Essay: Characteristics and Development of Middle Period Byzantine Art

Much of my time from 2008 to 2010 was spent taking courses at Athabasca University. One course was titled ‘A Survey of Western Art I’.
I thought that it might be interesting to convert a few of my essays into blogs. The following is one of my early efforts. The given assignment was:

Discuss the main characteristics and development of Byzantine art of the middle period (from the time of the Iconoclastic Controversy until the beginning of the 13^th Century). Include an explanation of when the Iconoclastic Controversy occurred, what it was and how it affected secular and religious art.

The Byzantine Empire is the conventional name of a medieval Christian and Greek-speaking state.  The Byzantine people themselves referred to their state as the Roman Empire and Byzantium was just the city name of Constantinople. (Hollingsworth, "Byzantium" The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium)  This essay refers to the middle period of Byzantine Art that started with the Iconoclast Controversy and ended with the Fourth Crusade sacking of Constantinople.

This is era is commonly known as the Dark Ages; but most of the art created was quite luminous and anything but dark.  In fact, many[1] refer to this as a Second Golden Age.

To appreciate the developments of the Middle period it is necessary to consider what came before.  Under Emperor Justinian, the monuments of Constantinople justify the claim of a First Golden Age.  Byzantine culture and art gradually came under more Christian and Greek influence.  (Davies et al, Janson’s History of Art  p. 253)

The early and middle periods of Byzantine Art are divided by the Iconoclast Controversy.  This was a religious and political conflict that raged over the interpretation of a few biblical words.  It was seen as vitally important to prevent worship of images as idols.

Strict prohibition of idolatry is one of the most distinctive features of Israelite religion: Yahweh, the God of Israel, could not be represented in physical form and would not tolerate the idols of any other gods.  This aniconic principle is articulated in the Ten Commandments. (Metzger et al: The Oxford Companion to the Bible  p. 297)

In the Byzantine early period the rules on idolic images were less strict.  In 695 CE, Emperor Justinian II put a full-face image of Christ on the obverse of his gold coins. (Hollingsworth, "Justinian II")  On the other hand, much of the empire was being lost to the new Muslim religion and the new rulers of those lands were hardly as tolerant about such imagery.  Some have said that this Muslim push sparked the Emperor Leo III and the image destroyers, who were known as Iconoclasts; but the origins of their actions are obscure. (Hollingsworth, "Leo III")

In 726 CE Leo III ordered the removal of an image of Jesus from over the ceremonial entrance to the Great Palace of Constantinople. Some of those assigned to the task were murdered by a band of image lovers who were known as Iconophiles. (Hollingsworth, "Leo III")

The Iconoclasts insisted on a literal interpretation of the biblical ban.  “They wanted to restrict religious art to abstract symbols and plant or animal forms.”  Their opponents, the Iconophiles, were lead by the monks.  “The strongest argument in favour of the icons was Neo-Platonic.  Because Christ and his image are inseparable, the honor given to the image is transferred to him.” (Davies et al, pp. 264-265)

Besides being a theological controversy over “the relationship of the human and the divine in the person of Christ … the conflict was a power struggle between Church and State, which in theory were united in the figure of the emperor.” (Davies et al, p. 265)

Political affairs reached a low point after iconophile Irene—the wife of Emperor Leo IV and the mother of Constantine VI—ordered iconoclast writings destroyed and the icons restored.  She was in such conflict with her iconoclast son that in 797 CE she had him blinded and ruled herself as Emperor for 5 years. (Hollingsworth, "Irene")

A synod in 809 declared that the Emperor was above the law of the church and excommunicated anyone who disagreed. (Hollingsworth, "Moechian Controversy")  One emperor would declare himself devoted to icons while his successor would fight for iconoclasm.  Finally in March 843, Patriarch John the Grammarian was replaced when he refused to preside over a church council to rehabilitate icon worship. (Hollingsworth, "John VII Grammatikos")

The edict barring images had not been enforced throughout the Empire.  It was far less strict in Greece and Bulgaria.  “It did succeed in greatly reducing the production of sacred images, but it failed to wipe it out entirely, so there was a fairly rapid recovery after the victory of the Iconophiles.” (Davies et al, p. 265)

