I know I could ask this in the religion and spirituality section, but I thought I'd ask it here. I've been studying Buddhism for about a year now and I feel like I am nowhere close to understanding it, especially when I see how Buddhism is practiced in the West versus how it is practiced in China.
Yesterday, I went to a well-known "mountain" in our city. It's a Daoist mountain, filled with temples and statues. On the surface, it looks very similar to Buddhism, but as I start reading, I can see small, but subtle differences.
Both began about the same time period (6Th century BC), but in different parts of Asia.
Does anyone have any first hand experience with either religion?
Buddhism is practice differently in the west is because westerners usually have a skewed understanding of eastern religions, and vice verse.
Buddhism very simply put is the practice to achieve liberation, a state peace of mind, state of enlightenment, peace with the world, or Nirvana with absences of greed, hatred, and obsession.(IMO the devotion to study scripture, meditation, etc itself is obsession). You can simply say this is when someone has became a Buddha, achieved Buddhahood. Buddhists do not worship a supreme being, unlike Abrahamic monotheist religions, or multiple supreme beings, like in the case of Hinduism, or Taoism.(or Greek God & Goddess, nowadays labeled "mythology" by modern day religions). So Buddhism is an non-theistic(atheistic) religion, where there is lack of belief of deity.
Taoism is broad. What you commonly see in China and many parts of Asia is Chinese folk religions, including worshiping ancestors and many many deities. Under Communist rule, especially after the Cultural Revolution much of the practices have been abandoned and only in recent time China has seen a revival of building of temples. They are unique Chinese cultures. You will see much of this still in practice in much more depth in Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Malaysia where there's large Chinese population outside of the Cultural Revolution.
Confucianism is the teaching of Confucius philosophy. I'm not even sure that is a religion. But why do some countries have ceremony for this Confucianism? or even worship Confucius? IMO governments use Confucianism as a way to govern. Same as with many countries with state religions, using organized religion to rule their citizens.
The answer given by HowJ is very informative about the Buddhist religion and the difference between its practices in western and eastern areas of the world, however i would like to add some info about Taoism.
When Taoism was founded by Lao Tzu it was not meant to be a religion, possibly not even a philosophy, much more of a way of life and nothing else. In these early times Taoism had not God, or supreme being, no rituals or worship, the only reference to Heaven is the state of mind in which the individual creates himself. even the word 'Taoism' seems to have been created at a later stage in history so it is recognized as a religion, as in the original copy of 'Tao Te Ching' there are no mentions of Taoism being a religion, in fact quite the opposite; in chapter 72:
'When they lose their sense of awe,
people turn to religion'
To me those 2 lines show that Lao Tzu never meant his teachings to be a religion, and why should they? similar to Buddhism, Taoism seems to be good sense, a way of achieving a peaceful mind and eternal happiness.
Taoism has 5 precepts on which followers are supposed to study, they are basically the same as Buddhism but said to have minor differences, they are as follows:
The first precept: No Murdering;
The second precept: No Stealing;
The third precept: No Sexual Misconduct;
The fourth precept: No False Speech;
The fifth precept: No Taking of Intoxicants.
However having said that these precepts are not included in the books written by Lao Tzu and so it leads me to think that they are also an 'addition' made later on in history, they do show the basic morals in which all humans should follow so i do not view them as a bad aspect.
There is no real proof that Lao Tzu ever actually existed, it seems more likely that the founders to Taoism were actually Buddhists whom thought of a different way of living and simply wrote it down, this would explain the significance and relationship between Buddhism and Taoism, however there are many theories into the existence of Lao Tzu. The earliest Taoist philosopher to have proof of his existence is Chaung Tzu.
If i think of anything to add i will be sure to do so, i would also be grateful if someone could tell me a little about Confucianism, the other large Chinese folk religion as i know little about it.
I'm not the best person to answer this question but still I would like to give it a try based on my understanding of Eastern and Western religions.
Concept of religion as it applies in the Middle-East and Europe generally doesn't (didn't?) apply in Asia. In fact there was no word for "religion" till the arrival of Islam and Christianity from the west.
It didn't matter for the people of Asia, what religion they followed. Their definition of religion (Tamma) simply meant ones righteous duty governed by the moral principles. They had no problem in mixing the good aspects of the teachings of Buddhism and Daoism or for that matter any other teaching. Even now you will find that some people in China may be Christians but that doesn't stop them from offering prayers at a Buddhist or Daoist Monastery and adopting their teachings in their daily life.
This open mind towards the teachings of different philosophers/ teachers paved the way for a wide interaction among all these religions/philosophies. If you try to look deeper, you will find that many of the eastern religions have striking similarities even though on surface they look different. The concept of "Yin and Yang" as is available in Daoist teachings is not unique only to Daoism, rather several eastern religions have similar concepts, though the actual details might vary.
In my opinion, the distinction between Western Buddhists and Asian Buddhists is primarily because of the way they perceive what religion actually is. Most of the Christians and Muslims have little tolerance about other religions. They constantly argue about their religion being the only true religion and the only true path to salvation or whatever you call it. They go to extremes in trying to follow the exact teachings as given in their holy books. So even if some westerners adopt Buddhism they try to fit their Buddhist Practices on same definitions of religion that they have followed previously. On the other hand an Asian will not have any problem in combining the good aspects of other thoughts and philosophies in whatever way they deem fit. Religion in Asia is customized to the needs of the individual while in the west it's the other way round.
I think that west can learn something from Asia as far as religious tolerance is concerned. Asian religions/philosophies don't try to restrict their followers in exploring truth from multiple sources while I see many Christians and Muslims engaging in pointless arguments that whatever is written in their books is the absolute truth and any deviation being unacceptable. Some even go to extremes like forcing their children to change schools because the school curriculum is teaching the theory of Evolution.
Sorry if I'm deviating from the actual discussion and if I have hurt Antone's feelings, but it's the truth we can't run away from.
Here's a paper from the University of Hong Kong Libraries that traces the similarities between Buddhism and Early Taoism. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/26/2601792.pdf
Difference between Daoism/Taoism and Buddhism?
