Comparative Study Of "God Creates The World" Of Baha'I And "Tao Bears The World" Of Lao Tze

"God creates the world" and "Tao bears the world" are basic propositions of Baha'i and Lao Tze's philosophy which are two eye-catching but entirely different thought systems respectively in their birth dates,places and subjects.But their ways of illustration are similar and have some similar aspects in specific connotation. Under the globalization background,to compare and explore the essence,difference and similarity of the two propositions not only has high academic value,but also has important realistic meaning.It is not only propitious to reduce intercultural misunderstanding and hostility,promoting world peace and stability,but also to strengthen and perfect the cultural construction of mankind oneself availably, promoting the progress and development of the world.Actually,regardless of"God creates the world" or "Tao bears the world",their basic contents both include four aspects:firstly,what is God or Tao? why do we say that he creates or it bears the world? what property does he or it have? secondly, how does God create or Tao bear the world? thirdly,what kind of world does God create or Tao bear? fourthly,what is the ultimate relation of the world and God or Tao,is it unity or separation? if it is unity,then how to unify? We can both find out many points of similarity and obvious difference at the above-mentioned aspects in "God creates the world" of Baha'i and "Tao bears the world" of Lao TzeFirstly,in regard to the first aspect of God's or Tao's property and essence: regardless of Baha'i or Lao Tze,they both insist that God or Tao surmounts timespace,sense and concept;he or it is the cause of things,original motive force and guideline,but has no need on other things by himself or itself,he or it is absolute and unconditional;at the same time,he or it lies in the cosmos,his or its function is limitless and boundless,his or its influence is permanent.However,as to Baha'i,although God creats the world and displays his nature through the world,his essence is forever outside of and higher than the world,he has never separated or descended to the world.The two have no direct ties of exchange.But as to Lao Tze,as the "root",the Tao which bears the world is not existent singly outside of the world,but is in the world,and displays its existence through the growth,change of the world.Tao does not leave the world,the world does not leave Tao,Tao and the world are not separate.God of Baha'i is not only outside of the world,but also brimful;he has the active substantiality of the tallest quantity in strict meaning,includes all the names and properities;he is the source of perfection.Everything of the cosmos flushes from him,and acquires their own existence and essence through this.Lao Tze's Tao is then different.Lao Tze says:the Tao is like an empty vessel that yet may be drawn from without ever needing to be filled.Tao is like an empty vessel is to describe the shape of Tao as "void".Although the shape of Tao is void,it is not quite bare,but filled with the spirit of life,hidden with energy and creation of no solution.Regardless of Baha'i or Lao Tze,their studies of world oneness are not limited to the creation theory,but turn to the ontology.In their classics,God or Tao is not only the origin of the world,the creator of the cosmos;but also the nature of the world,the basis that cosmos depends on to exist.However,in our eyes,the only highest invisible body in Baha'i Faith which dominates everything-God-is spirit essence obviously.To he a little more accurate,this God is the biggest subjective will.Although the Tao of Lao Tze is visionary,mysterious and difficult to master,it is definitely not God or any other personality spirit.It has no privacy or desire,no benvolence or righteousness,no affection or concept of values,it is really the creation basis inside the world-the physical law,self-creating rule.Next,in regard to the second aspect,namely,the process of"God creates the world" and "Tao bears the world":both Baha'i and Lao Tze insist that the creation of the world is to make a thing out of nothing,to creat many out of one.However,as to the nature of the process of "God creates the world" and "Tao bears the world",the former can be said to derive from,the latter then is to convert from.As to Baha'i,all the created things are God's evidence of presence,all the things originating from him but not equal to him,he holds aloof from the world endlessly by himself.To speak from the angle of the world,God is an independently existent motivation which is different from and outside of them forever,namely,the outside force.Lao Tze is then different,in his eyes,Tao is a body mixed,the world is contained in it,everything on earth are born by Tao,as if a trunk,branch,bar,leaf is generated from the root,it is thus clear that the world turns out from Tao,and obtains Tao's natural characters in different ways,Tao is the self-creating and internal creating power of the cosmos.As to the functional ways of God of Baha'i and Tao of Lao Tze in the the process of creation,the former is yu-wei,the latter is wu-wei.Yu-wei is unequal to ability,but has the intention,and do so depending on himself.Baha'i says,God is a satisfactory entity,he creats the world because of love,his purpose is to make each creation reflect his one kind or many kinds of characters.It is thus clear that,that God creates things is subjected to his nature;he is purposeful and active from the start.In fact,from creation to motion,the world is operated according to the will of God at any moment and for the sake of his cause.Wu-wei is not to do nothing,but to have no intention,and do so following the ways of the world.Lao Tze once said that Tao is void,now that Tao is void,it has no entity by itself,then it has no benefits,and no motive to create the world.Therefore,although objectively speaking,Tao creates the world definitely,and guides their existence,operation and development,all these are not intentional.At the same time,Tao has no will on the world yet;the spring creation,summer growth,autumn withering and winter storage of things,is an involuntary phenomenon completely,it is out of nature,not interfered by a foreign power.Tao completely resigns to the natural development and change,no factitiousness.As to the behaving of God of Baha'i and Tao of Lao Tze in the process of creation,God is pre-eminent,arbitrary,he likes to spread things around.To say in a specific way,he does things as he pleases,behaves depending on his will,settles everything according to his favor,but he is also omnipotent.Baha'i says, humbleness is the only character which God does not have,this proved that judgement from another aspect.Compared with God's initiative and pre-eminence