16_(271-281) The Influence of.pmd THE INFLUENCE OF THE BUDDHIST VIEW OF LIFE ON UNIVERSAL VALUE IN MODERN SOCIETY Jianfu Lv Shaanxi Normal University, China Abstract This paper deals with the Buddhist conception of life and its uni- versal value for modern society. It suggests the manner in which Asian religions and other culture traditions can solve various social problems. We can no longer afford to solve problems with force of arms, and often our use of political, economic, legal, and other means to solve problems is ineffectual, but we can solve the problems through the old ways, of self control and self adjustment. These techniques are found in the ideas and resources of our religions and other related culture traditions, which can create more fundamental solutions to our problems. º·¤Ñ́ ÂèÍ º·¤ÇÒÁ¹ÕéÍÀÔ»ÃÒ¶֧¤ÇÒÁ¤Ô´àËç¹à¡ÕèÂǡѺªÕÇÔµáÅФس¤èÒÊҡŢͧªÕÇÔµ ÊÓËÃѺÊѧ¤ÁÊÁÑÂãËÁèµÒÁËÅÑ¡¾Ø·¸ÈÒÊ¹Ò º·¤ÇÒÁàʹÍá¹ÐÇÔ¸Õ·ÕèÈÒÊ¹Ò ÇѲ¹¸ÃÃÁ »ÃÐླբͧàÍàªÕÂÊÒÁÒö¹ÓÁÒá¡é»ÑËÒÊѧ¤Á àÃÒäÁèÊÒÁÒöãªéÍÒÇØ̧ á¡é»ÑËÒä é́ÍÕ¡áÅéÇ ÍÕ¡·Ñ駡Ò÷ÕèàÃÒà¤Â¹Óá¹Ç·Ò§·Ò§¡ÒÃàÁ×ͧ àÈÃÉ°¡Ô̈ ¡®ËÁÒ ËÃ×ÍÇÔ¸ÕÍ×è¹ æ ÁÒãªéá¡é»ÑËÒ¡çÁÑ¡¨ÐäÁèä´é¼Å áµèàÃÒÊÒÁÒöá¡é»ÑËÒä´éâ´Âãªé ÇÔ¸Õ´Ñé§à´ÔÁ ¹Ñ蹡ç¤×Í ¡ÒäǺ¤ØÁµ¹àͧáÅСÒûÃѺµÑÇ à·¤¹Ô¤àËÅèÒ¹ÕéËÒä´é¨Ò¡ áËÅ觤ÇÒÁ¤Ô´ã¹áµèÅÐÈÒʹÒáÅÐÇѲ¹¸ÃÃÁ»ÃÐླշÕèà¡ÕèÂÇ¢éͧ «Öè§ÊÒÁÒö ÊÃéÒ§ÊÃäìá¹Ç·Ò§á¡é䢻ÑËÒ·Õèà»ç¹¾×é¹°Ò¹ÁÒ¡¡ÇèÒ Prajna Vihara, Volume 13, Number 1-2, January-December, 2012, 271-281 271 c 2000 by Assumption University Press __ __ ~ We are facing various problems in contemporary society, involv- ing immorality, science, ecological imbalances, environmental pollution, political corruption, violence, war and terror activities, the corruption of rights, hegemonism, egoism, health and safety, hunger and death, etc. While environmental pollution, ecological destruction, resource exhaus- tion, are new social problems which have emerged with the development of modern science and industrial technology, other older problems are being aggravated. These problems whether old or new, essentially in- volve the human being. However, the problem of human being is not isolated, but is the problem of the relationship between human being with nonhuman nature. Human beings have made great developments connected to civi- lization, including religion, philosophy, ethics, law, politics, economy, cul- ture, science and so on, but they have been unable to solve the various problems which accompany this development. Thus, humanity is faced with an unprecedented predicament. Fortunately, we have already found the root of these problems, so we have some hope to solve them. Gener- ally speaking, old problems are solved by old ways, yet even new prob- lems we can also draw inspiration from the old ways to find new meth- ods. People have made much effort in this direction, such as global ethics and religious dialogue, theories of harmonious society, ecological bal- ance, controlling pollution and so on. These efforts are still in progress, and such solutions have received a high degree of consensus among the religions and within the academic fields. We can draw some comfort from this. I wish to contend that inspiration for new solutions to problems can also be found in Asian religion and other cultural traditions. Religions and other traditional thought systems do not use strong political power to intervene, what they do is take inspiration from old theories to propose some new ideas. This approach believes that transforming the world out- look can solve problems. There has been much research on Buddhism for more than 2,500 years, a tradition which had spread widely in Asia and has shown unique success. I wish to draw upon this tradition to show how it can set a common goal to solve problems in the contemporary global world. The problems involving human beings are ultimately related to the relationship of the human to the crowd. Three Chinese characters, 271 Prajna Vihara __ __ ~ Ren, compose a Chinese character, Zhong. It is so-called “three people are all”, that is to say, the problem of human being is the problem of crowd which consist of three Ren. They can be summarized as the human nature, human relations and human rights. Human nature implies that man has higher pursuit of spirit and life meaning, the human relations means one has a standard of the good and evil, and the human rights says that people in social activities should have human dignity. Human