-Criticism of Buddhists' propaganda and circulation of folk forged good books such as Notes on Yulibao.
Ruzhi
The author has visited some Buddhist websites, occasionally visited Buddhist forums, and sometimes visited some bookstores that circulate Buddhist books, and got a general understanding of some situations. The most worrying thing is: lack of positive opinions, superstition!
Looking through many Buddhist websites, there are some contents being publicized and circulated, such as "Yulibao", "Tai Shang Induction" and "Three Generations of karma". In fact, these contents are not as good as the law. It is good for a layman to spend his own money to print books, build websites and publicize Buddhism, but the content of publicity must be carefully considered. "Yulibao" and "Taiwanese businessmen's induction" are not Buddhism. Some people say that although these books are not Buddhism, they also advise people to do good and talk about cause and effect. What happened to them? Yes, they advise people to do good, but their standards of good and evil are open to question. They also advocate causality, but the causality they advocate is fundamentally different from the belief in Buddhism!
Cause and effect in Buddhism is a scientific and simple truth, which emphasizes self-blame. All kinds of good and bad results a person gets are because his thoughts, words and actions create "karma" for good or evil, not the judgment and punishment of ghosts and gods. Although Buddhism recognizes the existence of ghosts and gods, ghosts and gods are also dominated by karma. "karma" in Buddhism means "nature", which can also be interpreted as a kind of "movement" and a kind of power. A person's obsession with himself and external things produces all kinds of greedy, angry and stupid thoughts and creates all kinds of languages and behaviors, and each kind of thought, language and behavior will produce a kind of power, which will not disappear or mature when encountering fate.
The cause and effect mentioned in Buddhism includes the cause and effect mentioned in human philosophy, such as "eating is the cause and satiety is the fruit;" Full is the cause, it is the result ",which also contains the third generation of cause and effect that ordinary people can't see. The cause and effect of life and death of all beings are thoroughly analyzed in the twelve causes of Buddhism.
The master of modern Taixu once pointed out that secular people usually have two incorrect understandings of cause and effect: one is the theory of destruction without cause and fruit; One is the causal view of Shinto: that is, if people do good, God will bless them; Evil will be punished by heaven (for details, please refer to Cause and Effect in the Third World in Master Taixu's Encyclopedia II). Yu Li Bao and Tai Shang Gui Jing are typical books taught by Shinto, and what they say about cause and effect is the view of cause and effect criticized by Master Tai Xu. The standard of good and evil advocated by them is the standard of good and evil established by Shinto, with obvious superstitious thoughts.
Some people say, "What is superstition and what is not superstition? Can you make it clear? I would rather believe it, but I don't believe it. " Yes, there is no absolute boundary between superstition and non-superstition, but there is a general standard. People who believe in Buddhism should take what the Buddha said as the standard and what the Buddha and Bodhisattva said as the measure. Therefore, in the Eight Righteousnesses of the Buddha, the first thing to emphasize is to have a positive view, and the second is mindfulness.
Below, we try to make a brief analysis of these books, such as Jade Tales, Tai Shang Gui Fa and Shi San Causality Classic:
Treasure of the Jade Calendar is a book with Taoism as its theme. A legend of "Meng Po Tang" was invented in "Jade Calendar Treasures" to explain why people can't remember past lives. At the same time, a figure similar to Meng Po was invented, saying that Meng Po belonged to the Han Dynasty. But please think about it. Who will finish this task before Meng Po? In fact, Buddhism has long had an objective explanation for these. When people die, they part. After a deep coma between life and death, the superficial consciousness has already dissipated, but Araille's knowledge is still there, and the Yin body is reincarnated to the corresponding realm under the impetus of karma. People who have been reincarnated can't recall the past life because of the confusion of the past life, because the consciousness of ordinary people can't go deep into Araille's consciousness, and only a few people who go deep into meditation can see the images of the past life in meditation. There are also very few people who have pure thoughts and little paranoia in their last lives and still have memories of their last lives. Such people generally appear in mountainous areas and rural areas.
According to Buddhist classics, people who commit serious crimes will feel the consequences of hell, while some minor crimes will be rewarded accordingly, but they will not go to hell. In the jade calendar, many seemingly minor mistakes will go to hell and suffer all kinds of tragic criminal laws. People can't help asking: Why didn't Yan Luowang even grasp this importance?
Others, seemingly innocent, are going to hell.
For example, "within 20 days after giving birth, a woman goes near a well, a stove, washes clothes, and hangs blood-stained clothes on a high place, which is blasphemous." There are three points to celebrate this crime; Women have seven deadly sins.
