Taste of Vinegar: Reality

There is a story of the three religious figures in China meeting and tasting vinegar.

Confucius makes a sour face, “Someone didn’t follow the rules in making this.” Buddha said has no reaction. ” All is suffering, so rise above.” Lao Tzu smiles, “Appreciate life as it is.”

The syncretic nature of San Jiao (三教) or the three teachings is illustrated in this story where the teachings united in a sort of synergy complementing instead of competing against each other. The three masters were actually contemporaries although they never met.

Thus, Asians tend to be inclusive so far as religion goes. The three teaching can be viewed as religions, but one that complement each other. In the West, we don’t understand that. Only one teaching is the true real religion. Not so in Asia.

• China: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism.
• Korea: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Shamanism.
• Japan: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Shintoism.

Even if you add Christianity and Islam, the merits of Confucianism remain very much a powerful ideology throughout Asia. Even in Marxist China or North Korea, Confucianism still has remnants of importance.

That may be changing today, but still the three teachings have a cultural, political and social impact on being Asian.

–Doc Nirvana

AKA DR. WAYNE STEIN