The meaning of Dharma or Method in Taoism 什么是法

The meaning of Dharma or Method in Taoism

"Fa" (法, "Dharma" or "Phenomena") was originally a Buddhist term broadly referring to all phenomena in the real world, including material and spiritual, noumenal and manifest.

The Taoism Chongxuan school borrowed this to explain that all things in the world are illusory. Wang Xuanlan's Xuanzhu Lu states: "All dharmas in the ten directions can be spoken of; all spoken dharmas are illusory. The unspoken dharma is also illusory in contrast to this illusion. Since spoken dharmas are illusory, the unspoken is also illusory." He believed that all things in the world, whether speakable or not, lack self-nature, lack mark-nature, and cannot be self-determined.

The meaning of Dharma or Method in Taoism

Dharma in essence arises from human consciousness: "When mind arises, all dharmas arise; when mind ceases, all dharmas cease." "Dharmas originally arise from humans; dharmas originally cease through humans. Arising and ceasing depend on humans; dharmas fundamentally have no arising or ceasing." This attributes the arising and ceasing of all things to changes in human subjective consciousness, reflecting the Dao's emphasis on the mind as the source of experience.