Icons were now produced to be “venerated” but not “worshipped”.  As sacred objects they had to conform to strict rules, with fixed patterns repeated over and over again.  Most icons are therefore noteworthy more for their exacting craftsmanship than artistic inventiveness. (Davies et al, p. 273)

Iconoclasm brought about a renewed interest in secular art, which was not affected by the edicts. (Davies et al, p. 265)  In the Middle Byzantine period Islamic and classical themes were apparent in the secular art of emperors and in many aspects of material culture. (Hollingsworth, "Islamic Influence On Byzantine Art")   There was a revival of Byzantine artistic traditions, as well as classical learning and literature. (Davies et al, p. 266) 

The Joshua Roll of ca. 950 CE showed its classical style in the form of a scroll, an archaic type of manuscript which had been replaced by the codex a full eight centuries earlier. (Davies et al, p. 266)

The Paris Psalter of the same era had a free-flowing consciously classical style.  Despite that, its style qualities, such as the crowded composition of space-consuming figures indicate its later date. (Davies et al, p. 266)

While large scale statuary had died out, small-scale objects especially made in ivory and metal, were made in large numbers “with a variety of content, style, and purpose.” (Davies et al, p. 268)

In The Harbaville Triptych it appears that there is a continuation of the style “whereby different figure types require different representational modes.” Figures have an attitude of refinement and control. (Davies et al, p. 268)  

Religious construction after the Iconoclastic Controversy was initially monastic and modest in scale.  Later, much larger monasteries were erected in Constantinople under imperial patronage.  They served social purposes such as schools and hospitals. (Davies et al, p. 269)

The interiors of later churches were emblazoned with mosaics such as had been done in the early period; but now, as seen at the church at Daphni (Davies et al, fig. 8.44), they showed a “classicism that merges harmoniously with the spiritualized ideal of human beauty that we encountered in Justinian’s reign.” (Davies et al, pp. 269 - 270)   Creating a realistic spatial setting was not important, but the compositions had a monumental balance and clarity. (Davies et al, p. 270)

Just as in Early Byzantine architecture, the material structure was less important than “the creation of immaterial space … the glitter of the mosaics must have completed the illusion of unreality, fitting the spirit of these interiors to perfection.” (Davies et al, p. 259)

In a similar way, exact human physical depiction was less important than emotional depiction.  Scenes of the Passion of Christ became common.  (Davies et al, p. 270) 

To have introduced this compassionate view of Christ into sacred depiction was perhaps the greatest achievement of Middle Byzantine art.  Early Christian art lacked this quality entirely. … Early Christian artists depicted the Crucifixion only rarely and without pathos, though with a similar simplicity. (Davies et al, p. 270)

The Second Golden Age also gave emphasis to Christ the Pantocrator.  This is a depiction of Christ as both Judge and Ruler of the Universe, the All-Holder who contains everything.  The bearded images of Christ resembled those of a Roman Zeus. (Davies et al, p. 270)

Middle period Byzantine churches have been described as having a depiction of cosmos in the great domes, with the Holy Land seen in the vaults and in the squinches.  The earthly world is depicted in the walls and supports below. (Davies et al, p. 270)  As the viewer moves around the building to witness the events of Christ’s life, the viewer becomes a symbolic pilgrim to the Holy Land.  This is combined with a virtual vertical journey heavenward. (Davies et al, p. 271)

Conflicts between the Eastern Byzantine and Western Catholic churches lead to a split known as the Great Schism.  On the surface the dispute was over a single Latin word, filioque,  meaning “and from the Son,” as inserted into the creed of Nicaea-Constantinople.  This was a short brief exposition of the principles of Christian belief expressing the hierarchy between the Holy Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  (Hollingsworth, "Filioque")  The dispute was also about determining the more earthly power hierarchy of the Pope, the Eastern patriarch and the Byzantine Emperors.

