that include moderation, humility and compassion. Reverence for immortals and ancestor spirits is important in Taoism. Chinese alchemy, Feng shui, many Chinese martial arts, Zen Buddhism, Chinese traditional medicine and breath training find their roots in Taoism.

Branches

There are two major branches of Buddhism:

Theravada is the School of the Elders

Mahayana is the Great Vehicle.

The former is the oldest surviving branch and is widely popular in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka. Mahayana is popular in East Asia. Vajrayana is a sub category of Mahayana which is also accepted as the third branch. Buddhism is recognized as the world’s fourth largest religion.

Livia Kohn categorized Taoism into three branches:

Philosophical Taoism that is based on texts Zhuangzi and Dao De Jing

Religious Taoism that originated from the Celestial Masters movement

Folk Taoism that is theall traditions.

Tao Te Ching or Daodejing is the most influential Taoist text. The other Taoist texts include Zhuangzi, Daozang and a few other significant texts.

Further Reading

For further reading, there are several books available on Amazon.com on Buddhism and Taoism:

References