YAO Xinzhong Published online: 15 October 2008 # Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2008 Abstract Since the publication of his book on Zhongyong (Tu 1976), TU Weiming has worked for more than 30 years on an anthropocosmic reconstruction of the Confucian universe, in which self-transformation is defined both as the starting point and as the necessary vehicle for ones spiritual journey. This article is primarily intended to examine Tus attempts to reconstruct Confucian spirituality but further to take a step forward to argue that in the spiritual world as construed by Confucius and Mencius, the experiential functions as transcendental by which the self initiates and empowers the transformative process. Through exploring the spiritual significance of Confucian experiences, this essay will conclude that although transcendental experience is only one of many dimensions in other religious or intellectual traditions, it is the most important path for Confucians by which the self is enabled to become fully integrated with ultimate reality. Keywords TU Weiming . Confucian self . Religious experience . Spirituality 1 Introduction The best illustration of TU Weimings anthropocosmicism can be found in a chapter entitled What is the Confucian Way? (Tu 1995), which provides a short but comprehensive outline of, and the most penetrating insight into, his underlying principles. In this outline, Tu defines Confucian spirituality in terms of a four dimensional process: the self as creative transformation, the community as a necessary vehicle for human flourishing, nature as the proper home for our form of life, and Heaven as the source of ultimate self- realization, placing the self right at the centre of the Confucian universe, which then radiates to family, community, country, world, and beyond (Tu 1995: 142). While advocating Confucianism as a religious humanism, Tu suggests that a Confucian individual would take the status quo as only the starting point for his/her spiritual journey. Dao (2008) 7:393406 DOI 10.1007/s11712-008-9088-3 YAO Xinzhong (*) Department of Theology and Religious Studies, Kings College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, UK e-mail: xinzhong.yao@kcl.ac.uk Different scholars often talk about Confucian spirituality in different senses, as an ideology of ritual or the state cult (Smart 1992: 1034), or as the theoretical function of integrating social life and shaping the spiritual world (Cui 2001: 843). In contrast to these, Tus approach reveals a much deeper root of a unique type of spirituality, in which an ontologically external transcendence (Heaven or the Way of Heaven) is closely associated with an existentially internal awareness, enabling us to be closer to an appropriate concept of Confucian religiousness. However, inspired by his overall project of a rational construction of Confucian anthropo-theology to enable Confucianism to be listed among our religions in the world, Tu quickly dismisses the possibility of a self-sustained self- transformation, suggesting that the idea of selfhood devoid of communication with the outside world is alien to the Confucian tradition (Tu 1995: 143). While this is true concerning the fulfilment of the self, by making the self conditional to the outside world, Tu has, probably unintentionally, diverted from his own position on the self-transformation of the creative self, leading to a contrast rather than integration of the individual and the cumulative symbolic tradition, including social community, nature, and the ultimate authority of Heaven. Based on the understanding that there is no justification for any dichotomy of the internal and the external in the early Confucian tradition, this essay is intended to take Tus view on the Confucian self and spirituality one step further, arguing that Confucian spirituality is characterised not only by its affirming the possibility of self-transformation or self-realization, but also by its admitting that the transformation is fully self-powered and self-resourced. 1 Many Confucians, historic or modern, hold that the power and resources within each person are produced by the ultimate power (Heaven) but still need to be brought to their full realization, and accordingly champion a doctrine of ultimate-individual unity. On the surface it seems justifiable to say that the Confucian self can manifest its values only through fulfilling its responsibilities in external activities. As far as ones spirituality is concerned, however, these activities must be preconditioned on an awareness of ones heavenly endowed position and mission, and the awareness must be gained through ones own spiritual experience of the transcendent, in whatever form the transcendent may appear to be. In this sense, to reveal the true nature of Confucian spirituality, we must examine the religious dimension of the Confucian self and how its experiential dimension in terms of transcendental experience comes to define Confucian religiosity. 2 Religion and Confucian Religiosity It is notoriously difficult, if not totally impossible, to find a definition of religion acceptable to all people, and it is even more so to spell out clearly the link between Confucianism and religion. Borrowing from HAN Yus terminology, we can say that there is a lack of consensus in defining religion at least partially because religion as a category is not a 1 In a sense Confucian spirituality and Chan Buddhism share something in common. It is well known that Chan Buddhists advocate that everyone is able to realize his or her Buddha-nature, or in other words, to become a Buddha. In the famous poem by Huineng the Sixth Patriarch of the Chan transmission line, the Buddha-mind is itself innately clean, and there is no need to resort to any external effort to cleanse it (de Bary and Bloom 1999: 498). However, the difference between Confucianism and Chan Buddhism is evident. For the former, the self is able to transcend itself because of its innate ability to know and to learn, and this constitutes potential but not actual enlightenment, while for Chan Buddhism, it is because of the innate state of the mind, which is itself Buddhahood or contains Buddha-nature. 