Comparisons
Daoist vs Chan, Zuowang vs mindfulness, and other structured comparisons.
Daoist Meditation vs. Buddhist Meditation: A Structured Comparison
Two contemplative traditions that cross-pollinated for two thousand years: aims, methods, and the shared vocabulary that hides real differences.
Jingzuo vs Zuowang: Two Kinds of Quiet Sitting
A comparison page: Neo-Confucian 'quiet sitting' (moral cultivation, respect, self-examination) vs Daoist 'sitting in oblivion' (forgetting, emptying, returning) — same posture, different goals.
Jingzuo vs. Zazen: A Structured Comparison
Neo-Confucian quiet sitting and Chan/Japanese Zen sitting: shared posture, different doctrines — and why the Confucians themselves insisted on the difference.
Qi vs. Prana: A Structured Comparison
Two cultures' vital-substance terms: the mistranslation history ('energy'), what each term actually does in its own system, and why the analogy is useful but not an identity.
Shouyi vs. Concentration: A Structured Comparison
Guarding the One and focused attention: where they overlap, where they part — the Daodejing's 'embracing the One' against the modern skill of concentration.
Wuwei vs. Non-Action: A Structured Comparison
The most famous translation problem in Daoism: what 'non-action' gets wrong about wuwei, what the texts actually say, and why the error matters for practice.
Xinzhai vs. Mindfulness: A Structured Comparison
The fasting of the mind and modern mindfulness: non-interference in two different keys — emptiness of the self vs. trained present-moment attention.
Zuowang vs. Mindfulness: A Structured Comparison
Sitting in oblivion and modern mindfulness meditation: goals, methods, attention, and self compared from primary sources and research evidence — with the limits of the comparison stated.
Zuowang vs. Shouyi: Forgetting vs. Guarding
The two classical poles of Daoist sitting — emptying into oblivion versus holding the One — compared from their primary sources, with what the tradition itself says about their relationship.