To be born in the world, we must deal with three relationships: first, the relationship between man and nature; second, the relationship between people; Third, the relationship between people themselves. If these three relationships are handled well, people will be happy; Otherwise it's painful.
1. The situation we are facing
It has almost become common sense that we must proceed from reality when discussing problems. How can we make an exception when talking about the quality of people?
In this regard, what is the situation that we are facing, including the mainland and Taiwan, and even the whole world? In my opinion, the "Circular" of the Dharma Drum School of Humanities and Social Sciences is concise and to the point:
Knowledgeable people are worried about the following problems lurking in today's society: that is, the atmosphere of utilitarianism is pervasive, and they only know how to seize and lack the spirit of dedication and service; People do not care enough about society, and the environment is deteriorating day by day; Although the average person is quite educated, he lacks the ability to judge right from wrong, good and evil. The lack of integration between science and technology education and humanities education hinders the overall development of education and affects the development of students' sound personality.
These words are to the point.
Here, I would like to add a few words.
We are at the end of the 20th century and the end of the millennium. "Century" and "Millennium" are both artificially created; However, once created, it seems to have had an impact on human activity. The end of the 19th century can be used as a mirror, and the end of the current century is no exception. The tremendous changes that have taken place in the political and economic fields are obvious to all. In particular, I would like to point out the alarming situation in areas such as environmental protection. All these are closely related to the development of Western science and technology.
Since the Industrial Revolution, science and technology have developed rapidly in the West. After the liberation of the productive forces, it is far from the past. The result has been a great unexpected benefit to all of humanity. This cannot be denied in any way. But at the same time, it also brings the same unexpected drawbacks or harms, such as air pollution, Haihe River pollution, ecological balance destruction, the extinction of some animals and plants, environmental pollution, ozone layer holes, population explosion, lack of fresh water resources, new diseases, and so on. If any of these disasters cannot be avoided or eliminated, the future of human existence will be threatened. Therefore, people of insight all over the world and some governments are now speaking out to pay attention to environmental protection. This is truly worthy of our admiration.
The English Romantic poet Shelley, with his astonishing sensibility, foresaw in his 1821 book Poetry in the early 19th century, when Western industrial development was in full swing, and in his unfortunate case, he prescribed a remedy for it: poetry and imagination, plus love. This is also worthy of our admiration.
The end of the current century is indeed an era of unprecedented turmoil and transformation in human history. At such times, what we usually call the "generation gap" is unprecedentedly deep and wide. The gap between the young and the old generations is severe. Some people refer to the younger generation as the "new humans", and it is said that Japan also has a strong meaning.
2. Human nature or instinct
We are in this environment to explore some ideas about human nature.
For more than 2,000 years, there has been a debate in the history of Chinese philosophy: sexual goodness and sexual evil. It is a well-known fact that Mencius is good and Xunzi is evil. The two theories have their own supporters and opponents, and the neutrals advocate the theory that there is no good and no evil. My personal opinion is close to that, but not identical. If I were to get rid of the wall-riding stance and speak the truth, I would be in favor of sexual evil, but on what basis?
Because of the wrong business, I focus on the history of ancient Buddhism, the ancient languages of Central Asia, the history of Buddhism, and the history of cultural exchanges between China and India, as well as between China and foreign countries...... I didn't know much about physiology and psychology. Based on my many years of observation and thinking, I believe that the Creator, either heaven or nature, on the one hand, gives people and all living things (including animals and plants) a very strong desire to survive, and on the other hand, they have a very strong desire to develop and expand. I was amazed that a small grass could come out of the weight of masonry and stone with amazing perseverance. A fish can lay hundreds or thousands of eggs, and if each egg grows into a fish, the lake and sea will one day be filled with fish. The plant has no spirit, but it has the ability, and it does everything it can to spread its seeds. The list goes on. However, at the same time, the Creator creates natural enemies of certain animals and plants, such as big fish eating small fish, small fish eating shrimp, cats eating mice, and so on, etc., in short, on the one hand, let you survive and develop, and on the other hand, prevent you from surviving and developing, so as to maintain the balance of species, people, animals and plants. This is the Creator playing a joke on living beings. Lao Tzu said: "Heaven and earth are unkind, and all things are used as dogs." The meaning is similar to this difference. In this way, can Xunzi's theory of sexual evil be said to be unfounded? Xunzi said: "Human nature is evil, and its good ones are hypocritical." The word "pseudo" here has the meaning of "artificial", not all "fake". In short, this statement is more plausible than Mencius's theory of goodness.
