At the end of last year, Professor Wang Leiquan, professor of the School of Philosophy at Fudan University, doctoral supervisor, and director of the Institute of Religion at Fudan University, visited People's Daily Online and talked about his definition of Zen, Buddhism and society, Buddhism and life, etc. insights and experiences. This publication now excerpts some of them, which I believe will bring useful enlightenment to readers.
Buddhism, Zen, Enlightenment, Life, Saint
Moderator: Speaking of Zen, you may have heard of it, but it is difficult for everyone to explain the exact concept of Zen. It is not an easy task. Please tell Professor Wang what is Zen?
Professor Wang Leiquan: I would like to give a brief explanation of the five concepts of Buddhism, Zen, enlightenment, life, and sage. We all know that "Buddhism" is a religion of enlightenment, which comes from the inner enlightenment of the Buddha. This is our understanding of the definition of Buddhism. "Buddha" in Sanskrit means the enlightened one. He expressed his enlightened state through language and words that we can understand, and passed it on and promoted it through his disciples. This is Buddhism. The study and practice of Buddhism is Buddhism. To form a certain organizational form in society and practice and promote Buddhism is Buddhism, that is, a religion in a broad sense including classics, rituals, habits, religious groups and other components.
Zen is a religious practice method and the meaning of Zen, a sect of Chinese Buddhism. But Zen has jumped out of the category of religion and has become a lively teaching method and attitude towards life that can freely open people's minds. Therefore, it has always been loved by intellectuals and the general public in all eras, and has been integrated into the inheritance of Chinese culture. In this sense, Zen refers more to the meaning, taste, and motivation of Zen, which can open our minds and improve our realm. Today we are talking about Zen in this sense in general, and not just in the religious category. For example, if someone thinks that what you say is very Zen, it means that you are witty, transparent and have a sense of humor.
Enlightenment is the life and essence of Buddhism. As far as the divine roots of the teachings of the world's great religions are concerned, Buddhism comes from inner enlightenment. Zen Buddhism, in particular, emphasizes that its difference from other sects of Buddhism lies in its direct return to the Buddha's realm of enlightenment. There are eight major sects of Mahayana Buddhism in China. For Zen Buddhism, other sects are subordinate schools, or sects, and must be passed down through language, writing and traditional methods. But Zen is different. It does not require language in the second sense, but directly penetrates into the Buddha's heart of Sakyamuni Buddha, that is, "imprinting the heart with the heart." Zen can put aside and jump out of the language model, because language is not only a bridge for us to communicate our thoughts, but it also often becomes an obstacle. Therefore, Buddhism teaches that we must not only break down the barriers of sensibility and desire for everyone, that is, the barriers of troubles, but also break the barriers formed by our language concepts and our inherent knowledge system on the intellectual level, that is, the barriers of knowledge. In this sense, the enlightenment advocated by Zen Buddhism is very valuable for opening our minds.
The fourth concept is "life". According to Buddhist teachings, the evaluation of our real life is negative because life is suffering. The general teachings of Buddhism are suffering, cessation, cessation, and the path. Its basis and premise is to make a negative judgment on the world and life, that is, all actions are impermanent, and all impermanence is suffering. From the perspective of Buddhism, our inner mental troubles, that is, the mental influence of bad desires and our intellectual biases, have caused our current wrong behavior, and this wrong behavior will bring corresponding consequences, which is Our current imperfect life state, as well as the environment on which our lives depend, are all about confusion, karma, and suffering. This state can be transformed through inner transformation, turning our painful and confused life into a pure and sacred life.
So this "holy" is the ideal life achieved by Buddhism. The transformation starting from the heart is manifested as: turning consciousness into wisdom, turning infection into purity, turning mortal into sainthood. Through practice, we transform our lives: from the ordinary level to the divine level, from the pollution level to the pure level, from the level of our differentiated consciousness to a higher level of wisdom. From this transformation, one reaches the realm of "holiness" in Buddhism and the corresponding holy fruits and holy places.
The Hinayana is the realm of Arhats, and the Mahayana is the realm of Bodhisattvas and Buddhas.