nature, human relations and human rights are respectively three levels of the prob- lem, which are religions and philosophical, ethical and cultural, social and political. This is known as the Buddhist theory of life. Since the human being is a part of nature, it has a natural essence. People are naturally the same as all the natural objects in their birth and a death, their obeying the laws of nature and their being driven by natural instinct. At the same time, people are higher animals with intelligence. As humans, we not only have consciousness and self-control, but we also exceed and control nature. This is the trait that leads to the root of human problems. Human nature as being both transcendental and instinctual, human relations being both normal and abnormal, and human rights in- volving both balance and imbalance, these bring forth most human prob- lems. It looks as if contemporary social problems are very different from those in prior history. It seems that science technology and the develop- ment of economy changed the whole world. But these new problems have no essential difference from the natural development of the human. The pace is merely accelerated. While human self-control haven’t been improved and even declined as the development of society. Where reli- gions and other culture traditions once provided purpose and the source of such values as self-control, contemporary society is controlled by sci- ence technology, and the economy. There is no purpose in its speed or in its goals. Buddhism establishes the value of man through Buddha-nature theory and mind-nature theory. There is a famous saying in the Mahāparinirvāna sūtra , “all living beings have Buddha nature”, 1 that is to say, everyone has Buddha-nature. Moreover Buddhism think that man can fulfill value and believes all living beings can become Buddha, 2that is to say, everyone even an icchantika (butcher) with a Buddha-nature Jianfu Lv 273 may attain Buddha-hood. As for the meaning of Buddha nature, different classics give different explanations from different angles. For example, the enlightenment of Four Noble Truths is the goal of life, or liberation from cycle of birth and death is the enlightenment state, or the void of own-nature is shunyata wisdom, or container consciousness ( ālayavijñāna ) is ultimate existence, or nitya-sukha-atma-subha is four virtues of nir- vana. In a word, the perfect and consummate of human nature is the supreme goal, which is a positive value system and consistent with value system of other major religions and philosophy and culture, even repre- senting the mainstream value of human being. As for mind-nature theory, it is clean in essence, but defiled by external object ( āgantukatva ). Thus, one heart has two aspects in the Awakening of Mahāyāna Faith, one is true thusness aspect of the mind which affirms the positive values of human nature, the other is ignorant thusness aspect of the mind which points out the negative effect of human nature. Sentient beings have impure heart, which means the heart is polluted by afflictions (kleś a). So there are vari- ous weaknesses in human nature, such as selfishness, mercenary tenden- cies, intrigue, dishonesty, committing massacres, flattery, bullying the weaker, using violence, cheating each other, fomenting rumor, confusing right and wrong, and so on. The weakest points of human nature is so called “the three poisons”, including desire ( rāga ), anger (dve?a) and ig- norance (moha). Desire is the first of these three poisons. It is the origin of heart problems, and all human’s fallabilities and error behavior come from this. Anger mainly consists of pleasure, anger, sadness, joy and other bad moods. Ignorance comprises stubborn and other paranoid tendency. Both are important factors leading to problems. The true thusness aspect of the mind is the initial state, the essence of human nature and the highest goal which people have been seeking. Ignorant thusness aspect of the mind is natural state and inevitable state of human nature, which people have to overcome and the object people need to cure. Therefore, Bud- dhism gives many approaches and methods of practice, from one’s own mind, the arousal of the thought, cultivating the mind, realization of heart to Buddhichitta, which constitute the main content of Buddhist scrip- tures. The