[Krimel]
It is Buddhism and Tao filtered through Shinto. I am
content with Tao.
[SA previously]
What about Chan? Since your interested in Daoism...
Chan is Buddhism filtered through Daoism...
As a side note, I was thinking about the word
"filtered" we both used above. Another way to look at
this connection would be how Peter Hershock in "Chan
Buddhism" discusses how the Chinese during the process
of understanding Buddhism, they (Chinese) were able to
use understandings in Daoism and Confucianism that
related to certain traits of Buddhism. For example,
what is dharma?, he says the Chinese understood dharma
via the dao. Therefore by relating the dao to dharma
the Chinese were able to relate to what dharma in
Buddhism is. He goes on to say that the Chinese had
cultural traits that were able to relate to change and
interdependence, too. Karma, though, was a Buddhist
understanding the Chinese did not have readily have
analogies for. Hershock, "In contrast with the
concepts of change, interdependence, and emptiness,
there wer no indigenous Chinese analogues - even
distant ones - for karma."
This quote provides definition to what dharma is,
"It is for this reason that Bodhidharma refers to this
final practice as 'expressing the Dharma.' The true
medium for expressing the Dharma is not language but
the teaching relationship." Notice, "Dharma is not
language", thus, dharma is not that which can be
named, and boom, using the dao understanding one may
go into what dharma is further. I'm not saying dharma
and dao are the same. I'm pointing out how 'schools'
have these dynamic qualities that allow for relations
to creatively reach out beyond the 'schools' static
meaning.
Thus, I see any 'school' coming into contact with
a particular culture will either be related by the
particular culture with patterns that already exist in
the culture to relate to the specifics in the
'school', or the 'school' will reveal an anomaly to
the particular culture. If the latter, then if the
particular culture has a desire to learn everything it
can about the 'school' the particular culture may do
so, even if it means making new analogies that bring
light to the anomalies. For China, the middle way of
Buddhism was a way to allow contributive traits from
Confucianism and Daoism to come together and
understand karma.
I brought this up to show that "filter" might not
be the best term to relate how the Chinese were able
to understand Buddhism. The Chinese had cultural
traits that were able to directly relate to certain
aspects of Buddhism. Maybe Chan is not just Buddhism,
but also Daoism and Confucianism. Chan might be a
'school' that many different schools would need to
come together in order to relate to what Chan is.
Another question would be, what does Chan not notice
that Daoism and Confucianism does notice?
Well, I don't want to lengthen this post anymore
than it is, but this could continue into how the Dao
(Tao) relates to the moq.
thanks.
my dog keeps barking outside in the dark,
SA
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