Total order
Jinghui (Vice President of the Chinese Buddhist Association)
Many scholars often say this: "Buddhism originated in India, developed in China, and blossomed in Japan." Every time I hear this, I can't help but feel a lot of emotion. Before the Song Dynasty, Buddhism in our country was very developed. At that time, there were eight major sects, among which Zen was the most Chinese sect that best reflected the Buddha's original intention. At that time, the Zen Buddhism spread almost all over the country, and spread to Japan, South Korea, and to Vietnam in the south. After the Southern Song Dynasty, Buddhism in our country began to decline slowly. In modern times, Buddhism is almost dying. Why does this happen? There are many reasons. I think one of the main reasons is probably related to the practice of Buddhism in the later period of China that was divorced from social reality, served the dead, and served after death.
From this I came up with a point of view: how to realistically position the relationship between Buddhism and real life and the public is crucial to the existence and development of Buddhism; the rise of Buddhism is also due to the decline of Buddhism. Looking at the ups and downs of Buddhism in history, it is not difficult to find this rule.
When the Buddha was alive, the Indian ideological world was extremely chaotic and complex, with various thoughts one after another, and there were more than 60 kinds of heretics. Under this situation, Buddhism can rise and spread quickly in society, becoming a social dominant trend that is willing to accept by the vast majority of people. This is directly related to the Buddha's opposition to the caste system, advocating equality of sentient beings, paying attention to the establishment of worldly ethics and ultimate value care, and paying attention to the pain of life and liberation, the purification of the mind, the peace of society, and the peace of the world, which is both worldly and worldly. After reading the Agama Sutra, we will feel that the Buddha's lectures are very friendly and peaceful, and the atmosphere of life is very strong, which played a great role in the establishment of a good social and moral life, spiritual life and good social order in India at that time.
In the sect era, because Theravada monks were more conservative and obsessed with dogma, Buddhism gradually became a scholastic theory. Therefore, the Mahayana Buddhism derived from the Mahayana Buddhism began a significant movement towards Theravada Buddhism under the stimulation of the rising Brahminism, which once again brought Buddhism from the state that was exclusive to a few people in the mountains and forests to the real people, and promoted the Mahayana Bodhisattva spirit of "benefiting sentient beings and adorning the country", thus causing Buddhism to burst out with unprecedented vitality. This movement had a huge impact on later Buddhism and even the entire Eastern civilization.
Let’s look back at our Chinese Buddhism. In the Tang Dynasty, there were many Buddhist sects in our country, but there was also a drawback, that is, the tendency of Buddhist teaching to become increasingly strong, and the true practice of Buddhism was ignored in real life, thus turning Buddhism into a kind of knowledge that was far away from society. In this way, the foundation and adaptability of Buddhist real life became very fragile. Therefore, when the Huichang Dharma came, the temples and scriptures of various sects other than Zen were devastatingly destroyed, and the prosperity of the past no longer existed. Zen Buddhism has strong survival ability with its rooted in real life, the awareness and liberation of caring for life at the moment, and the self-reliance and focus on true practice and realization.
History tells us that the prosperity and prosperity of Buddhism cannot be separated from real life and social groups. The value of Buddhism must not only be expressed through individual liberation, the birth of the world, but also by helping society establish and improve a healthy moral system, positive life value care, and environmental awareness that is consistent with the right, and through the worldly ways of purifying people's hearts, maintaining world peace, etc., and these two cannot be separated in time and space. In other words, the ultimate liberation of an individual can only be truly realized in the behavior of benefiting people and society. Any practice that is separated from society will only push Buddhism to perish faster.
After nearly a hundred years of vicissitudes and hardships, Chinese Buddhism has long been difficult to return. In addition, it has suffered an unprecedented catastrophe during the "cultural greatness", which can be said to be a serious injury to the vitality. Fortunately, we finally ushered in a great situation of reform and opening up, political integration and harmony among the people. With the party’s policy of freedom of religious belief as a guarantee, Buddhism finally has the opportunity to revive. Under such circumstances, how to enable Buddhism to get out of its sluggish state as soon as possible and restore its original vitality, so as to better serve the construction of socialist material and spiritual civilization has become a very important and urgent task before every Buddhist worker. More than ten years ago, I proposed the practice concept of "Life Zen", advocating "aware of life and dedicating life", advocating "seeking satisfaction in duty, seeking peace of mind in obligations, seeking happiness in dedication, seeking progress in selflessness, enlightenment in life, and achieving liberation in guaranteeing responsibility", etc., the purpose is here.
Of course, the proposal of "Life Zen" is not my personal creation. As early as the early days of the Republic of China, Master Taixu was moved by the slogan of "Human Buddhism" because of the disadvantage of Chinese Buddhism being divorced from social reality. After liberation, Mr. Zhao Puchu, former president of the Chinese Buddhist Association, further regarded the construction of "Human Buddhism" as a long-term goal of the Chinese Buddhist Association. Although we are still a long way from mature human Buddhism, we have taken the first step after all.
In order to promote Buddhism to better serve reality in the new era and to win more people's recognition and participation in "Life Zen", over the past decade, with the cordial care and strong support of the Chinese Buddhist Association, the Hebei Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government, our Hebei Provincial Buddhist Association has successively carried out a series of activities around the theme of "Life Zen", such as establishing the "Zen" magazine, holding the "Life Zen Summer Camp", etc. Although we have achieved some results and have caused relatively good responses inside and outside the teaching, this is just a start, and there are still many things that we need to continue to do.
This time, the compilation, editing and publishing of this "Life·Zen Ji Series" is a phased summary of our past work and a new starting point for continuing to move towards the future. The practice of life Zen is a new topic. In the process of exploration, there will naturally be many immature places. I hope that the enthusiastic friends will share compassion, joy and renunciation and put forward valuable opinions so that we can further promote the active adaptation of Buddhist cause to socialist society in the future.
Ask about the Zen Door at the Berlin Zen Temple in Zhaozhou