confused about the religion of taoism? what does it stand for? what/who do taoist bel

Ive read Tao Te Chin (Sp?). I'm interested.

Why have you erased it?

The Tao Te Ching was written when a man stopped Lao Tzu as he was leaving town on a water buffalo and asked him to write down his teachings.

Tao has no definition but it has been translated as the way.

Taoists believe a number of things, you have to be more specific.

The focus of Taoism is learning how to live in harmony with Tao

Tao (Dao) means way and Daoism is concerned with correctly discerning the way of things. There are two forms of Daoism; great Dao and little Dao.

Great Dao teaches that there is an overarching Dao that governs the universe and that the Dao of specific things and circumstances are manifestations of the Great Dao.
Little Dao teaches that all things have their unique Dao but that there is no unifying single Dao to the universe.

Atheists tend to be Little Daoists.

~~~Terra,,,,For clarification, if you've read the Tao Te Ching, then you already know that Tao means "The Way". It is classified as a "Nature Religion". You also learned that "Attempting to Explain The Tao is to Not Know The Tao". Fundamentally, Taoism essentially is Accepting your Human-Nessa, the effects of All Nature one senses on earth and in the heavens,,, and have a humility for ALL that the Life Experience has to teach. This entails the Developement of Concious Understanding (Awareness), which in turn nurtures the Soul. It is very basic and simple and is the precursor to Zen. I suggest you also read the writings of his protege` Chuang Tzu for further clarification.

Taoism doesn't start with a belief. Its whole effort is that you should enter yourself without any concept of what you are going to find there. Just being open, available, without any prejudice, without any philosophy and scripture -- just go in, open-hearted, and when you reach to the point where mind is silent, not a single thought moving...
According to Taoism even God is a thought. When there is no thought, you reach the highest Everest of consciousness. At that point you know that every living being has the potentiality of being a god.
The whole approach of Taoism is that only experience can give you the clue. Questions can be asked, questions can be answered, but they are of no ultimate value. You have to eat to know the taste, you have to love to know what love is. There is no way to convey it, that's why, rather than answer, Lieh Tzu said 'BEST BE STILL...'.