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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Y2K" data-source="post: 2609907" data-attributes="member: 35049">Ultimate Reality in Taoism and ConfucianismTaoism states an impersonal Ultimate Reality that is both the creator principle and the eternal truth of universe. It is the Tao, the immutable and unchanging principle that is the basis of multiplicity and the impulse that generates all forms of life. The founder of Taoism, Lao Tse (6th century BC), stated in his important writing, Tao-te Ching:There was something undifferentiated and yet complete,Which existed before heaven and earth.Soundless and formless, it depends on nothing and does not change.It operates everywhere and is free from danger.It may be considered the mother of the universe.I do not know its name; I call it Tao. (Tao-te Ching 25)In the same way as the Hindu Brahman or Buddhist Dharmakaya, Tao is the source in which all the manifestations of the world originate and return:All the flourishing thingsWill return to their source.This return is peaceful;It is the flow of nature,An eternal decay and renewal. (Tao-te Ching 16)Tao holds two complementary and opposite modalities that are present in creation: Yin and Yang (Yin - the female principle of darkness, potentiality, regression; and Yang - the male principle of light, activity and progress). Their dynamic and the proportions in which they become mixed at a certain moment determine all aspects of nature or living beings: from day and night, life and death, to personal feelings and dispositions. Any personal form of existence, gods and humans alike, receive their wisdom from Tao, being merely temporary forms of its manifestation:[Tao] is its own source, its own root. Before heaven and earth existed it was there, firm from ancient times. It gave spirituality to the spirits and gods; it gave birth to heaven and to earth. (Chuang Tzu 6)The existence of Taoist divinities is the result of an attempt to combine devotion to the ancient Chinese gods with classic Taoism, as a way of making it more acceptable to lay people. Deities like the Jade Emperor (Yu-huang) and The First Principal (Yuan-shis Tien-Tsun) are considered in some traditions to be gods, while other deities like the three Pure Ones (San-ch’ing) are more like Buddhist bodhisattvas, acting as manifestations of Lao Tse.Another important Chinese religion is Confucianism. Rather than a religion, Confucius (6th century BC) founded an ethical system in order to harmonize social relations in the Chinese state. For this reason it is hard to say that Confucianism, at least in its original form, is a true religion. Although Confucius respected the religious traditions of his time, he gave them a mere ethical interpretation. The supreme principle in the universe according to him is the moral law, a universal principle, omnipresent, hidden and eternal:There is no place in the highest heavens above or in the deepest waters below where the moral law is not to be found. (Doctrine of the Mean 12)Following the moral principles means to conform oneself to the will of heaven, but more metaphysical speculations about heaven and afterlife are useless (Analects 7,20).</blockquote>

Verification: Nawa warak dahaya keeyada? (Namaya wadi kireema dahaya)

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