A great philosopher once said, "When you first know that science is far from religion, you know that science belongs to religion." This is a very profound philosophy. People who are new to science will be arrogant and self-righteous, thinking that they will know what is happening in the world soon and that science is omnipotent and can solve all problems. Shallow materialism is actually clinging to the reality of the material world and losing the ethereal and wonderful self-consciousness that is extremely precious in human nature. It is believed that religion is only an illusory thing that promotes superstition, and it is impossible to understand and feel the essence of religion at all. They simply don't understand that great religious thoughts and theories not only contain the supreme wisdom and methods that can get spiritual detachment and resolve troubles and sufferings from unattainable infinity and detachment, but also contain the ultimate wisdom and methods of the universe, including the practical and operable great wisdom and wonderful methods of how human beings transcend their own limitations, fully develop their own potential, improve themselves and promote themselves into the supreme fairyland. Only by knowing science like the back of your hand can you deeply realize your own smallness and limitation and the vastness of the unknown world, and you will feel deep awe and admiration. You will no longer be arrogant, and then you will want to pursue the wisdom and methods of how to go beyond your own limitations, fully develop your potential, upgrade yourself, and upgrade yourself to the highest fairyland. And great religion can provide such wisdom and methods, so religion is its natural way home. However, there is one problem that deserves special attention: a religion that repents only because of pure scientific enlightenment is not necessarily a faith-based religion. Without the guidance of righteousness and faith, you may fall into heresy or even cult.
Some people may say that Buddhism lacks spells and skills to teach people how to survive, which is a sign of lack of technology. [1] Yes, there are really few things about survival skills in Buddhist scriptures. The wisdom of Buddha has a basic starting point: as long as people can basically survive, they should pay more attention to how to cultivate their own cultivation and lifelong cultivation, rather than paying too much attention to survival skills. Otherwise, it will easily lead to the disadvantages of pursuing material desires, coveting enjoyment, playing with things and getting tired of strange skills, which will seriously hinder normal cultivation. I think. But in terms of medical ethics, especially in "hiding the spirit inside, can we be safe?" However, it provides a rich and complete exposition on the wise methods of keeping in good health and getting rid of diseases. Humans, as creatures, have the advantage of survival on the earth. There is no need to teach human beings too many survival spells and skills, and human beings should have good living conditions. On the one hand, if human beings can always live in harmony with the nature of the universe, it is impossible for human beings to breed more strange diseases and man-made disasters. Humans can get very good living conditions and environment without building many high-rise buildings, bridges and expressway, and making airplanes and cars. And it will not cause pollution, environmental damage and ecological damage, and will not produce nuclear weapons, biochemical weapons, genetic weapons, terrible computer information attack weapons and other weapons that can destroy mankind thousands of times. If human beings can follow the practice of Buddhist wisdom of mind and nature, they can develop their potential intelligence infinitely and obtain externalization tools far higher than those brought by secular technology. People will never get sick as long as they pay attention to the inner defense of the spirit? As long as we pay attention to self-cultivation and guide our lives with Buddhist wisdom, we can avoid and eliminate the mutual struggle and hostility of human beings; On the other hand, the Buddha told us: "All troubles are Bodhi." This is telling us that all kinds of troubles, pains and misfortunes are the fate and opportunities of spiritual practice. In a word, Buddhism contains complete wisdom and methods about how people, people and society, people and nature live in harmony and develop, and provides the most complete wisdom and methods in philosophy, psychology, sociology, morality and ethics. The wisdom and methods in these aspects are far beyond the level of secular human beings.
Discussion on whether Buddhist belief and its theory belong to superstition: "Buddhist belief is wisdom rather than superstition" (Liang Qichao's language). The essence and teachings of Buddhism not only do not advocate superstition, but also are the most thorough and complete theory and its wisdom and methods that can effectively oppose and eradicate superstition compared with all theories (including science and technology) in the world. Why? Buddhism believes that not only illusory belief is superstition, but also belief in reality and reality. Everything should be broken. However, the scientific and technological wisdom of human wisdom in the world can only break the illusory superstition, but it is deeply stuck in the quagmire of truth and reality. Only by practicing Buddhism can people transcend the bias and incompleteness of human wisdom and gain the manifestation of Buddhism and the promotion of wisdom. There is also an old saying in the west: God smiles when human beings think. [3] This sentence implies that people should not be too proud that they are intelligent creatures who can think. Don't you know that it is precisely because human beings like thinking too much (mainly referring to playing thinking the game and concept games through logical and rational thinking with the help of language symbol system) that they fall into thinking obstacles and cannot extricate themselves. This sentence profoundly points out the bias and incompleteness of human wisdom. The disadvantages of human wisdom and its roots lie in the desire of the body, the karma of past lives, the self-persistence and self-righteousness of spiritual consciousness. Human beings are not fully aware of their incomplete and narrow-minded intelligence, but also believe that science is omnipotent and supreme, and advocate scientism, which will go further and further on the wrong road under the guidance of partially replaced and limited disabled human intelligence.