doctrines of all religions are all to improve mind and perfect human nature. All beings in Buddhism also include other life forms and inani- 274 Prajna Vihara __ __ ~ mate matter. The one who live are called sentient beings, such as animals, plants and so on. The others are called insentient beings, such as stone, soil, wood, mountain, river, earth, sky and universe. Sentient beings have consciousness and feelings, including the six destinies and four forms of birth, 3which is often equated with humanity. Insentient beings are the physical environment of sentient beings, the natural world, although they don’t have consciousness and feelings, they are produced and extinguished by origination, and have the internal causes and general rules for their movement and change. So Chinese Buddhism proposes a theory, Insen- tient beings with nature, and thinks the nature also has its own self-per- fect time, which is called the best harmonizer. In this way, Buddhism breaks through the hedging-in tradition of Anthropocentrism, and ex- tends the scope of the attention to all living things and inanimate nature, and finally creates a value system which is very useful. Secondly, as for human relations, Buddhism distinguishes right from wrong and good from evil and believes that the improvement of the human nature is gradually perfected by stopping evil and advocating good deeds, from low to high, through ten stages ( daśabhūmi ) to perfection. 4There is a famous verse, Seven Buddha Tong Jie, Not to do any evil, to cultivate good, to purify one’s mind, this is the way of the Buddhas. 5This means that if you stop doing evil, advocate the good and cleanse your impure mind by yourself, you will surpass the good and evil, and achieve the perfect realm, which are the teachings of the Buddhas. According to the explanation of Increased by One Agama, all the commandments and the doctrines of the four Agama Sutra are all contained in this verse. The first two sentences address the behavior of people, advocating kindness to all living creatures, showing mercy and alleviating the suffering of all living creatures The next sentence is refers to the human’s mind. Avoid- ing the sins of body, mouth and mind means the purification of the indi- vidual. Among these, Not to do any evil is called the commandment door, the most fundamental of the laws, as long as you don’t do evil things, you are living correctly at least with respect to means. But to cultivate good is called the advised method, To do good and accumulate merit to purify the impure mind. To purify one’s mind is considered as the awakened method, the purity of self-nature lies in self-conscious, eliminating in- verted understanding as well as all deluded thought, which purifies from Jianfu Lv 275 itself, and leads from the inevitable kingdom to the free kingdom. The verse of seven Buddhas commandment is from precept to self-enlightenment, and accurately expresses the basic spirit of religions ethics, and can be seen as the common program of most religions con- cerning the human morality, as well as has the values of definition for religion. This definition of religion would be namely: not to do any evil, to cultivate good, to purify one’s mind, this is the teaching of the Bud- dhas. But this can be extended the common principle of the whole hu- man ethics, that is Not to do any evil, to cultivate good, to purify one’s mind. Edification not only includes religion, but also comprises educa- tion and other thought and ethical systems in secular society. As a matter of fact, the commonality of all religions and secular education lies in the ethical principle of resisting evil and advocating virtue. Concerning what is good and what is evil, different religions and ideological culture systems give different answers. But Buddhism also has its own definition which can be useful for us. What is good and evil? Favorableness is called good, harm is called evil, neither favorableness nor harm is unworthy to be discussed says Dasheng yizhang, 6which means more and more favorable is called the good, more and more harmful is called evil, without the harmless is called not worthy discussing. Favor- ableness is good, good means benefit, favorableness means the positive benefit. Contravening is contrary, harm means the damage, harm is the opposite of benefit. There