Buddhism & Chinese Attitude to Life: A Comparative Study

• The lecture is titled "Buddhist and Chinese Attitude to Life: A Comparative Study I" by Guang Xing

Introduction

• Chinese traditional culture includes Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism
• Confucianism and Daoism are Chinese traditions
• Buddhism is a foreign religion integrated into Chinese culture
• All three systems focus on the analysis of human life, nature, character, value, ideal, life, and death

Philosophy of Life

• Confucianism teaches proper human behavior, morality, and social responsibilities
• Daoism teaches what is natural and spontaneous
• Buddhism teaches personal moral cultivation to become a perfect man

Confucianism vs Daoism

• Confucianism is more this-worldly, remaining within societal bounds
• Daoism is more other-worldly, roaming beyond society's bounds
• The two systems rivaled and complemented each other, creating a balance of power
• This balance gave Chinese people a better sense of this-worldliness and other-worldliness

Syncretism

• During the Song dynasty (960-1279), the three religions syncretized and influenced Chinese life
• Confucianism: Cultivation of man in the world
• Daoism: Cultivation of the physical body
• Buddhism: Cultivation of mind
• The three traditions complement each other
• The lecture mainly focuses on Confucianism and Buddhism, supplemented with Daoist perspectives

Misunderstanding of Buddhism

• A common misunderstanding is that Buddhism focuses on the other world and the dead
• This misconception arose from Buddhism's decline after the Song dynasty
• Buddhist monks during the Ming and Qing dynasties primarily performed funeral ceremonies with little research in Buddhist teaching

Buddhist Teaching

• Buddhist teachings focus on the analysis of human life to solve human problems
• Buddhist training involves:
• Morality: starting with moral practice
• Meditation: clearing one's mind of bad thoughts through mental training
• Wisdom: dispelling ignorance to attain happiness
• Buddhahood is attained through such training resulting in a morally perfect man
• Buddha is not a god, but a human with profound wisdom, including intelligence and morality
• Great Chinese masters stated that the mind, the Buddha, and sentient beings are the same
• A defiled mind makes one a sentient being or ordinary man
• A cleaned mind makes one a Buddha
• The Master Taixu (1890-1947) declared Buddhism to be for human life
• He started the reformation of Chinese Buddhism nearly a hundred years ago
• The Buddhist ideal of enlightenment can be attained in this life and world
• Sakyamuni Buddha and many disciples and Chinese Chan masters attained enlightenment in this life

Lecture Focus

• The lecture discusses:
• Five similarities between the three religions
• Four differences between them
• Five Buddhist contributions to the Chinese way of life

Similarities

• The lecture will highlight five aspects demonstrating the similarities
• Importance of human life, without supernatural power
• Importance of morality
• Emphasis on self-cultivation
• Practical attitude to life
• Open attitude of mind

Importance of Human Life, No Supernatural Power

• Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism all:
• Value human life and focus on its analysis to achieve happiness
• Deny a place for a supernatural power or gods
• Their teachings fully focus on discussions of human life itself

Confucianism and Human Kind

• Confucianism is a social, ethical, and political system of thought
• Humans are the noblest of creatures produced by Heaven and Earth
• Confucius said associating with birds and beasts is impossible
• Chinese scholars show that Confucius emphasized on humankind
• He established the theory of benevolence, with morality and filial piety as its core

Mencius and Morality

• Mencius emphasized humans and animals are different because of morality

Xunzi and Morality

• Xunzi further said:
• Water and fire have vital energy but not growth
• Vegetation has growth but not awareness
• Animals have awareness but not righteousness
• Humans have vital energy, growth, awareness, and righteousness

Four Categories in The World

• There are four categories in the world, with humans as the highest due to righteousness, meaning morality
• The way of heaven
• The way of man
• The way of earth
• Later Confucians, like Zhuxi, emphasized the importance of man in the universe

Buddhism and Human Life

• Buddhism considers human life the most important
• There are five or six forms of life: gods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, hell beings, and Asuras
• A human rebirth is seen as fortunate because humans have the moral sense of spiritual progress
• It is not superior because humans are not a special creation and can be born into other forms based on karma

Human Birth

• Human birth is rare and difficult to obtain
• The Chiggala Sutta compares it to a blind turtle surfacing once a century and putting its head through a ring moved by the winds
• Most moral and spiritual progress occurs at the human level
• Gods enjoy good karma and do not understand the Dharma
• Beings in lower realms suffer and cannot understand the Dharma
• Humans experience both happiness and suffering so they can understand the Dharma

Moral Action

• Human beings are more fortunate than animals in terms of capacities for moral action and spiritual development
• All Buddhas appear in the human world and are not attained as gods
• Maitreya will attain Buddhahood in the human world after waiting in the Tusita Heaven

Importance of Morality

• Morality is the way people treat each other in society
• Ethics is the philosophical analysis of moral conduct
• Confucianism and Buddhism have strong moral teachings, but are not ethics
• Both consider morality the foundation of human cultivation and moral perfection
• The highest ideal person is:
• Confucianism: Sage
• Daoism: True and free man
• Buddhism: Buddha or Awakened One

Confucianism and Morality

• The difference between humans and animals is morality, which regulates human behavior and keeps peace
• Confucius said teaching morality prevails, but law makes people unhappy
• Mencius said he would choose righteousness over life if he could not have both