3. Ethical issues
At this point, I think it's time to talk about morality. Morality talks about good and evil, good and bad, right and wrong, and so on. So, what is good, is good, is yes? Based on what I said above, we can say: to survive ourselves, and to let other people, animals and plants live, this is goodness. Thinking only about one's own survival and not thinking about the survival of others is evil. In "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Cao Cao said: "Only teach me to bear the world, not to teach the world to bear me." "This is typical evil. It is impossible and contrary to human nature for a person not to think about his own survival. As long as a person can consider both themselves and others, the person is considered to pass, and the higher the percentage of consideration for others, the higher the moral level of the person. It is impossible to give 100 percent consideration to others, the so-called "no self-interest, only for the benefit of others", and the very few who sacrifice their lives for the country and others are, in the ready-made words of a philosopher, out of "righteous action".
Only human beings, the "spirit of all things", can consider both themselves and the interests of others. All animals and plants are absolutely impossible, they have no ability to think at all. They have no self-discipline, only other laws, and this other law comes from nature or from the Creator. Human beings can be self-disciplined, but they must also be supplemented by other disciplines. Kant's so-called "negative obligations" mostly come from other laws. The "positive obligations" he talked about mostly came from self-discipline. There are many contents of other laws, such as social opinion, moral dogma, and so on. And the most obvious are the public security bureaus, procuratorial agencies, and courts.
At this point, I want to take the topic a little further away in order to explain what I want to say.
In life, we must deal with three relationships: first, the relationship between man and nature, which is also called the "relationship between heaven and man"; second, the relationship between people, that is, social relations; Third, the relationship between people themselves, that is, the contradiction and balance of personal thoughts and feelings. If these three relationships are handled well, people will be happy; Otherwise it's painful. When dealing with the first relationship, that is, the relationship between heaven and man, the East and the West, at least in the direction of guiding ideology, are completely different. The West's main "to conquer the nature" (to conquer the nature) is derived from the "natural selection, survival of the fittest" in the "Theory of Heavenly Evolution". But heaven or nature is capable of revenge, capable of punishment. You have "conquered" too much, and it will take revenge. For example, if you cut down forests, the climate will be affected, and floods will be overflowing. There are examples of this all over the world. The root cause of this year's floods on the mainland is also here. This is just a small example, and so on. The last article of the academic master Mr. Qian Mu's life, "The Contribution of Chinese Culture to the Future of Mankind", talks about the problem of "the unity of heaven and man". "The unity of heaven and man" is an important proposition in the history of Chinese philosophy, and there are many interpretations. Qian Lao said: "I once said that the theory of 'the unity of heaven and man' is the greatest contribution of Chinese culture to mankind. My addition makes it clear that "the unity of man and nature" means that man and nature should be one, to coexist peacefully, not to talk about conquering and being conquered. For nearly 200 years, the West has been conquering nature, and Westerners have regarded themselves as "the pride of heaven" and are arrogant, which has led to some of the evils or disasters that I have added in the first chapter above. The "heaven" mentioned in Mr. Qian Binsi's article seems to focus on the "mandate of heaven", my "new interpretation", and "heaven" refers to nature. This idea of harmony between man and nature is not only characteristic of Chinese thought, but also characteristic of the thinking of Eastern countries. This is where the cultural ideas of the East and the West parted ways. In China, there is no clearer expression of this idea than the great Confucian Zhang Zai of the Song Dynasty, who said in "Ximing": "The people, my compatriots; Things, I and also. "Things" refers to all things in heaven and earth. There is also an element of "the unity of heaven and man" in Buddhist thought, which has been clearly pointed out by Professor Oh Hyung-geun of South Korea. One of the "five precepts" of Buddhism's basic canons is the prohibition of killing, which is in line with the Chinese idea of "things and things".
4. Self-cultivation and practical issues
I realize that the reason why Venerable Sheng Yan spared no manpower and material resources to convene such a large-scale conference, and why many famous scholars and experts from the mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have come from thousands of miles to gather here, will never let us sit and talk about it. The Tao cannot be ignored, regardless of the disagreement, the guidance is not clear, so it does not work. However, if we confine ourselves to theory, empty talk will not help us with reality and will not make much sense. Moreover, Venerable Sheng Yan has set a clear purpose for the Dharma Drum Humanities and Social Sciences Academy to "improve the quality of people and build a pure land on earth". The same is probably true of the purpose of this meeting. Therefore, when we are discussing, we must also come up with some concrete solutions. In this way, the meeting can be considered a success.