Nowadays, the dominant thought of human humanistic spirit and cognitive system has gone astray, which has led to the domination and control of science and technology by wrong thoughts and consciousness. In addition, because science encourages people's arrogance and self-righteousness, today's mankind has turned science and technology into a weapon against the essence of religion and a powerful obstacle to hostility and resistance to cultivation. For example, according to legend, Einstein deeply reflected on his theory of relativity in his later years, and thought that if he published it prematurely when human insight failed to drive it, it might bring more disaster than happiness to mankind.
Second, the purpose of Buddhism using magic and technology is different from the secular purpose.
Some Buddhist scholars believe that Buddhist scriptures contain a lot of technology, and even equate Buddhist scriptures with technology, which is extremely unrealistic. There are indeed some spells in Buddhist scriptures, but they only teach people the fundamental wisdom and methods of seeking great freedom and liberation, not the wisdom and spells of how to seek material and spiritual enjoyment. The reason why Buddhist scriptures talk too much about magic and technology is to avoid misleading people to deliberately pursue magic and technology and fall into heresy and magic. However, today's human beings have just fallen into a wrong path on this issue and are getting deeper and deeper in this quagmire. Buddhism advocates and values wisdom and methods to a certain extent, but it advocates the fundamental wisdom and methods of seeking great freedom and liberation in the process of true faith and correct outlook, and never advocates the wisdom and magic of seeking material and spiritual enjoyment. This is the essence of Buddhism and some excellent religions. However, today's human beings run counter to the essence of Buddhism in this respect. On the contrary, they believe that religious advocacy of strict abstinence and abstinence is anti-humanity and anti-humanity, and should be criticized and abandoned. It is also at this point that the dispute between the essence of religion and the secular concept of life has been launched for thousands of years. What is the purpose of the application of magic and technology? Is it used to practice and gain great liberation and freedom or to live a secular life? It has always been the focus of the conflict between religion and secularism. A good religion advocates voluntary practice, not coercion, but advocacy, guidance and enlightenment, not coercion, bewitch or deception. A good religion's attitude towards the world is: vigorously advocate and encourage every secular mortal to practice bravely and diligently according to high standards and requirements, and those who practice well will get good results. Those who are unwilling to practice but only keen on secular life will not blindly interfere with them, let alone use coercion, bewitch or deception. For such people, Buddhism just thinks that they have no cultivation fate. As "The Lotus Sutra" said: "Their chances are not yet mature. Instead of listening to unbelief and causing resentment and increasing their criminal career, it is better to let them leave. " [4] Buddhist scriptures tell us that mastering the magic of survival is enough only to have enough food and clothing. Pursuing magic beyond food and clothing in order to get a more comfortable life completely violates the essence and purpose of Buddhism. If technology and magic are used in mindfulness practice, the higher the level of magic and technology, the greater the positive impact on practitioners. However, magic can never be deliberately sought, let alone developed and utilized beyond insight. Otherwise, it will inevitably fall into heresy and even heresy. Magic is like money's influence on people. For those who have knowledge and can control money correctly, the more money they have, the more happiness they can bring. On the contrary, for people who can't control money correctly, the more money they have, the more disaster they can bring, not only to themselves, but also to others. This kind of example can be seen everywhere in life. A typical example is that some very poor peasant families in Hainan Province became rich overnight because of land expropriation. A few years later, this kind of wealth did not bring them happiness, but brought disaster. The secular view is just the opposite of the essence of Buddhism. The purpose of vigorously developing productive forces and science and technology is to better meet people's material living conditions and better pursue the satisfaction of secular spiritual life. This is the biggest mistake that human beings go astray without knowing it. In fact, the material civilization of the society is much richer than before, and people have basically had plenty of food and clothing in material life. However, the biggest difference between people and animals is that people have spiritual needs, which are the most essential and fundamental needs of people. The condition of food and clothing in material life is only the material premise for human beings to obtain this most fundamental and essential demand. Don't say that material food and clothing, even great material abundance, is by no means the most fundamental and essential demand of human life. So what should people pay more attention to after eating and drinking? Undoubtedly, we should pay more attention to the beautiful construction of our spiritual home. Generally speaking, it is to pay more attention to the beautiful construction and sound development of human spiritual and psychological health. This is the ultimate concern of mankind, and it is also the most fundamental and essential demand of mankind. Human beings' pursuit of material desires is endless and should be reflected and restrained. If the satisfaction of human pursuit of material desires is not restrained and allowed to develop indefinitely, it will inevitably lead to the degradation of human spiritual realm and human nature. In the end, human beings will lose their nature and degenerate into animals, but they are smarter and more capable than ordinary animals in obtaining food, clothing, housing and transportation.
