Buddhism for the global benefits and its challenges in modern times...

 

The following is an excerpt from International Conference for Cooperation among Buddhists in ASEAN Economic Community. It as many good points and while concerned primarily with Buddhism in Asian countries the information and insight is valuable for Buddhist in America as it strives to increase its sangha across North America.

                                                                 Synopsis 

The ultimate objective of Buddhism is the conquest of the afflictions of existence (dukkha) to attain perfect happiness in life, by following the noble path of the Four Noble Truths. The Buddha attributed a large part of the human suffering to the psychological roots of wickedness (akusalamula) in terms of greed (lobha), hatred (dosa) and delusion (moha). It is the eradication of these roots of unwholesome motivation that is sought as the goal of the Buddhist way of liberation in life (nibbāna). It is in light of this selfless universal goal of Buddhism that this paper attempts to explore the relevance and implications of Buddhist values as a solution to current issues of world conflicts, worsening moral decadency, “philosophy way of life”, the increasing poverty-induced crimes and violence in undeveloped countries, and its alleviation by considering viable alternatives. This paper also suggest recommendation of changes that may be necessarily needed within the Buddhist community, in attempt to reinforce unity as well as the necessity of adapting Buddhism to the needs of the modern societies particularly when Buddhism has just begun vigorously to make in-roads to the western civilizations in the very recent decades. Buddhism has transformed in scope and contents throughout the last two millennia through the changing needs of civilizations, and unless Buddhists can adapt to today’s complex situations through intelligent changes, the tenacity of lineage attachment and retentive stubbornness will not only fail to benefit more people but such steadfast refusal and folly may also precipitate its fate of eventual fall.

Introduction 

It is a common scene happened in today’s Buddhism particularly in places where Buddhism have been used for practising as a religion which centres largely on ceremonial prayers and rituals, revealing the fact that Buddhism is increasingly losing its appeal to the younger generations. It is not uncommon in many of the Buddhist temples in South-East Asia that we so often could only see old folk that turned out except at some special events. In an attempt to examine where Buddhism stands in this rapidly changing world, the beginning of this paper sets the pace of the need for possible changes from the Buddhist point of view, following our much sought-after approach, attitudes, and adaptation to today’s changing situations. The later part embraces the significance of unification within the Buddhist community, with a non-sectarian orientation and an understanding of a common ground for regular inter-faith dialogues, and collaborative efforts across ethnic and national boundaries for the benefits of humanity. It also touches on the additional skillsets required, scope of the voluntary service, level of quality, readiness and commitment, and also suggests service performance assessment of the members of the Sangha, in a concerted effort to redress against war and poverty-related problems, with a final aim for universal peace and harmony. Finally, from a global perspective, this paper continues at length to suggest that Buddhism is better to be viewed as a “philosophical way of life” which would only benefits more people in the different countries than to have Buddhism representing itself as a religion. Buddhism should largely takes on the advantage of the technological advances in internet and multimedia, most importantly without being seen as conceptually ethnic-based, and avoids a rigid tenacity for adhering with sectarian Buddhist practice. If in some instances, we have to go beyond our own lineage or even relinquish Buddhist dhamma so as another person can be liberated from his sufferings through our help with other preferred methods, we should conceive it as carrying out our act of ultimate dhamma of “selflessness”, which is fundamentally underlying in all Buddhist scriptures.

Applying the Buddhist values in modern terms 

There are many instances of what the Buddha said in the Pali canonical text such as the Dhammapada and the Jataka which emphasize on factors underlying the importance of social harmony and universal peace. Is the teachings of the Buddhism for the ultimate social wellbeing and universal harmony too idealistic according to what other critics have asserted? Are the Buddha’s admonitions that were addressed more than 2500 years ago is still applicable to the very sophisticated livelihood and complex situations that we have today? Certainly Buddhism in its humanistic approach is more applicable and needed in today’s world of widespread unrestrained, unethical moral decay of the individuals, who can resort to deceitful and unscrupulous means at all costs in order to achieve what they desire. As we have understood, Buddhism didn’t disappear with the fall of the Indian Buddhism from its motherland, but it has transmitted through thousands of past generations to many civilizations, and today has already stemmed its firm root in many western societies. 

