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Document Details : Title: Lessons on Spirituality from Zhuang Zi Subtitle: Dichotomies and beyond Dichotomies between Man and Nature Author(s): OFILADA MINA, Macario Journal: Studies in Spirituality Volume: 10 Date: 2000 Pages: 66-76 DOI: 10.2143/SIS.10.0.505261 Abstract : Our interest in the Chinese mystic sage Zhuang Zi (ca.399-295 B.C.) is not due to this possible appeal to scholars of Christian spirituality or to Thomas Merton's discovery of him. On the contrary, this mysterious author of an equally mysterious book, who is commonly held to be the mystical interpreter of Lao Zi (ca. 600 B.C.), does give us -on his own and on his own categories- certain valuable lessons on spirituality. Themes such as dichotomies, mystical union and absorption, freedom, etc., can be understood as elements of a vibrant mysticism and could be helpful in the attempts towards a scientific delineation of spirituality. His is not a litugical spirituality, but starts as a spirituality of attitudes or dispositions made concrete by action or the lack of it; for Wu Wei, or gliding along, is sheer passivity in the Way or Dao. |
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