..續本文上一頁rse on the Stages of Yogic Practice, and other Buddhist scriptures, he was impressed by the wisdom of the Buddha, and said to his friends, “What a great sage Shakyamuni Buddha was. Long ago he gave the solutions to most of the problems that are difficult for me to solve in my life. What a great sage.”
Hence, for the wise among us here today, Buddhism should be studied carefully and investigated thoroughly. In fact, being intellectuals you have an advantage, because you can accept and learn new things easily, using your powers of reasoning. The result of your conclusions will be firm. Intellectuals, however, also have a downside, because they are often suspicious. Of course, doubts are not always useless. The Zen masters always say, “Greater doubt harvests greater realization; smaller doubt harvests smaller realization; without any doubt, there is no realization.” If you have a great doubt regarding Buddhism, and you then analyze Buddhism, you may then obtain an extraordinary result and ultimately eliminate all doubts from your mental continuum. On the other hand, some people simply slander Buddhism without any reasonable grounds. This behavior is shocking and absurd. Shakespeare”s A Midsummer Night”s Dream advises, “Do not criticize or comment on something when you do not know the truth, otherwise, you might have to pay for your mistake with your life.”
When you study any religion, be sure to take a fair and objective position from which to perform your investigation. Of course, the Buddha did not say, “You must accept my religion.” Believing in religion or not is your choice; it is up to you to decide. In the process of making your choice, base your choice on truth grounded in reason. If you follow unwise arguments or just follow the crowd you will end up with undesirable results.
When deciding on your faith or religion, it is essential to use your wisdom to investigate the doctrines and scrutinize them analytically to see if there are any flaws. For example, Shakyamuni Buddha said, “At the ultimate level, things and events are empty.” If you do not have any deeper experiential level of understanding about this, then your understanding will remain at a superficial, intellectual level, which is not so constructive. By relying on logical reasoning, the meaning of emptiness can be experienced and understood. Then, the inpisible oneness of emptiness and the clear light, which is luminous by nature, can be experienced. Indeed, this is beyond the grasp of our mind and speech; however, when our understanding is at the experiential level, we can see clearly that all sentient beings are no different from Buddha. The Buddhist master Bodhidharma said, in Wu Xing Lun, “The relationship between sentient beings and the enlightened Buddha is like that of ice and water.” This means that sentient beings and the Buddha are only one line apart. This is similar to what it says in the Ornament of the Mahayana Sutras, that being enlightened is the Buddha; being deluded is sentient beings.
Of course, it is quite easy to talk about this, but when you truly practice it, it is very difficult. Being tied up with ignorance, afflictive emotions, and discriminating thoughts, sentient beings are not able to see their own true nature. Through the power of delusion and misconceptions, sentient beings wander endlessly in samsara and are caught in this secular world. As human beings, especially if you are engaged in scientific work, it is crucial to equip yourself with the wisdom to decide what to adopt and what to discard. This wisdom comes from correct religious belief. Without this, no matter how much science and technology develop, they can only be the cause of self-destruction.
2. Religion without science is blind
On the other hand, religion also needs …
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