What are the differences and connections between Buddhism and Taoism?

Classification: Social People's Livelihood; religion

Analysis:

My understanding of some important ideas of Buddhism and Taoism

(1) Some important viewpoints of these two schools and some of my understandings.

No one at home and abroad is unaware of the brevity and impermanence of life-birth, illness, illness and loneliness. People can solve these problems in two ways. First, vigorously develop production and improve people's living standards, which is a method of seeking from outside; One is to seek internal methods through self-cultivation like Buddhism and Taoism. In fact, resisting the impermanence and impermanence of life is the root of all kinds of philosophical and religious thoughts in the world, and of course it is also the root of Buddhism and Taoism.

We know that getting rid of the shortness and impermanence of life, achieving nirvana (the word "pan" here should be at the bottom of wood instead of stone, but I can't spell this word) or jumping out of reincarnation, becoming immortal or immortal are the ultimate goals of Buddhism and Taoism respectively. In this respect, both Buddhism and Taoism have good starting points. However, we can notice that nirvana, jumping out of reincarnation, becoming immortal and living forever are easy to understand on the surface, but in fact, few people at home and abroad can reach the required state, that is, there is a big gap between these ideological states and reality, which makes them superficial, illusory, mysterious and superstitious in people's minds. Moreover, the sages of Buddhism and Taoism, people who have attained the Tao or made great achievements, due to the limitations of their own times, their knowledge and thoughts are more or less limited, so no matter how profound their Tao is, these two thoughts themselves will have certain limitations. I don't mean to belittle these two schools and raise the thoughts of other schools here. I think any faction in the world will have some limitations. Even if one school claims that they have obtained the ultimate laws of the universe, do they dare to say that they have obtained the concrete laws of countless levels of the universe? Therefore, the Tao is endless. It's hard for people who don't admit it.

I think the philosophy of Buddhism and Taoism is scientific in general, and the cultivation or demonstration of Taoism under the guidance of these philosophies is a scientific method to develop human beings. Careful analysis and comparison of the philosophy and practice of Buddhism and Taoism will reveal striking similarities, although their views and forms of expression are different.

1, their starting point is the same, they all want to get rid of the shortness and impermanence of life.

2. Their philosophy is similar for the following reasons:

Taoism emphasizes that everything comes from Tao. It thinks that "Tao" is indescribable, has no specific form and is in a trance, but you say that "Tao" is in a trance and has no trace, but it has an image in a trance. You said that the Tao has no shape in the trance state, but it has an entity in the trance state. You say "Tao" is deep and mysterious, and has no boundaries. In this way, we can see that Tao has the duality of "nothing" and "being". Tao is neither nothingness nor existence, and Tao is both nothingness and existence. "Tao gives birth to one, two, three and all things" is a summary of the above Taoist philosophy, and its explanations are as follows: 1. Explain that "one" refers to the unified law or Taiji or "the pole of nothingness" or "the pole of things" ("the pole of nothingness" refers to the accumulation of things to the limit, which is the explosion point of the universe, and time and space are meaningless at this time. "Two" refers to two aspects of the unity of opposites, namely "Yang" or "Nothing" or "The energy attribute of matter is variable, uncertain, yin or existence" or "The inertia attribute of matter is constant and definite", while "Three" refers to the interaction between the two sides of the unity of opposites, which leads to the third party and the two sides of the unity of opposites adding up to three; Then this sentence means that the operation law of the universe produces infinity, infinity produces nothingness and existence, nothingness and existence interact to produce intermediate products, and nothingness and existence interact with intermediate products to produce everything. The above explanation of this sentence is combined with the explanation of all the processes in the early days of the universe explosion. The content of this sentence can also be applied to other operating periods of the universe. In fact, everything in the universe has changed because of the interaction and mutual transformation between the energy properties of nothing, being or yang, yin or things and the inertia properties of things, and it is the invisible hand of Tao or Law that controls these changes, so the avenue is invisible.

