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way. Such universal process of rising and falling, of life and death, inevitably result in a world of differences and inequality, but all these are superficial, relative, often products of subjective points of view. Life and death cause each other and neither right nor wrong is absolute. This and that and possibility and impossibility mutually produce each other. In reality all things are one, for Tao embraces all of them and combines into a unity. Men of small knowledge cut things up, discriminate and make distinctions. Amen of great knowledge will be comprehensive, impartial and see Tao in all its unity. Ideal man will be a companion with nature and friend of both life and death. He makes oneness his eternal abode. He abandons selfishness of all descriptions, be it fame, wealth, bias or subjectivity' [The Quest of Serenity, p.46.]. Ivanhoe clarifies this idea of realizing unitary principle- Tao:
"The Daodejing describes a mystical ideal in the sense that those who realize the Way lose a strong sense of themselves as distinct, autonomous agents and to some extent are thought to merge into the Dao's underlying patterns and processes. In such a state, one does not conceive of oneself as apart from and independent of the rest of the world". [The Daodejing of Laozi. P.xxxxi]. Wei Wu Wei, one of the great scholars of Taoism and Buddhism states that " Tai is the pathless way. Tao, the pathless way, has gateless Gate, which just as the equator separates northern from the southern hemisphere, illusorily separates and unites the phenomenal and noumenal, Samsara and Nirvana. It is the open road of escape from solitary confinement in the dungeon of individuality. It is the way of integration, in this, which we are and it is pure as-it-is-ness". [Wei Wu Wei- All Else Is Bondage, Hong Kong University Press, 2004.].
Taoism believes that bewildering multiplicity and contradictions of the world, lays single unity- Tao. Chuan Tzu rightly points out that " to regard the fundamental as the essence, to regard things as coarse, to regard accumulation as deficiency and dwell quietly alone with the spiritual and intelligence, here in lie the teachings of Tao of the ancients".
Taoism considers heaven, earth and human beings as an integral unity. It claims that men is inherently a part of nature and attach much value to harmonious development between man and all things. The reason is, the nature and human being came into being from the same source Tao. the first cause of the universe.
The Brahman is the Unitary Principle to which everything is connected.
Seeking the One behind the many is core of spirituality since the time of Rugveda.The Rugvedic conception of one supreme Reality behind all changing phenomena of the universe is the basis of development of this idea of one behind the many. Several statements of the Rugveda such as ' The Reality is One, but wise call it by different names' [ekam sadḤ] The real
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| SR No. | 007005 |
| Book Title | World of Philosophy |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave |
| Publisher | Shanti Prakashan |
| Publication Year | 2011 |
| Total Pages | 1002 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 30 MB |