drk20509@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Don Konecny) (05/09/91)
What is different between Buddhism and Taoism. I recently wrote a paper on the subject and what to know how right i was. Also, what is different between Buddhism and Zen Buddhism? -DeadWolfKeiner
simmonds@demon.siemens.com (Tom Simmonds) (05/10/91)
> drk20509@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Don Konecny) > Subject: Taoism/Buddhism > What is different between Buddhism and Taoism. I recently >wrote a paper on the subject and what to know how right i was. >Also, what is different between Buddhism and Zen Buddhism? > > -DeadWolfKeiner I think those questions would probably take several volumes to answer properly. At the risk of being over-simplistic, here are a few very rough attempts at partial answers. I am by no means an expert in all (or any) of those religions, but I have read quite a lot of literature from each of them. Please excuse any inadvertent distortions. Buddhism originated in India and is rooted in the culture of the land of its origin. There are many schools of Buddhist thought, and there are important differences between them, both in philosophy and method. However, they have a common base in Buddha's Fourfold Truths: 1) Life is suffering (ie. a roller- coaster ride of gain and loss), 2) The cause of suffering is desire and attachment, 3) You can free yourself from suffering, and 4) the way to do that is the Eightfold Path. To be very simplistic about it, you could say that Buddhism is a philosophy/religion of self-liberation or freedom from self-enslavement by means of some discipline or practice. Taoism is Chinese. It comes from a different cultural and philosophical context. My impression is that it is less prone to elaborate philosophical and metaphysical theory than most of the Buddhist schools. It seems to be a philosophy of simple harmony with nature, or Tao, as a unified reality. In Taoism, one does not attempt to liberate oneself from gain and loss. Instead, one accepts them as two sides of the same coin, so to speak, and neither pursues nor resists either of them. According to D.T. Suzuki, when Buddhism was brought to China, the Chinese interpreted it from their own cultural context, and Taoist ideas were, to some extent, blended with Buddhism. The elaborate imagery and philosophical theory characteristic of Indian Buddhist schools was de-emphasized in favor of straightforward, simple approaches to practice and enlightenment. A subtle shift took place, from an attitude of liberation *from* karmic bondage to an attitude of liberation *in the midst of* karmic activity. >From this, Ch'an Buddhism arose, which took an anti-theoretical bent, at least most of the time, and placed the emphasis on enlightenment in simple daily activity. When Ch'an Buddhism was transplanted to Japan, the Japanese culture contributed its own influence on the philosophy and practice, giving rise to Zen Buddhism. I think that you would need to have a thorough understanding of all three cultures (which I do not claim to have), in order to get a clear understanding of the differences in the religions. -- (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))tom simmonds)))))))))))))))))))) (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((( ))))))) "True beauty consists in purity of heart." - Mahatma Gandhi ))))))))
garym (Gary Murphy) (05/11/91)
#In-reply-to: simmonds@demon.siemens.com's message of 9 May 91 17:01:41 GMT I believe it was one of the early patriarchs of Ch'en who described the difference as this: Using the 8-fold path, one can get ever higher up the pole, but eventually you _must_ jump off. Ch'en practice was designed to take the direct route. Does anyone else remember this story?