394 YAO Xinzhong definite name (ding ming ) but an empty position (xu wei ), a kind of box that can be filled up with different contents by different people and in different ages (Han 1997: 120). The same can also be said about Confucianism, which has further complicated the issue due to the different interpretations of the tradition that is named Confucianism in the West (Yao 2000: 2647). A link between Confucianism and religion depends, to a great extent, on clarifications about what religion is and how the dimensions of Confucian teachings and practices can be matched to the criteria of religion. It is no surprise, therefore, not only that philosophers and theologians outside the Confucian tradition often either cement or sever the link but also that scholars of the Confucian tradition tend to highlight different aspects to emphasize or deemphasize its religious, a-religious, non-religious, or even anti-religious nature and function. When expanding on Hans Blumenbergs definition of myth by its quality of significance, Gavin Flood suggests that like the term significance itself, religion is resistant to definition, yet despite this problem there are forms of cultural life which are clearly identifiable as religion in contrast to other cultural practices (Flood 1999: 42). Where can we locate the special quality of these forms of cultural life? Having seen the ultimate similarity between religion and secular culture, Paul Tillich seeks to enlarge the traditional Western notion of religion by introducing the concept of ultimate concern, and further interprets ultimate concern as involving the sacred or the holy, which facilitates transcending the mere human existence to unlimited reality. 2 Does Confucianism have such an ultimate concern? The answer is probably universally affirmative. However, scholars differ over whether this concern is of a holy or transcendent nature. It seems apparent that what defines the characteristic of Confucian religiosity has much to do with how to interpret the ultimate, and that the spiritual dimension of Confucianism must be revealed through a reinterpretation of transcendence. Transcendence itself is an ambiguous term, open to a variety of interpretations. While the root meaning of transcendent does not necessarily contain a religious connotation (to transcend is to be or go beyond the range or limits of), throughout European history it has become closely associated with the Christian Gods existing apart from and not subject to the limitations of the material universe (Pearsall 2001: 1522). Following phenomen- ologists of religion, notably Mircea Eliade (19071986) and Ninian Smart (19272001), contemporary scholars of religions have significantly expanded this narrowly understood concept, and associated it with a more flexible, culturally adapted, and therefore more abstract and general quality. For example, by defining religion as any beliefs which involve the acceptance of a sacred, trans-empirical realm and any behaviours designed to affect a persons relationship with that realm, Peter Connolly suggests the transcendental quality can be found in the concept of trans-empirical or sacred (Connolly 1999: 67). Keith Ward provides yet another example of how liberal Christian theologians take a further step toward an abstract and broadened concept of transcendence and religion. For him religions relate human life in some way to a supramaterial realm of spirit or mind, whether spirit is conceived as one or many, as substantial or as in continual flux (Ward 1998: 1). For many postmodern scholars, the connotation of religion must be in one way or another reverted to its earlier meanings referring to personal vision and piety of life and departed from a religious intellectualism (modernism) that takes religion to be an impersonal system of beliefs and practices (Smith 1978: 45). This has provided a theoretical and theological 2 He who wants to include Confucianism, Buddhism, Shinto, and Daoism in the category of religion must enlarge his concept of religion beyond the way in which we ordinarily use it. It has a transforming influence on the ordinary definition of religion (Tillich: 61). The Confucian Self and Experiential Spirituality 395 background for contemporary Confucian scholars, including Tu, to reconstruct Confucian spirituality. In a broad sense the function of religion is to assist its followers to reach the unlimited realm, either called paradise or named enlightenment, and religion can therefore be defined as a transcending process. Like people in other traditions, Confucians are also concerned with the problem of how to go beyond the limits of the sensed world, and make serious attempts to transcend the conditionality of our existence. However, there is a significant difference between the Confucian and a theistic (for example, Christian) system. While for a theistic tradition the transcending of human limitation can be achieved only through an act of salvation by the Transcendent, namely an omnipotent Being, for Confucians this has to be initiated and moved from within, and on these grounds some scholars such as Julia Ching, Tu, and John Berthrong tend to regard Confucianism as a humanistic religion (Yao 1996: 1415) or to highlight the religious dimensions of an open or inclusive humanism (Berthrong 1998: 7). Questions have been raised concerning the suitability of giving the status of religion to Confucianism simply on the basis of its aiming to go beyond the limits of the human realm, because in a Confucian context this aim can be understood purely as a process of intellectual learning and moral cultivation. To disperse the clouds of doubt, we have to ascertain whether or not we can identify the sacred in these seemingly secular activities. It is admitted that All religions have created sacred space and time, structuring day-to-day life, and connecting secular activities with gradations of sacrality (Beit-Hallahmi and Argyle 1997: 1), but it is equally apparent that the ways of connecting secular activity with sacredness are significantly different. Herbert Fingarettes thesis of the secular as sacred has an enormous influence over peoples view of the Confucian sacred, and has in one sense substantially extended the boundaries of the worlds religions (Fingarette 1972). Following Fingarette, Tu examines the issue from a reverse point of view, exploring the sacred in the secular or how a concept of the sacred can be distilled from a seemingly secular system of thought and practice. For him, the religiosity of Confucianism lies in none other than its attempt to manifest the sacredness of the secular world, to transform its conditionality and to enable the qualities of a limited being to be the resources for individual or communal transcendence (see Tu 2001: 40). To justify this assertion, Tu is determined to launch a much more exciting intellectual enterprise, namely, to explore the spirituality of matter, the embodiment of the mind, the possibility of regarding the secular as the sacred, the creative and transformative potential in humanity, and the meaning of immanent transcendence (Tu 1995: 198). 