Finally in July 1054, Cardinal Humbert of the Papal delegation lost patience, and laid a excommunication edict against Patriarch Michael.  Michael and his synod retaliated by doing the same against Humbert.  (Hollingsworth, "Schism")

After the schism Venice was brought forcefully back to the Western camp, but when the Venetians started on a new St. Mark’s church they looked to the culture and art of Byzantium, and Constantinople for inspiration. (Davies et al, p. 272)   The church’s Greek-cross plan is emphasized with a separate dome on each arm of the cross.  The spacious interior was decorated by visiting Byzantine artists and locals trained by them.

“Oriental influence may be attributed the taste for costly and many-coloured stones and woven fabrics, for goldsmith-work, and enamel.”  The “church of the eleventh century was transformed into a veritable treasure-house.” (Gietmann, Gerhard.  The Catholic Encyclopedia)

The Byzantine manner was also popular in Sicily after that island was taken from the Muslims and united with southern Italy in 1091.  The mosaics of the Cathedral of Monreale cover vast wall surfaces. The Pantocrator of a Byzantine domed church now controls the space of the apse. (Davies et al, pp. 272-273)

Within a structure displaying Romanesque characteristics, the nave at Monreale flaunts a Byzantine trademark—an interior as elegant and as costly as the throne room of an emperor.  The art of the eastern empire traveled to every corner of Christendom—in textiles and mosaics, in paintings, in objects of gold, silver, and carved ivory.  (People and Places of the Past p.168)

The Christian Crusades, which started in 1095, changed Byzantine art by bringing Western influences. (Davies et al, p. 273)  The soldiers of the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople in 1204.  This led to the establishment of the Latin Empire throughout the Greek Byzantine Empire. (Hollingsworth, "Latin Empire")  This signalled the end of Byzantine art’s Middle period.

References used in this Essay

Davies, Penelope J.E. et al. Janson's History of Art: The Western Tradition, 7^th edition.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc., 2007.

Gietmann, Gerhard. "Byzantine Art." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3.
New York, NY: Robert Appleton Company, 1908.
(Available online at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03095a.htm)

Hollingsworth, Paul A. The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium.
Oxford, England: Oxford University Press 1991.

Metzger, Bruce M. and Michael D. Coogan (editors) The Oxford Companion to the Bible.
Oxford, England: Oxford University Press 1993

People and Places of the Past / The National Geographic Illustrated Cultural Atlas of the Ancient World
Washington, DC: National Geographic Society 1983

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[1] Such as the NY Metropolitan Museum discussion of Byzantium

Essay: Ideas and Values of Robert Pirsig as influenced by Eastern Thought with an emphasis on Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

From 2008 to 2011, I was a student at Athabasca University. I thought that it might be of general interest to convert a few of my assignments into blogs. In a Humanities course titled ‘East Meets West’, there was an assignment on this subject:

A systematic analysis of the similarities between the ideas and values of Robert Pirsig and those of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. Includes how he was influenced by these varieties of eastern thought with an emphasis on his book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance / An Inquiry into Values.

As in all of my assignments, it was a struggle to be both succinct and complete in my writing. The essay that I turned in looked much like this:

Robert Persig was influenced for many years by eastern thought and religion before he sat down to write his Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance[1] masterwork.  His background included an extensive education in both philosophy and religious studies.  In Zen’s prefatory Author’s Note he says that the book is not particularly factual about Zen Buddhist practice, and “it’s not very factual on motorcycles either.”  This is a book where the subtitle – An Inquiry into Values – might describe the theme better than the primary title does.

Mr. Persig was also heavily influenced by his studies of Greek philosophers and his personal descent into madness.  His attempt to meld his inner madness into a complete functional human being; reminded me of how various prophets and philosophers have meditated upon the division between body and soul, tried to explain Ying and Yang or attempted to bridge the divide between the current human plane of existence and the unknown future that awaits us after death.

Robert Persig’s Zen is fundamentally about junctures and gaps and how they are bridged.  He is not particularly interested in how a hypothesis is hatched, a plan is started or a destination is reached.  He is very interested in the process and the journey.  He puts relatively little importance on either classical or romantic ways of thinking.  He is very interested how the thinking meshes into a syncretic whole that he labels as Quality.

Though this essay is not intended as a biography or book review, a quick description of the author and his story is required to appreciate the Eastern influences.

