Daoists spent thousands of years developing alchemy and practices to attain immortality. It’s wild to me, because the Daodejing seems pretty clear in it’s praise of nature, cycles, and being one with the order of nature. So to decide, collectively, that actually breaking those cycles and living forever is definitely what Laozi would have wanted is really something.

So yeah, considering that 90% of the canon is books of magic for achieving spiritual perfection, I pick and choose!

Syncretization and selection are the norms in all beliefs though. How many people who claim any ideology truly believe in all the tenets and consequences of their chosen system? How many Christians are just asking their buddy Jesus for a hand and have no idea of a single thing the man actually (allegedly) taught?