Symbolism of Water in Daoism: A Sufi Point of View

Abstract

On the symbolism of water, two esoteric doctrines of the Far-Eastern and Islamic traditions, i.e. Daoism and Sufism, have many comparable teachings. Although different points of view would take different aspects of the symbol into account, the teachings in question come to interesting analogous points around the life-giving aspect of the symbol. Above all, water represent the source of life equally and simultaneously containing all the possibilities of manifestation and seeds of life of everything. In thins meaning, water represents the Great Element of the Throne of Life in Ibn 'Arabī's teachings, equivalent to the state of the Submerging Cloak (hunlun) or Water as the first epiphany of the Great One (taiyi) in Daoism. This pre-eternal water of the unmanifested state is also manifested with the same quality in the states of the Being. This paper first takes a short survey of different symbolical aspects of water in Sufism, and after explaining the place of the idea of life in Daoism, it presents major connotations of the symbol in Daoism from a Sufi point of view.