Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Confucianism refers to the school initiated by Confucius, which once existed as the official ideology of China for a long time. Its influence spread to the Korean Peninsula, Japan, Indochina Peninsula, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and other regions, and it is one of the four major religions in the world. Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gautama, the son of King suddhodana of India. Siddhartha is also called Buddhism because he is the Buddha of Sakyamuni. Buddhism is one of the four major religions in the world, and Taoism refers to Zhang Daoling in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

Similarities and differences between Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism

Western scholars rated the "Three Sages of the East" as Laozi, Confucius and Huineng, the sixth ancestor, which exactly represented the three religions in China: Confucianism represented by Confucius, Taoism represented by Laozi and China Buddhism represented by Huineng, the sixth ancestor of Zen Buddhism.

The most important thing of Confucianism is one word: "ethics", which is ethics. In feudal society, because of people's different social status and class, everyone should be in his own position. According to Confucianism, the world is a chess game. Where God puts you and gives you power, responsibility and obligation, then you should abide by and perform your responsibilities and rights, and you should take pleasure in know life. This is actually the earliest "spiral theory".

The core of Taoism is "destiny", which is not only the destiny of life, but also the destiny of practice-it has complete significance. As a living person rather than a machine, with such a "fate" or life, you can live a valuable life. You should cultivate a good life, a happy life and a healthy life, and then you can live a valuable life. But he is the most influential philosopher in the world. Every sentence in Tao Te Ching is "royal jelly". Laozi may use three or five words to describe our life. Nowadays, the most quoted "no matter how clever a person is, he is stupid" is not actually the core view of Laozi. Its core is "knowing his male and guarding his female is the world's best". For the world, Changde does not leave, and it belongs to the baby. "

By analogy, that is, we often say "knowing men and keeping women", "knowing white and keeping black" and "being simple without carving" are not only Lao Tzu's political proposition of inaction, but also his academic proposition of personal cultivation.

Buddhism talks about "seeing nature". What is sex? It is "mind", that is, cultivation. Buddhists have seven words: "See nature, save the world and understand everything." Seeing your mind is called "looking inside", which means you have to think of a searchlight to illuminate you. You must first understand what kind of person you are, which is a very objective cultivation method. Basically, there are three steps in Buddhist practice. From the beginning of discipline and meditation, wisdom will gradually emerge, which is the so-called "double cultivation of meditation wisdom" Without meditation, wisdom cannot be produced, and with wisdom, we can be more stable. Buddhism is a very profound classical philosophy, and Buddhism is a very strict religious form. In this way, "Buddha" includes Buddhism, Taoism and Buddhism, including family, learning and teaching, and its form is the most complete. It can be summarized in the words of Qianlong. In a note written by Qianlong to Wuta Temple in Beijing, he said: "Tower means meaning; Meridian, standard mouth; Buddha, the symbol of the body. " It means that the tower in the Buddhist temple represents the lofty and upward significance of Buddhism; The Buddha statue represents the image of the Buddha and tells you what kind of person the Buddha is, while the Buddhist scriptures represent the mouth of the Buddha and tell you what he said-the first two are external forms, and their essence lies in the "standard meaning". Buddhist scriptures (including the Tanjing written by Huineng, a great religious scholar in China) are like the Four Books and Five Classics of Confucianism or the Tao Te Ching of Taoism.

After a long period of evolution, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism have infiltrated and assimilated each other, and to some extent, the three religions have become one. Shaolin Temple has a place dedicated to Buddhism, Gamuni, Confucius and Laozi. The couplet reads: "A hundred schools of thought contend and all laws are unified; The three religions are one, and nine streams are of the same origin. Shaoshi Mountain also has a couplet: "Only dividing heaven and earth and human beings is always the same, teaching Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism will eventually lead to one way." Well summed up, that is to say, we can start from different directions, but in the end we can reach the same goal by different routes.

From the point of view of personal cultivation, the three religions have different views, but the spirit of persuading people to be good and upward is the same: Confucianism is "self-cultivation, governing the country by the family, and leveling the world", Taoism is "keeping in good health, being isolated from the world, and being poor in everything", and Buddhism is "seeing nature, helping the world and understanding everything". These three sentences are my own generalizations, which are not necessarily accurate.

To put it another way, Confucianism seeks "benevolence", Buddhism seeks "Buddhism" and Taoism seeks "heaven". Humanity and Buddhism are better understood, but what is "heaven"? Heaven should include many things, such as "secret, providence and destiny". Its original meaning is not superstition, but the laws of heaven or nature, including what we already know and what we don't know yet.

Another comparison method can be used. Confucianism is called "strengthening the body", Buddhism pays attention to "clearing the heart" and Taoism pursues "refining the heart". Behind this, Confucianism stresses "governing the world", Taoism stresses "governing the body" and Buddhism stresses "governing the mind".