Philosophical Writings

Author(s): Hemant Shah
Publisher: Academy of Philosophy

Page 52

Logos In Philosophy. Religion and Science
(D) Taoism and Zen are the main trends of Chinese and Japanese cultures. Taoism, as we have seen, earlier, is mystically oriented and more relevant with modern physics. It is more interested in the “ intuitive Wisdom” than the rational knowledge. Tao is beyond human comprehension, beyond reasoning and beyond knowledge. The implicit unity of all opposites, yin and yang, lies at the very basis of Taoist thought. Professor F.Capra in his famous book, The Tao of Physics observes: “It is amazing that, at the same time when Lao Tzu and his followers developed their world view, the essential features of this Taoist view were taught also in Greece, by a man whose teachings are known to us only in fragments and who was, and still is, very often misunderstood. This Greek 'Taoist' was Heraclitus of Ephesus. He shared with Lao Tzu not only the emphasis on continuous change, which he expressed in his famous saying ‘Everything flows', but also the notion that all changes are cyclic”.46
When the pragmatic side of the Chinese thought came in contact with Indian Buddhism, a special kind of spiritual and mystical discipline developed which was given the name Ch’an, which means 'meditation'. This Ch'an thought was eventually adopted by the Japanese, around AD 1200 and was known as Zen. Zen is a mixture of three thoughts; the Indian, the Chinese and the Japanese. Zen is purely Buddhistic in its essence and the enlightenment experience, and is the same as what we find in other mystic schools of eastern philosophy. Its enlightenment experience is known in Zen as Satori. Just like Taoism it also believes that words can never express the ultimate reality. Chuang Tzu said, “If one asks about the Tao (we can add even Satori) and another answers him, neither of them know it.”+7 Both the 'Rinzai' (Sudden) and the Soto (Gradual) schools of Zen attach the greatest importance to 'Zazen' or sitting meditation, a way to realize one's own pure self or pure nature; body and mind being fused into a harmonious unity and to bring it in contact with the ultimate reality.