3 External and Internal Transcendence Is immanent transcendence possible? Traditional Christian theologians and Pure Land Buddhists, among others, would categorically deny it because for them the resources of transcendence absolutely lie outside of sentient beings. For them humans cannot rely on themselves for spiritual delivery, and in whatever form it might be, salvation can only be achieved by the grace or compassion of an omnipotent Being or power (God or Amitoba). Because they advocate that the possibility and realization of personal salvation originate in an external reality or power, it is well justified to call their doctrine external transcendence. In contrast, liberal-minded modern theologians and Chan Buddhists, equally keen to find a way to go beyond human limitedness, are determined to free humanity from such an external intervention. They search for a sense in the idea of self- 396 YAO Xinzhong salvation or salvation by developing or extending the resources already within. For some of them, there is no paradise or pure land external to ones being, and ones enlightenment can only be achieved through fully realizing what one already has, presumably in the mind and heart. This so-called internal transcendence maximizes human subjectivity in search of spiritual well-being and challenges the once-dominant concept of religiosity and spirituality. In dialogue with Christian scholars, some contemporary new Confucians also find it necessary to distinguish Confucian immanent or internal transcendence (neizai chaoyue ) from theistically external transcendence (waizai chaoyue ): This is a traditional immanent transcendence (nei-tsai-chao-yueh) in contrast to the Western tradition of external transcendence (wei-tsai-chao-yueh) (see Liu 2003: 130). The dichotomy of the internal and the external does not, however, sit well with the typical presentation of Confucian spirituality, nor does it agree with the actual teachings of all major Confucian thinkers. A distinctive feature of Confucian religiosity is that transcendence is sought in the attempt to integrate the internal and the external, or in other words the immanent and the transcendent. Most historical and contemporary Confucians have indeed followed a middle way between the two polarised doctrines of transcendence, by which a transcendence-immanence alliance is tentatively established. They believe that as far as the spiritual value of a human person is concerned, transcendence is a process of bringing potential to reality, and that since the potential is believed to have been endowed by transcendent power (Heaven or the Way), its realization is both transcendental and immanent. It is immanent because transcendental resources are already embedded in the being and nature of an individual, and it is transcendental because the value and meaning of an individual cannot be fully realized unless he or she is embodied in the transcendental reality. For them, self-realisation is a dynamic process of interaction between spiritual resources and personal practices, or simply between transcendence and immanence. From a monotheistic point of view, humans are limited, conditioned, and to be transcended, in a clear contrast with God who is unlimited, unconditional, and transcendental. Therefore there is a gap between God and humans, a gap not bridgeable by limited beings. Differing from this view, Confucians would argue for a unity between the limited and the unlimited, between the conditioned and the unconditioned, and for the possibility that the unlimited and unconditioned can be realized in the limited and conditioned. Idealist Confucians such as Mengzi and WANG Yangming have indeed argued that there is no gap at all between the limited and the unlimited; rather the limited and the unlimited exist and function together, because humans are perceived as a continuity of Heaven, ancestors, and spirits in this world, and Heaven, ancestors, and spirits must manifest themselves through living (and limited) humans to become ontologically perceivable and existentially meaningful. Drawing upon this resource in tradition, a number of contemporary scholars such as Julia Ching and Tu reiterate the claim that because it exists in and manifests through the limited, the unlimited must be sought in the limited. In this sense they may well be said to have championed an existentialist view: if the unlimited existed separately from humans, then it would be irrelevant and therefore meaningless, as stated in the Doctrine of the Mean (Zhongyong ): The Way cannot be separated from us for a moment. What can be separated from us is not the Way (Chan 1963: 98). For these Confucians, both traditional and contemporary, there is no doubt that the unlimited demands respect and reverence. However, seeking the unlimited as an abstract reality can only lead to absurdity and obsession, and it is in this sense that they believe that they have grasped the true meaning of Confucius insistence that only humans can broaden the Way, not the other way around (Lunyu 15.29). The Confucian Self and Experiential Spirituality 397 4 The Confucian Transcendent There is a certain degree of ambiguity concerning the exact meaning and reference of Confucian transcendence. Confucian transcendence is often interpreted in two interrelated but clearly different ways. In the