Robert Persig was born just over eighty years ago on September 6, 1928 in Minneapolis.[2]  According to his personal story, as related in Zen, he was an exceptionally brilliant child and a gifted student.  As a teenage biochemistry student he was flummoxed when he realized that as classical science proved or disproved a series of hypotheses, each one that was knocked over would lead to an infinite number of new possible hypotheses.  As Alexander Elliot wrote, “man is not a problem solver so much he is a problem maker”.  (Elliot, Alexander "Zen and the art of what?”  p. 129)

Young Persig could not handle that his scientific study was making the world more complex rather than simpler.  What should be the “hardest part of scientific work, thinking up hypotheses, was invariably the easiest”.  As one possible theory was disproved a flood of new possibilities would become manifest.  They increased as he went along.  Phaedrus-Persig soon abandoned his study of chemical science.

This was followed by a stint in the US Army which included a posting in Korea.  There Persig received an introduction to Eastern thought.  He writes about an influential book on Oriental philosophy that he read at this point.  He says that the book compares Western and Eastern components of man’s existence and that these components correspond to classic and romantic modes of reality.[3]

After his return to the United States he rejoined the university system to study philosophy.  To polish his American studies he studied Oriental philosophy at Benares Hindu University in India.  He remained an empirical scientist but he had “been exposed to a lot”. (Persig  p. 141)

After his studies in India, Persig returned to the United States.  He taught rhetorical English at a university in Montana followed by an attempt to get his doctorate by study at the University of Chicago’s Department of Philosophy.  Through all this time he thought on the nature of Quality.  He studied the way that objective and subjective ways of thinking worked together.  He practised the art of motorcycle maintenance.  He also became quite unable to handle the reality of normal society.  In other words he became insane.

In 1960 Persig was finally admitted to a mental institution.  In 1963, he was treated with a series of electroshock procedures.  During these treatments – according to the Zen narrative – Robert Persig became separated from his earlier personality and much of his earlier memories.  He gives the name of Phaedrus to this earlier ‘insane’ personality and writes of himself in the third-person.  In a way Phaedrus can be thought as a previous incarnation of Persig the author.  Eastern religions have much to say about previous and future incarnations.

In July 1968[4] Persig headed out from the city of his birth on a journey to the West.  He started the trip with his motorcycle, his son, a couple of friends and Phaedrus.  During the course of his motorcycle journey, he leaves his friends behind, he does a lot of thinking about Quality, he unites his rational self and his irrational Phaedrus self, and he confronts the fears of his 12 year old son.

This story of this journey might be intended as a reflection of the Toaist journey of discovery to the Western mountains and the Toaist appreciation of nature.  Persig does not explicitly say this though.

In 1874 a type of summer camp for adults was founded on the banks of Chautauqua Lake, New York.  This spawned a series of travelling road shows that combined entertainment and education.  These road shows took place over several days and became known themselves as Chautauquas.  They included lectures presented in a manner and style that would allow the ordinary citizen to understand difficult subjects. [5]  Robert Persig designed his Zen book as a form of Chautauqua meant to both entertain and elucidate.  Elliot points out that in classic Zen practise an artist or performer will follow the concept of a “masterpiece of the past” and then “as with Zen swordsmanship, archery, and tea, the whole point is in the performance itself. In the doing, that is to say, not the product.” (Eliot  p. 126)  A hundred years after that first Chautauqua show, Persig published his own skillful modern version of an entertaining presentation that also provides instruction.

Phaedrus-Persig remained an empirical scientist but he had been exposed to Eastern thought.  “He became aware that the doctrinal differences among Hinduism and Buddhism and Taoism are not anywhere near as important as doctrinal differences among Christianity and Islam and Judaism.” (Persig  p. 141)  Just a couple paragraphs later, the author says that

The illusion of separation of subject from object is best removed by the elimination of physical activity, mental activity and emotional activity. There are many disciplines for this. One of the most important is the Sanskrit dhyana, mispronounced in Chinese as "Chan" and again mispronounced in Japanese as "Zen."

In other words, the subject and object are just parts of one whole system; their interaction can be studied by contemplation and meditation, and this method of study is known as Zen.  A dictionary[6] definition says that “enlightenment can be attained through meditation, self-contemplation, and intuition rather than through faith and devotion”.  Study and activity (or the lack of such activity) are more important than prayer or faith.

