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A Letter to Dharma Protectors and Friends in 2018
Spring flowers, autumn moon, winter goes, and spring arrives once again. As the seasons follow their order of time, we welcome 2018. Venerable Master Hsing Yun gives his blessings and encouragement to all through his spring couplet, “A Family of Loyalty and Honor.” Loyalty and honor are most important in life. We must remain loyal and righteous towards people. We must stay loyal in our relationships, responsibilities, friendships, and towards our leaders. We must show sensibility towards human relationships, remain righteous towards the world, have benevolence for society, and sense our connection with the whole universe. It is essential to understand, be grateful for, realize, and keep as family legacy the spirits of loyalty and honor.
A Proposal for Experimental Application of Humanistic Buddhism to Psychotherapy and Counseling
At a time when Shakyamuni Buddha’s teachings are emerging from the shadows of philosophical thought, our world is becoming more open to applying Buddhist views in search for Ultimate Reality. A merging of these doctrines with modern psychology is a challenge to be met by proponents in the varied arenas of human behavior. There is a significant moνe within the Behavioral Sciences to break through parochial, stilted barriers in order to seek a more humanistic, holistic view of a person in ethical relations with states of well being. This paper posits methods whereby the principles of Humanistic Buddhism (HB) can be integrated within a theoretical system of activities which perceives and analyzes foundations of social harmony, reaching the roots of conflict within complex human systems. In this, the work of psychotherapy and counseling can be effective in fostering changes in clients by teaching self-analysis and how to search for the paths of moral, social and psychological wellness. Points of emphasis in this proposal define and discuss the elements envisionednecessary to effect a counseling and research center modeled after the principles of HB. Not confined within the specifics of organizational, cultural or geographic restrictions, the system approach is meant to be broad-based to allow flexibility of such a center’s operation. The theoretical background and philosophy of both psychotherapy and counseling, as currently styled, includes a description of tried and proved techniques devised by four noted 20th century Western psychologists, νiz. Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Carl Rogers, and Albert Ellis. To this I have suggested ways of broadening these somewhat diverse techniques to include HB. An integration of this nature would not restrict but rather provide another, (perhaps now lacking) spiritual dimension in therapeutic services, which is our proposed product, to a given target population. Hence, more effective psychotherapy and counseling can be offered, and feedback loops would identify the needed elements of a scientific research effort to be built into the system design and operation.
Remarks on Current Research on Taixu and the Pure Land in the Human Realm
One could translate the Chinese term commonly rendered “Humanistic Buddhism” more literally as “Buddhism in the Human Realm” (renjian fojiao 人間佛教). The term “human realm” (renjian 人間) has both an everyday meaning in modern Chinese and a more expansive technical Buddhist meaning. In everyday parlance, it means “the human world,” “humanity,” or “social relations,” and within a modern scientific world view, humanity exists in only one place—the planet Earth. Hence, English-language texts sometimes render the term “Humanistic Buddhism” as “Earthly Buddhism.” In traditional Chinese Buddhist texts, however, the term has a more specialized, technical meaning arising from premodern Buddhist cosmology. In this context, it indicates one in a list of five or six possible paths of rebirth. To be reborn in the human realm means that one’s past karma has led to rebirth as a human being, and in Buddhist cosmology, the Earth is not the only place where humans reside. The fact that the term renjian has different definitions in these two contexts has led to some confusion when scholars confront the terms “Humanistic Buddhism” and “The Pure Land in the Human Realm” (renjian jingtu 人間淨土). Variations in the way Buddhists and scholars understand the meaning and purpose of Humanistic Buddhism only compound the confusion.
Humanistic Buddhism in Singapore
The term “Humanistic Buddhism” (人間佛教) brings to mind the thisworldly Buddhist teachings of Master Taixu (太虛, 1890–1947), Master Yinshun (印順, 1906–2005), and Venerable Master Hsing Yun (星雲, 1927–). Needless to say, transnational Taiwanese “mega-temples” such as Fo Guang Shan (佛光山) and Tzu Chi Foundation (慈濟功德會) have played a significant role in the propagation of Buddhism and promotion of cultural and philanthropic activities in global-city Singapore and around the world. Yet, unknown to many scholars (and Buddhists) perhaps, the early ideas of Humanistic Buddhism have arrived in Singapore even before these well-known global Taiwanese Buddhist organizations. In my talk, I will discuss the history of Singapore’s Humanistic Buddhism from the early twentieth century to the present. I will present the development of Humanistic Buddhism in Singapore into three phases: 1) Taixu’s Human Life Buddhism (人生佛教); 2) Yen Pei’s (演培, 1917–1996) Humanistic Buddhism; and 3) development of Taiwanese Humanistic Buddhist organizations in contemporary Singapore.
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January, 1, 2016, Fo Guang Shan Residence of the Founding Master This year (2016) marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of Fo Guang Shan Monastery. Previously, we published the Awakening the Wor.....