first sense, it is understood as centred on the spiritual other, either in the form of an anthropomorphic being or a metaphysical or spiritual power or law, mostly represented by Heaven or the Way, but sometimes also by the sage, the ancestor, or spirits (the divine). The spiritual other functions as the ultimate power or realm (zhigao wushang ), to which all beings are destined. In the second sense it is taken as a creative or transformative process, a process enabling humans to transcend from the limited and conditioned world to the unlimited and unconditional realm. Scholars in Confucian studies disagree among themselves concerning which one is more manifested in particular texts and sub-traditions. In general those who take Confucianism as a religious tradition, for example, Rodney Taylor and Julia Ching, tend to highlight the first, while those of a more philosophical mind, for example, Roger Ames and CHENG Chung-ying , place an emphasis on the second. Instead of seeing these two senses of transcendence as parallel, I argue that they must not be seen as totally separate. Rather, in the Confucian world (or moral-metaphysics, to use MOU Zongsans term), they are in fact of one substance, as indicated clearly in a specific statement of the Doctrine of the Mean: Sincerity is the Way of Heaven. To think how to be sincere is the way of man (Chan: 107 and Mencius 4A12). The oneness of the two references is the underlying reason that the study of Heaven-humans or the heavenly way-human way relationship has been central to all Confucian discourses. Because of the intrinsic link between Heaven and humans or between the ultimate destination and the process, humans are both physical and metaphysical, both moral and spiritual; or, using Confucian terminology, the human (moral) way is part of the heavenly way. 3 In other words, we can say that major Confucian thinkers recognised that a seed of unlimitedness is already embedded in the nature of a limited individual, and the self is able to seek transcendence in its own nature and through its own experiences. In early China, Heaven (tian ) was seen as something greater than humans (Eno 1990), 4 and was therefore looked upon externally as the ultimate, to which humans must conform but did not necessarily have easy access. Xunzi tended to objectify Heaven in terms of natural laws. In the Song-Ming period, materialist neo-Confucian scholars such as ZHANG Zai and WANG Fuzhi were inclined to dismiss earlier religious connotations of Heaven as irrelevant, and turned to more substantial categories such as the supreme ultimate (tai ji ) or the material power (qi ) for a tangible transcendent reality. Influenced by these scholars and by Marxist materialism, the majority of modern mainland scholars tend to substantiate the Confucian concept of Heaven, suggesting that heaven is a philosophical category irrelevant to spiritual values. This has made it necessary for us to examine how Heaven in The Analects and Mencius is presented and understood, by which we will be able to see that Heaven for early Confucians had a strong connotation 3 To the extent that the Confucian effort to achieve human perfection involves transformation in the direction of a moral absolute such as Heaven (Ch. tian, Jpn. ten), this activity has a manifestly religious character (Bell 2008: 22). 4 It has also been noted that one may see the concept heaven as embracing a spectrum of views of which the religious idea of God and the popular use of the word to refer to the sky are but the extremes, and that the character for heaven is probably derived from that for big man. This is one reason why a human element has always been present in the Chinese conception of heaven as God (Zhang 2003: 3). 398 YAO Xinzhong of the transcendent being or power, either explicitly or metaphorically and that this tradition has effectively influenced TU Wei-ming in his conception of Confucian spirituality. Confucius talked about whether or not Heaven intended to destroy this culture (Lunyu 9.5) and about the greatness of Heaven, the law of which only sage kings were able to follow (Lunyu 8.19), confirming that Heaven generates virtues in me (Lunyu 7.3). In the same way, Mencius also talked about the transcendental Heaven which alone could place great responsibility on a human (Mencius 6B15), while implying that Heaven must not be defined as a fully anthropomorphic being, because Heaven does not speak. When asked if it was true that the sage-king Yao passed the empire on to Shun, for example, Mencius rejected this saying by confirming that no human ruler would be able to give the empire to another; only Heaven had the authority and ability to do so. 5 In whatever senses Heaven and the Way are used, it is apparent that Confucius and Mencius had no intention of separating the spiritual other from a transformative process, or the ultimate authority from human affairs. For them, while transcendent by nature, Heaven was not totally alien to our being, not only because Heaven was the source of all virtues in the self (Lunyu 7.3) but also because Heaven could have an intention for somebody to become a sage (Lunyu 9.6). In the Chunqiu Zuozhuan (Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn), we read a passage attributed to Zichan (?-522 BCE), with whom Confucius consciously allied, that Heavens Way is distant; the human way is close.... [how could a human being] know the Way of Heaven (Yang 1990: 1395). Many people tend to interpret this as evidence of an utterly humanist doctrine, particularly in association with the fact that Confucius was said to have seldom talked about the Way of Heaven (Lunyu 5.13) (Fung 1952: 30). However, these two instances may well be interpreted in a different way. The distantness of the heavenly way and the rareness of Confucius talking about it just prove how transcendent the Way of Heaven is! Further, all evidence shows that Confucius and Mencius not only appreciated the distance of the way of Heaven from humans, but also drew the way of Heaven into the way of humans, and integrated the seemingly two ways into one, making the transcendence totally immanent in the human world. 