Originally posted by Lucysnow
In your opinion what edge do you think the Taoists and the Buddhists would have? What would they bring to a conflict? How would the christians, muslims and jews, pagans and god only knows whom else, find themselves at a disadvantage in the face of them?
I know I am going to love your response
I’ll try to live up to your expectations.
From a Buddhist or Taoist perspective there is no argument, no position to defend. ‘Buddha Nature’ or the Tao cannot be directly expressed in words or logic; these are only abstractions of the mind.
From the Tao Te Ching:
“The Way
The Way that can be experienced is not true;
The world that can be constructed is not real.
The Way manifests all that happens and may happen;
The world represents all that exists and may exist.
To experience without abstraction is to sense the world;
To experience with abstraction is to know the world.
These two experiences are indistinguishable;
Their construction differs but their effect is the same.
Beyond the gate of experience flows the Way,
Which is ever greater and more subtle than the world.”
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/gthursby/taoism/ttcmerel.htm
Or the Genjo Koan:
“When all things are Buddhism, delusion and enlightenment exist, training exists, life and death exist, Buddhas exist, all-beings exist. When all things belong to the not-self, there are delusion, no enlightenment, no all beings, no birth and decay. Because the Buddha's way transcends the relative and absolute, birth and decay exist, no delusion and enlightenment exist, all-beings and Buddhas exist. And despite this, flowers fall while we treasure their bloom; weeds flourish while we wish them dead. To train and enlighten all things from the self: is delusion; to train and enlighten- the self from all things is enlightenment. Those who enlighten their delusion are Buddhas; those deluded in enlightenment are all-beings. Again there are those who are enlightened: on enlightenment-and those deluded within delusion. When Buddhas are really Buddhas, we need not know our identity with the Buddhas. But we are enlightened Buddhas-and express the Buddha in daily life. When we see objects and hear voices with all our body and mind-and grasp them intimately-it is not a phenomenon like a mirror reflecting form or like a moon reflected on water. When we understand one side, the other side remains in darkness. To study Buddhism is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be en lightened by all things. To be enlightened by all things is to be free from attachment to the body and mind of one's self and of others.”
http://www.zenki.com/GenjoKoan.htm#TOP
There is nothing to argue about because whatever you would argue about is not Buddhism, is not the Tao.
~Raithere