is a further explanation in Dacheng yizhang (Essay on the Meaning of Mahāyāna ). Good is divided into three levels from primary to high level, primary good flows with positive for good, and has rising trend. According to the definition, the good deeds of Sen- tient beings, men and gods in the three realms are all called good.7 De- spite this idea of good as possessing positive benefits, it is still contami- nated goodness, and still retains the affliction of habit energies, which deviates us from our complete control of desire and mood. And no-out- flow (an ā srava) which can eliminate affliction is the good in middle rank. Following the law which is voice-hearer ( śrāvaka ) and pratyekabuddha’s the good law is the standard of this good. The senior good follows na- ture, and dharma-realm (Dharmadh ā tu) is its original nature ( ā tman). The practice of oneself is according to the essence of human nature, 德行圆满 , 276 Prajna Vihara __ __ ~ 三业清净 ,which is the good deeds of practice of Buddhas and Bodhisattva. And the good is divided into three levels in Mah?vairocan?bhisa?bodhi- vikurvit?dhi??h?na-vaipulyas?tra and its commentary. The primary good is good act in secular world, the intermediate good is the domestic good, the senior good is the Buddhism good. The standard of the good is the degree of the good heart. The good act in secular world is to honor par- ents and treat relatives well. The domestic good involves friendliness to acquaintances, as well as respect for virtuous friends (kaly?na-mitra) and those possessing expertise and authority. The good in Buddhism is Great kindness and Great compassion as well as benefits for all living creatures. Compared with the good, evil has three kinds. One is contrary to the right and harmful to present, this is related to human suffering and animal desire (tiryag-yoni). The second is against the law, which violates the basic principles of Buddhism and specific rules. According to this definition, impure good actions in this world can also be evil. The third is against truth and nature, and based on deluded minds (false minds), which are not according with the highest interests, and imperfect. According to this definition, the impure good actions of Śrāvaka , Pratyekabuddha and Bodhisattva belong to evil actions.8 According to the Theory of Consciousness-only (Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi - śāstra ), both this world and the next are standards of good and evil. The good is not only for the sake of this world, but also for the next world. For instance, if happiness is only experienced in the present, and not in the future, it would not be true happiness. Likewise for evil, not only does evil have an influence in the present, but also in the future world. If the three-durgati would be only suffered in the present, but not in the future world?it would not be the completely evil. 9This world and the future world of good and evil can be understood in three levels of rela- tionship, which is: this time and at that time; self and others; and indi- vidual and whole. This is related to transmigration?which is a life cycle, and is a time cycle. The past, present, and future form a cycle. So good and evil are all limited by action and related to the present and future. Good is gradually accumulated in terms of perfection. And evil is gradu- ally decreased so as to die out. The profit and loss as well as the world and the future world are the standards of good and evil in Buddhism. Good measure is divided Jianfu Lv 277 into three levels from low to high and has universal values. The profit and loss is also the basic principle of good and evil in the modern society, and the whole interests of humanity is the standard. The purpose of every religion is to advocate good and stop evil, and only differ with respect to the standards of the good and evil. The idea of good and evil of the world religions goes beyond class, nation, and collective, and is considered as based on the overall interests of all mankind. All of the world’s religions have an ultimate goal, the perfect good, which is the final purpose of the whole of humanity. Most religious practitioners try to avoid evil and do good. As as long as the law and other activities in secular society conform to the benefit of the public, they are the primary good. Human rights is really