Buddhism emphasizes that everything is empty or nothingness, that is, it emphasizes the change, movement or impermanence of everything. It affirms the existence of "true self", and everyone has a "true self". The "true self" is invisible, invisible, immobile, unclean, neither increasing nor decreasing, nor in the body. From the above discussion, we can easily find the differences between Buddhism and Taoism. Taoism pays more attention to objectivity and the concept of "Tao" is objectified. In Tao Te Ching, "Heaven and earth are heartless, and everything is a grass dog" is an obvious proof that Taoism pays more attention to objectivity. Buddhism pays more attention to subjectivity and thinks that everything except "true self" is virtual. But in my opinion, Buddhism and Taoism have the same philosophical thought. This is reflected in the understanding of "true self". I think "true self" is a state in which man and Tao are in harmony, that is, the highest realm of Taoism is "harmony between man and nature", which is why "true self" is not in the body, not in the body, and is as intangible as Tao. Moreover, I will explain later that both Buddhism and Taoism must go through the infinite state mentioned before in the process of proving the "true self" and the "harmony between man and nature", that is, Buddhism should reach the state of "color is empty, and emptiness is color" or "being is nothing, and nothing is existence". I will also explain that "true self" is not all-inclusive and has the same attributes as "Tao". Here I want to say that people know the difference between Tao and the combination of people and Tao. In the system of human understanding of the universe and human-related activities, the subject is human, the method is human practice, and the object is the universe and its laws. In this system, just because the subject knows the law of the object, that is, "Tao", does not mean that the practice of the subject will follow "Tao". The combination of man and Tao means that man's subjective and objective views are unified in Tao. In this system, the result of the subject's understanding of the object is closely related to the subject itself. Simply knowing "Tao" is only a simple reflection of "Tao" by human brain, which is essentially different from the concept of the unity of man and nature or the true self formed by the complete integration of human consciousness and "Tao". So knowing "Tao" does not mean proving "Tao".

3. Their realms in different cultivation stages are similar. First of all, there are many ways for Buddhism and Taoism to demonstrate their own Taoism, but the basic principles are similar. They all think that people's private delusion hinders the argumentation of Taoism, so the process of Taoist argumentation is actually the process of eliminating fallacies and breaking them. Tao Te Ching said: "Learning is getting worse and worse, and Tao is getting worse and worse, leading to inaction." The cultivation of Buddhism focuses on the word "broken". It believes that only by constantly "breaking" the virtual phase corresponding to the cultivation stage can we establish a higher level of realm and make continuous progress. Here, we will introduce and compare the basic stages of Buddhism and Taoism, and take the two typical and relatively complete processes of proving Taoism as an example.

Taoism: building a foundation to refine oneself, refining "Qi", refining "Qi" to transform spirit (here "Qi" refers to innate qi or body yang, which is different from air, breathing qi or body yin), refining spirit is still empty, and refining emptiness and harmony.

Building a foundation and strengthening oneself mainly refers to supplementing the essence, "qi" and spirit in the body, so as to achieve the purpose of getting rid of illness, strengthening the body and harmonizing the body and mind;

Refining "Qi" mainly refers to refining one's own elements into Yang "Qi", so that the spirit and Qi can be integrated into one, also known as "Xiao Zhoutian" (the above two steps are mainly aimed at people with relatively serious acquired losses, and these two steps can make up for the acquired losses and restore youth);

Refining "Qi" to transform God means that after returning to the child's body, the whole body's orifices are further opened, and the meridians are called "Sunday". At this time, people began to feel the connection between heaven and man, and people used the innate "Qi" in Taixu to use it, forming a great elixir, which can prove that the body is immortal, and the spiritual "Qi" is intertwined and enters chaos, such as brothers and sisters' babies, which can be called returning to children.

Refining the spirit into emptiness mainly refers to the transformation from physical cultivation, that is, great success in life, solid foundation of sexual merit (called immortal merit by Taoism) to spiritual cultivation (sexual merit or Taoist merit). At this time, Yuan Shen, the core monument of life, is cultivated and returns to nothingness, which means returning to the baby and emptiness, vacuum refining, and Yuan Shen leaving the body, which is called trance;

Combining emptiness with Taoism, also known as "breaking emptiness", combines the innate nothingness of Yuan God into an omnipresent and omnipresent avenue.

Buddhism: the Yi Chan, the second Zen, the third Zen, the fourth Zen (also known as the impermanence of view), the infinite wonderland (also known as the divergence of view), the boundless knowledge of the environment (also known as the separation of view and desire), nothingness (also known as the extinction of view) and obsession (also known as the guest house).

The first meditation mainly means that my mind is greatly relaxed, so that the microscopic matter of the flesh can be exchanged with the subtle matter of the universe in large quantities, which is an important key to the transformation of color body. Because physical contact with Zen will make you happy, you will naturally be calm psychologically and not greedy.

