i find myself believing in both but im suffering from internal conflicts whether these are compatible or im just holding contradictory views. is hermeticism compatible with buddhism? if so, with which school is it the most compatible? i heard that chan/zen, yogacara and some vajrayana schools might be, at least to some degree. could anyone offer their perspective from chan/zen? thanks

The Tao sounds like a "true self", as Brahman in Advaita Vedanta. This apparently was heterodox in all schools of Buddhism.

Yet historically the Chinese people practiced both, and I mean the same person was both Buddhist and Taoist (and ethically Confucian).

How did they make the Tao, the boundless ocean of continously flowing and evidently pantheistic Qi, fit with the notion of Anatman and the Dharmakaya ?

And how does Chan conceive reality ? Is it Pantheistic, Panentheistic or does it not believe in any eternal substance or self ?