Harmony is the ideal state pursued by Buddhism
Moderator: What positive role should Buddhist culture play in the construction of a harmonious society? What do you think of this issue?
Professor Wang Leiquan: In fact, as mentioned just now, Zen has transcended the category of religion. According to "Zen and Psychoanalysis" co-written by Suzuki Daijo and Fromm, which I translated in the 1980s, Zen is essentially the art of gaining insight into the nature of our lives. It refers to the path from slavery to freedom. This slavery is the obstacle we have set up for our souls, that is, the obstacles of troubles and obstacles we just talked about, which often put ourselves into the wrong position of self-righteousness and cut the complete world into pieces, resulting in a blind person and a blind person. This is the case for most of us. An inevitable problem. And this problem is the knots and prisons of the heart, which are the prisons we set for ourselves, hindering our true view of the world. So I think we are now proposing a scientific outlook on development and building a harmonious world, which is exactly what Buddhism is pursuing. Why, because Buddhism is to pursue the reality of the world, that is, the perfect truth. We must get rid of our wrong ways of thinking and liberate people from the distorted information created by themselves.
Talking about the positive role that Buddhist culture can play on us? According to Liang Qichao, culture is the karma caused by human behavior driven by our subjective consciousness. The so-called karma is the collective result of the behaviors created by social groups, thus forming our established culture and living environment. Such karma is quite difficult to change, so Buddhism says that karma is difficult to change. escape. We can change our behavior, but it is difficult to change the unsatisfactory aspects of our surrounding environment and social life. At this point, Buddhism provides us with very rich spiritual resources in terms of wisdom and compassion, which are the unique behaviors of a few people, that is, the Buddhist Arhats and Bodhisattvas transform this society and drive the transformation of all sentient beings. Although Buddhism says that all living beings are boundless and troubles are endless, and it faces the current status quo that is difficult to change, Mahayana Bodhisattva advocates a positive and enterprising spirit, and the Bodhisattva's compassionate wish to save all living beings is also endless.
In addition, Buddhism also gives people the idea and methodology of the middle way and harmony. That is to say, on issues such as form and mind, suffering and happiness, birth and death, permanent and discontinuous, ordinary and holy, Buddhism adopts the method of not adhering to both sides but taking the middle way, transcending the two polar opposites and including both. It is a flexible disposal method. Buddhist culture can promote a harmonious society, which has become common knowledge at all levels of society. The first World Buddhist Forum held in Hangzhou and Putuo Mountain in 2006 put forward a very important slogan: "A harmonious world starts from the heart." The "Putuo Mountain Declaration" adopted by the conference pointed out: "The way of Buddhism is endless. , the root of which is to see one's nature clearly and purify one's mind. The heart is the origin of all dharmas. If everyone cultivates the heart, expands the mind, enlarges the mind, extinguishes greed, ignorance, and self-purification, it can be achieved individually, as a family, and as a community. If the country and the world are united, then the mind will be pure and the land will be pure, the mind will be at peace, and all living beings will be at peace, and the world will be at peace.” I think the above paragraph can answer the host’s question quite completely.
The so-called harmony is originally the ideal state pursued by Buddhism, including the Buddhist group "Sangha", which means "harmony and unity". For Buddhism, the root cause of a disharmonious world lies in the pollution of the human heart. Therefore, in order to maintain the internal composition principle of "harmony and unity" and the ethics of life, Buddhism has the idea of ??"six harmonies". The "Putuoshan Declaration" gives a new interpretation to this, that is, a harmonious heart, a harmonious family, a harmonious interpersonal relationship, a harmonious society, a harmonious civilization, and world peace, which greatly absorbs the essence of Buddhist thought. The so-called starting from the heart has three aspects: a pure heart and a pure land, which solves the relationship between man and nature; a peaceful mind and a peaceful mind, which solves the relationship between man and society; and a peaceful mind and a peaceful world, which solves the relationship between man and the world. Although from the most basic aspect, the mind and matter are one and the same, from a moral practical level, the heart plays a key role and is the hub of the ups and downs of our lives. The sublimity and depravity of our hearts determine the tranquility and pollution of the world. .
