I'm not sure Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

I'm not sure - Essay Example He explained Laozi’s thoughts through concrete instances from history, people’s life, and also from his surroundings. But most often, Zhuangzi’s elucidations appear most complex and complicated. Sometimes, they become diverted the mainstream of Daoism and tend to appear as an individual philosophic strand. The most remarkable difference between the two is how they view ‘Tao’ or the Way. Both of them believe that the Way is beyond human perception and conception. In this regard, both of them are realists. But Zhuangzi’s approach to Tao or the Way is more applicable to human life than Laozi’s. That is, Laozi is more metaphysical than Zhuangzi. Since Laozi’s philosophy fails to dispel the transcendence of the Way or Tao, his teachings do not care much about human life as Zhuangzi’s teachings do. In this regard, it can be said that Zhuangzi’s ‘Daoism’ is superior to Laozi’s. Both Laozi and Zhuangzi acknowledge the ‘Dao’ as a transcendental existence which contains the whole universe. In Laozi’s word, â€Å"The Great Tao flows everywhere../All things depend on it for life,/and it does not turn away from them./ One may think of it as the mother of all beneath Heaven./ We do not know its name, but we call it Tao ...† (Ivanhoe & Norden 165). It is nameless and formless and it exists everywhere. Yet nothing in this universe can be construed as the ‘Dao’. It is eternal and it is not knowledgeable. Rather it is beyond human perception as well as human language. The problem of human language is that it is not sufficient enough to describe it. It exists, but it cannot be described, as Laozi says, â€Å"The Tao that can be told of is not the eternal Tao;/ the name that can be named is not the eternal name† (Ivanhoe & Norden 165). Laozi further describes it, â€Å"There is a thing, formless yet complete./ Before heav en and earth it existed. /Without sound, without