Mettavalokanaya_Buddhist_Magazine_December_2018.

Most Venerable Master Shih Ming
Kuang (Chen Chih Ming)
The Ta Hsiuang Monastery Chief
Master, Vice President Buddhist
Association of Republic of China
Let us talk about the human life
view of Buddhism. According to the
above mentioned life view of Buddhism
all things have life, living beings are
sentient beings and living beings have
Buddha nature. Therefore, the human
life view of Buddhism has following
characteristics, 01 - All are equal, not
different. Not only animals, plants and
minerals but also all things are treated
equally. Therefore, Buddhism proposes
that all living beings are equal. We
Buddhists believe that we should make
company with all things, make friend
with all things and even respect all things
as our teachers. We should always learn
with the nature.
02 - It is altruistic and
compassionate not selfish and
selfish benefiting. How great it is to
have the great loving kindness and
great compassion the so called “un
conditioned great loving kindness and
one entity compassion” 03 - It is of
service and sacrifice, forsaking oneself
others, not self-benefiting at the cost
of others. In Buddhist six perfections,
perfection of giving includes the giving
of not only property, Buddha, Dharma
and fearlessness but also physical
organs and even life.
In the history of Buddhism, we can
see the example. Today some countries
like Sri Lanka and Costa Rica always
donate cornea to the patients of other
countries. This is the quite admirable.
04 - It is peace not war. In history,
there is various kind of war. Some wars
The Human Life view of
Buddhism….
are caused by religion. But, in human
history, until today there is no single war
in the name of Buddhism. This fact can
fully prove that the human life view of
Buddhism is peaceful and anti-war.
The above is aspect of positive
goodness in the human life view of
Buddhism. As to its aspect of negative
badness in the human life view,
Buddhism also has a rather through
view. Buddhism considers that the five
poisons of craving, hatred, ignorance,
arrogance and doubt are the evils of
human beings.
It is already quite serious if one
is infected with any one poison. Take
craving as an example, all the wars and
invasions today are caused by craving.
How can we eradicate the above
mentioned evils? Buddhism highly
believes that practice can work. What
is practice? Speaking simply, we have
to practice diligently the five precepts,
the ten virtues, the six perfections and
eightfold noble path. All these are the
basic practices to overcome the five
poisons and other evils. Only by this
way, we can as human beings achieve
the aim of establishing ourselves and
saving others. It is also by this way, we
“human beings” can play an important
role to improve the world in this saha
world.
The world view of Buddhism….
Lastly, I will ask about the world
view of Buddhism. We all know that
the world view of Buddhism classifies
the world into three realms; realm
of desire, realm of form and realm
of formlessness. The realm of desire
includes six layers of heaven, the realm
of form consists of 18 layers of heaven
and realm of formlessness is composed
of 04 layers of heaven totaling 28 layers
of heaven.
Human beings are born and grow
up on earth which is located in the
southern Jambudvip of the realm of
desire. As to the various states of each
layers of heaven, I must beg your pardon
due to the limitation of time. What is
the Buddhist view about the present
real world? Buddhism considers that
this saha world is full of natural and
man-made disasters and defects. If we
look at the natural world of the earth,
it is exactly like “the natural selection
and the jungle principle” said by Charles
Robert Darwin.
Let us look again at the human
society. The international situation
today is quite worrisome. The cold war
and hot war happen one by one. The
damage caused by the natural disaster,
earthquake and typhoon in present saha
world is not light, yet limited. But the
man-made disaster is the most serious.
Let us talk about “world war”
first quite deplorable are a serious of
misfortune cases such as the conflict
between Israel and Palestine and
Arabian countries, the war between Iran
and Iraq, the unstable situation in central
America. the arms limitation negotiation
and other cold wars between the USA
and the USSR, even the shooting down
of your country’s civil airplane, the bomb
explosion in Rangoon and bombing on
the peace army of the United States and
France in Beirut which happened not so
long ago.
