Was Jesus a Taoist? Exploring the possible religious and philosophical influences existing before his birth and during his formative years may lead to some surprising insights about his profound life.
To a diehard Christian the question is absolutely absurd. But, if we could just suspend the biases, inherent of our traditional American religious up bring, at least temporarily for the sake of this article, we just might find some strands of truth while seeking to answer the question, “Was Jesus a Taoist?”
Most of us were brought up to learn things in neatly separated compartments, especially when it came to our faith. For most of us, that faith was rooted in some established form of Christianity; one of its many denominations. Then, we were so focused on living and complying in accordance with a particular corresponding doctrine we scarcely, if ever, considered understanding our faith in a broader context.
Jesus and the subsequent religion that he inspired did not develop in isolation. To the contrary, the “Holy Land”, including his birth place, in the Roman prefecture Judea, was essentially at the center of the then known world. What’s more, it was part of the vast Roman Republic that soon, within the course of Jesus’ own lifetime, became the Roman Empire.
West of Judea, Rome’s influence included all of the Mediterranean and stretched outward beyond the Staits of Gibraltar. Rome inherited all of what was once the mighty Greek civilization, including the conquests of Alexander the Great of Macedonia. To the Northeast, Rome’s own conquests included what is now Turkey, Syria and territories bordering the Black Sea.
Two hundred years leading up to the birth of Christ the world was steeped in commerce and cultural exchange between East and West. A complex series of trade routes destined to become the Silk Road (named after China’s most popular commodity export) connected China, Southeast Asia, India, Persia, Arabia, Somalia, with the Greco-Roman civilizations. The territory surrounding Palestine was a major, well traveled hub of main Silk Road trade routes when Jesus was born. Out of India, Buddhism made its way to China and blended with the indigenous Taoist philosophy. Some 300 years before that Persian Zoroastrianism had its influence upon Judaism, too. With all of this ongoing cultural interchange it isn’t too much of a stretch to consider China’s philosophic exports having been thrown into the mix as well.
Under Roman occupation the people of Judea, Gallilee, and Summaria, were often treated harshly and at times brutally. As more and more Roman subjects moved into the region, cultural and ideological friction increased. It was in this very socially stratified climate where Jesus spent his boyhood.
Jesus was brought up in the traditions and beliefs of Judaism. Other than the general population of “everyday” Jews, there were distinct denominations (sects) of faith. The Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenees, and Zealots each varied in custom and emphasis but were all bound by the same Mosaic principles and basic beliefs. Jesus acceled in his studies of Jewish doctrine and distinguished himself as a youngster well versed in customs and religious rites of his faith.
The Pharisees were the high priests, keepers of Mosaic law. The Sadducees were comprised more of the Jewish elite, the wealthy. The Essenees tended to live outside of the chaotic, hustle and bustle of the city preferring to live out in the under developed regions. They kept to themselves and were, for lack of a better term, considered “mystics.” The Zealots were the warrior class. They devoted their time in readied preparedness, conspiring to take back Jordan from the Roman occupation if given half a chance.
Of these differing groups, Jesus probably spent much of his young, formative years with the Essenees. They, too, would have been more open to the diverse philosophies of the travelers from distant lands. Through the Essenees Jesus would have been exposed to a broader understand of thought and a wider view of the world. It would be his fellow Essenees that would ultimately claim and care for Jesus after his crucifixion.
Described in the Gospel according to Mark: As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe…he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here.” The Essenees were known for their distinctive white clothing.
Nevertheless, as so vividly describe in the New Testament gospels, Jesus was restless and unsettled as he came of age. He despised the hypocracy he saw all around him. He railed against the social order of his time. Each of the organized denominations had made their peace among themselves and with Rome. But, Jesus felt compelled to give voice to his dissatisfaction and steadily became the champion of the lower social classes. In so doing, Jesus marginalized himself, standing alone unable to reconcile religious doctrine with observation and experience.
Unfortunately, Jesus seemingly was misunderstood by all. To the local Roman government he was a malcontent inciting unrest among the multitudes. To the priests and religious leaders, predominately the Pharisees and Sadducess, Jesus was upsettng the delicate balance of tolerance that had established with occupying Rome. The most profound misunderstandings, however, may have come from his own followers, including members of his inner circle.
What we are traditional taught goes something like this: Jesus brought good news to the people that looked to him as the Messiah. They understood that he was preparing them to inherit the kingdom of God, so as to be able to enjoy everlasting peace, joy and happiness in heaven. The Romans misinterpreted the message and thought Jesus was establishing a new kingdom, here on earth, and were threatened politically. And so it goes, Jesus met his final fate at the hands of Pontious Pilate, the governor of Judea.
But the greatest misunderstanding may have been about the message of personal enlightenment. That, even heaven may not necessarily have been a place either: be it physical, spiritual, or what have you. Heaven, as Jesus envisioned, may have been more of a state of being, a state of grace; rather than any literal or even metaphorical sense. Peace, joy, love, and happiness are all emotional states of being; conceived and felt deeply within us, Essentially, they are states of mind and consciousness. Whereas the Romans may have taken Jesus literally on a political level, the followers of Jesus took him literally, too, on a spiritual level.
The salvation that Jesus proposed was that of the person’s essence not necessarily a promise of an afterlife, some literal continuation of personality and thought. Rather, true personal freedom comes from liberating onself of desire. To apprehend and appreciate the presnt, the very joy of life itself is its own reward. If there is a heaven to be gotten, it is one that resides within each of us.
Jesus had come to a point were he was unable to compromise the ultimate truth that he had come to know. From the accounts given in the gospels it seemed he was surrounded by individuals who just couldn’t fully grasp the pure unadulterated truth that he was so desparately trying to convey. Philosophically, Jesus had transcended himself from the ordinary, literal thinking of everyday living to a higher minded, broader understanding of things. So committed to his convictions, he was willing to die instead of compromising or rejecting what he had come to know as the the Ultimate Truth.
Compassion, Simplicity, and Humility are among the bedrock fundamental principles of conduct for which Taoists strive. Certainly, Jesus led an exemplary life, upholding these very same principles. For Taoists the Ultimate Truth is also what is sought. For lack of a better name, it was dubbed Tao (Way, Path, or Course). Lao Tsu, in his ‘Tao Te Ching’, written over 500 years before the birth of Christ, attempted to describe what Tao meant to him:
“There was something undefined, complete, coming into existence before Heaven and Earth. How still it was: formless, standing alone, unchangeable, omnipresent, inexhaustible… It is nameless… It may be regarded as the Mother of all things… I do not know what came before it. It seems infinite and eternal, it even appears to have preceded the gods.”
Now, compare this to what Jesus said to John (from The Secret Book of John):
“It is the invisible Spirit. One should not think of it as a god or like a god, it is greater than a god, because there is nothing over it and no lord above it. It is unutterable, since nothing could comprehend it to utter it. It is unnameable, since there was nothing before it to give it a name.”
So, was Jesus a Taoist? Well, he wasn’t a Christian, his namesake religion wouldn’t emerge until after his death. He denounced Judaism for its legalistic doctrine and its hypocrisy in practice. If anything, he was a reformer that unwittingly began a movement of self awareness. His hope was to show people the way to seek the Ultimate Truth within themselves. Although he may not have professed to be a Taoist in utterance, he most assuredly knew how to “walk the walk and talk the talk.”