The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2434 page)

 
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see
WA
Y
;
REVELATION
.

 
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(Chin., ‘way’). Central concept of
Taoism
, supplying the name of this philosophical and religious system. In
Confucian
usage, tao is (as the pictogram suggests) ‘teaching’, and ‘the way humans should follow’. In
Lao-tzu
(
Tao-te ching
), Tao becomes the source from which all appearance derives, the unproduced Producer of all that is, and the guarantor of its stability and regularity. In its manifestation, it appears as
Te
, and human virtue is to live with discernment in accordance with Te expressing Tao, especially through
wu-wei
.

 
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(312–85).
Chinese Buddhist monk, of key importance in the Chinese assimilation of Buddhism, and in the transition from
Therav
da
to
Mah
y
na
. Trained in both, he was also a pupil of Fo-t’uteng, under whom he studied
Perfection of Wisdom
texts and the
s
tras
and practices of
dhy
na
. He rejected syncretistic methods (
ko-i
) and insisted on disciplined life. This was balanced by devotion, especially to
Maitreya
. In all these organized practices, the purpose was the penetration to the realization of the fundamental ‘non-beingness’ (
pen-wu
; Jap.,
honmu
) as the absolute truth. In that way, he was pointing to the elaboration of
nyat
in Chinese terms. He wrote a commentary on
S
tra on the Perfection of Wisdom
.