Increasing numbers of people who have come into contact with Buddhism and its teachings, begin to understand that men are not created to quest after wealth and enjoy pleasures in one’s entire life, and that any beginning of a glorious moment or fortunes will sooner or later follow with its woeful and sad ending. The Buddha has thought us the notion of existence - impermanence (Anicca), unsatisfactoriness (Dukkha) and non-self (Anatta) - that all events occurred in our everyday life are simply illusive and temporary because its existence or result is dependent on other contrived factors and the conducive forces of the mother nature. Regardless of any race, living things or non-living things alike, the world exists in harmony only when the inter-relatedness and reciprocality of everything is recognized and respected. It is on this principle that almost all the Buddhist suttas directly or impliedly accentuate the precept of Buddhism that never would condone any fraudulent means to achieve a purpose, with disregard for humanism and social-harmony but which was designed only for individual gain or having recourse to killing of innocent lives in the name of religion. In many poorer parts of the world today where diseases, poverty and atrocities are prevalent, the Buddhist values teaching and its relevance that offer fundamental solutions is needed now more than ever. 

An important view that the Buddha had presented is that men’s craving and working hard for ourselves should remains as secondary, but the care for the safety and well-being of all humanity, materially and spiritually, should always take precedence over the concerns about individual rights and personal priorities in life. That’s the Buddha’s view in order for mankind of the diverging cultural differences to be able to co-exist with each other harmoniously and peacefully, and that every individual has a challenging role to play. Buddhism’s model for inter-social harmony and universal world peace can be realized but Buddhists all over the world must first begin to explore, study, accept and respect the equal rights of all the other religions (“comparative Buddhism”), as much as the need for discontinuing from criticizing on the diverging views within the different denominations of the Buddhist traditions, albeit facing deflected views of the heterodox Buddhists and religionists. Criticism by nature itself, is provocative and aggravating regardless of whatsoever intending reason. 

Every Buddhist has a duty and responsibility to educate themselves comprehensively on at least the core teachings of the Buddha and be well-versed to explain to others the Buddhist values and their benefits in modern terms or in the ordinary vernacular languages of the generally less-educated people. By doing this, the spirit of practicing Buddhism will gradually begin to influence members of the family, friends and eventually pervade to the communities, to the national level and across the world as a whole. Only through creating greater awareness of the Buddha’s teachings and educating everybody about the benefits of practicing Buddhist values, or in a sense how Buddhist values can supplement and strengthen the spiritual cultivation of the other religion practitioners, can we then be said of adding values in our roles as a Buddhist. Most importantly, Buddhists must refrain from distinguishing Buddhism as superior to the other religions, and thereby to set good example of ourselves to make the principles of Buddha’s teaching as the ultimate aim for global peace, to be universally accepted. It was a promising sign to see many of the Buddhists-Catholics and Buddhists-Christians dialogues that have taken place in recent times in North America and in Asia, focusing on complementarity of each other’s strength, with a common objective for social harmony and global peace. 

We must not forget that every major religions that have come into place has its own reasons and justification, and are the consequences of transforming through tens of centuries f changes, based upon the economical, political and cultural needs of civilizations. Buddhism similarly has no exception as we have seen in the different traditions and schools of Buddhist teachings that were formed as the outspread of Indian Buddhism attempted to adapt to the varying needs of different people and cultures over the course of history. The Buddha has never thought us that Buddhism is unique such that elements of the Buddhist values could not be found in other religion and practices. In so long as other religious practices that contain aspects of the Buddhist values such as the Four Noble Truths 1 (ill-being or duhkha, its cause, its end, and its cure), the Buddha in fact shared the same view that we must recognize the worth of those religions which in one way or another, shall conduce to the purifying of minds for both material and spiritual well-being of individuals. The ten Buddhist Perfections or Pāramitā 2 form a strong basis where a Buddhist practices earnestly and diligently in his life to attain perfection of the human virtues, integrating Buddhist teachings with all aspects of the mundane daily life to maintain a balanced spiritual life. It is through these virtues that Buddhists learn to put the concerns and needs of the others before our own.

Much more BELOW the FOLD