the equal rights of human being. In Bud- dhism, equality is reflected not only in social practice, but also in the law. So it claims that the original nature of all dharmas is equal. At the begin- ning of Buddhism, Śākyamuni put forward that four castes are all equal and said that as long as everyone belonging to any caste does Buddhist practice, they are called ś akya and equal. Later, Buddhism raises all be- ings as equal, and further declares all laws are equal. Finally, it even thinks Buddha dharma is equal. Equality is a basic idea of Buddhism. Buddhism thinks all things and phenomena originated from fate and are equal in nature, which is called the equality of laws, and also is the evidence of dharma equality. For example, The Great Collection Scrip- ture ( Mahāsamnipata-sūtra ) thinks three realms and Buddha dharma have no differences. Three realms are equal and dharma is equality. All method is also equal, as method is dharma, and has no distinction.10 And say, regarding the equality of all dharma by my view of equality and regard- ing the equal of all the living creature by the equal of all dharma means the equal of Buddha, dharma, living creature, the mercy and even the unrealities. The view of equality names the holy right view. 11All beings and I are equal with Buddha, because Buddha and all beings have Buddha nature, which is the inner basis of the equality. All beings and Buddha are equal in essence, which is the inner evidence of people’s equal rights, and also the essence of human rights. Based on this view of equality, Buddhism’s religious practices treat everything equally, especially for every person with equal heart, which is the basic requirement of the Bodhisattva. For example, Bodhisattva- 278 Prajna Vihara __ __ ~ ?bhara?a S ū tra thinks everyone should be treated with equal mind, which is the mind of Boddhisattva. Vajra ??i-vadana also thinks one who un- derstands all living things has equal rights and this true Buddhist nature is called Boddhisattva. Human rights in modern society are mainly built on political and social considerations. These rights have not been completely and ad- equately respected. The main reason is the serious inequalities in modern society, not only among individuals, but also among classes, nationalities, countries, and interest groups. These take many forms: economic “law of the jungle” attitudes, to power politics, bureaucratic corruption, plunder of resources, and the trafficking of women and children. This leads to the sorry state of human rights in modern society. The Buddhist view of equality gives us some enlightenment about how to solve such problems. Firstly, all sentient beings have equal rights, which are not only between man and man, but also between human and other livings, even between humans and nature. Secondly, all laws are equal, which not only exist between all things and phenomena, but also observing all things and phenomenon with equal mind. Everyone is equal, rights are shared together, and obligations are fulfilled together, which are the basic ideas of life in Buddhism, and has a positive significance. The pure human nature, doing good deeds, not evil and the equal- ity of all living things are the basic ideas and attitude of Buddhism about human being, which has the universal value in the modern society. But the whole life theory of Buddhism is generally considered as pessimistic and negative, and not received by modern society. In fact, the life theory of Buddhism is a kind of optimism which includes pessimism, and where the positive includes the negative. Its essence is a positive view of life, and also has a universal value. Endnotes 1CBETA, T12, no. 374, p. 402, c8-9. 2Lilita-vistara,vol.8,CBETA, T03, no. 186, p. 537, c17. 3The six destinies. Six kinds of rebirth in sa?s?ra that are undergone by sentient beings in accord with their good or evil actions carried out in their previous lifetime. These are: hell, hungry ghost, animal, asura , human and god. The first Jianfu Lv 279 three are the result of predominantly good karma while the last three are the result of predominantly evil karma. Also written as. Four forms of birth. (1) Born naturally, born from oneself. (2) That which is born through spontaneous generation. A sen- tient being suddenly appearing from nowhere, for example, the birth of a ghost. (3) In contrast to other types of birth, (i.e., from an egg, from a womb, from moisture) a species that is born suddenly without a specific origin. This refers especially to the intermediate stage after death, where beings are reborn as spirits, gods, hell-beings, etc. ( upapāduka -yoni). 