Chineseperson
Joined: 19 Sep 2006
Posts: 19
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 Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:54 pm Post subject: Chinese Buddhism, and some other thoughts |
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I have continued to read "A Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy". The diversity and depth of Chinese Philosophy is far greater than I thought before. My mistake before was to focus exclusively on Zhou philosophy (the classical period of Chinese philosophy, 500 - 200 BC) and a little bit on Han philosophy. But there is great philosophy in every period of Chinese history, from the early years of the Western Zhou all the way to modern Communist China.
I have read a bit more about my "home hero", the famous Buddhist monk Xuanzang who went on a pilgrimage to India and became the head of Da Ci'en Temple in my home city Xi'an. He created the Chinese Buddhist School of Wei Shi Zong (or "Consciousness-Only" School) based on his interpretation of a similar school in Indian Buddhism.
The Consciousness-Only School is similar to the Western philosophy of solipisism. It states that all external reality is false and a delusion. The only things that are intrinsically real are the consciousnesses of sentient beings. What we later think of as the "external world" is not immediately perceived that way by the Mind but almostly instanted conceptualised by the "thought-centre" (which is deluded by the accumulation of bad karma throughout many life times) as an "external" realm. However, the Consciousness-Only School is different from Western solipisism in three important ways:
1. Western solipisism is egoistic and believes that only the Self-Mind is intrinsically real. All other minds are just as illusory as the external world. Wei Shi Zong states that the minds of all sentient beings in samsara are equally intrisically real. However, when there is apparent contact between two sentient beings, (e.g. me and you) there is no direct contact between the two intrinsic consciousnesses. The "thought-centre", which is the analytical and intellectual centre within the human mind and is motivated primarily by self-interest, in its deep delusion, can only perceive the other individual as a projection of his or her intrinsic mind that is essentially conceptualised as a part of external reality. It is only when the mind awakens from delusion and achieves enlightenment that he or she can perceive other sentient beings as what they are intrinsically, free from all constructs which necessarily appear when the consciousnesses of others are projected as external reality in one's mind.
2. Western solipisism, rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition, perceives the Self-Mind as intrinsically constant and eternal. Wei Shi Zong, rooted in Buddhist philosophy, states that all minds/consciousnesses transform constantly and are neither eternal nor non-eternal.
3. One question that both Western solipisists and Wei Shi Zong must answer is why, if the external world is intrinsically illusory, it still appear so stable and regulated? Some Western solipisists say that this is because God intended it in this way and created this stable and regulated delusion within the Self-Mind. (So the only two things that really exist in all of reality is God and the Self-Mind) Wei Shi Zong states that it is the law of cause and effect and karma that produces an illusory external world that seems stable.
The Consciousness-Only School is the most analytical and rigorously logical of all the Buddhist branches, its logical rigor rivals that of the best in Hellenistic philosophy. Xuanzang's work, if one reads it, is full of hair-splitting logical analysis.
However, according to one of the educational philosophies I've learned at school recently, called Bloom's Taxonomy, there are six levels/stages of intellectual sophistication:
1. Knowledge
2. Comprehension
3. Application
4. Analysis
5. Synthesis
6. Evaluation
Knowledge is the least sophisticated level and Evaluation the most.
Other Chinese Buddhist schools, such as Zen, influenced by the synthetic spirit of Neo-Daoist philosophy, is therefore more sophisticated than the pure analysis of Consciousness-Only School. What Xuanzang did not realise is that exclusive focus on the Mind as the only intrinsic reality can also lead to delusion. Zen philosophy states that both the Mind and the external world are intrinsically real and neither of them are. According to the book I am reading now, there are four main schools of Chinese Buddhism: The School of Tian-Tai, The School of Hua-Yan, The School of Zen, and the School of Pure Land. All of them, especially Zen, were influenced by Neo-Daoism. It is said in a Chinese proverb that if one want the best Buddhist doctrines, one should rely on Tian-Tai and Hua-Yan, and if one want the best ways of practical Buddhist cultivation, one should rely on Zen and Pure Land. Tian-Tai and Hua-Yan combine the logical rigor of Wei Shi Zong and the syncretistic spirit of Neo-Daoism, and has a lot of metaphysical sophistication. One of the reasons why Chinese Buddhism declined in recent times (so that stuff like FLG can take over to some extent) is because the two metaphysical/theoretical branches of Chinese Buddhism, Tian-Tai and Hua-Yan, have declined. Chinese Buddhism is still strong on the practical side (Zen and Pure Land), but theory is important too.
Neo-Confucianism was mostly influenced by the Hua-Yan School of Chinese Buddhism.
I have also realised that the fact that in the 20th century many Chinese intellectuals turned to the materialistic Marxist philosophy is really no surprise. It fits in very well with the intellectual trend in China in the last few centuries. From the end of the Ming Dynasty onwards, Chinese Confucian philosophers increasingly became more and more materialistic and began to be skeptical about the Neo-Confucian Orthodoxy of Zhu Xi. One late Ming/early Qing Confucian philosopher, Wang Fu-Shih, stated very explicitly that the only Dao is the Dao of Concrete Things, and Laozi and the Buddha are deluded to think that the Dao lies in vacuity and quietude. This philosophical trend combined with the histriographical trend of the Qing Dynasty, which is based on a much more rigorous examination of historical evidence. (I.e. Kao Zheng Xue) Late Ming and Qing Chinese scholars had more critical and skeptical spirit than their predecessors, and would not accept anything without justification and evidence. Eventually these two trends, combined with influences from the Modern West, combined in the famous Confucian philosopher Kang You-Wei of the late Qing Dynasty, (the first contemporary Confucian philosopher) who formed the first Progressive Historical Philosophy in Chinese history. (His idea of the Progression of the World in Three Stages) However, the seeds of this idea were already present in the late Ming philosopher Wang Fu-Shih, who implicitly stated that the Dao is progressive: In the future there will the further Ways which we do not have now. Kang You-Wei's progressive Confucian philosophy had a significant influence on the political ideology of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen (The Three Principles of the People) and later the Chinese Marxists.
But now in the early 21st century the intellectual tide is turning again. Advances in the frontier sciences in the 20th century, especially in theoretical physics and the astronomical sciences, are gradually breaking down the safe and common-sensical classical materialism based solely on "concrete things". Quantum Mechanics, the most scientifically accurate theory ever created by humankind, has revealed a world that is fundamentally based on "things" vastly different from our everyday conception of "concreteness". Relativity Theory, the second most scientifically accurate theory ever created by humankind, taught us that even Spacetime is not as stable and concrete as it common sensically appear to be. Astrobiology opened our eyes up to potentially an infinite number of universes, full of an infinite variety of sentient beings/aliens. It is really no surprise that in recent years, religion is making a big come-back, including all sorts of fundamentalist ideas, in both East and West. While there are no doubt many socio-political factors involved, there is also clearly a deep intellectual reason behind this. Because the paradigm of classical materialistic atheism, which for centuries has been perceived to be the most rational philosophy in the world, is suddenly not so rational anymore. THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN MATERIALISM AND IDEALISM, BETWEEN THEISM AND ATHEISM, IS BREAKING DOWN. Even some theoretical physicists are turning to Eastern philosophies such as Daoism and Buddhism. (See for example the famous book "The Tao of Physics") We live in a very exciting time, intellectually speaking. |
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