In Buddhist cosmology, the lower section of devas are consistently having a war with asuras. Most of the time, the devas are winning the wars, and at the result they always seem to enjoy their life most of the time (some said it's due to their good kamma). The asuras are always jealous with the devas because they always enjoy their life, and as the result, always wanted to topple the devas so that they can enjoy their life too (and probably make the devas suffer). Unfortunately, asuras most of the time, will lose the war against the devas and always suffer as the result. Each time they lose the war, the more jealous and hatred will develop in their mind towards the devas, while the devas continue to enjoy their life, sometimes unknowingly that the result of this act, cause more jealousy and more hatred that asuras have towards them.
In this life, I happened to be born in a not-rich Indonesian Chinese family. After becoming more adult and reflecting back to their situation in Indonesia, I thought that there is something seriously wrong with the culture and system in Indonesia. Why? To many Indonesian chinese the year of 1965 and 1998 is a nightmare to many. These are the years when the poorer Indonesian prosecuted the Chinese, and as the result many chinese are being killed, or raped. From the surface, it's easy to say that the chinese did nothing wrong and they are the victims and therefore we should blamed the people who committed mass murder or mass rapes against them.
But is this really the case? Frankly, I don't believe it is, because for something to happen, the condition must be right and most the time, the condition is ripen due to the action from both sides, chinese indonesian and non chinese indonesian.
Most people know that the chinese are a more well off than the non chinese, and tends to enjoy life much more (and sometimes to the extremes). You may think this group as the devas. The non chinese on the other hand, most of them will have a chinese towkay (boss) but has a very low salary, to the point that it's difficult to just to live. When economy crisis came (like 1998), they would lose the job and as the result don't even have food to eat and maintain his life. And that time, what do you think they will think? Probably something like "the chinese is just a guest in this land. This is our land, but they are the one that is richer... somemore very proud and like to show off... " and gets very very angry, and jealous to this group of people... The result is of course tragedy that happened....Seeing in this way, things happened because there are faults in both groups and it is unfair to blame one group. (eg. if we blame the asuras for having a lot of hatred and anger towards the devas? we can also blame the devas for showing off and enjoying their life, while being insensitive to the asuras right?)
The story of asuras and devas, the story of indonesian chinese, is not the only cases around. In the history of mankind, these stories are being repeated again and again and again in similar forms in on way or another. Of course, from Buddhist point of view, the root of the problem is of course as what the Buddha said as "greed, hatred and delusion". But from political point of view, in terms of society, this is being aggravated by a very large income gap, and unequal opportunities that existed in the particular society. For the chinese indonesian case, do you really think that all the richer chinese are really better than the non chinese? If there is a more equal opportunity, if there is a fairer system, will the result still the same? Personally, I don't believe so. To me, a healthier society should learn from the tragedy that happened in Indonesia in 1965 and 1998 so that all the people will work towards less income gap, a more meritocratic system regardless of races, or groups, or in other words a fairer society.
This can be a very difficult think to achieve in certain society. A more recent example is probably Thailand, between the red shirt and the yellow shirt, between the privileged Bangkok and southern thailanders and poor rural northern thailanders....
Some said history tends to repeat itself. But, to me, we SHOULD learn from history so as to prevent mistakes that we as mankind committed in the past so as not to repeat the history again....
Final note: This blog expresses my own opinion. You may agree or disagree but would love to hear ur opinions...
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Buddhist scripture
I have been very curious wanting to know for quite a while, between these two groups, which group have more people?
1. Buddhists who have ever read Buddhist scripture (Tipitaka) before.
2. Buddhists who have never read Tipitaka before, but have ever read a few pages of Christian's Bible.
Judging from all Buddhist friends that I knew so far, frankly I am not that confident that the first group has more people than the second group. Why is it so? Obviously, Buddhism, unlike others, is not a book based religion, in the sense that we don't treat Tipitaka as holy book to be venerated. As the result, study of Buddhism (with exception of advanced level), has never really focused on studying Tipitaka directly. (Although, of course, most (if not all) Buddhist book is based on teaching inside Tipitaka).
For myself, my interest of Buddhist scriptures, in particular the Sutta sections is growing slowly but steadily ever since I met Piya Tan and attended Sutta studies class in 2001. (Just to highlight, I started studying Buddhism ever since I was in Primary one, which mean I really started reading Tipitaka after 12 years of getting in touch with Buddhism). After reading and studying it for quite a while, I really thought that we should incorporate more scripture studies to the study of Buddhism (especially to the children and teenagers for early exposures).
Why do I think so?