in the process of creating the world,Tao's performance in the process then is passive and weak."The 40th chapter in Lao Tze" says:"Weakness marks the course of Tao's mighty deeds",that is to say,remaining mildness is the functional way of Tao,its performance in the creation of the world is "be good at benefiting the ten thousand creatures;yet itself does not scramble".Compared with the dazzling of God,the existence of Tao is silent and obscure.However,although Tao is passive and weak,its function is "it is there within us all the while;draw upon it as you will, it never runs dry".If we say that,there is a little sense of fatherhood in the case of God to the world in Baha'i,then a strong sense of matherhood is incarnated in the case of Tao to the world in Lao Tze.Furtherly,in regard to the third aspect,namely,to say of the classification and basis of the world:regardless of Baha'i or Lao Tze,they both insist that in the process of creating or bearing the world,besides endowing the world with different outward appearance namely forms,more importantly,God or Tao gives them the character namely the nature coming from God or Tao,and this is just the basis of the world's creation and existence,and it is exactly this basis that makes a thing different from another.This basis is the soul in Baha'i,and the outflowing operation in Lao Tze.However,essentially,the God of Baha'i is a purposeful subjective will with favor and hate;at the same time,he is outside of the world,the case of the world from him is the process of origination,this decides that,although everythings come from God,they are unequal in status.In fact,Baha'i not only admits this definitely for many times,but also thinks that this kind of inequality is reasonable,then blazons forth that everythings should do their devoir and not break the rules.According to the viewpoints of Baha'i,human beings are the noblest existence ever created,they are created by God according to his own image and have the wisdom that animals or plants do not have,or we can say,the intellect to understand the uniquely true immortal.Certainly,if to subdivide,the status of the prophets is slightly higher than the ordinary mortal.As the saint of heaven,the prophet is the agent contacting God and the world;he has the double natures of the world and the spirit,the double status of the God agent and the ordinary mortal.As for God and the world,in the eyes of Baha'i,the two are basically uncomparable,at the presence of God,everythings are all slaves or servants.Even the relation of a master and a slave existent between them is also the mark that God declines to give people kindness and grace.Different from God of Baha'i,Tao of Lao Tze is a physical law essentially,it has no intention or desire,then has no selfishness and tendencies naturally.At the same time,Tao is an internality of the world,the fact that everything is born from it is a process of converting,they are like tree trunks,branches and leaves from the root,although they differ in thousands of ways superficially,but are consubstantial. This suggests that the creation apparently is equal on the ontology meaning.Lao Tze often speaks of "The Four Great","sage","fool" etc.in his book,but this is only an evaluation of people in their moral state,it doesn't mean that people are not equal to things or higher than things,it doesn't mean that people can be divided according to status,grade yet.Even of that,not only all the things are equal mutually,Tao is equal to the world.In his "The Four Great",Lao Tze regards Tao and people as "Great" together,we can extend from another angle that he admits people have the equal value with Tao.Lastly,in regard to the fourth aspect,namely,the unity of the world with God or Tao:regardless of Baha'i or Lao Tze,they both insist:"God creates the world" and "Tao bears the world" are reciprocating and circling movements with the start point and terminal point mutually unified,namely,the world not only starts from God or Tao,it will also return to God or Tao.The summative judgement of God or Tao manifests itself in an outstanding way in real life that:to regard God or Tao as the tallest cognitive target of human beings and the tallest action standard.However,though the final targets of the world are all to return to,or to unify with God or Tao,because of the outer segregation between God of Baha'i and the world,and the internal identity between Tao of Lao Tze and the world,they are different in the degree of integration respectively.As to Baha'i,the integration of people and God only ends up in "united as one",it is "coexistence" in the words of Baha'i or "to be intimate with God and arrive at his front".But as to Lao Tze, people can be really united with Tao,namely,mysteriously equal to Tao.At this time,the Tao is in the person,the person is as well in the Tao,the Tao and the person is mixed together,they may not be divided,but equal to one.In the actual process of mankind pursuing the unification with God or Tao, both Baha'i and Lao Tze insist the unity of knowledge and practice.Among them, what Baha'i and Lao Tze emphasize mostly together is the discarding of knowledge in cognition and the controling of desire in action.According to the standpoints of Baha'i and Lao Tze,not only the property of God or the essence of Tao is hidden in the nature of human beings,the ability of understanding and returning to God or Tao is also hidden inside.That these qualities and abilities can't unfold themselves, should mostly be blamed on the knowledge postnatally acquired by people and the desire deriving from it,which obstructs this kind of possibility.Therefore,in order to know and approach God or be equal to Tao,a person must purify his mind and get rid of all evil knowledge or absurd desire.In fact,Baha'i and Lao Tze do not require a person to do away with the whole knowledge or be abstinent absolutely.They are understandable and affirmative to the wishes and actions of people pursuing general knowledge and basic desire.They just don't hope to let false knowledge cover true knowledge;do not be lechery to let desire become the hobble between people and Tao or God.For all that,there is fundamental difference concerning the integrating way of the world with God or Tao between Baha'i and Lao Tze:the former is outer exploratin,the latter is internal exploratin.Take the prophet of Baha'i and the sage of Lao Tze as an example,one is an admirable and unreplacable agent,the other is a model that everyone can achieve,who is often ignored by people.Although prophets and sages are both the spokesperson of the tallest existence,their status and functions are very different in real life.This proves the huge difference between Baha'i and Lao Tze in the ways of people integrating with God or Tao from indirect sources.