This poetry is recorded as the dialogue of Tao between Confucius and his eminent disciple, Yen-huei. This is the typical metaphorical illustration of the doctrine of Tao by Chuang-tzu (369-286B.C.E) who composed the Taoist Classic of Chuang-tzu. It is believed that Chuang-tzu philosophical thought has been profoundly influenced and moulded by Tao Te Ching of Lao-tzu, the discoverer of the Truth of Taoism. Taoism is, in truth, pantheism. Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism constitutes the core of the Chinese philosophy known as Neo-confucianism. It is generally opined that Chuang-tzu authored the first seven inner chapters of the aforementioned Classic comprising a total of 33 chapters. The remaining 26 chapters are believed to be composed and compiled by laterTaoist disciples. Chuang-tzu’s philosophical thought is mirrored from his exegesis literature pertaining to the Doctrine of Tao expounded by the towering figure of Chinese saint Lao-tzu in his celebrated work known as Tao Te Ching. Lao-tzu left China mysteriously and left his classic to a immigration official at one of the border checkpoints of the Great Wall of China. He had not expounded it himself. Emptiness and WisdomChuang-tzu metaphorically equated the perception of the bright empty room to the emptiness of the phenomenal or empirical world. The intuitive apprehension of emptiness is the wisdom of discerning the ultimate Truth of emptiness of all phenomena devoid of permanent, immutable intrinsic natures. The true nature of the world is dependently co-arisen unity or non-duality. This is one and the only eternal truth promulgated by all religious saints of dissimilar denominations. Any truth other than this truth is illusion and untruth. In actuality, quintessence of Taoism mirrors the absolute Essence of God conceived by Vedānta of Hinduism, Chan or Zen of Mahāyāna Buddhism and al-Fanā’ of Islamic Sufism. All creations are merely the shadows. Being shadows, they are illusory, unreal, permanent and mutable. Only the absolute essence God called Tao is real, eternal and immutable. In terms of dependently co-arisen unity or non-duality, Brahman, Buddha and Allah are synonymous as the Tao. An infidel is one who does not discern this identical eternal forever truth of Tao. The accusation of anyone of different faith from oneself as an infidel is erroneous and incorrigible. God is Tao; Tao is God. Tao is the One; the One is the Tao. The many are the beings, the One is the Tao. Failure in this inter-faith understanding constitutes one of the underlying causes of the clashes of civilizations in our currently imperiled world. The other failure of modern religious teaching is the neglect of the teaching of the esoteric or inward dimension of religion. Only the exoteric or inward dimension of religion is emphasized in modern religious teaching. It is this imbalanced religious teaching which is the root-cause of inter-cultural and inter-religious conflicts conditioned from the violation of fundamental human rights of others with differing different faiths. Anyone who discriminates does not see the Truth. Emotional, mental and political turmoils have arisen from discrimination of perceiving the many without perceiving the One. Inter-faith religious teaching unveiling the communal truth of wisdom is lacking in modern education. In actuality, all esoteric religions function to appease or still the human mind. Whoever is able to calm his or her mind and maintains the serenity of mind will be truly blessed with fortunes, both secular and spiritual. When the mind is absolutely tranquil, the chatter or noisiness of the ordinary mental consciousness will be stilled or appeased. With the appeasement of the ordinary or mundane consciousness, the released consciousness will be transformed into a nirvāṇic or completely appeased mind of pure, luminious and infinite consciousness. This appeased or liberated mind is the mind of Tao of a sage who is the True Man or the Perfect Man. Theosophically and pantheistically put, Tao of Taoism, nirvāṇa of Buddhism, ātman-brahman equation of Hinduism and baqā of Islam are synonymous or parallel. They all refer to the complete absorption or union with the absolute Essence in a state of non-duality. The entrance into the door of non-duality is synonymous with the complete unity with God. The entrance into non-duality or unity with the Absolute is living the knowledge of Truth of Unity or Non-duality sought by all esoteric religions. If the mind is not serene or tranquil, the mind is still perturbed and corrupted with self or ego grasping even though one is sitting silently in sitting meditation. Fundamentally, an uncalmed mind, which is in the state of arising and ceasing, is corrupted spiritually or mentally. It is not necessary for a yogi of Tao to withdraw all his senses of eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind in order to calm or silence of the mind. It is not necessary for a yogi to stay aloof or alienate completely from the mundane world to cultivate and practise the Tao. The phenomena and the Principle of Truth can be harmonized if the wisdom is gained through