4( daśabhūmi ) The ‘ten stages’. Bhūmi means “stage” and the ten bhūmis are theforty-first through the fiftieth stages in the path of the bodhisattva, which are designated as one through ten. In various Mahāyāna texts, each of the stages is asso- ciated with the subjugation or elimination of a certain type of obstruction to enlight- enment. The ten are: 1. 欢喜地 huanxidi __ The ‘stage of joy’. (pramudiā ) The stage where the wisdom of the middle path is first produced to benefit self and others, and where there is great happiness. 2. 离垢地 __ ligoudi __ ‘freedom from defilement’. (vimalā ) Dwelling in the principle of the middle path, to be able to enter the dust of the world of sentient beings, yet remain detached. 3. 发光地 faguangdi __ the ‘stage of emission of light’. (prabh ākarī ) The stage of following the buddha-path and emitting the clear light of wisdom. 4. 焰慧地 yanhuidi __ The ‘stage of glowing wisdom’. (arcismat ī ) The stage of the light of wisdom burning bright according to its clear cognition of the unborn nature of all existence. 5. 难胜地 nanshengdi __ The ‘stage of overcoming the difficult’. (sudurjay ā ) The stage of overcoming the prior stage by emptying all ignorance. 6. 现前地 xianqiandi __ The ‘stage of manifestation of real- ity’. (abhimukh ī )The stage where the practitioner is facing reality. The stage of mani- festation of the aspect that in contemplating the dharma, nirvana and sams āra are not two. 7. 远行地 yuanxingdi __ the ‘stage of far-reaching’. (dūramgamā ) The stage of attaining the middle way and advancing to a higher realm with every thought. 8. 不动地 budongdi __ The ‘immovable stage’. (acal ā ) The stage of abiding peacefully in the wisdom of (no aspects) of the middle path without change. 9. 善慧地 shanhuidi __ The ‘stage of wondrous wisdom’. (sādhumatī ) The stage of using the skill of wis- dom contemplation to enter the path of clear cognition regarding the unborn nature of all existence. 10. 法云地 fayundi __ the ‘stage of the dharma-cloud’. (dharma-megha) The stage of attaining the level of buddhahood, and coveringthe dharma-world with wisdom and compassion like a great cloud. In the doctrineof the Faxiang 法相 school, the stage of ‘equal enlightenment’ ( 等觉 ) is included here, being considered as within the limits of bodhisattva practice. 5Increased by One Agama Sutras.vol.1, 诸恶莫作,诸善奉行 , 自净其意 , 是诸佛教 , CBETA, T02, no. 125, p. 551, a13-14. 6The seven buddhas of the past. FirstVipa ś yi, and Ś ikhi, Viśabhā , Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, K āś yapa, Śā kyamuni. 7(Sui)huiyuan Dacheng yizhang, vol.2, CBETA, T44, no. 1851, p. 503, c3. 8The “form realm”, which is the second of the three realms 三界 (1) Exist- 280 Prajna Vihara __ __ ~ ence constituted of pure materiality, free from the afflictions of the desire realm 欲界 (yujie). Objects of vision 色界 sejie?. The realm of pure mind, in which materiality (one’s body) is transcended. This realm is characterized by the function of four dif- ferent types of wareness 无 色界 (wusejie). 9The original tex said? “顺义名善，顺有三种 : 一顺益上升名之为善 , 若从是义 , 下极三有 , 人 , 天善法齐名为善 . 二顺理名善 , 谓无漏行 , 若从是义 , 下极二乘所修善法皆名为善 , 同顺理故 . 三体顺名善 , 谓真识中所成 行德相状如何 , 法界真性是己自体 , 体性缘起集成行德 , 行不异性 , 还即本体 , 即如不乖 , 称曰体顺 . 若从是 义 , 唯佛菩萨体证真行 , 是其善也 . 良以所对恶有三故 , 善分此三 . 言三恶者 , 一违损名恶 , 若从是义 , 唯三 涂因及人天中别报苦业是其恶也 . 翻对此故 , 宣说初善 . 二违理名恶 , 取性心中所造诸业皆违法理 , 同名为恶 . 若从是义 , 上极凡夫有漏善业犹名为恶 . 翻对此故 , 说第二善 . 三体违名恶 , 一切妄心所起诸业违背真体 , 同 名为恶 . 若从是义 , 上至三乘缘照无漏 , 齐名为恶 . 妄心起故 , 翻对此故 , 说第三善 . “Dacheng yizhang, vol.12, CBETA, T44, no. 1851, p. 697, a3-19. 10The original tex said: 能为此世 , 他世顺益故 , 名为善 . 人天乐果虽于此世能为顺益 , 非于他世故 , 不名善 . 能为此世 , 他世违损故 , 名不善 . 恶趣苦果虽于此世能为违损 , 非于他世故 , 非不善 . 于善 , 不善益损义中不 可记别故 , 名无记 . ChengWeiShiLun. vol.5, (CBETA, T31, no. 1585, p. 26, b12-17. 11The original tex said(vol.9): 佛法平等 , 一切诸法亦复平等 . 若无因缘 , 即无种性 . 若无种性 , 即无出灭 . 若 无出灭 , 即名真实 . 真实知者 , 即是实性 , 过去 , 未来 , 现在诸法即是佛法 . 何以故 ? 通达三世无障碍故 . 无 障碍者 , 即是佛智 . 佛智者即是十八不共之法 , 不共之法者摄一切法 , 是故诸法即是佛法 , 诸法佛法无二无别 . CBETA, T13, no. 397, p. 58, a3-9. 12(beiliang)Tanwucheng, Mahāsamnipata-sūtra . vol.12, 13, CBETA, T13, no. 397, p. 58a, p.89a. Jianfu Lv 281