In
my previous post, I briefly described the philosophy of Dao, or “The Way”.
However, this post got me thinking: what is the difference between Dao, and
Dharma? I sought to find out more about the differences between the two.
What
I found was that Dharma and Dao are similar in many ways: both dictate the
principles and philosophies that rule the universe. Both believe that truly
conceiving Dao, and Dharma are impossible (this is noted in the Ramayana where
Sita questions whether Rama’s battle with the Rakshashas are truly following
Dharma.
However,
the differences between Dharma and Dao are purely metaphysical. Dharma believes
that God is everywhere: he transcends everything and anything that we can ever
comprehend. Everything in the universe is a embodiment of god – love, peace, and
even a creature such as Ravana. As a result of this flowing creativity, God
exists as a conglomeration of souls (we all make up the one known as God). Due
to our free will, we have the ability to turn towards or away from god (in
other words, Dharma and Adharma.) Everytime we do turn towards god, harmony is
achieved. This is the idea known as Dharma
Dao,
on the other hand, is ‘the way of the universe’. Chinese culture, being more
secular, believes that it is the guiding principle of nature, and it is how man
should order his life. In this way, Daoism becomes analogous to entropy and
avoiding it. Daoism dictated how man should live is life – to do anything else
would create a mess (as entropy does). However, harmony with nature is all that
Daoism strives for. There is no higher being. All we can hope for is to get
close enough to nature as possible.
After
taking the final, I believe that a longer narrative can be written about the
spread of Indian-ization, and the evolution of Dharma, into Dao. However, as it
is beyond the scope of this course, I’ll end it here. Some thoughts I now
wonder are: how does Daoism play into the development of Chinese Dance? (Other
than Shi that is)
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