ABSTRACT
The question of how to cope with the fact of mortality and the passing of life, on how to make sense of the apparent absurdity of an existence that ends in arbitrary extinction, is central to all religions and is a key to Daoism as well. However, like so much else in Daoism, its idiosyncratic answer to this key question has caused much unease for Western interpreters and provoked ambivalent reactions. While most religions including Christianity are concerned with life beyond death and find life’s ultimate meaning in its apotheosis beyond the grave, Dao s ‘part of [its] very definition...the Taoist science of all sciences’ (Lagerwey 1987: 272). Such a preoccupation, with its emphasis on physiological processes, fits awkwardly with our traditional preconceptions about the nature of religion and the aspirations of the spiritual life, and even if orthodox beliefs about our eternal destiny have begun to fade in many people’s minds, the association of physical fitness and longevity with the religious quest will inevitably seem eccentric to many people whose roots lie in the Christian, Jewish or Muslim traditions.
