The Spirit of Indian and Chinese Philosophy - Paper Example

Introduction

The spirit of Chinese philosophy covers the major philosophers and philosophical movements in china involving Confucius, Mencius, Yang Chu, and Mo Ti, the Dialecticians and Logicians, Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu, the Han Scholars, the Mystical School, The Cha'n Tsung of Buddhism, and the Neo-Confucian philosophy.

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In his works on Chinese philosophy, Fung Yu-Lan explains about a transcendent world, which is beyond human consciousness and thought. It is the highest realm every man dreams to achieve, owned by the sages. Chan (2008) asserts that the Chinese philosophy, idealistic while realistic, provides that the greatest achievement of a sage is the identification of the individual with the universe. In order to achieve this identity, men must negate life, as many philosophers suggest. According to the Budha, life is the root and fountainhead of the misery of life, while Plato asserts that the body is the prison of the soul. Some Taoists, posit that life is like a tumor, and death results from breaking the tumor. Confucianism provides that daily commitment to the social affairs of the sage facilitates the perfection of his personality, not just like a citizen but as a citizen of the world so that his deeds are seen as super moral.

The Indian philosophy, on the other hand, has different schools of thought with each school identified with a particular religious sect. Closely related to everyday life, this philosophy conceives man as spiritual in nature and associates him with a spiritual perception of the universe.

There are many differences between the spirit of Chinese philosophy and the Indian. Firstly, the Indian philosophy involves an approach where people believe in what they observe and experience. Philosophers attribute philosophy to the existing nature of the object of religion, contrary to the Chinese approach where there are no dogmatics and faith.

Among the Indians, philosophy entails a doctrine of salvation. Though unaware of this ideology before, the Mimamsa eventually adopted the ideologies and became the doctrine of karma yoga leading to salvation as described by the Holy Gita. In Chinese thought, the idea of salvation is unfamiliar. There is a popular belief that the best way to live is on the earth and all that a man needs is to be complete. The Chinese philosophy thus is more concerned with social institutions.

The subject of "Atman" differentiates the Indian philosophy from the Chinese, as well as the Western philosophies. Nearly all of the Indian philosophy is based on the ideals of Atman. Even though a majority of Buddhist schools have denied this reality, they have nevertheless substituted it with Sunya and Nirvana. Among the Chinese, Mencius proposed that the universe is within the mind, which is the ordinary mind of the sage hence this ideology does not correspond to the atman of the 'Upanishads' (Radhakrishnan&Moore,2014).

In some instances, the Indian philosophy has been likened to the Chinese philosophy. According to Kim (1981), both fall under oriental philosophy, even though the Indian philosophy came long before many philosophies of the world, because of India's early civilization. This philosophy emphasizes the respect and acceptance of authority for India's sages and scriptures. For instance, when a teacher tries out a new philosophical system, they borrow from the existing and authorized works of the sages to support their ideas. Accordingly, the Atsika or orthodox schools have borrowed a lot from the Veda theories, whereas the unorthodox schools borrow from their founder. Further, Buddha in his works, though he did not cite directly from Veda, expressed many opinions in the Veda. Thus, Buddhism relies on the work of a recognized authority as well. Similarly, the Chinese philosophy highlights respect for higher beings and the importance of acting like the sage, who according to the Taoist thoughts are described as "sageness within and kingliness without."

Among the Indians, each school of thought in philosophy proclaims an eternal consciousness in mind, and when realized, becomes the ultimate goal of life. Imperfections occur as a result of little knowledge and exist partially on personality (Lindley,1949). The most important thing to struggle towards is self-realization, which forms part of the eternity of man. This philosophy focuses on "this-worldly" perception and men's relation to their daily functioning. The Chinese philosophy, however, addresses complete self-realization as a process to occur out of physical life. For someone to realize and attain the highest life of all, then he must go through spiritual life, attained after death. This is what many Chinese philosophers refer to as an otherworldly philosophy, which appears negative and of no practical use.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Chinese philosophy differs from the Indian philosophy in many ways. Ideally, the biggest difference comes in the nature or tradition of these philosophies. The Chinese philosophy advocates for a particular kind of highest life, which though high before human, is not achieved from the daily functioning of human affairs. It thus emphasizes a worldview in and out of the universe, which has been commonly described as a life of this world and the other world. The Chinese philosophy is world transcending, contrary to the Indian philosophy which asserts that self-realization and actualization are attained by actions and that even though the center of the life of man is eternal, physical life depends entirely on karma.

References

Chan, W.-T. (2008). A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy. Princeton University Press.

Kim, Y. C. (1981). Oriental thought: An introduction to the philosophical and religious thought of Asia (No. 365). Rowman & Littlefield.

Lindley, S. E. (1949). The Spirit of Indian Philosophy. The Philosophical Review, 58(4), 383-385.

Radhakrishnan, S., & Moore, C. A. (2014). A source book in Indian philosophy. Princeton University Press.

Radhakrishnan, Savepalli. 1957. The Spirit of Indian Philosophy. In The Eastern Paths to Philosophic Self-Enlightenment, ed. Chanh Cong Phan. Pp. 8-13. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.