[Pietro]

I just wanted to share with everybody an interesting, albeit superficial, source of news I have found.
I am sure you all know it, but I also think not many of you use it in this way.
The source is Google news.. with search keyword: Taoism.

The fact is that in Google news you not only can make a search, but can also set up an email alert every time an article appear that satisfies the search you have requested.

It is now a few months that I have it set up, and I receive about 1 email every couple of days with an article from somewhere in the world where they speak about Taoism.

Accepted that this is not where you are going to find your next teacher, still I find this information to be quite valuable to get an idea of the perception of Taoism around the world. We are a small, and old religion. If you were to do something similar with Christianity or Buddhism you just could not read keep up.

The search is here: http://news.google.com/news?q=taoism
there is a button at the bottom of the page asking if you want to have an email alert every time articles come out.

Would be nice to comment those articles, maybe we could devote this thread here.

[Yoda]

Great idea!

[Marblehead]

Excellent idea Pietro!

So will you post some of those e-mails and articles you get here in this thread?

Peace & Love!

[Pietro]

Marblehead, on Oct 6 2009, 02:24 PM, said:

Excellent idea Pietro!

So will you post some of those e-mails and articles you get here in this thread?

Peace & Love!

That's the plan

Happy highways

[Pietro]

There was an interesting article in the news about the first female priest in Taoist religion.

From China Daily:

Quote

The vigor of Wu Chengzhen's faith has made her an exception to nearly two millennia of Taoist clerical orthodoxy.

On Nov 15, her intense piety earned her an appointment as principal abbess (Fang Zhang) of Wuhan's Changchun Temple, making Wu, 52, the first woman to hold such an eminent position in China's only native archaic religion.

"I think the ordination of a woman to such a high rank is a sign of the times," she says.

"It won't change anything about my daily life, but inside, I feel happy and grateful and a little ashamed, because I should do more."

The abbess wraps her crossed legs in a peach-colored blanket as she sits on the bed of her dorm room in Renmin University of China in Beijing, where she's now studying. A brown sweater peaks out from beneath her dark blue robe and her bun pokes out of the center of a cylindrical Taoist cap.

Periodically, her eyelids droop and she retreats into da zuo (Taoist mediation) mid-conversation. Moments later, she snaps back from her trances, speaking lucidly and seeming to have heard everything said while in her daze.

Wu relates her new station to the ancient myth of the Eight Immortals, a tale revered by Taoists. One of the deities, He Xiangu (Lotus Immortal), was a woman.

"Taoism strengthens equality among all people," Wu says. "It's also more egalitarian toward women than other major religions."

Wu comes from a devout family and is the youngest of six children, named Wu Yuanzhen before she was given her religious name. During her middle school years, she immersed herself in the home libraries of her Christian, Buddhist and Taoist relatives.

'Sign of the times'

Wu, 52, was crowned Principal Abbess of Wuhan's Changchun Temple at a grand ceremony on Nov 15.

Her father was profoundly influenced by Confucian ethics, especially familial piety. When his mother fell ill at age 56, he hacked a chunk out of his humorous (the upper arm bone) with a knife for her to eat. He hoped such a grand gesture would move the gods to heal the woman.

Wu says it ...

But I am surprised...
first female taoist priest in 2000 years?
I thought taoism was more female friendly.
And if we are speaking about different taoist groups:
first female priest in this taoist group...
then which overt taoist group can go back 2000 years?

Anyone wants to chip in?