As the saying goes, "Eat and drink to know honor and disgrace", "Poverty begets thieves, and wealth begets color." This statement is actually very one-sided. Poverty and wealth are not the fundamental factors that affect people's hearts. The key is to look at the innate endowment of individuals and the guidance of social spiritual atmosphere and social values around them. Vulgar materialism often thinks that poverty makes people worse and wealth makes people better. There are also some superficial voluntarists and idealists who believe that wealth makes people worse and poverty makes people better. This is all very one-sided.
Some people think that the pursuit of material civilization should be endless, and that how high a material civilization can support a spiritual civilization should be synchronized forever. This view is just a vulgar materialism. Because as long as you have enough to eat and wear warm clothes, one's spiritual pursuit can reach an infinite height, and one's spiritual realm can also reach an infinite height. This is true of sages and sages whose spiritual realm is exemplary at all times and in all countries. None of these sages reached a very lofty spiritual realm after becoming rich and expensive. Although some have the conditions of being either rich or expensive, they voluntarily give up the life of being either rich or expensive, and most of them actively choose the material life that doesn't matter but has plenty of food and clothing. On the other hand, a person who pays too much attention to the enjoyment of material life, even if he is a very smart and talented person, his spiritual realm must not be lofty. Throughout the ages, no one with a very noble spiritual realm has paid too much attention to the enjoyment of material life. There is a problem that needs special attention. The means and ability of human beings to control nature should be endless, but this pursuit is definitely not the pursuit of material enjoyment, but a part of human beings' pursuit of spiritual needs. This is a very important difference. If we insist that human society should not hesitate to adopt the method of overemphasizing development and stimulating people's pursuit of material desires when the requirements of material life are not met, so as to encourage and urge people to vigorously develop material civilization, then once people have enough food and clothing in material life, they should not pay too much attention to the development of material civilization, but should pay attention to the development and construction of spiritual civilization. In the final analysis, the comprehensive and fundamental criteria for evaluating a person's quality of life after having enough food and clothing depend on whether a person is comfortable, full and happy in thought and spirit, which will ultimately come down to a person's inner spiritual feelings and mental state, and has nothing to do with his wealth, fame and status.
On the one hand, man's pursuit of material satisfaction is endless, on the other hand, man's ability to develop and build material civilization in the universe is limited. At any time, it is impossible for human beings to fully understand the avenue of the universe, but a person with material food and clothing can gain unlimited spiritual enrichment, satisfaction, comfort and freedom as long as he is good at building a spiritual home. On the other hand, a person who is not good at building his own spiritual home, even if the material living conditions are rich, can hardly obtain spiritual enrichment, satisfaction and freedom. For example, a boss who owns a five-star hotel can't sleep peacefully because of too many obstacles and too many calculations, while a carefree street tramp can sleep soundly as long as he lies on the floor casually.
Thirdly, Buddhism advocates the pursuit of the highest wonderful and complete life situation through the high standards of diligence, courage and diligence, as well as the strict inward cultivation of the mind, and is by no means a negative, world-weary, evasive and conservative philosophy of life that does not advocate enterprising.
In fact, the real essence of religion is to be extremely opposed to laziness and lack of progress. Buddhism attaches great importance to diligent study and hard practice, and lists diligent study and hard practice in the Eight Right Path. Taoism's inaction is by no means advocating inaction. The realm of inaction here is the highest realm of Taoism. It means not to interfere with the natural avenue artificially. Only by thoroughly understanding what immoral behavior is and being good at giving up can we do nothing, follow one's inclinations and reach the highest state of conforming to Tao. However, it is a kind of wisdom to seek the supreme other, the supreme mind and the great liberation of life.