The second Zen mainly refers to breaking the first Yi Chan. The first meditation touches music, and the body is clean and the heart is clean, which is for the outside. The second Zen is to look for dirt from the concept of consciousness, not for the outside, but for the inside, which also produces joy;

Three Zen mainly refers to the further adjustment of body and mind without the interference of the joy of two Zen, so the joy from the heart is all over the body, and the pores and roots of the whole body are happy, which is the first in the world;

Four Zen (or fixed meditation or impermanence) mainly refers to the separation of the mind from all thoughts (such as mirrors), from pain and happiness, from delusion, from good and evil. At this time, breathing stops, and after the four Zen sessions, everything is achieved, and the magical power changes at will, so it is called fundamental meditation;

Defining the boundless part of surprise (observing dispersion) mainly refers to breaking the four Zen, and also observing the emptiness in the four Zen, but when the heart is strong, you can see that the color is not bound by the stunning color. Observing dispersion is to leave the color center, dissipate freely according to space, and not be bound by color method;

Where there is no limit to knowledge (where there is no limit to desire), all love for the outside world is desire, so it is desire to leave, and the so-called desire to leave is desire to leave. At this time, the concept of infinity was broken, and the inner mind could not see everything, except that the present mind could not stop thinking, the past mind disappeared, the future mind would rise, the mind was infinite in time, the space was vast and rootless, and the heart was clear and quiet;

If you want to get rid of everything, when you know where it is, your heart is boundless and how easy it is to let go. It is not silent, whether inside or outside, so you need to break it. At this time, there is no need for all internal and external realms, and there is no dependence. The heart of blood vessels stops beating physiologically, which is phasing rather than death;

The concept of "no thinking" has been broken and destroyed, that is, there is no such thing as "no thinking" at this time, but there are still subtle concepts of "no thinking" and "never leaving", and all the concepts are inexhaustible, so it is called "no thinking". The wise master said, "Not thinking is the opposite of the two. Since the early Zen, it has been biased. " I don't want to think about it now, because there are two houses, so I gave up my house and I decided. This is the best house in the world, so I was finally named. If ordinary people get this opportunity, it will be called Nirvana ... "。

From the above discussion, it is not difficult to see that the cultivation of Buddhism and Taoism is very similar, but it is different because of the different perspectives of Buddhism and Taoism. Buddhists pay attention to subjectivity and inner cultivation, which is equivalent to Taoist sexual morality, but of course it is not exactly the same. Taoism emphasizes objectivity and practicality, and has a set of perfect methods of life and natural cultivation. However, objectively speaking, the first, second and third Zen of Buddhism basically correspond to the foundation and improvement of Taoist "Qi". These stages are the stages of complete transformation of the body of Buddhist and Taoist practitioners, that is, life achievements will be realized and sexual achievements will lay a solid foundation. At this time, due to different emphases, Buddhists' sexual achievements may be greater, while Taoists' human generation will be greater. Four Zen Buddhism and Taoism correspond to the refinement of "Qi" and the transformation of spirit. At this time, life is complete and will enter the fetal period, and Buddhism and Taoism may continue to maintain their respective advantages. Buddhists' determination of the boundless part of surprise (also called observation dispersion), the boundless part of knowledge (also called observation desire) and the boundless part of absence (also called observation elimination) corresponds to the spiritual cultivation of Taoism. At this time, they all left physical cultivation or life and work to enter pure spiritual cultivation, that is, sex work, and took the direction of extreme work, thus making the observation and elimination of Buddhists reach an extreme state, while Taoism reached an extreme state before crushing emptiness. Buddhists' understanding of non-ideal and non-ideal (observing guest houses) is also called "crushing vanity" At this time, they respectively proved the state of "true self" or nirvana, and the state of "harmony between man and nature". From the previous explanations, we can see that the non-ideal and non-ideal characteristics of Buddhists are consistent with the characteristics of Tao, so we can see that the state of "true self" or nirvana is the state of consciousness of the unity of heaven and man.

At the end of this section, I want to say that my understanding of Buddhism and Taoism may be very wrong, and there may be many places that are far-fetched, but I hope everyone can see that the starting point of my writing this section is that we can't deny those ancient ideas in a hurry, so let's calm down and find out the essence and scientific part of them in the spirit of seeking truth from facts and carry them forward. In the following sections, I want to further analyze the cultivation process of Buddhism and Taoism from another angle.