctrine is to teach people what to believe, what is the highest state of faith, what is the law of cultivation to follow, and how to restrain and regulate behavior, so that ultimately cultivation and faith will conform to the requirements of doctrine and will not deviate from the purpose of doctrine.

In the “Seven Signs of the Cloud Book – Taoism’s Origin”, it was said, “Teachers, tell also, have words, reason and righteousness.” Mr. Chen opposes to the separation of doctrine, Mr. Chen said in his writings: Where a religion, there must be a belief, there must be a belief in the reason for the belief, with language and text to explain this reason, so that people can understand and easy to get started, this is the religious so-called “doctrine”; a certain kind of religion, according to the classic writings of this religion, a few words of brief and generalized.

A religion which, on the basis of the classical writings of the religion, puts forward in a concise and general way a few words or phrases as a guideline for the believers to follow in their daily thoughts and actions, and which can be compatible with all the “doctrines” without any apparent contradiction, is called a “doctrine” by the religionists.

Mr. Chen opposes this distinction, which will help us to understand the doctrine. From the perspective of Taoist history, the doctrines, as the essentials of Taoism, remain unchanged, while the doctrinal ideas are constantly enriched and developed with the development of society, because the purpose of religious indoctrination is to educate people, and to educate people, we must set up a religion according to the people and the times, and we need to enrich and develop the doctrinal ideas and play a positive role in the development of the society without violating the doctrines.