Believing in the right law is the great wisdom of superman's wisdom ontology, superman's wisdom metaphysics, super methodology and super epistemology. After establishing the ultimate and complete ontology and epistemology, Buddhism is not an empty theory in the specific work and cultivation process. Very practical, pay great attention to the spirit of practicality, diligence and seeking truth from facts. The high standards and requirements in this respect are stricter and more complete than those in secular academic circles. It provides rich and complete cultivation methods for practitioners at different levels. Its systematicness and operability are highly complete and intelligent, but the methods and roads are different. Buddhism does not exclude good methods and roads in the secular world, and it can be used to some extent. Buddhism has long incorporated the science of human intelligence into its own magic category, and the cultivation method of Buddhism is not only applicable to all creatures on the earth, but also to all creatures in the universe. When practicing at the human level, Buddhism knows to pay full attention to and use the magic at the intellectual level, that is, science and technology, because as the science and technology of secular law, ordinary people in the world will feel that it has the characteristics of being tangible, operable, repetitive and stable when using it. But this kind of attention and utilization must be grasped and guided by a higher level of insight.
On how to correctly understand and understand the nature of birth advocated by Buddha: (1) Far from being born in a narrow sense misinterpreted and misunderstood by the world, it advocates actively following the highest level and realm of heaven, cause and effect, entering the world, saving the world and crossing the world; (2) The birth advocated by the Buddha is only to get rid of the pursuit of lust, pleasure and vanity that hinders self-expression and leads to ignorance, so as to enhance and affirm the value of life and the value of life at a higher level and realm, and advocate active, diligent and diligent pursuit of the highest realm of life; (3) The birth advocated by the Buddha will not only lead to a negative, world-weary, evasive and decadent attitude towards the value of life, but also be the most complete and practical theory to criticize and eliminate any negative, world-weary, evasive, decadent and indifferent attitude towards life and its infinite potential value, and can provide practical and operable wisdom practice. The cultivation requirements advocated by the Buddha to enhance the value and realm of life far exceed the level that all secular diligence and earnest can achieve, and the level required by his courage, diligence and hard work is unimaginable to the world. Its motive force and deep psychological internal drive and motivation are no longer the secular psychological motivation and internal drive inspired by the secular routine pursuit of sensory pleasure and vanity satisfaction, but a highly sublimated driving force for self-improvement and freedom for the supreme life value and situation, which can fully and thoroughly mobilize and inspire practitioners to be brave, diligent and enterprising. This is a noble and pure spiritual power; (4) The requirement of earnest and realistic spirit advocated by the Buddha is far higher than the highest requirement of earnest and realistic spirit in the secular world. This is not only a serious and realistic spirit with high standards and high requirements, but also a highly intelligent attitude. It will never lead to obsession with real people and things and ignorance because of being too serious and realistic. The seriousness and reality advocated by secular human wisdom are bound to be limited or ignorant because of their obsession with the reality of the world.
Fourth, the essence and ultimate purpose of Buddhism and Laozi and Zhuangzi lies elsewhere. Its supreme and complete philosophy of life, spiritual comfort theory and complete hermeneutics are only shallow functions and values of Buddhism, but people often mistake them for their greatest functions and values.
From the perspective of life philosophy, Buddhism is not only full of wonderful and complete life philosophy that can make life get the best ethereal transcendence and the greatest comfort and relief, but also contains wonderful and complete spiritual comfort and psychoanalysis theory, which is a wonderful and complete hermeneutics. It can be said that it is more profound, wonderful and complete than the philosophy of life, psychology and its consulting theory and hermeneutics in today's secular disciplines. Buddhism is the best spiritual harbor and refuge for human beings when they encounter "lightness" (doing nothing is extremely boring and empty) and "heaviness" (frustration, blow, pain and misfortune). It can provide some solutions for secular people and the best way to transcend the "lightness" and "heaviness" of life, so that the world can gain some detached spirit and ethereal sense of freedom. The method provided by Buddhism here is by no means a simple "spiritual victory method and transcendence method" like The True Story of Ah Q, but a very convincing, profound and gratifying method, the most wonderful, complete and intelligent method. But these functions and methods are only the superficial functions and values of Buddhism, not the most fundamental, important and mysterious essence of Buddhism; Many scholars often mistake this for the highest and most fundamental function and value of Buddhism. This is another misunderstanding.
