Oriental Philosophy

Oriental Philosophy
Whenever the terms Buddhism and Taoism are mentioned, one tends to invoke the vision of temples, idol worships, incense sticks, fortune telling etc.. Unfortunately, like many other systems of philosophy and religion that had deviated from their origins; corrupted by clerics and usurped by religious leader for purposes of their own; Buddhism and Taoism started not as a religion, but rather, as a philosophy.
Contrary to the superstitious versions of Buddhism and Taoism that come with a multitudes of gods, the original Buddhist and Taoist philosophy considered the concept of god as irrelevant.

In Buddhism, the ultimate goal is to reach a state free from earthly pains and sorrows. This state could be attainable by following certain ways of getting rid of earthly attachments and desires. Buddhist believed in that anxiety is a result of desire. By getting rid of your desires, you release yourself form all anxieties. "Buddha" is not a god but a "state of being" to strive for.

The central idea in Taoism is the harmony of nature and the need for man to be part of that harmony. Everything we know is encompassed in nature. The universe, and all things in it, run according to the "Tao" . The concept of a rewarding and punishing god is considered to be ludicrous.

"Nature holds no prejudice and cares for all things the same.
It views everything as so many straw dogs, neither loving nor hating them." Lao-Tzu , Tao, Chapter 5
About 25 years ago, during an incident involving 5 unwanted baby cats put away for
euthanasia by the SPCA , I came to the conclusion that the universe is "indifferent". The universe runs on in its own merry way without taking notice. It is us who created god in our own image: a god whose attributes are nothing but a mere extension of our view of an all-seeing, all rewarding, all punishing parent.
Some years later, I came across a presentation of Lao Tzu's book in a format that I can understand and I found the passage about nature holds no prejudices etc.. and I felt justified.

Although I do not agree with everything that is presented by the Taoist and Buddhist, I think many parts of their philosophy do have a lot of merit.

Many religions have God as the creator of the universe and left it at that. Everything is assumed to be concrete. There is no discussion about space, time, reality , perception etc.. These religions are more concern with how men and women should behave in order to please god and how god must be glorified and worshiped. In other words, men and women are created so that there is some one around to glorify the work of god. I strongly believe that if there is a god that have the ability to create all the universe and the wonders in it, he/she would be beyond this pettiness of needing someone to constantly chanting about how great he/she is.

In Buddhism and Taoism, there is a considerable part of their doctrine devoted to the search for an understanding of the concepts of space, time, real reality and perceived reality.

In Quantum Mechanics we talk about a measured quantity as being the result of an interaction between the measuring instrument and the quantum states of a system. The true quantum state cannot be measured without having the state being altered. In Buddhism, the world of our perceptions is the result of the interaction between our senses and the true world. The reality we perceive is but a distorted image of the true world; a construction of our sensory perception. Of course, this idea is not unique. Plato talked about the shadows in the caves and Immanual Kant talked about noumenal and phenomenal world. I once heard some one said," Philosophy is a continuous process of re-discovering past illuminations."

It is sad to see that Buddhism, Taoism and even Confucism have degenerated to become religions of idols and incense burning. But then, so are all the other religions: One version for the hierarchy and one "concessional " version for the masses.

If you are interested in finding out more about Buddhism and Taoism and is baffled by the cryptic and metaphorical language that most texts are written in, I recommend a series of books written by a Taiwanese Comic Strip writer which have been translated into English by Brian Bruya. Each book is composed of a series of comic strip style illustrations along with text quoted from major Buddhist and Taoist works. For the bilingual reader (Chinese and English), let me warn you ahead of time that not all the Chinese text on the side of the comic strips are in synchronization with the English Translation in the strip itself.

If you are in the Montreal (Quebec, Canada) area, you will find 6 titles of Tsai's books in the Frazer Hickson Library in NDG. If you are associated with an institution (educational ones, not mental ones) , check with their library. McGill has one title and Vanier college has 6.