How do you see the existence and significance of religion.

Generally, the problem that religion is trying to solve is the problem of ultimate care of one's spirituality, which is actually the problem of how to deal with life and death. Death is the greatest fear for human beings, and religion has to give the way to deal with it.

The main difference between Buddhism and Taoism is the way they treat life and death. It can be said that the two are very different.

The goal of Buddhism is "nirvana," the freedom from the cycle of life and death.

Buddhism believes that life is suffering. Birth is suffering, death is suffering. And there is no end to this suffering, it is in a cycle of birth and death that has no end. Only by realizing Nirvana can one be free from the cycle of birth and death.

So how to realize Nirvana? It is for people to become "enlightened". The Buddha is a man who is aware of the fact that he is a Buddha. In the end, it is the realization that life is suffering. Buddhism believes that when you really realize that life is suffering, you will be "enlightened". This is the core idea of Buddhism.

Taoism has a generally positive attitude towards life. This is the biggest difference between Taoism and Buddhism, and indeed other religions. For example, Christianity believes that people are born with original sin and are born to atone for it, and Buddhism believes that life is suffering.

So how does Taoism solve the problem of death? The answer is simple: through cultivation to achieve immortality and long life.

The Taoist secret of cultivation has a saying, "To become a man in the right way, to become an immortal in the wrong way, it's all in the reversal of yin and yang," which is the Taoist approach to how to achieve immortality. The phrase is derived from the Chinese theory of the five elements, which in turn is the basic theory of Chinese medicine.

Interpreting this phrase requires some knowledge of Chinese medicine. Let me summarize:

Chinese medicine believes that the internal organs of a person correspond to the five elements, for example, the liver belongs to wood, the kidney belongs to water, and so on. The principle of Chinese medicine is based on the principle of balance, rather than treating the disease. Therefore, according to the principle of balance of the five elements, it is very likely that liver disease is due to a deficiency of the kidneys and an imbalance of the five elements, and the doctor will treat the kidneys and leave the liver alone. This is the difference between Western medicine and Chinese medicine.

The Taoists inherited this idea from Chinese medicine, and by the way, the famous Taoists are all famous doctors, and the Taoists believe that the distribution of the five organs of a person's location according to the analysis of the five elements is actually unreasonable.

The so-called irrationality is mainly "water" in the lower and "fire" in the upper, the fire of life in the water is not burning soon. Therefore, people will get sick and die. But the human body is already like this, and ordinary people can only follow the arrangement of nature and live. This is the meaning of the phrase "to follow the nature of mankind".

Taoism believes that if you change the relationship between the five elements of the human organs, so that the "fire" in the lower, that is, water and fire reversed, the fire of life will have a foundation, people can live forever. The reversal is the basic idea of the so-called "reverse immortality".

The second half of the sentence is about the method, "It is all in the reversal of yin and yang". Because the five human organs are already like this, there is no way for Taoism to shift the five organs and rearrange their positions. The method is to change the five elemental attributes of the five organs by reversing the yin and yang. For example, the kidneys were originally of water but were changed to be of fire. This is not just a change of name, the change of attributes includes certain characteristics that must be changed as well.

The above is the difference between Buddhist and Taoist concepts on the issue of life and death, as well as their respective solutions