For example, "The clothes are embroidered with dragons and phoenixes, and the clothes are carved with Tai Chi, the moon, Beidou, the birthday girl, the Queen Mother and the Second Immortal, and they urinate and cry in the northern sky, so they are called the deities and buddhas casually ..." and so on.
Generally speaking, there are eighteen layers of hell in Buddhist scriptures, while the notes in the jade calendar say that hell is eight layers. "Don't call the Buddha by his name" is also contrary to what Buddhism says. Buddhism not only does not object to calling Buddha and Bodhisattva by their names, but also advocates chanting Buddha loudly, walking, living, sitting and lying down. It is common to blurt out a Buddhist name in daily life. ……
Look carefully, there are many flaws, so I won't list them here.
The Emperor's Induction was written by Taoism in the name of Laozi. Looking at its content, it is nothing more than emphasizing: "There is a god who has been in charge of heaven and earth. According to the severity of crimes committed by others, people are counted. If you subtract it, you will be poor and spend more. Everyone is evil, and the punishment will follow. Qing Ji avoids it, and the evil star is terrible; Do it or die.
There are also the three gods of Beidou, who record people's sins on their heads and seize their records. There is also a three-body god. In human beings, every day of Geng Shen, people will go to heaven and say that people are guilty. The moon is dark, and so is the kitchen god. Every mortal has had it. The big one grasps discipline and the small one grasps calculation. "
Can merits and demerits be calculated by addition and subtraction?
After the last paragraph, superstition became stronger. "Huila singing and dancing, the new moon is angry; Spit and drown in the north, chanting and crying in front of the stove; And burn incense on the stove and use firewood as food; Naked at night, eight executions; Spit a meteor, which means rainbow; Don't refer to the three lights (referring to the Sun, Moon and Star Light), watch the Sun and Moon for a long time ... If you commit such a crime, you will be punished according to its severity. If you try your best, you will die. It is responsible for death, but it will affect future generations. " Meteors, rainbows, the sun and the moon, etc. They are all very common natural phenomena, but the fabricators regard them as mysterious things, and even dare not look at them for a long time, and they are guilty. This is a foolish worship of common things, and it also shows that some people in ancient times lacked knowledge of natural science.
As for the so-called "Buddha said that the three generations of karma sutra", it was not said by the Buddha at all. It was originally called the Three Ages Karma Sutra, but it was not found in the Tibetan Tripitaka. Generally, there is no word "so I smell" in front of the book we see, no translator and no translation date. But some versions don't know who added a sentence like "Ruowen" in front of them, pretending to be Buddhist scriptures, but the level of pretenders is limited after all, and they still don't look like it. The Buddhist scriptures translated by eminent monks can't be so bad. Judging from the writing style of Casual Essays in the Third World, it is a simple form of folk songs (the writer's educational level should not be high, and the book should not be written before the Republic of China). Judging from the content it preaches, it preaches karma, but it talks about concrete causality, doesn't it?
Another common feature of these folk counterfeit books is that at the end of the book, it is inevitable to add a paragraph "What kind of rewards will these books receive if they are printed and donated, and what kind of punishment will they receive if they don't believe it". For example, at the end of the volume of Jade Calendar Treasure, it is said that "printing and circulating jade calendars will bring good news, but if you don't believe that jade calendars will suffer bad news, it will be a strange disaster to collect jade calendars." This is a common trick used by forgers, mainly for fear that others will not believe it. The purpose is clear, that is, let people publicize and circulate these books in large quantities. Some suspicious people, out of the idea of "believing what they have, not believing what they have", are afraid of what they will really get and can't believe it, so they spend a lot of money to print and circulate, which is also the reason why these books can spread so widely. Although some people are aware of his deception, they don't expose it out of a mentality of "persuading the good anyway may improve the social atmosphere".
Can these books really improve social atmosphere? Objectively speaking, before the Republic of China, it should have played some roles, but today, its role is questionable. We can see that people who run amok generally don't believe in these things, and most of them believe in these things are kind and upright people.
Some people say that as long as it is to persuade people to do good, what does it matter if it is true or false? This statement is not entirely correct.
Their merit in persuading the good is worthy of recognition, but as Buddhist disciples, they should be more aware of its negative effects. Buddhists should be soberly aware of the mistakes in propagating these folk hypocritical books:
First of all, we should realize that putting these forged good books together with Buddhist classics will affect the image of Buddhism and cause some people to misunderstand Buddhism. It's like an exhibition by a famous artist. Suddenly, several paintings with poor skills are put on, which undoubtedly reduces the taste of the whole exhibition and interferes with the audience's vision, thus affecting people's impression of the whole exhibition. It is often easy to arouse the resentment of some intellectuals, and even cause defamation of the law.