6 5 The Confucian Self and Self-Transformation From the concept of immanent transcendence, it logically follows that if all the transcendental resources are already within us, then whether or not we gain access to transcendental reality really depends on ourselves alone. This has clearly drawn the transcendent into the inner realm of individuals, confirming that spiritual delivery is possible only in the form of self-transformation. 5 He further explained that this giving must not be understood in the sense of giving detailed and minute instructions; rather it was made through active engagement or underlying principles: Heaven does not speak but reveals itself through its acts and deeds (Mencius 5A 5). 6 Xunzi of course emphasizes the importance of separating tian from humans, arguing that those who understand the distinction between heaven and humans are the perfect men (Xunzi 17.5). However, tian here refers to the natural tian or natural lawfor example, the constant natural course, and the work of nature (Xunzi 17.12). When coming to tian as the spiritual power, he requires people to revere Heaven and follow its Way (3.6), describes those who practise good administrative policies and skills as possessing the virtue of Heaven (tian de ) (Xunzi 9.1), and defines Heaven and earth as one of the three roots (san ben ) of ritual principles (Xunzi 19.4). All these indicate that in the spiritual realm Xunzi also follows the course of harmonizing the internal and the external, and searches for a path of realizing the ultimate virtue within. The Confucian Self and Experiential Spirituality 399 Although separating the honors bestowed by humans from the honors bestowed by Heaven, Mencius believes that heavenly honors can be naturally acquired through human efforts (Mencius 6A16). The Confucian self is thus not simply an identity, but an embodiment of the heavenly principle or virtue for all existences and activities. When Mencius says that All the ten thousand things are there in me (Mencius 7A4), he does not mean that all the tangible things but their heavenly principles or virtues are embedded in the self. Understood this way, this paragraph indicates that because the principles and virtues of all things are already in the self, what we need to do to reach the heavenly realm is only to explore what we already have in our being and nature. Knowing the essence of things is the same as knowing the essence of our own being, which is the same as the essence of the Confucian transcendent. The great joy is to find that we are true to ourselves (Mencius 7A4), which in other words is to find that our nature is the same as the nature of all other people and all ten thousand things, by which we are able to be in unity with Heaven. Humans are not merely passive bearers of the heavenly mission; they are actively realizing what Heaven intends to fulfil. Arguing this way, Tu goes a step further to underpin the practical way to the Confucian ultimate concern: we are here because embedded in our human nature is the secret code for heavens self-realization. Since we help Heaven to realize itself through our self-discovery and self-understanding in day-to- day living, the ultimate meaning of life is found in our ordinary, human existence (Tu 1995: 222). It is in confirming the ultimate meaning of self-discovery and self- understanding that Tu names the self creative transformation, implying that the self itself is potentially sacred and that transcendence must start with ones self-cultivation (Tu 1985). On the one hand, the creativeness of the self indicates that, however limited and secular it is, the self has the ability to manifest the true nature of its potentiality to the unlimited and the sacred. On the other hand, the process and result must be transformative, for it starts with the status quo but ends up fulfilling ones spiritual potentiality that has been endowed by Heaven upon ones birth. A creative transformation can be sought through many different paths. In theistic traditions, a process departing from the conditioned and limited to the unconditioned and unlimited cannot be initiated or empowered by the self; rather it must be motivated and completed by the externally transcendental being or power. As a humanistic religionist, Tu follows a different approach, where transformation engages with the conditioned and limited, and indeed only by exploring the potentiality of the self can the meaning and value of the unconditioned and unlimited be fully manifested. The self is therefore central to Confucian religiosity, and the sacredness of Heaven can be fully appreciated only in the spiritualized self. 7 Because of the sacred potentiality, self- transformation is itself religious by nature. In his study of religious life, Frederick Streng points out that religion is an integration of subjective and objective experiences, consisting of three dimensions: personal, cultural, and ultimate, all of which are integrated and enable us to see that religion is a means of ultimate transformation (Streng 1971: 17). The trans- formation is driven by an extraordinarily significant and comprehensive awareness, and the ultimate reality is experienced and expressed as a transformative power, for in realizing the 7 It has been argued that ritual is what makes Confucianism a religion, or that Heaven is the final justification and manifestation of Confucian religiousness. These two views are correct in a sense, because it is true that Confucian thinkers elevated ritual and Heaven to a new height and interpreted them as something of transcendental values. However they would not be fully justified if they did not note that Confucian ritual and Heaven would not embody a spiritual meaning and value unless through the fulfilment of the potential of the self. 400 YAO Xinzhong nature of his or her being, a person becomes spiritually whole (Streng 1971: 8). This ultimate transformation sounds similar to what Tu highly appreciates as creative transformation, for in both cases transformation is not only for a solution of short-term problems but for the realizing of the true nature of ones being, and this transformation cannot be achieved except through ones own awareness and experience of the transcendental power. 