Chinese Buddhism Faces the World

By Huiju

Good morning to all the Venerables, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am happy to be here and present my topic “Chinese Buddhism faces the world” to all of you, my name is huiju, I am from Fo Guang Shan.

First of all, we have to ask to ourselves, what is the biggest thing in the world? Facing the world, what do we need to do for Chinese Buddhism, and what do we need to prepare to face the world? To face the world, actually it is very simple, however it’s not easy to do so is, Chinese Buddhism has to engage itself with the world. To the world, we may only be one, but to one, we may be the world. What I want to say is we must have the attitude to be part of the world, we just can step out to the world.

There was once a Chan student who asked his master, “How big is the world?”

Responding his student’s question, the Chan master asked him to close his eyes and said, “Imagine that there is a wonderful view in your mind, with great mountains, rivers, fish and so on.”

The Chan master continued “And now, open your eyes, then close your eyes again, imaging there is a small leaf in your mind, and open your eyes.”

“So what do you see? Is the world big or small?” the Chan master asks.

Actually, the world can be big or small, it reflects how big or small one’s mind is.

Actually, the world is big, mountains are high and oceans are great, but they are not greater than our mind, because everything in the world is actually in our mind, so our mind is the biggest thing in the world.

Therefore we have to realize that the world actually is in our mind, we are stand in the world, we just can break the frame we set for ourselves to face another larger world.

2. Acceptance of the other cultures

For Chinese Buddhism to face the world, we have to include and accept the diversity of Buddhism.

From history, we all know that Buddhism originated from India, and over time, spread all over the world, presenting Buddhism that is based on different cultures. Chinese Buddhism is just one of them.

Mainland China has undergone 30 years of reform and has opened up its economical policy. The economic growth is astonishing, so that Chinese economy become a marketing ecnomy. After 30 years of economical reform, China opens its arms to the world, not only bringing benefit to the country, but China has changed the international economical behavior and economic environment, as well as international social activity. Moreover, China is a biggest market and resources in the world, as it has a population of 1.3 billion people, the world is follow the heartbeat of the China. This is fascinating to the foreign commercial and trade coming in, just as Fredman cited the world is flat! The globalisation leads to mutually technology and communication effect between nations, cultures, customs, religions and finally become a grey shadow between them.

At this stage, Chinese international behaviours may not be able to develop their international activities by the pure and traditional market and resources. Chinese must emphasize on the higher conscience or codes of practice to promote the universal peace and friendly attitude with others. Therefore, Dharma is important for China.

Prehaps we may worry that the different cultures of Buddhism could affect the integrity of Chinese Buddhism’s system. Indeed, if a culture tends to be perfect, the culture needs to interact with other cultures, put in different elements and allows them to react, just like the blossom flowers need to have fertilizer, water, soil and sunshine, interact with pollen, so the flowers are beautiful.

For example, Dunhuang art is world famous because Dunhuang receives the Persian, European, Middle Eastern and Indian cultures through the Silk Road, and integrates them with the local Chinese culture, causing a reaction resulting in classic and fresh Dunhuang culture.

So we understood that the Chinese culture accepts and absorbs the other cultures and finally become its own, we may wonder why the Tang dynasty had its glorious and prosperous age? The reason is that the Tang Dynasty also collected and interacted with the different cultures to be in vogue.

At that time, Changan city was a fashion pioneer and center of the world, as depicted by the cave art of Dunhuang. Tang Dynasty culture could be that deepness because it absorbed and collected from different cultures to be its own. That’s why we say that one’s own culture can only be preserved if there is mutual interactions with the different cultures, as by doing, we will not forget the origin of one’s own culture!

3. Shangha Education

The improvement of the Shangha itself is very important, as the average modern monastic is found to be woefully out of touch with the modern world. It is more likely he has not even seen a computer, and so in this case how can he contact with the world, how can he cope with the fellow beings and help them out? Therefore, there is a vast gap between the traditional values and the modern concepts. If the Shangha are ill-equipped, how can they help the laity to bridge the gap between the traditional and the modern?

Even though we are not adequately equipped in terms of the Shangha itself, who can deny that a Buddhist monk has always been an agent of change for the better throughout history? Who can deny that it was the Buddhist monk who brought art, architecture, technology, music and medicine to every country in Asia so as to the world? We cannot deny that the Shangha civilised the ancient world, but what is happening today? Are we qualified to do that for the models of the world now?

Of course we can try to fault find, but doing so is not a solution for the problems we are met with today. We should think of a way to solve the problem, of which the one and only key is education.

Not only do we have to learn, understand and practice the sublime Dharma, but master the ability of speaking other languages, translation and interpretation, counseling, teaching, lecturing, computer application, engineering, medicine and nursing etc. Through education, we can foster talent to cope with the world, and we can be a bridge for the multitude to cross to the other shore of hapiness.

On the other hand, we have some talented monastic who have studied oversea and are bilingual. However, they may not have been given the opportunity to do anything for Buddhism. After the monastic is well equipped, they have to be provided the chances to fulfill their ambitions and vows.

Kings in the past, in their twilight years, worry that the younger generations may adopt the new measures and policies, and change state policy, which may consequently affect how their achievements or contributions are recorded in history. We must be aware that the contemporary world is changing every day, even the contemporary minds of the people are also changing each day as well, since then may the methods of Dharma promotion be invariable?

We look on the bright side, actually the future generations are not an attempt to write off or deny their predecessor's contributions, just like the cells of our physical body need to regenerate, so that they just can deal with the human bodies’ daily demands. In fact, the new generations have the pressure of being stuck in between tradition and the modern puzzle. They struggle with innermost feelings when thinking of how to retain the good tradition, continue the frorm the wisdom and experiences of former leaders, while simultaneously adapting the contemporary will of the people in order to bring Dharma to their daily life.

In this case, the democratic system is very important in the monastery. The leaders of a monastery must be elected. In the past, an abbot/abbess retired when he/she passed away, never drawing back. If we recall the traditional systems of thousands of years ago, our “Bush System” is very democratic, electing a qualified monastic to be the leader. The system we have in the past is actually very democratic.

In a wider sense, Shangha does not only comprise the Bhikhus and Bhikunis, but also Upasakas and Upasikas. Venerable Master Hsingyun cites that monastic and laity are equal, we all share the duties and responsibilities of services to the Dharma. The laity plays an important part as a social role model in society, steering people towards the development of harmony and universal peace. They are the major element to extend the Dharma to the community, schools, working environment and many places by performing variety services, so that to pass on or spread the message of Buddha to the world.

For example, a laity organisation which is called BLIA (Buddha’s Light International Association) made a donation of 10 million dollars and even organised a team of nurses who entered the Sichuan earthquake disaster area to help out and encourage the victims of the sorrows of losing their family, job, house and normal life. The relief team gave the victims confidence, hope and joy, so that they can stand up again after the disaster.

Nowadays, the world is changing in speed, contemporary minds of the people are unstable, Buddhism faces to this world, to a certain degree, of course it is a challenging task. Not only can we broaden our mind to include the world, accept and respect the other cultures, we also can foster talent through Shangha education, so that the Shangha could perform a variety of services, jobs and professions, so that we can lead sentient beings to the Buddha’s wisdom. No matter how a monastic reforms themself, actually what a monastic needs, and must have, is self realisation and compassion. Thanks very much!