self-realization, Truth-realization, God-realization or gnosis of self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is discerning the truth of the relationship between the world and the absolute Truth. The most important mental skill is to terminate all mental conceptualizations fabricated by the superimposed, illusive self or ego by letting go of all the activities of the six senses. Letting go of all the activities of the senses does not connote that the practioner of Tao abandons the utility of all his senses. The correct practice of Tao is utilizing all the senses actively all the times at all places without grasping upon them. The chan or zen patriarchs exhort us to kill the false self to give birth to the True Self. The Kor’an admonishes us to die before one dies. A similar message is conveyed dissimilarly with an identical agenda. From Buddhist perspective, it is the practice of the four foundations of mindfulness and clear awareness to obliterate the self-centric ego. The true practice of four foundations of mindfulness and clear awareness is to cease grasping upon the five aggregates as this is I; this is mine; this belongs to me. Correspondingly, it is the wise practice of chan or zen in all daily activities. Chan or zen practice directs and empowers all sensual activities through the body, speech and mind with the wisdom of Chan or zen. Chan or zen wisdom is the exercise of the Buddha-mind rather than the mind of a sentient being. A sentient being is an unsaved ordinary worldling. Succintly put the exercise of chan or zen is the execution of the perfection of wisdom in which the wise lives in the knowledge of Truth called the Tao or Dharma. When it is said that the mind is filled with or indwelt with spirit, that spirit is called Tao. Tao is the absolute essence of the Buddha-mind. It is the spirit of truth or the spirit of dharmabody of a delivered One. This holy spirit of Truth or the perfection of wisdom transforms an ordinary worldling into a Perfect Man of Tao. The Man of Tao is characterized by the divine attribute of all actions of non-action or simply pure or uncorrupted actions. ‘All actions’ means ‘all actions executed through the body, speech and mind’. ‘Non-action’ is ‘pure mind’ in which the illusive self or ego has been obliterated’. It is unconditioned as the superimposed self or ego, which merely exists illusively or apparently, has been obliterated. It is the full cankerless or uncorrupted participation in mundane world. In Buddhism, the Man of Tao is the wisdom or enlightened Being designated as the Bodhisattva in Mahāyāna tradition and Arahant in the Theravāda tradition.. A Man of Tao merges in union with heaven and earth. He dwells in perfect harmony with the heaven and earth which is the entire cosmos. In other words, he lives in the knowledge of Truth. He is one with the cosmos. Consequently, he dwells in harmony and non-discriminatively with all beings without prejudiced reactions, partial emotional judgment and selfish desires. He places public interests above self -interest. His entirely life concurs with Tao or he lives in the Truth of Tao. He enjoys the mundane life with complete immersion in profound mystical insight into Tao. Tao is actually the absolute Essence of God, Buddha or eternal Truth of Unity. The absolute Essence of Tao is beyond all religions. He does not discriminate against any religious faith. In the chapter on ‘The Great Supreme’ of the Chuang-tzu Classic, Chuang-tzu asserts that whoever intuitively discerns the Truth of the absolute essence of God or Tao in man has elevated himself or herself spiritually to the summit of wisdom. All his sense activities are directed and empowered by absolute essence of Tao or God. The Man of Tao conceives no fear of anything including death. He is like a swimmer who transcends himself and sea. He has no fear with the sea water, at ease with the sea, and in oneness with the sea. He is also capable of going surfing in the rough sea dancing with waves with ease and without fear in a rough weather. Likewise, the Man of Tao lives with ease under all circumstances of life adversity. He is like a mountain stream flowing from mountain top downstream meandering unobstructively down to the sea. Similarly, the Man of Chan or Zen can encounter life equanimously and cankerlessly. He is a drop of water which finally returns and merges with the borderless ocean of unity. He has entered the door of Truth of Non-duality. The entrance into the door of non-duality is living in the knowledge of Unity or Non-duality without any dichotomy. He has developed the non-discriminative wisdom. Such eternal Truth of Non-duality or union with the Absolute is expounded in Vedānta of Hinduism, Sufism of Islam, Holy Spirit of Jesus in Christianity, entrance into the door of Non-duality in Vimalakīrti Sūtra of Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition and Insubstantiality of Theravāda Buddhism. We all have a common destination – a return to the borderless ocean of unity. Any discriminative attitude separates one from Tao, Buddha or God. References:
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