6 An Experiential Spirituality Taken as an intellectual tradition, many contemporary scholars have studied Confucian- ism mainly from a rational rather than an experiential perspective. They tend to emphasize the philosophical and ethical aspects of the Confucian tradition, in a way similar to earlier Christian missionaries who defined Confucianism as a system of ethics but not as a religion. Under the influence of heavily enforced intellectualism in the twentieth century, even those who appreciate the ethico-religious significance of the Confucian tradition are nevertheless reluctant to recognise its spirituality in its own right; they tend to define it in terms of its intellectual reconstruction of a moral-metaphysical world. 8 For whatever reasons, it seems that the experiential dimension of Confucian spirituality has not yet become a main focus of Confucian studies, and to a good extent it is marginalized. 9 Experience is a kind of direct and observational knowledge of the world, frequently associated with but not totally confined to sense impressions and responses. Early empiricist philosophers asserted that sense experience is the only source and the single criterion of knowledge or belief. They used it as a powerful lever to overturn the dominance of Christian churches in Europe. While the experientialist claim and practice were refuted and rejected by rationalists, the importance of experience for religion was highlighted later by William James (18421910), who defined religion in terms of the feelings, acts and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine (James 1902: 29). From a different perspective, Paul Tillich also placed an emphasis on the experiential dimension of religion by pointing out that the meaning of religious symbols is based on the experience of the holy (Tillich 1963: 6064). This is a powerful reaction to the intellectual tradition where religion is primarily defined by external, rational, and systematic parameters, and sheds light on the internal, personal, and sensory values of beliefs and practices. It has been observed that although most philosophers have recently come to base their vision on experience, the real choice is not between those who look to reason and those who look to experience, but between those who understand experience to refer to sense experience and those who hold experience to be a much richer source of evidence (Long 1969: 53). It is in the second sense of experience that we have found a richer source for Confucian spirituality. 8 All those [teachings] can be termed as [religious] doctrine (jiao ) if they are able to open up human intelligence and guide people to reach the ultimate reality through practice to purify human life (Mou 1985: ii). 9 Under the sway of an overall rationalism, Tus exploration of Confucianism is also heavily intellectualized: What I have done is in fact to understand, or an attempt to understand, the internal logic of Confucian learning (Tu 2001: 46). However, more than his masters such as MOU Zongsan and XU Fuguan , Tu places an emphasis on ti zhi , combining the rational and the experiential into one mode of knowledge, and providing an interpretative method for the extension of human knowledge. He further defines the experiential knowing as final ground of the religiosity of Confucianism (Tu 2001: 52). The Confucian Self and Experiential Spirituality 401 There are a variety of experiences that matter spiritually to individuals, but the most important is a special kind of experience in which individuals become aware of, or influenced by, a presence or power that transcends everyday life. 10 It is difficult to define what exactly a transcendental experience is, but scholars in the study of religion have recently established a number of criteria for conveniently indicating the religiousness of an experience. First, it involves an awareness of a reality that transcends oneself; secondly, while transcendent, the reality is in some way immanent to oneself, and thirdly, between these two expressions of the supreme reality there is a dynamic exchange (Marxwell and Tschudin 1990: 14). A parallel between what is called transcendental experience and the Confucian attaining of perfection, or in Tus term, creative transformation, can be easily identified. There was no lack of spiritual experiences that awoke or enlightened individual scholars in Confucian history. For example, under the influence of Chan Buddhism, scholars of the Song-Ming period often claimed to have had a kind of experience that led them to an enlightened insight into their sagely nature or heart. A classical example of these was provided by WANG Yangming (14721529), when he described how he was enlightened by a sudden awareness about the best way to become a transcendent sage. 11 However, Confucian experiences of an immanent-transcendent nature do not have to be confined to the suddenly enlightened cases, and early Confucians, especially Confucius and Mencius, were equally aware of the importance of the experiential link between the self and transcendent reality. Although there is little trace in their conversations of, to use modern terms, experience (tiyan ) or transcendence (chaoyue ), we should have no doubt about their intention when they talked about the effect and importance of seeing, feeling, knowing, hearing, or dreaming the power or thing that transcended themselves. It is apparent that they held a belief that by experiencing the power, individuals would easily see that Heaven, the Way, the Decree of Heaven, ancestors, sages, and spirits could motivate them to go beyond the limits or conditionality they were faced with, or that the transcendent powers or beings were bigger or higher than any individual human being, able to provide guidance or motivation for individuals to be part of the ultimate reality. It was a widespread belief among early Confucian thinkers that Heaven or the Decree of Heaven determined the meaning and value of life, and personal appreciation of meaning and value is a necessary step closer to Heaven or the Way of Heaven. With an integrated concept of the self, for example, Mencius elaborated an experiential approach to the Confucian ultimate when he called for extending ones heart to the utmost and knowing the nature of oneself and all people. If he had stopped here, then we might legitimately call him a humanist philosopher seeking a better understanding of humans. Mencius took an important further step saying that by extending ones heart and knowing ones nature, one would be able to know and serve Heaven (Mencius 7A1). Mencius dismissed any attempt to justify the separation of transcendental awareness from ones own personal experience, and provided a typical case for Confucian spirituality in which the extending (jin ) and 10 This so-called Hardy question was used by Alister Hardy (18961985) to collect examples of peoples religious experience: Many studies have been done investigating peoples religious experiences, all showing from a third to half of the population to have had some such experience which has profoundly affected their lives (Rankin 2006: 5, 15). 