In the study of comparative religion, the East Asian religions (also known as Far Eastern religions or Taoic religions) form a subset of the Eastern religions. This group includes Confucianism, Shinto, Taoism, and elements of Mahayana Buddhism; as well as new religious movements such as Cao Dai, Chen Tao, Hoa Hao, Chondogyo, Jeung San Do, and I-Kuan Tao.
These traditions or religious philosophies focus on the East Asian concept of Tao 道 ("The Way"; pinyin dào, Korean do, Japanese tō or dō, Vietnamese đạo).
The place of East Asian religions among major religious groups is comparable to the Abrahamic religions and Indian religions.
Early Chinese philosophies defined Tao and advocated cultivating Te in that Tao. Some ancient schools have merged into traditions with different names or are no longer active, such as Mohism (and many others of the Hundred Schools of Thought), while some such as Taoism persist to the modern day. East Asian religion is usually polytheistic or nontheistic, but henotheistic, monotheistic, pantheistic, panentheistic and agnostic varieties exist, inside and outside of Asia. East Asian religions have many Western adherents, though their interpretations may differ significantly from traditional East Asian thought and culture.
Read more about East Asian Religions: Terminology, Tao, Traditions, Taoism and Confucianism, Interaction With Dharmic Traditions
Famous quotes containing the words east, asian and/or religions:
“The East Wind, an interloper in the dominions of Westerly Weather, is an impassive-faced tyrant with a sharp poniard held behind his back for a treacherous stab.”
—Joseph Conrad (18571924)
“We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (19081973)
“Those who believe in their truththe only ones whose imprint is retained by the memory of menleave the earth behind them strewn with corpses. Religions number in their ledgers more murders than the bloodiest tyrannies account for, and those whom humanity has called divine far surpass the most conscientious murderers in their thirst for slaughter.”
—E.M. Cioran (b. 1911)