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Humanistic Buddhism: Responding to Contemporary Developments
There are contemporary approaches to the use of Buddhist practices that can be considered revolutionary in terms of how we study and evaluate the tradition. Since these practices are directed toward the public domain, they are one type of “Humanistic Buddhism.” A challenge for Buddhist groups is how to respond to these developments. A similar challenge exists for the academic study of Buddhism. How can we understand and deal with the contemporary world that has emerged?
On the This-Worldly Emphasis of Humanistic Buddhism
As an aspect of social life, religion has the adaptive function of helping humans overcome psychological and daily obstacles, attaining inner stability and peace of mind; the integrative function of consolidating group cohesion through common beliefs, bringing out the organizational power of human communities; and the cognitive function of solving the enigma of ultimate meaning, answering fundamental questions on life, the universe, existence, and morality for humans. These three functions of religion imply its capacity to meet the three essential needs of survival, community integration, and addressing the ultimate concern in life, hence its importance cannot be understated.
Localization of Humanistic Buddhism in the West
Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s Perspective on Humanistic Buddhism’s Life Education
Venerable Master Hsing Yun is the most important practitioner promoting the development of the contemporary Humanistic Buddhism movement. After arriving in Taiwan, he devoted himself to various causes aimed at maintaining the Dharma in the human world. This has entailed extensive practical efforts for its realization, focused specifically on six aspects: 1. popularizing Buddhism 2. propagating Buddhism 3. Buddhist education 4. establishing culture 5. building Dharma centers and 6. charitable works.
The Localization of Buddhist Teachings within Glocalization
The purposes of promoting Buddhist culture and education are to guide sentient beings towards purifying their body and mind, and awakening their wisdom. By relying on cultural and educational means, it is possible to avoid conflicts between different religious faiths and allow non-Buddhists to accept Buddhist culture. In the course of accepting Buddhist culture, they will be able to gradually understand and eventually accept Buddhism. It is a kind of “skillful and expedient means” of the Dharma. Through culture and education, we can teach according to the learners’ aptitude, bring benefits and joy to all sentient beings and allow them to gain wisdom.
Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s “Buddhist Economics”
There is limited research regarding the economic problems faced by Buddhism in its development over the past 2000 years, which has contributed to much confusion and many misunderstandings. Venerable Master Hsing Yun is the first eminent monk to publicly disclose his Buddhist economic beliefs based on his experience propagating the Dharma in the past decades. Venerable Master Hsing Yun merges the laws of society with the Dharma, explaining in a considerate and rational manner.
What is Chan? Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s Point of View
This article explores Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s views on the meaning of Chan by examining his answers to the important question: What is Chan? This article has three parts. First, Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s expression of Chan is described, showing a multitude of answers to this issue. The second part focuses on Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s view that Chan is the foundation of Humanistic Buddhism. The third section describes Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s idea that Chan is life in more depth. The idea that Chan is life is thenfurther examined. Essentially, Chan is a life guided by an ordinary mind, a life lived in true reality, a life oriented toward what is good. In other words, a beautiful life. This article concludes that Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s idea of Chan is creative, fusing the teachings based on the scriptures with those outside the texts, combining Chan and Pure Land, and harmonizing the three doctrines of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism.
Śamathavipaśyanā in Fo Guang Chan
Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s Humanistic Buddhism places great importance on the study and practice of Chan. Fo Guang Chan is founded upon the Buddhist scriptures and commentaries, as well as the traditions of Chinese Buddhism, and is adapted to the needs of modern society, with a system of progressive cultivation which includes the paths of accumulation (saṃbhāramārga), preparation (prayogamārga), morality (śila), concentration (samādhi), wisdom (prajñā), vision (darśanamārga), cultivation (bhāvanāmārga), and the adept path (aśaikṣamārga). Among these, the paths of concentration and wisdom are at the core of Fo Guang Chan. Śamathavipaśyanā in Fo Guang Chan is based on the concepts of concentration and wisdom of early Buddhism, and further integrates the Mahāyāna doctrine of prajñā wisdom and the Tiantai practice of śamatha and vipaśyanā, with special emphasis on its application in daily life.
Preliminary Study on Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s Educational Leadership Style
Over the past fifty years, Venerable Master Hsing Yun has promoted Humanistic Buddhism in Taiwan, and has been devoted to the cause of schooling and education. He has been a prominent educator, having established a large number of education institutions, including comprehensive universities, secondary schools, elementary schools, and kindergartens. His style of educational leadership can be summarized as: (1) rooted in Humanistic Buddhism, (2) with a passion for education, (3) good at fundraising for building schools, (4) skillful at appointing specialized professionals to run schools, (5) caring for disadvantaged students, (6) leading in teaching innovation, (7) holding the teaching profession in high esteem, and (8) focused on rebuilding the humanities.
Humanistic Religion From Guodian to Vimalakirti
This paper will argue that the term “Humanistic Buddhism,” which Venerable Master Hsing Yun describes as central to all of Buddhism, is also fundamental to Chinese religion as a collective group. Such an expansion is in keeping with the spirit of his recent publication 365 Days for Travelers: Wisdom from Chinese Literary and Buddhist Classics. Here we see an enlargement of humanism to include a general assessment of Chinese culture. It because of this expansion that this paper uses the term “Humanistic Religion” instead of “Humanistic Buddhism.” Crucial support for the centrality of humanism to Chinese religion comes from it being expressed with the greatest clarity and earliest date in the recently excavated Guodian corpus (郭店楚簡). As such, Guodian represents a missing link between Buddhism and other pre-Han religious systems. Venerable Master Hsing-yun sees Humanistic Buddhism as a system that has particular utility for overcoming divisions; as such it is interested in developing the linkages with indigenous Chinese religion that I will be detailing in this paper. Specifically, Humanistic Buddhism: Holding True to the Original Intents of Buddha, states that the schisms which arose after the passing of the Buddha can be overcome with humanism. In the publications by Fo Guang Shan I have reviewed so far, however, recently excavated manuscripts have not been considered and this will one of the contributions of this paper.