The Love Of All Men

• Confucius states that benevolence is to love all men
• Love all men, wishing to establish others, seeks to make others successful
• Benevolence to Confucius is the highest form of morality
• Development is by Mencius
• Human nature is virtuous

Confucianism: Ideal Person

• Confucianism: Ideal person is a sage exhibiting moral perfection who confers benefits
• The Confucian idea of benevolence is the love of people
• Achieve this by establishing the three immortalities:
• Virtue
• Service
• Speech

Establishing virtue

• One's personality becomes immortal when establishing in virtue
• One's name becomes immortal when establishing in work
• Thoughts become immortal when establishing in words
• A Confucian realizes the value of moral obligation
• A confession serves the nation through action

Human Cultivation

• Buddhism: Human cultivation is threefold: morality, concentration, and wisdom
• Morality is the foundation, with wisdom as the aim
• Wisdom includes intelligence and morality
• One starts with morality and achieves perfection when they obtain wisdom
• Morality is upheld when achieving perfection

Perfect Person

• Buddhism: a perfect person is the Buddha, awakened and achieving perfection in morality and wisdom
• Compassion is a special feature, comparable to Confucian benevolence
• Difference is that Buddhist compassion includes all sentient beings, benevolence is only humans

Morality in Buddhism

• Buddhism morality contains 5 precepts:
• Do not harm any living thing
• Do not steal anything
• Do not commit adultery
• Do not tell lies
• Do not take intoxicating drinks

Buddhist Five Precepts

• Buddhist Five Precepts compared to Confucian Five Constants:
• Benevolence = No killing/harm
• Righteousness = No stealing
• Propriety = No adultery
• Wisdom = No intoxication
• Honesty = No Lying

Buddhist Training

• Buddhist training is threefold: morality, concentration, and wisdom
• The aim is the attainment of nirvana by becoming a Buddha
• Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are busy serving people
• A Bodhisattva becomes a Buddha through service to those suffering
• Confucianism shares this aspect where service to people is performed by the ideal person

Emphasis on Self-Cultivation

• Confucianism and Buddhism value human life, morality, and spiritual life
• • Both emphasize self-cultivation for moral perfection and spiritual awakening
• The similarity is the cultivation of the mind within and self-control

Confucianism and Self-Cultivation

• Confucianism: Daxue (《大學》) The ideal Confucian needs:
• To cultivate oneself
• To regulate ones family
• To govern their states
• To illustrate virtue throughout the kingdom
• Person 修身 is the foundation, requiring honesty and a right mind
• Wishing to show their intentions
• They first perfected their knowledge
• Their knowledge is the root of this process
• The root of this process is cultivation of his person

Buddhist Cultivation

• Buddhism cultivation involves self-cultivation and self-training in mind, body, and speech
• Includes:
• Observation of precepts
• Cultivation of mind
• Observing precepts regulates verbal and bodily actions
• Avoid immoral things like killing, stealing, and adultery, while lying, slandering and verbal actions
• Cultivation of the mind is mental training with purification by eliminating bad thoughts and cultivating good ones, so they can observe ones own things

Self-Cultivation Conclusion

• Mencius said that all men may become Yaos and Shuns, who are great Confucian sages
• All people according to Buddhism, all people may become Buddhas
• Daoism also emphasizes in virtue
• Laozi stated that with Dao within, when when family, with neighborhood, with state, good fortune is sure to abound
• Family, neighbors and state will improve

Practical Attitude to Life

• Confucius and the Buddha were quite practical in their attitude to life
• Confucius was not concerned with after life and only with life in this world

Serving the Spirits

• Ji Lu asked Confucius, about serving the spirits
• Confucius responded that spirits cannot be served until men can be served
• Lu asked about death and Confucius responded that they do not know living so they do not know death
• The subjects on which the Master did not speak were, extraordinary things, feats of strength, disorder
• Lunyu states extraordinary things, feats of strength, disorder, and spiritual beings (ghosts).

Buddhist and Human Life

• Buddhism believes the Bhudda is a practical person
• Teachings focus on the elimination of human suffering
• There are no metaphysical issues
• No forms of dogmas
• Speculative view points are not entertained
• View points are not needed
• They relinquishing point of views
• Effacement should be practiced thus

Discussion and Freedom

• The Buddha did not give any time up for Meta physical views
• Cannot lead to feed or liberate from life problem
• Did not give any thoughts on this
• Buddha said theses questions have nothing to do with living
• He only declared that you can cease to suffer
• Expressed the same view when the ascetic
• Viewpoints do not matter
• Only by realizing you can make it through

Deliverance

• The Buddha Stated that is one taste of ocean water, it is the taste of salt
• And that is the flavor of deliverance
• Buddhist transcend speculative theories
• Philosophies are an unexpected concept
• Search but view
• I found inner peace

Confucian and Buddhism

• Did not want to establish a system but to help people
• Philosophy are
• Point in practice

Open Attitude Of Mind

• Both Confucianism and Buddhism an attitude

• Confusious

• Superior is affordable, with are

• Is is harmony does not follow

• Charles Munter is a Chinese translator

• Explain harmony

• Gentleman is

• This

• Not as important to change from over

• But the

• No extreme

Conclusion?

• It is will

Buddhist Gods

• Accepts goodness
• The
• The for

Summary of other religions and gods

• Accepts tradition
• All of teachings
• Are the of the that teaching

Buddhist Gods

• The
• Of each the you know
• Are
• Dhamma
• This
• With

Gods

• The in that way

differences

Position of Value

• Different value
• Value