Summary of religions of East Asia

Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism all started as philosophies of life, guidlines on how a person should live and what the social norms should be. People could still worship the old deities (in the case of China ancestral spirits). Eventually all three developed into religions (especially Mahayana Buddhism) dealing with the metaphysical, as well as temples and rites. But, in contrast to Western religions, they did not become exclusive. A person may one day worship at a Buddhist temple, the next day make offerings to his/hers ancestral spirits, and then another time may pray at a Confucian temple.

This is hard for westerners to understand but this was the practice with the old pagan religions in Europe and the Middle East. If you excuse the sacreligious analogy, think of a temple as a store. You may have a favorite store that you shop more often than in others, but you are in no way identified with the store name.

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