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Wisdom and Compassion: Two Paradigms of Humanistic Buddhist(17)

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   Muditaa or sympathetic joy results from acting on the first two principles because one sees how one's efforts have helped others. This joy represents an important factor in Sarvodaya's mundane awakening for to be awake and liberated is to be joyful. Sarvodaya does not downplay the element of joy derived from losing oneself in the service of society. The fourth principle, upekkhaa or equanimity, becomes important for developing a personality structure unshaken by praise or blame, by gain or loss.

   Through living out the Divine Abidings in concrete action, such as in a Shramadaana camp, Sarvodayans implement the path of this-worldly asceticism that leads to the goal of dual liberation. Ariyaratne said that "To change society we must purify ourselves, and the purification process we need is brought about by working in society." [16] The Buddhist path, including the factors of the Eightfold Path and the Four Divine Abidings, constitutes the crucial link between the individual and society in Sarvodaya's whole scheme of awakening and development, for it provides a means to awaken both self and society together.

   The exact nature of the interrelationship of the spiritual and social goals in Sarvodaya's vision of development is illustrated by a saying used by the movement to

 

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describe Shramadana camps: "We build the road and the road builds us." This saying catches the point that material development work done on behalf of society also serves spiritual purposes. As Ariyaratne explains, Sarvodaya actually cannot fail; the road may fail by being washed out, but the awakening that occurred in the building of it will endure. This saying demonstrates that although the social and spiritual factors in development depend on each other, for Sarvodaya the spiritual retains priority.

   The Sarvodaya Movement has been influential in the quest for peace in Sri Lanka and in the world at large. Sarvodaya and Dr. Ariyaratne have received international recognition for their work for peace.

 

Conclusion:
   In the emergence of these movements and their interpretations of the dhamma, we can see some of the directions in which contemporary Theravada Buddhism is moving. One of the main directions is toward the evolution of a humanistic Buddhism that favors social engagement. These gurus are adapting Buddhism to the needs of human beings and society in significant ways. We can point to Guru D's upgrading the status and role of women, Guru B's proposal to establish a dharmic constitution, and Guru C and Guru Ratnakara's groups that are working to carry out projects that benefit society and the environment. These gurus through their meditation have seen that wisdom entails compassion and that compassion requires various expressions.

   The Sarvodaya Movement has also sought to develop compassionate programs that address the problems of society. Both of these movements build upon the central Buddhist insight that, as the Dhammapada teaches, "The Mind is the foremost reality." The Sarvodaya Movement carries the process of purification into society and attempts to uproot the social structures that have grown up in society because of the unprofitable roots of the mind. Dr. Ariyaratne has pointed out how these negative mental states can become negative social forces. He says, " You can organize greed and call it development, you can organize hatred and call it peace, and you can organize ignorance and call it science." In his acceptance speech for the Niwano Peace Prize, Dr. Ariyaratne said, "The present-day violence within our countries and between our countries is rooted in two broad sectors. One is our own ignorant minds which generate evil thoughts of greed and ill will...The second is our social, economic and political structures in which these evil thoughts can be organized for collective manifestations."

   Buddhism today has the opportunity to work for peace that will counter these unprofitable roots. The movements I have discussed and other Buddhist groups and movements that are working today have the possibility to bring about a new middle path, a path between the extremes of materialistic domination of the world and spiritualistic retreat from the world, a humanistic path that leads to Wisdom and Compassion.

 

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Bibliography of Citations
Bartholomeusz, Tessa and C.R. de Silva (eds.), 1998. Buddhist Fundamentalism and Minority Identities in Sri Lanka. Albany: SUNY Press.

Bond, George D., 1988. The Buddhist Revival in Sri Lanka. Columbia, S.C.: The Univ. of South Carolina Press.

Kemper, Steven, 1991. The Presence of the Past: Chronicles, Politics and Culture in Sinhala Life. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.

Marty, Martin, and R. Scott Appleby (eds.), 1991. Fundamentalisms Observed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Obeyesekere, Gananath, 1990. "Buddhism, Nationhood, and Cultural Identity: A Question of Fundamentals." in Marty and Appleby (eds.) Fundamentalisms Comprehended, pp. 231-256.