According to R.Z. Sheppard’s review[7] of Zen: “Pirsig is no orthodox Zen Buddhist”. For Persig motorcycle maintenance is the equivalent of a meditative tea ceremony. 

Briefly, motor maintenance requires a good deal of quiet concentration so that the underlying principles of the engine are allowed to fill the gap between the object (engine) and the subject (mechanic). A Zen monk would say that under such conditions, the fixer and the fixed are no longer opposing objects but one reality.

Phaedrus-Pirsig never thought small. His aim was to do nothing less than revamp the whole scientific method that operated from the premise that the observer and what was observed must be separate realities. (Sheppard)

Just as the story has the major theme of Persig melding with his Phaedrus self it has a secondary theme where Persig and his son Chris, “who up to this point have seemed like subject and object, are united by what might be appropriately described as the underlying quality of familial love” (Sheppard).

One of the oriental themes is that Quality matters.  Otherwise one might simply throw things together without caring about the results.

“Those Indians and medieval men were just as intelligent as we are, but the context that they thought was completely different.  Within that context of thought, ghosts and spirits are quite as real as atoms, photons and quants are to modern man.” (Persig  pp. 33 - 34) Persig’s own ghost (Phaedrus) was real to him and belonged entirely to him.  To Persig, Phaedrus was something entirely his own.  (In a similar way, everyone has dreams that are entirely different from than those that anyone else has.  Dreams belong only to one person and one self).  Persig had a hard time giving up his personal ghost.

Persig writes about a man dividing a handful of sand into understandable parts. “This and that.  Here and there.  Black and white.  Now and then.  The discrimination is the division of the conscious universe into parts.” (Persig  p. 79) On the next page he explains that Classical understanding is concerned with the piles of sand and the classification of the same.  “Romantic understanding is directed toward the handful of sand before the sorting begins.  … It’s necessary to see that part of the landscape, inseparable from it, which must be understood, is a figure in the middle of it, sorting sand into piles… To reject that part of the Buddha that attends to the analysis of motorcycles is to miss the Buddha entirely.” (Persig  p. 80)

In a later discussion, the author writes about the Japanese state of mu. It is a way of answering a question with something other than yes or no.  He postulates that nature can have states other than the digital on or off.  There is something outside of Ying and Yang and that something is the entire whole or mu. (Persig  p. 327)

The Buddha exists independent of analytical thought but Persig says that the Buddha also “exists within analytic thought, and gives that analytic thought its direction”. (Persig  p. 81)  Persig pursued his personal ghost named Phaedrus; but he also says that Phaedrus spent his entire life pursuing “the ghost that underlies all of technology, all of modern science, all of Western thought. It is the ghost of rationality itself. … whose appearance is that of incoherence and meaninglessness.” (Persig  p. 82)  Being rational is incoherent.  The ultimate purpose of life is an impossible paradox; “one lives longer in order that he may live longer.  There is no other purpose.  That is what the ghost says.” (Persig  p. 82).[8]

The book on the surface seems to be about a physical journey across a physical world.  It is also about a journey to “the high country of the mind” (Persig  p. 125) where one has to become adjusted to the thin air of uncertainty.  The sweep of possible questions and possible answers goes on obviously much further than the mind can grasp.

Persig compares the Zen Buddhist practise of “just sitting,” and the motorcycle maintenance practise of “just fixing”. (Persig  p. 303)  When a person cares about what he is doing he must break out of the separateness between a person and his work.  “Peace of mind produces right values, right values produces right thoughts.  Right thoughts produce right actions and right actions produce work which will be a material reflection for others to see of the serenity at the center of it all.” (Persig  p. 304)

As the book continues, it introduces more and more influence by classic Greek and Western philosophy.  There are discussions of Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Thoreau and Poincaré.  Persig finally pulls the East and West into the same philosophical space, “Quality! Virtue! Dharma!” he declares are simply different words for the same concept. (Persig  p. 386)

While studying this book for this essay, I came to realize all the ways that the author was heavily influenced by Buddhism – especially the concepts of the Japanese Zen tradition.  Robert Persig tried to combine Western classical thought and Eastern romanticism.  He tried to meld the art of doing and the state of just being.