As far as environmental pollution is concerned, it is caused by people's dirty minds. Only by restraining our greed and short-term behavior can we truly transform this world into a peaceful land.
Use Zen to enhance the spiritual realm
Moderator: Let’s talk about the impact of Zen on a person’s life. Do you think the knowledge of Zen can be used to inspire people’s wisdom? What about promoting inner harmony among people?
Professor Wang Leiquan: The host asked questions from two aspects: the outer king and the inner sage. As I said just now, in order to build a harmonious society internally and a harmonious world externally, Buddhism can provide considerable resources and play a very important role in the peace, social stability, national unity, and national unity of our world. effect.
If we talk about the outer king level, I can summarize it in four sentences:
1. Use harmony to combat extremes. Because Buddhism is a peaceful and harmonious religion, Buddhism can play a considerable role in alleviating conflicts and resolving conflicts in maintaining peace in the future world.
2. Convince the public through dialogue. Buddhism has always been about convincing people with reason. Without inter-religious dialogue, there would be no world peace.
3. Resolve conflicts with compassion. In the face of accumulated social conflicts, we engage in social charity with the compassionate spirit of Buddhism.
4. Improve morality through criticism. Buddhism introduces social criticism into the fundamental criticism of the heart, extinguishing the three most fundamental worries of greed, anger, and ignorance. Greed is the root of selfishness, leading to the plunder of others and nature; anger is the root of hatred, leading to ethnic conflicts and wars between countries; ignorance is the unclear understanding of the truth of the universe and life, falling into ego and legal attachment and self-righteousness.
These three fundamental worries cause suffering throughout life and instability in the world. This introduces the level of inner sage and discusses how to use the wisdom of Zen to enhance our wisdom and promote our inner harmony. Let us first quote two stories: An ant is on a paper circle. How to make it walk both on the front and on the back at the same time? You can neither drill holes in the paper nor climb onto the edges. The method is to twist the paper circle, which involves "topology" in mathematics. The wisdom of Zen is precisely related to this "twist". The second story is that Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism, stayed in a cave outside the Shaolin Temple for nine years. Later, Hui Ke knelt outside the cave to seek Dharma, and heavy snow covered his knees. Bodhidharma asked Huike: What are you looking for? Huike originally had a high level of spiritual practice, but he was not sure whether he was enlightened or not, and he had no peace of mind. Bodhidharma asked him: Where is your heart? Bring it and I will help you rest it! Huike searched and searched, asking where to find this heart! Bodhidharma said something full of Zen: I have put your mind at ease.
These two stories can lead us to think about these questions. First, the pros and cons of this paper circle are equivalent to the dichotomy in our daily thinking. We are always caught in extreme opposition. In terms of Buddhist theory of liberation, one must transcend from the world of suffering to the world of divine ideals. Here, if the sacred and secular, troubles and bodhisattva, human and Buddha are divided according to the dichotomy, they will always be at opposite poles, and they will always be on an irritable "journey", and the restless mind will never find peace. This is exactly the question that Subhuti asked the Buddha in the Diamond Sutra: When I set my sights on becoming a Buddha and rescuing all sentient beings, how should I overcome the mental uneasiness caused by the difficulty of achieving my goal? The Buddha's solution to this problem in the "Diamond Sutra" is to implement the great and distant goal into the actions at our feet, and in the process of leading the goal to the Bodhisattva path, every step of the process is to achieve this goal, step by step. Stepping on the lotus, we are liberated every moment. After this mental twist, pain and happiness, purity and pollution are not completely separated. As long as we have sufficient wisdom, we can obtain spiritual stability at the moment. Just like Wang Wei, a poet from the Tang Dynasty, said, "Walking to a waterless place, sitting and watching the clouds rise", take everything into our awakened heart, and then calmly face all phenomena from this awakened heart.
4. As mentioned above, with the wisdom of the middle path of Zen Buddhism, we can achieve transformation and harmony without hindrance.
In short, the wisdom of Zen can make us wiser and more loving; it can make us live in an atmosphere of freedom and peace of mind.