11 Wangs experience came when he was 36 years old, during his exile, and realized that human nature was where sagehood and wisdom lay. The one night, in the year 1508, he awoke and shouted so loudly that people living nearby were startled. What caused his excitement was that upon awakening he had suddenly discovered that so-called things are not entities in the external world but objects of consciousness (Chang 1962: 5). 402 YAO Xinzhong knowing (zhi ) of the self were listed as two of the most important experiential paths to transcendental reality. The experiential paths of Confucianism perfectly match the three measures of transcendental experience as listed above. The awareness of a transcendental being or power is of paramount importance for Confucian creative transformation. Heaven, the Way, and the sage are generally considered the source and the reason of transcendence, and awareness of their greatness or ultimate nature is taken as the prime cause of their being experienced. It is therefore believed that holding them in awe distinguishes a Confucian gentleman from a small man: The gentleman stands in awe of three things. He is in awe of the Decree of Heaven. He is in awe of great men. He is in awe of the words of the sages. The small man, being ignorant of the Decree of Heaven, does not stand in awe of it. He treats great men with insolence, and the words of the sages with derision (Lunyu 16.8). What Confucius meant here is clearly that the Decree of Heaven, great persons, and sages were all transcendent by nature and by function, and the awareness of them would bring about an experience in which one would come to stand in awe of the goal of ones spiritual cultivation and personal life. This standing in awe has thus become an inseparable element of Confucian transcendent experience. However, the transcendent nature of Confucian awareness does not mean that the meaning and significance of Heaven, the Way, and the sage is external to ones own existence and experience; rather it is believed to be within and part of ones life, without which life would become meaningless or one would no longer be a human in the full sense (hence a small man). Therefore, Confucian Heaven, Way, and sages are immanent, not only in the sense that any individual is potentially able to be part of them, but also in the sense that an experience of them or their power would enable individuals to hold a wider and all-encompassing view of a spiritual aspect of reality. Above all, in Confucian experience there is a dynamic exchange between the sense of the transcendent and the perception of the immanent, or between the reality that is considered beyond ones reach and the feeling, seeing, and observing of the sacred in ones daily life. Confucius was clearly aware of the connection between his dreaming of the Duke of Zhou and his physical and mental health, and when he did not have such a dream he realized how much he had gone downhill (Lunyu 7.5). This suggests that in Confucius view there exists an interactive relationship between ones experience of the sage (in this instance, dreaming) and ones ability to carry out the teaching of the sage. Confucian experiences manifest the presence of something transcendent, in which ones value is associated with the highest realm and ones existence is integrated with the ultimate reality. This can be seen from Confucius attitude toward sacrifice. Contrary to those who performed rituals simply as customary procedures, Confucius emphasized that the importance of ritual was to feel or see the presence of the spirits: One should make sacrifice to a spirit as though that spirit was present (Lunyu 3.12). 12 Only by the presence evident in ones perception can a set of phenomenological rituals become existentially meaningful, because it is in this presence that the immanent nature and function of the transcendent becomes embodied, functional, and influential in peoples ritual experiences. 12 The same can also be said about ancestor worship. Zengzi , one of Confucius disciples, associated the full manifestation of virtues among the people to proper respect toward the dead and continuing sacrifices towards ancestors (Lunyu 1.9). For living descendants, ancestors are of a transcendent function, and by experiencing their teaching and power through proper rituals, descendants would be able to become virtuous. The Confucian Self and Experiential Spirituality 403 7 The Experiential as Transcendent Distinguished scholars such as Tu have clearly seen the importance of personal experience for enhancing Confucian religiosity and tend to place the self at the centre of Confucian spirituality. However, confined by their rational agenda of reconstruction, they seem reluctant to confirm any direct association of personal experience to transcendence. For them transcendence can be fully realized in the self only through a rational connection with the external world, or through conscientious fulfilment of moral responsibilities toward the community. There is no doubt that the self-experience in Confucianism is preoccupied with secular matters, taking place in daily life or in the process of moral education or self- discipline. Can we say that because of this Confucian experiences are secular by nature and lack an explicit transcendent significance? Confucians are concerned with