There are all obvious and easily
to be seen man-made disasters. In
addition, pollution (such as air pollution,
ocean pollution, river pollution, natural
resources destruction, etc) is another
great, global and inclusively influential
disaster which has become more and
more serious. All kinds of pollution are
produced under the beautiful name of
industrialization. Very obviously, the
biological balance has been destroyed
and our only beautiful home on which
we rely to exist, the earth, has been
greatly damaged.
The continuously pollution and
damage has destructed our earth
completely. We human beings, the
spirituality of all things are not only
mercilessly down treading our own
life and our own circumstance. This is
the greatest danger of today’s world
shouldn’t we walk up?.... From now
on, how to construct this defected
saha world into the earthly pure land
like the Western Blissful World or the
Avatamsaka World is not only the most
fundamental and urgent mission of the
worldwide Buddhists but also the most
pressing issue which we the whole
humankind should work together to
examine and to solve.
Our eyes can see its light. Our
hands can feel its heat. When the wood
is being drilled to produce fire, when
the cells of plants are being destructed,
can you say that the cells or plants have
no feeling?.... When stones are being
rubbed against each other to produce
fire, the sparks are the reaction of
the electrons in the stone atom after
being stimulated. Can you say that it
completely has no feeling?.... Although
its reaction is close to Zero because
it has no sensation cells and nervous
system like animal and plant, it is not
equal to Zero.
Here, we will no more consider
the story of Monk Dao Sheng expounds
Buddha Dharma and the stubborn
stones nod their heads in the Chinese
Chan School, and the illustration of Sun
Wukong as “metamorphosis birth out
of the immortal fetus of stone egg” are
actually nothing but the supernatural
induction. Therefore, Buddhism
considers animal and plant as having
birth and fate, but not minerals as
having birth but no fate. Consequently,
Buddhism further confirms that all
“Buddhism
further
confirms that
all beings”….
beings (literally those who have birth,
in Sanskrit satva or in Pali satta) are
sentient and thus have Buddha Nature.
In summarizing the above
descriptions, the life view of Buddhism
has following characteristics; 01 - It is
very broad and profound. It suggests
that not only animals and plants have
life, even minerals have life. 02 - It is
both real and abstract. For example, it
recognizes the existence of soul, deities,
immortals, ghosts etc. In other words,
the visible lives exist while the lives also
exist. According to the view point of
neo-realism of modern philosophy, the
abstract things also exist.
This is identical to that of our
Buddhism. 03 - It is the continuous and
stretching not nihilistic birth and death.
New life will be born according to the
previous lives karma and other condition
continuously and uninterruptedly. 04
- It is everlasting without extinction.
(The soul or consciousness has birth
and death but the true self is beyond
birth and death). 05 - It is changeable
and pluralistic; Buddhism accepts
the categorizing of human beings as
animal in modern science. This is totally
different from the view of other religions
in considering human being as superior
than other lives.
For an example, the rebirth in the
six realms of existence exactly shows the
changeability and pluralism of life. In the
meantime, it is also within our grasp to
attain liberation from the rebirth in the
six realms of existence and entre nirvana
state of no birth, no death, permanence,
bliss, self and purity.
In other words if one can practice
down to earthly the five precepts, the
ten virtues, the eightfold noble paths,
the six perfections etc (the so called dual
practice of merit and wisdom), one will
be realize the fruition of Buddhahood
and thus have the capacity to save living
beings. The transcending of ordinary
state and the attaining of sainthood
relies on one’s own power not on
others. Therefore, Buddhism proposes
not only not fatalism but also the selfdetermination
of one’s own fate.
Now, let us discuss the Buddhism
view towards the origin and evolution
of life. Buddhism has not only a definite
view regarding the origin of life but
also a definite and unified view about
everything in the cosmos from the
spatial planets to the mountains, rivers,
grass, tree, and even human beings.
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