Daoist Mystical Philosophy

Taking Zhuangzi's observations on language seriously and applying them in mystical discourse, the Xisheng jing reinterprets words, ideas, images, and metaphors with the aim of startling people out of preconceived notions. It guides them to develop a new and more flexible hermeneutic framework suitable for an increasing oneness with Tao. In a subtle and certainly much less elaborate way it does the same thing as the riddles and narratives of later Chan Buddhists. The aim and the technique are the same. Commonly known things are given a new quality of meaning, ordinary forms of thinking are abolished and deconstructed.