I saw little in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance that was influenced by Hinduism or classic Confucianism.  I found places where it might have been influenced by Taoistic concepts of a journey through life and the reverence of nature and natural surroundings.  Persig did not directly refer to the teachings of Hinduism, Confucianism or Taoism.  He does write a lot about Greek philosophical concepts.

He showed that the universe is not just Ying / Yang or black / white or good / evil. There is also an overriding Quality, Virtue or Buddha quality that stands outside, and also consists of, the entire whole.  (Some things in this plane of existence are a somewhat difficult for human beings to fully grasp and understand).  He did all this in a Chautauqua that teaches difficult religious and philosophical concepts while entertaining with a good story.

Bibliography and references used in this Essay

Eliot, Alexander  "Zen and the art of what?"
Eastern Buddhist 9.1 (May 1976): pp 124-130.

Gregory, Dave  “Unit 2 / Robert Persig’s Quest for Quality”
Humanities 360: East Meets West Study Guide
Athabasca, AB

Lin Yutang. (ed) The Wisdom of China and India
New York, NY: The Modern Library, 1955.

Pirsig, Robert M. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values
New York, NY: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2005.

Schuldenfrei  “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”
Review of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Originally printed in Harvard Educational Review, vol 45, no 1 February 1975

Sheppard, R.Z. “The Enormous Vrooom”  Time
New York, NY  April 15 1974
Review of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Steiner, George "Uneasy Rider"  The New Yorker
New York, NY  April 15 1974
Review of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Toynbee, Philip  “Voyage of Discovery.”
Review of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Original printed in The Observer no 9561 October 17, 1974.

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[1] This book will be referred to from here forward as Zen.
All the Zen references here are to the 2005 edition as detailed in the bibliography.

[2] The general biographic details of Robert Persig’s life are based on the endnotes of the 2005 Zen edition.

[3] Persig says that the book he read was The Meeting of East and West by F. S. C. Persig.  Interestingly enough, he doesn’t mention the subtitle, An Inquiry Concerning World Understanding, which might have influenced Zen’s subtitle: An Inquiry into Values.

[4] Coincidentally, this journey occurred in the summer 40 years ago when Persig was almost exactly half of his current age

[5] Details on the Chautauqua movement are from http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/traveling-culture/essay.htm.

[6] From www.thefreedictionary.com definition of ‘Zen’

[7] Sheppard, R.Z. “The Enormous Vrooom”  Time Magazine

[8]  In Zen religious practice such a paradox, containing aspects that are inaccessible to rational understanding, is known as a koan and used as a subject of mediation.

Essay: Similarities and Differences between Buddhism and Taoism

Much of my time from 2008 to 2010 was spent taking courses at Athabasca University. One Humanities course was titled ‘East Meets West’. I thought it might be of general interest to convert some of my essays into blogs. This example looked at the question: 

What are the most fundamental similarities and differences between Buddhism and Taoism?

Buddhism and Taoism have many similarities with some fundamental differences.  They were both based on the teachings of two particular master sages born in Asia more than 2500 years ago.  They are both concerned with the correct paths for right-thinking people and both preach simplicity and contemplation.  Yet Taoism is more concerned with the riddle of life here and now while Buddhism is more concerned with breaking the eternal cycle of pain and suffering.  Taoism’s basic teachings are mystical aphorisms for contemplation; while Buddhism presents many laws and precepts that can be followed to affect a person’s karma or destiny.

Buddhism is generally based on the teachings of a very real person named Siddhartha Gautama.  The dates for his birth and death are commonly given as 563 BCE to 483 BCE.  He became known as a Buddha or the Awakened One after his personal enlightenment.  His teachings were written down by others a few hundred years after his death.  While different schools of thought – such as the greater vehicle of the Mahayana Tradition and the Zen monks with their contemplative puzzles – have interpreted and expanded Buddha’s teachings in many ways, these schools are all based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama.