Second, although the fabricator's purpose is to persuade the good, but because of his low wisdom, limited theoretical level, regardless of Buddhism and Taoism, the things he created also have some low-level naive superstitious thoughts while persuading the good. In Mahayana Buddhism, only the enlightened Bodhisattva and the scholars who are proficient in the Five Ming Dynasties are qualified to create theories. Can things fabricated by folk believers lead people to the right path?
Third, the causal view they advocated is different from that of Buddhism, which easily confuses some people's understanding of the Buddhist causal view. They put forward all kinds of inexplicable taboos, such as "Don't point at the rainbow, look at the sun and the moon for a long time, and shout at the northern sky", which is exactly what Buddhism criticized as "no warning".
Fourth, some books (such as "Treasure Money in the Jade Calendar") exaggerate the atmosphere of ghosts and gods, exaggerate the horror of hell, fabricate lies, and threaten good people with "believe me and you will get good news, but don't believe me".
Fifth, Buddhism emphasizes that "the normal mind is the Tao", and suspicious thoughts and mysterious mentality will bring various obstacles to Buddhist practice. Some examples of obsession are related to this mysterious mentality.
Sixth, some people say that these are answers for some dull people. This statement is also wrong. No matter whether students' receptive ability is strong or weak, teachers should teach them pure teaching methods. Just like a student with low talent learning English from a teacher. Is it because the student is not very clever that the teacher does not teach him pure English but teaches some Henan cuisine English or Sichuan cuisine English? The Buddha said that the 84,000 Dharma is the foundation of everything. Isn't that enough?
During the period of the Republic of China, this master printer taught people to read books such as Taiwanese businessmen's induction and Yin Jun Wen Chang. That's because the belief of Shinto was very popular among the people at that time, almost every household had it, and all kinds of messy religions were also extremely rampant, such as one-stop Taoism, Tongshanhui, Luo Zu, Maitreya, Yuandun and so on. Master Yin Guang had to teach books such as Taoist Induction, because although it was not Buddhism, it was much stronger than all kinds of evil spirits, and that was also the master's time. Nowadays, scientific concepts are deeply rooted in people's hearts, and most people stay away from superstitious things. Therefore, the promotion of Buddhism should be based on rationality, science and faith.
Seventh, under the temptation, Maitreya, one of the four fundamental precepts of Yoga Bodhisattva, said like a dharma precept: "If the Bodhisattvas slander the Bodhisattvas, they will hide. The Philharmonic Orchestra declared that it was necessary to establish ways to break the tradition. Solve or follow him in iconicity or confidence. This is the fourth method. If it is called' Bodhisattva's Four Ways to Overcome Man', the so-called' image method' means that it is not Buddhism, or it is a heretic attached to Buddhism. " Self-confident solution "is to establish a set by yourself, and" following him "is to accept and carry forward other people's heresy. If the Bodhisattva has achieved this, it is the fundamental precept. Master Taixu once earnestly warned scholars: "This is the most critical moment for Bodhisattva, and scholars can't ignore it!" (Explain here the essence of the talisman of Yoga Bodhisattva, a master of Ji Qun. )
Eighth, Buddhism does not exclude heretics, especially some traditional heretics. But in order to keep Buddhism pure, Buddhists should not preach heresy to others. It is not impossible for Buddhists to read heretical classics, but it depends on which part is worth reading, such as the theories of Taoism, Laozi and Zhuangzi. If you want to learn the part of heretical dross, is it appropriate to recommend it to others?
In addition to the three books discussed in this paper, many forged books on folk beliefs and some false classics that have long been denied are also quite popular. These phenomena reflect the present situation of folk Buddhist beliefs in China. A considerable number of Buddhists have a vague understanding of the basic teachings of Buddhism, a serious misunderstanding of Buddhism, and only blind religious enthusiasm.
Ordinary people's ignorance of Buddhism is understandable. It's a pity that many influential Buddhist websites are still promoting and recommending these books, and even some famous wizards are recommending these things. It's really sad. However, superstition stops with the wise. Buddhists with positive views and insight will not let this phenomenon spread. Buddhists who spread bodhicitta have the responsibility to maintain the purity of Buddhism and promote true Buddhism to the majority of believers.