Tai Chi is a religion (but not the chuan kind)

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Tai Chi is a religion (but not the chuan kind)

Postby origami_itto on Sat Oct 09, 2021 4:10 am

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/qu ... tax-exempt

A new Quebec ruling — full of musing about the definition of faith — concludes that Taoist Tai chi as developed by a Toronto-area monk, at least, is a religion and that its centres deserve to be tax free. It doesn’t matter that many of those paying fees to take tai chi classes are not really Taoist adherents, said Justice Michel Yergeau.

He ordered three Quebec cities to provide the exemption and reimburse taxes already paid by branches of the Fung Loy Kok Institute of Taoism.

Yergeau acknowledged that tax authorities have to be careful because some property owners claim religious exemptions just to avoid paying taxes, as a hoax or “to ridicule the religious.”

“(But) this is not the case here,” the Quebec Superior Court judge concluded. “This is not a fiction or a facade constructed from scratch by a legal person to conceal a lucrative activity related to the practice of tai chi.”

The ruling dealt specifically with Taoist Tai chi, not tai chi chuan, which is considered a non-competitive martial art.
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Re: Tai Chi is a religion (but not the chuan kind)

Postby yeniseri on Sat Oct 09, 2021 11:56 pm

Humourisly, many tai chi organizations come off as "religious cults" (let us keep them nameless, s'il vous plait) so it is best to leave them alone.
I shall not mention names but when the senior students (allegedly) of an organization that states they are teaching tai chi and dictates what a student should believe in, it is time to run away from such cults.

I may be stating the obvious but they are sneaky bastards and they get alot of less than critical thinkers, they know they can control at all costs.
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Re: Tai Chi is a religion (but not the chuan kind)

Postby GrahamB on Sun Oct 10, 2021 3:22 am

Praise Be, Brothers!
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Re: Tai Chi is a religion (but not the chuan kind)

Postby yeniseri on Mon Oct 11, 2021 9:21 pm

Halleyuyah! You can tell I am a heathen..
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Re: Tai Chi is a religion (but not the chuan kind)

Postby Steve James on Tue Oct 12, 2021 7:55 am

I don't think religious institutions should be tax exempt. I don't care how religion is defined. The people in them use the same roads and get the same public services, like unemployment and workmen's compensation, social security, etc., as atheists at non-religious institutions.
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Re: Tai Chi is a religion (but not the chuan kind)

Postby edededed on Tue Oct 12, 2021 4:40 pm

Perhaps tax exemption should only be for those religions (or philosophies) that take vows of poverty, and thus realistically just would be unable to pay taxes. For example, Buddhist monks traditionally (in India) were beggars - they were not allowed to even handle money, so they could not buy anything. (This changed as Buddhism went further east.)

Certainly any religion that makes boatloads of money should not be exempt from taxes. In fact, that should be a red flag to be investigated.
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Re: Tai Chi is a religion (but not the chuan kind)

Postby origami_itto on Tue Oct 12, 2021 4:44 pm

Tax free enterprise

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Re: Tai Chi is a religion (but not the chuan kind)

Postby robert on Tue Oct 12, 2021 7:02 pm

edededed wrote:Perhaps tax exemption should only be for those religions (or philosophies) that take vows of poverty, and thus realistically just would be unable to pay taxes. For example, Buddhist monks traditionally (in India) were beggars - they were not allowed to even handle money, so they could not buy anything. (This changed as Buddhism went further east.)

A vow of poverty means the person doesn't own anything, but really doesn't say anything about life style. Years ago I was vacationing in Bangkok and my wife and I were walking to dinner. We passed the Four Season Hotel and my wife wanted to walk in and see the lobby. While we were inside a bus pulled up and a group of Buddhist monks checked into the hotel. I comment on the fact that Buddhist monks were staying in a luxury hotel and my wife said they were from Taiwan and although they were monks they were known to live very well.
I'm not complaining, in the west monks did a pretty good job laying the ground work for brewing beer and making wine ;)
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Re: Tai Chi is a religion (but not the chuan kind)

Postby edededed on Sun Nov 07, 2021 5:16 am

robert wrote:
edededed wrote:Perhaps tax exemption should only be for those religions (or philosophies) that take vows of poverty, and thus realistically just would be unable to pay taxes. For example, Buddhist monks traditionally (in India) were beggars - they were not allowed to even handle money, so they could not buy anything. (This changed as Buddhism went further east.)

A vow of poverty means the person doesn't own anything, but really doesn't say anything about life style. Years ago I was vacationing in Bangkok and my wife and I were walking to dinner. We passed the Four Season Hotel and my wife wanted to walk in and see the lobby. While we were inside a bus pulled up and a group of Buddhist monks checked into the hotel. I comment on the fact that Buddhist monks were staying in a luxury hotel and my wife said they were from Taiwan and although they were monks they were known to live very well.
I'm not complaining, in the west monks did a pretty good job laying the ground work for brewing beer and making wine ;)


Oops - sorry for the late reply...

Buddhism definitely changed a lot as it went eastwards - notably a lot of the rules became relaxed or else "interpreted" in a way that they stopped being followed. Most eastward in Japan, monks can now drink alcohol, eat freely, have sex (and children), have businesses and money (not to mention own temples), sleep on nice beds, etc. Notably the dress is quite fancy as well, certainly not robes befitting beggars. I don't know so much about the monks in Taiwan, but perhaps it is similar. (The Buddha himself predicted that this would happen eventually anyway.)
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