In Siddhartha’s early life he had lived a pampered life hidden from the pain of others.  Later, he spent years struggling with ritual and ascetic practices without ever overcoming the suffering of human existence.  Finally he sat under a tree, meditated, cleared his mind and looked within himself.  With his insight he saw the folly of struggle and realized the middle path.  He overcame the temptations of Mara.  He saw all that there was to be known and was ready to take the path to the ultimate stage of Nirvana; but he hesitated.  He was now ready to leave this earth of dirt and suffering but in the past he had pledged to bring peace to the world.

The Buddha realized that there many who would welcome his message of the way to overcome pain and suffering; he knew that there were many who could overcome Samsara or the eternal wheel of birth, death and reincarnation.  He stepped back from the brink and began to teach others his Middle Way.

 Taoism is based on the writings and ideas of Lao-Tse (604-531 BCE), who was said to be a contemporary of Confucius. Some scholars have disputed the existence of a single historical person; since, once again, his teachings were written down and reinterpreted a few centuries after his death.  Chuang Tzu was the most famous interpreter and recorder of the teachings of Lao-Tse

Lao-Tse saw himself as the Old Master showing others the path to contemplation and enlightenment.  Just as Siddhartha Gautama stopped on the path to enlightenment, Lao-tse stopped on his path to the Western mountains.  At the urging of a gatekeeper, Lao-Tse stopped for three days and wrote the small book of teachings that would bear his name.  This book illustrated the methods for people to achieve inner peace and calmness.  Like the teachings of Buddha, his words seem simple and at first glance many of his concepts seem quite easy to understand. In practice though it has been quite hard for people to understand and follow his simple words.

Neither Buddhism and and Taoism spend much time worrying about the details of earthly existence.  The disciple Malunkyaputta[1], noted a number of points that the Buddha had not discussed.  These included whether the world is eternal or infinite and if the soul exists without the body.  Buddha said discussing these moot points is like a man who has been shot with an arrow and then does not want it taken out until he has learnt the name and caste of the man who wounded him.  Buddha said that “I have not explained what I have not explained… and what have I explained?”  He had explained misery, “the origin of misery, the cessation of misery, and the path leading to the cessation of misery have I explained”.  Everything else was of much less importance.

Buddha’s offerings to his disciples included an Eightfold Path and the Four Noble Truths.  He provided practical hints for meditation.  Other earthly details were not for him to worry about.  For his disciples, the knowledge of details was to be achieved through self-awareness, observation and meditation.

Similarly, Lao-Tse taught the power of repose and acceptance.  He said that great things are achieved by becoming as tranquil as still water.  He warned about gaining too much useless knowledge.  He wrote that the “reason that it is difficult for the people to live in peace / Is because of too much knowledge.”  He was a master of keeping things simple.  As it is written in one translation:

I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts, you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world.[2]

Perhaps the biggest difference between these two religious paths is that Taoism seems more concerned with what is happening here and now.  Lao-Tse provided advice for governors regarding their relations with their country’s people.  He was concerned with living with the Tao of nature in the world we currently inhabit.  Buddha is concerned with stopping the endless cycle of reincarnation.  He was more concerned with inner peace and what comes at the end of this current existence.  His advice to princes and kings is simply to give everything away and prepare for the next world.

Buddhism is concerned with achieving a state of Nirvana or perfect peace of the mind.  Taoism is concerned with achieving acceptance of the nature of Tao which is the fundamental nature of the universe.

In conclusion, both Lao-Tse and Buddha taught the power of inner peace, acceptance and contemplation.  Buddha was more concerned with escaping from the pain of this world.  Lao-Tse was more concerned with overcoming by acceptance and the lack of struggle.

References used in this Essay

Lin Yutang. (ed) The Wisdom of China and India
New York, NY: The Modern Library, 1955.

Novak, Philip. The World's Wisdom: Sacred Texts of the World's Religions
San Francisco, USA: HarperSanFrancisco 1994

Tao Te Ching as translated by Stephen Mitchell Tao Ching
Harper Perennial; compact edition
(Quotation from this translation was retrieved
from http://www.mindfully.org/Tao-Te-Ching-Lao-tzu.htm [Link is now Broken])

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[1] This paragraph largely based on Page 63 and 64 of The World’s Wisdom.

[2] Stephen Mitchell translation chapter 67.