social, political, and educational problems, by which they create a vision or blueprint for a morally perfect life, the realization of which is taken as the driving force for them to work diligently. Such an experience in Confucianism, however, is not totally secular; rather it can be traced to a transcendent origin, either because it is derived from an awareness of the reality that transcends the human realm, or because in it the one who has the experience has gone through such a transformation that he or she can be totally renewed. Therefore daily renewal is both moral and spiritual, underlying all Confucian efforts in politics, morality, and community. The Great Learning (Daxue ) quotes from the Book of History that if you can renovate yourself one day, then you can do so every day, and keep doing so day after day (Daxue 2, in Chan: 87). To live a respectful Confucian daily life is therefore to experience oneself anew everyday. It is easy to interpret this daily renewal simply as a process of normal learning, adding something new everyday to our knowledge and skills through learning and practice, by which we are renovated. However, this is only one side of the Confucian renewal, an intellectual aspect of Confucian experiencing. In a more subtle sense, daily renewal must be seen as a spiritual regeneration, in which a new self is born everyday. The spiritual content of the Confucian self is not fixed at any given time; it involves being changed or transformed, and every renewal is a means to voice ones ultimate concern and a step closer to the transcendental reality. Therefore the renewing is not only central to the creative transformation of the self, but also is the key for us to understand why Confucian experiences can be said to be transcendent by nature. The formation and process of Confucian experience shares many features with religious experience in other traditions. For example, Confucian experience is initiated by an awareness of spiritual profundity, is frequently accompanied with an enlightened insight, and has a significant impact on the experient and his or her view of life. Confucian experience is, nevertheless, special, with a number of characteristics that distinguish it from other types of religious experiences. First, it can be transcendent without an extraordinary trigger. Religious or transcendental experience normally has a kind of trigger, initiated through a particular conscious or unconscious action or encounter. However, this is not a necessary condition for Confucian experiencing. Because of the inter-communication between Confucian Heaven and Confucian self, spiritual experiences mostly take place in a daily life situation, triggered by a moral engagement, not necessarily stipulated by a spiritual presence. Secondly, typical Confucian experiences are not necessarily a sudden awareness of something extraordinary, but more commonly involve a slow and gradual process. In other traditions, religious experiences in general appear to be momentary, like a light shining through ones mind. For Confucians, this so-called sudden realization is only one of the many types, and it is certainly not universally applicable. Rather it is more common among Confucians to experience 404 YAO Xinzhong an extraordinary awareness through a gradual process, which, when accumulating to a breaking point, enables one to transcend ones limitation and conditionality and finally to reach the ultimate reality where one has become a trinity with Heaven and Earth (Zhongyong 22, in Chan 1963: 108). Thirdly, religious experiences in a theistic tradition are normally accompanied by a strong conviction or belief in the authority or power of the transcendent, and are therefore externally-pointing (numinous), rather than inwardly directing (mystical). However, many Confucian experiences are primarily an inwardly seeking journey, an exploration of what one already has, something innate of a transcendental nature. Therefore, what is for the sake of the self is not merely secular, but contains spiritual meaning and is part of Confucian transcendence. Fourthly, mystical experiences normally involve the submerging of ones self in the ultimate reality, but Confucian experience is aimed to manifest the self, and by experiencing the ultimate one is able to gain ultimate truth, knowing the Mandate or Decree of Heaven (zhi tian ming ). Confucian experience is to gain freedom for the self, not to set limits for its scope and action. The significance of the freedom for spiritual growth can be seen from Confucius when he defined it as the highest achievement in moral progression: at seventy I followed my hearts desire without overstepping the line (Lunyu 2.4). 8 Conclusion TU Weiming correctly places the self at the centre of the Confucian tradition, arguing for the creative self to be taken as the moving force to unfold all Confucian programs and to rebuild a moral, political, and educational world. Tu has clearly realized that the self cannot be purely rational and moral, suggesting that it may well also be experiential and spiritual. In this sense, Tu has proposed a new Confucian program that distinguishes him from a number of other contemporary Confucian scholars. In unfolding the Confucian agenda, however, Tu has followed a programmatic approach that is unable to fully reveal the experiential dimension of Confucian spirituality and that is not possible for an appropriate assessment over the experiential and spiritual nature of the Confucian self. To address this weakness, as this article has argued, we must abandon the dichotomous way of thinking concerning the rational and the spiritual that has to some extent dominated contemporary Confucian studies, and pay more attention to the importance of transcendental experiences of the self, by which a holistic Confucian spirituality can be firmly established. Acknowledgment The author wishes to thank Professors TU Weiming, John Berthrong, and TSAI Yan-zen for their insightful comments on an earlier version of this essay, some of which have been incorporated into the paper during the process of revision. References Beit-Hallahmi, Benjamin, and Michael Argyle. 1997. 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