In order to make a deeper discussion on this issue, it is necessary to briefly talk about what is the ultimate goal and the highest cultivation realm advocated by learning Buddhism. Different people have different views on this issue. I think the initial goal of studying Buddhism should be to establish a complete religious belief system, which will help modern people gradually and profoundly realize that they are above everything, always ethereal, humiliated, gain and loss, indifferent to fame and fortune, quietism, and "born without roots", and finally they can cultivate a good attitude towards life with the heart of being born, diligent and tireless. In any setbacks and hardships, we can maintain an extremely optimistic, full, harmonious and quiet state of mind, and then achieve a sound and complete life situation, and the ultimate goal is to truly "live without writing", see nature clearly [6], be ethereal and free, and make something out of nothing. On the other hand, the ultimate purpose and essence of Buddhism and Taoism lies in providing a set of highly operable advanced theories and developing wisdom at a deeper level. The depth of its deep development of wisdom can reach the level of awakening potential memory and potential intelligence at the gene level. Persuading the world to be good is a method, but it is not a fundamental method. It is only a superficial function of religion, and the highest and deepest function is to give each individual a wonderful and complete method, so that they can fully develop their infinite potential intelligence and achieve enlightenment through cultivation. The role of the harbor can provide poor spiritual cultivation methods and seek good spiritual comfort, which is only the shallow function and function of religion. Retirement is only one of the basic strategies and methods of cultivation, but it is not the fundamental law. The fundamental principle is to exclude external interference, be pure and indifferent, be pure and do nothing, not contend with the world, and live in seclusion ... That is, Buddhism advocates being open-minded, mindless, pure, and eliminating six roots, while secular desires and Taoism advocate quietism, being pure and indifferent, fasting in the heart, and forgetting inner cultivation. The fundamental purpose and method lies in meditation, that is, enlightenment is achieved through supreme meditation and meditation. The essence of abstinence, inaction, uniformity of things, uniformity of things, forgetfulness of things, lack of shelter, six purity, keeping precepts and doing good is still a way to get rid of self-obsession, delusion and human interference from heaven. In short, great religious thoughts and theories contain mechanisms and wisdom that can provide people with a complete system of self-confidence, self-comfort, self-regulation and self-motivation. They not only contain the supreme spirit, but also can be mentally detached from the unattainable infinity, giving birth to a wonderful spirit of detachment, which can make people have deep awe and admiration, stop being arrogant, and deeply understand their own smallness and limitations and the vastness of the unknown world. As well as the wisdom and methods that can solve people's troubles and pains, it also includes the ultimate wisdom and methods of the universe, including the practical and operable wisdom and the most wonderful methods of how human beings transcend their own limitations, give full play to their potential, improve themselves, and promote themselves into supreme freedom.
Fifth, secular Buddhism and learning Buddhism.
Fundamentally speaking, the problem of Buddhism is a practical problem, not a theoretical one. It is a good philosophy of life to regard Buddhism as a theoretical theory, which is the common attitude and understanding of scholars all over the world. With this attitude and understanding, it is impossible to understand the essence of true Buddhism, and it is impossible to achieve Buddhism. If you want to truly realize the Tao and see the Buddha, you can't learn by ordinary methods, let alone by rational thinking, even by language, logic and ideas, because "Tao can be Tao, which is unusual" [7] and "Zen can be said to be non-true Zen", the practice here is not the usual practice of "walking Wan Li Road, breaking thousands of books and making friends with all sides", but practice. Its method is more a subtle cultivation method based on understanding, rather than the so-called "practice makes true knowledge" method that relies only on human intelligence, language logic and even the concept of thinking for rational speculation. [8] This view that Buddhism is only regarded as a kind of knowledge, philosophical theory and thought is another misunderstanding of secular Buddhism. Because the conceptual system of human intelligence, language logic and thinking system based on rational speculation is biased and incomplete. Language and rational thinking can only be tools to realize the Buddha on a certain level, but they have considerable negative effects and limitations. Especially in the absence of certain self-cultivation, it is even more harmful to rely solely on language and rational thinking to realize the Tao and see the Buddha. People often fall into the language barrier and thinking barrier mentioned by the Buddha, but they can't realize the Buddha, and they will misunderstand and misinterpret the essence of Buddhism and Taoism.