Ladies and gentlemen, greetings to all of you!
In this 21st century, Chinese Buddhism has revitalized itself through many difficulties and challenges it faced in the past. This is especially so since the 80s that Chinese Buddhism recovered its pace and flourished. Given this prosperous sight, how would Chinese Buddhism face the world? What can Chinese Buddhism offer to the world, especially in the area of benefiting humanity?
To answer these questions, I put forward this presentation with the theme - “Change the World and Benefit Humanity”. There are four suggestions on how Chinese Buddhism can change the world and benefit humanity.
First, Chinese Buddhism can promote self-awareness and integrity to change the world and benefit humanity.
Buddhism is a religion which emphasizes the pursuit of enlightenment. Enlightenment must be attained by our own effort. Only with self-awareness will we find the strength to deal with many worries and illusions, resolve to maintain our integrity and find peace and stability.
The way to eliminate our worries and uncover our Buddha nature is to observe the precepts, practice meditation and cultivate our wisdom in order to extinguish the flames of the Three Poisons. Once we do that and allow the Three Wisdoms to shine, we will be able to put an end to our beginningless ignorance, and this is what we mean by self-awareness. In fact, this is what Chan School means by enlightenment or realizing our true nature. The lineages of Chinese Chan schools have always placed much emphasis on “self-awareness” – we must do all the inquiries and thinking by ourselves. When Buddha picked up a flower at the Vulture Peak to show the assembly, only Mahakasyapa knew what he meant and smiled back. With a flower and two smiles, Chan was transmitted from a master to his disciple at the moment when an unspoken agreement was established and this is self-awareness.
Self-awareness is also a way of self-education – which is the “Rely on yourself, rely on the Dharma and rely on nothing else” as mentioned in the sutras. Self-education is the key to our success. Through continued self-reflection, we are able to find our true self. Only with self-awareness will we see the need to keep improving, maintain our own integrity and then change the world and benefit humanity.
The second point is to change the world and benefit humanity by resolve and energy. Among the thousands of ways of the Buddhist practices, to resolve is the most important as mentioned in An Inspiration for the Bodhicitta, “The key to entering the Way is having resolve; the essential for cultivation is making vows.”
To resolve is to cultivate our mind and to construct a more complete self. Buddhism uses a field as a metaphor for the mind, and no seeds can grow in an uncultivated field. To resolve means to cultivate the field of one’s mind. This is also the first thing to learn for Buddhists. Without cultivating and developing the field of our mind, no matter how well the conditions, fortune and merits we may possess, the sprout of Bodhi Wisdom will still not grow. Hence, resolve becomes the first step to practicing Buddhism; for example, resolve to develop the Four Immeasurable States of Mind and the Four Universal Vows. Only by then will we be equipped with the energy to put into practice the Four Means of Embracing and the Four Good Roots so as to enlighten ourselves and others.
Talking about making resolve, most Buddhists in the 21st century are on the move, knowing how to make themselves heard and extended their influence and exchanges in the community. Take for example what has taken place in the past fifteen years; the BLIA has organized General Conferences, Board of Directors’ Meetings, International Young Executive Conferences and so forth. Having encouraged exchanges between the East and West, and between continents, these events have spread Buddhism far and wide and enhanced inter-personal harmony. These can only be accomplished because of the energy that the members have exerted from their resolve.
In this world, the bigger your resolve is, the greater your success will be because the power of resolve is indeed inconceivable. While Confucians urge people to have aspirations, practitioners of Buddhism encourage people to make vows. Either of these is in fact “resolve”. It is a pity that most people tend to search from outside rather than from within, and end up neglecting the endless treasure hidden inside.
Energy and power come from our resolve. From this power by each Chinese Buddhist, Chinese Buddhism can change the world and benefit humanity.
Third important point is participation and involvement of Chinese Buddhism in the World Affairs.
Every phenomenon in this world depends on a set of causes and conditions for its existence. Thus we cannot survive if we move away from people as they are our cause and condition, the criteria for our survival.