1. The Suttas recorded the most direct and unadulterated version of the Buddhist teachings (although I am not suggesting that all the things inside it is spoken by the Buddha as some of it is obviously later addition after the Buddha's passing away). All the Buddhist books that we read today obviously contains a lot of teaching of the Buddha. However, it is obviously more subjective as it will also contain thought and opinion of the authors as well.
2. It is I think one of the way to feel closer to the Buddha. From close study of the Sutta, we will be able to know how the Buddha react upon being challenge, what is the style of the Buddha teaching His disciples, how the Buddha solve problems and wrong doings of his disciples (especially in Vinaya), how is the subtle humour that the Buddha possess, etc.
3. By studying it in context, we will reduce our tendency of quoting the Buddha's word out of context. For example, a few years ago, I have a friend who told me that the Buddha teaches us that there are many ways and many paths to Enlightenment. One can even get enlightened by following non Buddhist teachings. As the prove, this friend quoted that the Buddha said before that on one day, He took a few leaves and asked the disciples that which one is more? The few leaves in my hand or leaves in the forest, and further elaborating to me that since there are many leaves in the forest, following one of these "leaves" (aka teaching) we can also get enlightened. But upon further study of the Sutta (SN 56.31 Simsapa Sutta http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn56/sn56.031.than.html ), This is obviously NOT what the Buddha meant when He said this. In fact, the Buddha is trying to tell us that there are a lot of truths that the Buddha did not teach. However, Why did the Buddha didn't teach them? Because those teachings are not relevant in bringing one to enlightenment!
4. Although it is true that wisdom in Buddhism arises not from theoretical studies of the scripture, but from practice (aka meditation and personal realization), it is also important to know the theory, as probably my teacher told me before "Theory without practice is of no use. However, practice without theory will lead us to more delusion/ ignorance". To put into a Buddhist word, the threefold formulation of Buddhism is - study, practice and realization.
1. Buddhists who have ever read Buddhist scripture (Tipitaka) before.
2. Buddhists who have never read Tipitaka before, but have ever read a few pages of Christian's Bible.
Judging from all Buddhist friends that I knew so far, frankly I am not that confident that the first group has more people than the second group. Why is it so? Obviously, Buddhism, unlike others, is not a book based religion, in the sense that we don't treat Tipitaka as holy book to be venerated. As the result, study of Buddhism (with exception of advanced level), has never really focused on studying Tipitaka directly. (Although, of course, most (if not all) Buddhist book is based on teaching inside Tipitaka).
For myself, my interest of Buddhist scriptures, in particular the Sutta sections is growing slowly but steadily ever since I met Piya Tan and attended Sutta studies class in 2001. (Just to highlight, I started studying Buddhism ever since I was in Primary one, which mean I really started reading Tipitaka after 12 years of getting in touch with Buddhism). After reading and studying it for quite a while, I really thought that we should incorporate more scripture studies to the study of Buddhism (especially to the children and teenagers for early exposures).
Why do I think so?
1. The Suttas recorded the most direct and unadulterated version of the Buddhist teachings (although I am not suggesting that all the things inside it is spoken by the Buddha as some of it is obviously later addition after the Buddha's passing away). All the Buddhist books that we read today obviously contains a lot of teaching of the Buddha. However, it is obviously more subjective as it will also contain thought and opinion of the authors as well.
2. It is I think one of the way to feel closer to the Buddha. From close study of the Sutta, we will be able to know how the Buddha react upon being challenge, what is the style of the Buddha teaching His disciples, how the Buddha solve problems and wrong doings of his disciples (especially in Vinaya), how is the subtle humour that the Buddha possess, etc.
3. By studying it in context, we will reduce our tendency of quoting the Buddha's word out of context. For example, a few years ago, I have a friend who told me that the Buddha teaches us that there are many ways and many paths to Enlightenment. One can even get enlightened by following non Buddhist teachings. As the prove, this friend quoted that the Buddha said before that on one day, He took a few leaves and asked the disciples that which one is more? The few leaves in my hand or leaves in the forest, and further elaborating to me that since there are many leaves in the forest, following one of these "leaves" (aka teaching) we can also get enlightened. But upon further study of the Sutta (SN 56.31 Simsapa Sutta http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn56/sn56.031.than.html ), This is obviously NOT what the Buddha meant when He said this. In fact, the Buddha is trying to tell us that there are a lot of truths that the Buddha did not teach. However, Why did the Buddha didn't teach them? Because those teachings are not relevant in bringing one to enlightenment!
4. Although it is true that wisdom in Buddhism arises not from theoretical studies of the scripture, but from practice (aka meditation and personal realization), it is also important to know the theory, as probably my teacher told me before "Theory without practice is of no use. However, practice without theory will lead us to more delusion/ ignorance". To put into a Buddhist word, the threefold formulation of Buddhism is - study, practice and realization.
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