..續本文上一頁you follow the Buddhist view, but we will rather take a fair and objective position to support whichever view holds the truth.
The doctrines that Buddha taught can be traced back two thousand five hundred years, to India. At that time, the son of King Suddhodana demonstrated the principles of becoming a monk, following the ascetic life, and eventually becoming a Buddha in Bodhgaya, after his enlightenment. Lord Buddha then spent forty-nine years until his nirvana expounding the Dharma, leaving this nectar-like legacy for us. That the Buddha has indeed come to this world is indisputable. In Tibet, the 108 volumes of scripture that still exist today are the manifestation of Buddha”s wisdom. Because of this, we have irreversible faith and confidence in it. However, with confidence alone, it is impossible to establish our own Buddhist lineages; rather, in order to ascertain a flawless and valid view, we must apply rational wisdom to discuss, examine, and debate it.
In the quest to understand and ascertain the truth, historically, Tibetan Buddhism has an excellent and special feature: debate. During the debate, you can use your intelligence to refute your opponent”s thesis, and your opponent is forced to use logical reasoning to establish his or her thesis. This is one of the most profound ways of eliminating doubts. Today, if any of you have any questions, please feel free to raise them. I will discuss them with you directly. This is a very good opportunity for you and also a very effective way for you to clear your doubts.
3) Compassion, the universal love toward all sentient beings
Although two thousand five hundred years have passed since Lord Buddha entered into parinirvana, the ancient Buddhist doctrines are still relevant and needed in today”s society. In brief, these doctrines can be grouped into wisdom and compassion. From the point of view of compassion, Buddhists have universal love toward all sentient beings. Considering this from a wider perspective, these altruistic acts have certain differences to those of Christianity and other religions. In Buddhism, whether it is equanimity, compassion, or bodhicitta, it is necessary to expand your scope to include all sentient beings. There can be no exception, not even your enemy. You have to include them all in your practice. This is what we call “Great Compassion.” Such great compassion is not found in any other religions or the ordinary world view. You can check up on this. Can you find this great compassion in other philosophies, religions, or inpidual points of view
Does contemporary society need it
Of course, the scope of universal love is not limited to human beings only; it should include all sentient beings. Everybody, from top senior officials, such as the president, down to the ordinary population, must practice it, otherwise you are inviting criticism. I remember, last year, when Barack Obama was being interviewed, he swatted and killed a fly, which led to strong feeling among animal protection organizations. This year, when he was delivering a speech at the White House, once again a fly kept crawling on his face and, at one point, even crawled on his lip. However, he had learned from the previous lesson, and he restrained himself from killing it and continued with his speech, trying not to notice the fly. Of course, the reason for him not killing the fly wasn”t compassion, but fear of public criticism. We can see that, compared to other religions, Buddhism has different features in terms of recognizing the equality and care for all sentient beings.
There may be people present here today who follow other religions. Although we should generally promote harmony among the major religions and try to integrate with each other, in the larger scope of the issue of compa…
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