Of course, the pursuit of comfort also gives rise to certain moral or spiritual aspirations. Yet their aspirations are still aimed at making oneself happy. As long as something brings happiness to me or to those connected with me, I am willing to pursue it. In this manner, self-grasping can easily expand beyond the individual to encompass one's family, community, and even an entire nation or ethnic group.
Take the internet, for example. It is filled with denunciations of the Japanese because that nation inflicted great suffering upon us decades ago. Many young people even fantasize about "riding into Tokyo with sword in hand." Where does such hatred come from? It arises because the Japanese once harmed our nation. Perhaps some of those voicing such condemnation were themselves Japanese in a previous life—but that possibility never enters their consideration.
Materialism is essentially a form of annihilationism, and its inevitable conclusion is the pursuit of immediate gratification. Once immediate pleasure becomes the highest goal, moral decline naturally follows. As long as I am happy, morality, nobility, compassion, and even admiration for lofty ideals can all become nothing more than disguises for the underlying motive: I want to be happy. This is one reason why our society has long been marked by double standards.
You may ask, "But weren't we traditionally not materialists?" In reality, at our core, we have largely been pragmatists. That may sound somewhat disrespectful, yet pragmatism has indeed permeated the depths of our national character and has long been one of its dominant influences.
Although we possess many theories and traditional teachings, the Buddhist doctrine of karma has never taken deep and systematic root in the hearts of most Chinese people in the way it has among Tibetans, whose faith in karma is often profound and unwavering. We do speak about karma. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, for example, people in Guangzhou commonly used the Cantonese expression mou5 yam1 gung1 ("lacking merit" or "not accumulating virtue"). Yet such beliefs were generally unsystematic, and at times they even degenerated into folk beliefs about ghosts and spirits or vague superstitions.
In fact, throughout thousands of years of Chinese history, Buddhism never truly became the dominant intellectual tradition. Even during the Tang Dynasty, after Emperor Taizong read Xuanzang's translation of the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, he praised it by saying, "All the truths under heaven are contained in this treatise; there is no work superior to it." Yet despite such admiration for Buddhism, he ultimately established Daoism as the state religion. This illustrates that pragmatism consistently retained the upper hand.
Pragmatism is,simple in essence: it concerns itself only with immediate, practical benefit—one's own benefit, or perhaps that of one's family. In the past, family values were particularly strong in our society, but even these have now been greatly weakened. Pragmatism has also contributed to many profound social tragedies, such as environmental destruction. For a philosophical outlook constitutes a way of perceiving the world—vague and general as it may be, pertaining to the universal domain—but it inevitably shapes concrete human behavior and produces very real consequences.
If, at the level of one's fundamental worldview, one genuinely believes in karma and future lives, then out of fear of karmic consequences one will naturally become more careful in one's actions and less willing to harm other sentient beings. On the other hand, if one fundamentally believes that death is simply the extinguishing of a lamp, one may feel no psychological burden in killing those who have harmed oneself. Mass killing can then appear perfectly justifiable. At the same time, however, one will inevitably fear retaliation from those whom one has harmed. This is why dictators often live in constant fear. Their security measures are extraordinarily strict, and some even become afraid to travel by airplane.
Wrong views give rise to extremely destructive actions, harming both others and oneself. Those who genuinely uphold and practice the law of karma, however, are different. They cultivate kindness, treat others with goodwill, and practice generosity. As these wholesome actions gradually accumulate, they naturally experience greater inner peace and serenity. Such rewards may appear rather ordinary at first, but over the course of many lifetimes, their karmic fruition is anything but ordinary—especially when these virtuous deeds are sustained by the immense power of the mind, such as bodhicitta. When acts of generosity and virtue are performed with the motivation of bodhicitta, the resulting merit becomes truly immeasurable.
Excerpted and compiled from The True Bodhicitta and Conceptual Bodhicitta.
This article is a preliminary translation draft and has not yet been reviewed or proofread by the speaker.
Comments (0)