As I mentioned in the first chapter of this article, the situation facing China and the world is very serious. Mr. Qian Mu also said: "In the past 100 years, the world's human culture has been cultivated, and it can be said that it is all in Europe. In the last 50 years, European culture has been in decline, and it can no longer be the suzerainty of the world's human culture. Therefore, it can be said that the recent period has been a period of decline of human culture. What will the world culture aspire to now? This is the most important practical issue for us as human beings today. "That's a lot of words.
In the face of such a severe situation, I raised the issue of cultivation and practice, which can also be called the relationship between thought and action, and the two are not exactly the same.
The so-called self-cultivation mainly refers to ideological problems, cognitive problems, and self-discipline problems, and other disciplines are sometimes unavoidable. On the mainland, helping others understand problems is called "doing ideological work." When a person encounters a problem, he mainly relies on himself to solve it, first solve it in thought, and then he can see it in action, and the awakening of others sometimes also plays a role. Zen Buddhism advocates "epiphany". Of course, enlightenment depends mainly on oneself, but the help of others sometimes helps. A Zen master's broken drink, a slap of the slap, and a word of shit can also play a deafening role. Song Acting Scholars had a way of restraining their selfish desires. Qing Yin Mingshou's "Learning to See the Corner" quoted Zhu Zi as saying:
The predecessors had vulgar treatment thoughts, and they disposed of two devices in the sitting, and for each good thought, they threw a white bean into the device; Every evil thought, then cast a black bean in the vessel, at the beginning of the black beans more, white beans less, then with no more black beans, the last test of white beans is also nothing. However, this is just a way to die, if you are more interested in reading and reasoning, then why is it difficult to think about it so badly?
This method is actually influenced by the sutras. The Book of Wisdom and Foolishness, Volume 13, (67) The 60th chapter of Upotipin talks about a method of "thinking":
With white and black stones, use it is equal to calculation. Good thoughts are white, and evil thoughts are black. Upoti was taught by him, and the thoughts of good and evil threw stones. There are many black couples at the beginning, and there are very few white ones. Gradually practice, white and black are waiting. I can't stop thinking about it. There is no black stone, there is pure white. Good thoughts have flourished, and the first fruits have been captured. (Taisho Shinshu Tripitaka, vol. 4, p. 442b)
This is almost exactly the same as Zhuzi's statement, the difference is only in the bean and the stone fungus.
How useful is this? Let's not talk about it. Both places talk about good thoughts and evil thoughts. What is goodness? What is evil? I am afraid that the understanding of China and India is very different. Song Confucianism in China is not the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, and Buddhism in India. My own views on good and evil, which have already been discussed above. To remember, I think, is nothing more than a struggle between indulging one's nature and restraining one's nature. Why curb nature? The purpose is to live both for oneself and for others. Because if this is not done, the society will inevitably be chaotic, just as there must be traffic lights in modern big cities, and there must be laws and ethical dogmas when cars come and go. In the universe, nothing in the universe, including man, animals and plants, allows for "absolute freedom". For the normal operation of the universe and the normal activities of human society, we have no choice but to do so. For animals and plants, they can't think, they can't self-discipline, they can only discipline themselves. Man is the spirit of all things, an animal that can think and distinguish between right and wrong, and can be self-disciplined, but he must also help others. Zhu Zi said that this method of thinking is a "way to die", and it is not enough to rely on it alone, and it is necessary to study and reason in order to get rid of those improper thoughts. Reading is certainly beneficial, but it cannot be limited to the books of Confucius and Mencius; Poor reasoning is also good, but the standard cannot be limited to the way of Confucius and Mencius. Especially today, when a new century is approaching, we must take a long-term view.
How do you take a long-term view? First of all, we must see the shortcomings caused by the current Western science and technology, and the future of human survival is already in crisis. The world is faint, and I will make it clear. We must vigorously correct the shortcomings of the West's "conquest of nature" and vigorously promote the East's idea of "the unity of man and nature", especially among young people.
The above is mainly about self-cultivation. It is not enough to cultivate alone, but also to practice, that is, to act, it is better to have a belief, whether it is religion or doctrine; But it must be pious and sincere. There is no room for falsehood here. We might as well start with Kant's "negative obligations": not to pollute the environment, not to pollute the air, not to pollute rivers and lakes, not to kill indiscriminately, not to destroy the ecological balance, not to cut down forests, and many other "nos". These "negative obligations" can have a positive impact. In this way, with the cultivation and practice of individuals, the teaching and persuasion of others, and the constraints of the public, procuratorate, and law, some of the evils mentioned in the first chapter of this article can be avoided or reduced, and the hope put forward by Venerable Sheng Yan can be realized, and we are all in the "Pure Land on Earth". "Turning the tide is the case", the matter is man-made.
Source: Ji Xianlin on Life, Contemporary China Publishing House, 2006.