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Liu Guo of the Song Dynasty wrote in "Longzhou Collection Xiangyang Song": "Man is determined to conquer the sky, and there is no sun and moon for a long time." Among them, " The word "xi" is a modal particle, and "人定" is one word, so "ding" does not mean "must be able to". The main difference between Buddhism and Taoism is the attitude towards life and death. It can be said that the two are completely different.

The goal pursued by Buddhism is "Nirvana", escape from the cycle of life and death.

Buddhism believes that life is suffering. Life is suffering, death is suffering. And this kind of suffering has no end, it is in a cycle of life and death that never ends. Only by achieving Nirvana can one escape the cycle of life and death.

So how to achieve nirvana? It means people need to "enlighten". Buddha is enlightenment. In the final analysis, it is the realization that life is suffering. Buddhism believes that when you truly realize that life is suffering, you will be "enlightened". This is the core idea of ??Buddhism.

Taoism has a positive and positive attitude towards life in general. This is the biggest difference between Taoism and Buddhism and even other religions. For example, Christianity believes that people are born with original sin and must atone for their sins when they are born, while Buddhism believes that life is suffering.

So, how does Taoism solve the problem of death? The answer is very simple, that is to achieve immortality and immortality through practice.

There is a saying in the secret of Taoist practice, "Being obedient to a human being and becoming an immortal in the opposite direction are all based on the reversal of yin and yang." This is the Taoist method of obtaining immortality. This sentence comes from the Chinese Five Elements Theory, which is the basic theory of traditional Chinese medicine.

Interpreting this sentence requires some knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine. Let me briefly introduce it:

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that human internal organs correspond to the five elements, for example, the liver belongs to wood, the kidneys belong to water, etc. The principle of Chinese medicine treatment is based on the principle of balance, rather than treating the disease based on the disease. Therefore, according to the principle of the balance of the five elements, it is very likely that liver disease is due to kidney deficiency and the imbalance of the five elements. Doctors will treat the kidneys and ignore the liver. This is the difference between Western medicine and Chinese medicine.

Taoism has inherited this idea of ??traditional Chinese medicine. By the way, the famous Taoists are all famous doctors. Taoists believe that it is actually unreasonable to analyze the distribution of human internal organs according to the five elements.

The so-called irrationality mainly means that "water" is at the bottom and "fire" is at the top. This fire of life will not burn quickly on water. Therefore, people will get sick and people will die. But the human body is already like this, and ordinary people can only live according to nature's arrangements. This is what "being a human being" means.

Taoism believes that if the relationship between the five elements of the five internal organs of a person is changed so that "fire" is at the bottom, that is, water and fire are reversed, the fire of life will have a foundation and people can live forever. Inversion is the basic idea of ????the so-called "reverse immortality".

The second half of the sentence talks about the method, "it's all about the inversion of yin and yang". Because the five internal organs of a person are already like this, Taoism has no way to move the five internal organs and rearrange their positions. The method is to use the method of inverting yin and yang to change the five elements attributes of the five internal organs. For example, let the kidney originally belong to water and change it to fire. This is not just changing the noun, the change of attributes includes changing some characteristics.

The above are the differences between Buddhism and Taoism on the issues of life and death, as well as their respective solutions.

Buddhism and Taoism have similarities. Buddhism entered China thanks to the introduction of Taoism. The sinicization of Buddhist teachings and the further development of Taoism and Taoist theory are the result of the competition and integration of Buddhism and Taoism. The "emptiness" of Buddhism borrows from Laozi's "emptiness", and Laozi's "emptiness" interprets the "emptiness" of Buddhism. Therefore, Zhu Xi said: "I suspect that when Buddhists first came to China, most of them stole Laozi's ideas to write sutras, just like saying that there is an empty place" (Volume 126, P. 3008). Specifically, "Masters Ru Yuan and Master Zhao's disciples only talked about Zhuang Lao, and later people also used Zhuang Lao to help Zen" (Volume 126, p. 3025). The Buddha "only had the Sutra of Forty-two Chapters when he first came. During the Jin and Song dynasties, there was talk of righteousness, but they all plagiarized Lao Zhuang and Zhuang Zhuang, and took more from Liezi." (Volume 126, p. 3038). The Buddhist teachings of the Jin and Song Dynasties, the works of Huiyuan and Seng Zhao, and the later Zen Buddhism are all closely related to the teachings of Laozi, Zhuang and Lie. The popularity of Zen has surpassed the influence of "Laozi" and has also "eclipsed" Taoism. Zhu Xi attributed it to Bodhidharma: "... Bodhidharma was free from writing, just sitting silently, and his mind was calm. It makes sense. This is a line of argument, and many of the previous ones are trivial, and it is difficult for Lao to contend with it." (Volume 126, P. 3010) In fact, Bodhidharma only brought new Zen methods and "enlightened the sect through teachings" (Daoxuan's "The Biography of Bodhidharma", quoted from Pan Guiming's "The Process of Chinese Zen Thought", China Today Publishing House, November 1992 1st edition, p.5), referring to its reliance on the four-volume "Langha Sutra" for its argument, "The so-called Zen sect has always 'not established writing' and 'external transmission of teachings' is actually a serious distortion. At least in Da In the Mo era, there was no departure from 'teaching', and therefore it was impossible to leave 'writing'" (ibid., p. 6-7). Taoism in turn quoted Buddhist theories, or in other words, Buddhism also "fed back" Taoism.