“Triune Ultimate Reality”(TUR) in East Asia

This article is to unveil “Trinity” in East Asia, so that the universal love may be alive as well as truth (universal God) may be globally brought in relief for vindication. The Trinity has been the base of Christian doctrine as the standard to distinguish between the orthodox on one hand, and heretics and pagans on the other. “Trinity” is the central dogma of Christian theology, that One god exists in three Persons and One Substance.1 The East Asian religions and schools are, however, inter-mingled with each other for some extent, unlike the relationship between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Truth, therefore, may be distorted, unless taking them in multi-religious and cultural contexts. In the Cai-gen-tan published by Lin-sun-po (1781-1836) in 1892, Hong-ying-ming (1555- In the Christian experience, “Trinity” is linked with revelation: God is transcendental over us, with us historically as Christ, and immanent in us as Spirit. For some conservative Christians, however, the East Asian religions have no “Trinity”. The unveiling assessment is on East Asian scriptures (Confucian, Lao-zhaung, and Buddhist ones), rather than a debate of existing theories (almost none yet) by individual scholars.