Buddhahood can only be attained by interaction of sentient beings. In the Buddhist sutras, it is said that every Dharma gathering or undertaking requires the presence of an assembly of beings to happen. The only way to success is to work side-by-side with other beings. This is an undeniable truth！
The most valuable things in this world are the good conditions between us and others in order to have harmony, success, fulfillment and merits. Therefore there are many good deeds worth doing in this world, for instance, contribute to or serving others.
Since all of us depend on causes and conditions to survive in this world, it is time for Chinese Buddhists to collaborate with the multitude and get involved with different activities so that we can all develop wide and good connections. The more connections we have, the greater our success will be. In particular, we must establish various types of undertakings similar to those which BLIA has undertaken to benefit humanity.
In the past, people used to think that Buddhist undertakings were nothing more than chanting sutras or holding services for the dead or it was a lifestyle that takes place deep within the mountain forests where the Buddhists remain self-sufficient by farming. The truth is for the past thousand years, Buddhists and Buddhist monasteries have remained connected to society by providing various social, medical, educational and cultural undertakings, dedicating themselves to the well-being of society and the benefit of humanity.
Chinese Buddhism should work towards realizing the Humanistic Buddhism. In order to do so, we need to continue to establish all kinds of Buddhist undertakings under a well-structured plan in order to benefit society and world. For instance, we can establish a Chinese Buddhist artifacts circulation department to provide Buddhists and non-Buddhists a variety of Buddhist publications, Dharma instruments and etc. We can also establish art galleries, tea houses, translation centers, and medical centers and promote activities like reading clubs, Buddhist Music competition, spiritual conservation programs and environmental protection projects. All these can enable Chinese Buddhism to connect between the world and Buddhism through the use of languages, public talks, music, art, life protection, relief programs and medical treatment in order to bring benefit and happiness to all.
In the future, Chinese Buddhism should also strive for the integration of traditions and modernism, and reform the conventional methods into something acceptable to today’s people. For example, the manner of gatherings, chanting services, and activities need to be reformed. Extra attention needs to be paid to young adults to attract them to Buddhist undertakings. This will certainly contribute to Chinese Buddhism’s role in changing the world and benefiting the humanity.
Last but not least, the fourth point is for Chinese Buddhism to change the world and benefit humanity by promoting the Bodhi Wisdom and the Power of Vows.
While Buddhism emphasizes wisdom, it also values compassion, practice and vows. That is why I have mentioned earlier that to resolve and to vow are the first step in learning Buddhism. As the Mahaprajnaparamita Sastra says, “Mere accumulation of merits without vows will find one no goals; only with the superior guidance of vows will success be achieved.” Therefore it is essential for Chinese Buddhists to develop the Bodhi Mind and make vows in order to attain Bodhi Wisdom.
If we wish for Chinese Buddhism to prosper today and face the world with pride, we must follow the examples of sages and eminent masters from the past to resolve to develop the Bodhi Mind. Take for instance, Master Xuan Zang who traveled westwards in pursuit of the Dharma, and Master Jian Zhen who traveled eastwards to Japan to propagate the Dharma; their spirit and resolve to change the world and benefit the humanity is something worth learning from.
In fact, every practitioner of the Mahayana Buddhism is obliged to follow and practice the Four Universal Vows. Therefore, every Chinese Buddhist who vows to practice the Bodhisattva path needs to cultivate the Bodhi Wisdom and the power of vows in order to change the world and benefit humanity.
All in all, vow making is like excavating an endless source of energy within our minds. By constantly making resolutions and vows, the extensive spread of Buddhism in Chinese society, its outreach into the world, and the people’s hearts can surely be expected soon.
In conclusion, Chinese Buddhism can face the world through these four suggestions. Through the propagation of Humanistic Buddhism in China, there would be expected great progress in making the life-relatedness, modernization, localization and internationalization of Buddhism.
I hope that every Chinese Buddhist can stay in line with the Buddhist spirit of compassion and wisdom, maintain their self-awareness and integrity and fill them with the energy gained from their resolve to support and participate in the propagation of Buddhism. Furthermore, with the Bodhi Wisdom and vows as the support, may we dedicate our hearts and strength to the propagation of Chinese Buddhism towards the world, purification of the world and also the happiness and well-being of humanity. With these, Chinese Buddhism not only can face the world, it can even influence, change the world and benefit the humanity.
Thank you.