Alan Watts – Being in the Way – Ep. 34 –Confucianism vs. Taoism

Breaking free from cause-and-effect and the formal ideas of Confucianism, Alan Watts describes mutual arising as the key idea of the Tao. This time on Being in the Way, Alan Watts describes: Chinese philosophies of Taoism and Confucianism Our roles in social life and Confucianism as the way for people involved in the world Taoism as the way for those who do not prescribe to formal patterns How the Taoist goes with nature rather than against nature Ideologies of God as a ruler or a lord versus the Taoist perspective Experiences in terms of their polar experience (loud vs. soft) Mutual arising as they key idea of the Tao Man as being within nature rather than dominating it How Taoism gets rid of karma without challenging it The Chinese philosophy of time Sensing the flow of the present and flow of the Tao “Confucianism prescribes all kinds of formal relationships; linguistic, ceremonial, musical, in etiquette, in all the spheres of morals, and for this reason has always been twitted by the Taoists for being unnatural. You need these two components, you see, and they play against each other beautifully in Chinese society. Roughly speaking, the Confucian way of life is for people involved in the world. The Taoist way of life is for people who get disentangled.” – Alan Watts This series is brought to you by the Alan Watts Organization and Ram Dass’ Love Serve Remember Foundation. Visit Alanwatts.org for full talks from Alan Watts.