..續本文上一頁 is Buddhism, which originated in India, then spread to the Chinese Han area, Tibet, European countries, and the United States. After that, however, India was occupied by Brahmins, and now, instead of Indians propagating and spreading Buddhism there, Tibetan masters do this work. This is a sad phenomenon. You must protect your own traditional culture, otherwise, after some time, Chinese people may have to invite Americans and Koreans to restore their heritage, which would be a great shame.
Of course, I am not asking everyone to give up seeking material gain and to let other countries simply loot you. As laypeople, you can do business, earn money, but there is one prerequisite: you should not use illegal or unreasonable means. Otherwise, the way the world is advancing every day, if you only spend time observing your mind and doing practice but neglecting everything else, eventually you will become obsolete. On the other hand, when you emphasize material benefits and development, it is necessary to pay attention to your inner spiritual development. You should not blindly fix your goal as monetary gain only, but should instead try to develop a better balance between material development and inner spiritual growth.
Question: Different people have different faiths. While faith can bring about mental comfort, at the same time, due to differences between faiths, it can also cause some conflicts, such as the war in the Middle East. What is your view on this issue
Answer: Indeed, we often see that conflicts arise due to different faiths, or even due to differences between non-religious and religious people. This phenomenon is now quite common. Even so, however, as a Buddhist, and having studied Buddhism for many years, I have never come across an incident in which Buddhism provoked any war.
In 2009, the International Coalition for the Advancement of Religion and Spirituality (ICARUS) held a meeting in Geneva. During that meeting, through democratic ballot, the major religious groups of the world”s five major religions unanimously voted Buddhism as “the Best Religion in the World.” After the award presentation, some of the participants were interviewed. One of these, the research director for ICARUS, said: “It wasn”t a surprise to me that Buddhism won “the Best Religion in the World,” because we literally could not find one single instance of a war fought in the name of Buddhism, in contrast to every other religion….”
Therefore, we can say that Buddhism truly uses an altruistic mind to treat all living beings equally. Of course, there are some bad Buddhist practitioners, who, due to their own faults and problems, cause internal conflicts and also behave inappropriately, but these are their personal wrongdoings, and don”t represent Buddhism as such. Thus, the fact that different religions cause conflicts is due to the behavior of minority religions or religious groups. We cannot say that all religions around the world are doing the same.
(3) Question: I am a graduate of the School of Journalism and Communication, Peking University, and have now started working. I would like to ask you a question: In the past thirty years, during the process of economic development, Chinese people have become extremely dry in terms of spirituality. Now that the government is becoming more and more open toward various faiths and religions, the Chinese population of over one billion people has become a huge spiritual market. I have read a report which claimed that, at present, thousands of cults are fixing their eyes on the Chinese, slipping into China using various methods, and even now many bookstores are selling books from such organizations. What is a simple and quick way to identify which are real religions and which are cults
Answer: In contempo…
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