Can cultivate both Taoism and Buddhism together?

When friends and relatives visit my home, the are often puzzled by 2 dominant altars that are located in my altar area. Primarily I have Taoist altar of 六壬 Liu Ren 風火院 Feng Huo Yuan and 伏英館 Fu Ying Guan. My Buddhist altar has many Tibetan Buddhist Statues.

Some who are outspoken will sometimes ask "How come you have 2 altars, will you get confuse?" Often, I just replied smilingly "Don't worry, the one who is praying is not confuse" and did not explain further or inform them how two can come together.

Well now, I am going to write a bit more on how these 2 can combine together. My initial lineage transmission is from Taoist Feng Huo Yuan. Then I have got interested into Buddhism and took refuge under Gelugpa lineage in Tibetan Buddhism from Tibetan Gurus. I have also took refuge with Gurus who have Nyingma and also Sakya lineage transmission.

Why didn't you give up on Taoism since you have already took refuge in Tibetan Buddhism? One of the most important teachings in Tibetan Buddhism is Guru Devotion. My first Guru are all the Deities in Taoism, without them I would not have discovered and took serious upon Buddhism. It is through their guidance, that I took refuge in Triple Jewels.

Deities in Taoism practice are actually all my Dharma protectors, if you look from a Buddhist perspective. Dharma protectors help cultivators overcome obstacles in life so that they can practice better without mundane disturbance of daily life. And I have a lot of Dharma protectors that have 'spiritual response' towards me. Spiritual response is a term used in Tibetan Buddhism for a person who have succeed in their practice with either Vajras, Boddhisattvas or Buddhas (elaboration of spiritual response need a whole new article to get into detail).

Therefore in our Taoist Temple 金洞山 Kam Dong San, everytime when we do distribute wealth enhancing talismans (招財符） or benefactors talisman（貴人符）. I have always followed by giving and explaining about merits, karma and the need to do some form of donations after they have obtain a spiritual response through the talisman.

Primary role of Deities in Taoism is to create more merits in their own cultivation. When we setup a temple for all the deities, public and members that have obstacles in life can and would come to ask for assistance from the Deities. If it is matter of righteousness or against evil, the Deities would act swiftly in solving those problems. 

When it pertains to wealth matters, and asking for more wealth then Deities would evaluate on what is are the merits of the person and their karmic 'accounts'. When wealth is granted in Taoism, it is through converting of ones merit. Therefore, when we obtain more wealth through spiritual means, 99% of the time it is for you to gather even more merits with those wealth. Therefore it is crucial to maintain the momentum in an upward spiral, instead of spending all your merits from previous life. Money is also a form of energy, it cannot be created or destroyed - but it can be transform from one form to the other.

Hence, Taoist Deities allowed a person to request for help in life's daily problems. When we obtained the help, then we have to do more meritorious activity with our expanded financial capabilities. That is being congruent in our request and also our cultivation as a Taoist.

As a Buddhist, I have to do my daily practice that was passed down to me by my Gurus. Keeping strong Guru Devotion and Boddhisattva Vows. Help other sentient beings whenever possible, with 道法 Tao Fa, I can help more people and also brings them to a path of cultivation.

So back to the question, can I cultivate both Taoism and Buddhism together? Of course, if you can keep your vow, devotion, practice and promise. Otherwise you are threading into deep water....