Daoist Identity

Daoist religious identity refers to the way in which Daoists have established and continue to maintain a connection with the Dao and to locate themselves within the Daoist tradition. In this respect, a distinction must be made between those with formal standing in the religious community and those without. The latter are speaking about the inside of a courtyard without having passed over the threshold; they are ruminating about a path into the deep mountains without having traversed the landscape. Such people are best advised to cultivate the Dao, forget personal identity, and refrain from “teaching” others.

Throughout Chinese history, Daoists have thought about tradition in terms of community, lineage, place, as well as personal practice and experience. Such are the dimensions of the Daoist body (daoshen 道身). Locatedness in the Daoist tradition, one’s identity as a Daoist, comes from a connection with and reverence for the external Three Treasures (sanbao 三寶) of the Dao, the scriptures, and the teachers. Historically speaking, Daoist religious identity has been established and cultivated through purity of intent, natural affinity, dedicated practice, teacher-student transmission (embodied and disembodied), language proficiency, community recognition, cultural locatedness, mystical experience, ordination, numinous presence, and revelation. Of these, the condition of one’s heart-mind is especially important.

The dimensions of Daoist identity lend themselves to abuse and manipulation by those who lack virtue and integrity. Dishonesty and delusion create confusion. At the same time, the fact that Daoists have become Daoists through specific mystical experiences and revelations challenges the belief that only ordination and lineage confirms participation in the tradition. For those with an affinity with Daoism, it is important to recognize the ways in which “identity” is a construction, a potential external trapping. Identity and lineage may be enlivening or lead to distortion.

Daoist identity is a form of transpersonal identity, beyond the limitations of egoism. If it becomes a method to create uniqueness, distinction, and separation, one loses oneself in the mundane. To use the Dao and Daoism to elevate oneself, to dominate others, or to design one’s personality leads to disorientation. Daoists have sought to protect themselves from such a condition by recognizing the dangers of the Three Poisons (sandu 三毒). Traditionally speaking, the Three Poisons are greed, anger and ignorance. In the modern world, we may identify another group of Three Poisons: money, reputation, and power.

At higher levels of Daoist practice-realization, one finds that personal identity, especially identity rooted in egoistic motivations, separation and discrimination, is illusory. True identity resides in the Dao’s numinous presence made manifest in/as/through oneself. From a Daoist perspective, each being is endowed with Dao-nature (daoxing 道性). We live in a context of interrelationship and energetic mutuality. Here one’s being and presence are primary. Attentiveness to one’s internal condition and external expression reveal the extent of one’s connection.