..续本文上一页 Professor named Tian Song from Beijing Normal University who wrote an article called “The Superstition in Science.” The article is not long, but it describes the principle using solid reasoning. In the article it says: “Although many superstitions are related to religious matters, religion itself is not the same as superstition. Conversely, many religions are against superstitions. For that reason, whether burning incense, chanting, and conducting other religious activities should be considered as superstition is not something for which we can give a general answer; they should be evaluated case by case. In fact, putting a high value on something that we don”t understand is true superstition. You may not want to accept this, but some present attitudes toward science are precisely a kind of superstition. For example, in an attempt to promote fertilizers, some government officials would say with complete confidence: “This is scientific!” Even if they do not understand the details of the chemical composition of the fertilizers, they still speak with full confidence. This is actually a kind of “superstition of science.” We can find this kind of superstition in every part of our life. We should abandon this kind of blind ignorance and establish an irrefutable right view.

　　The revered Buddhist master Aryadeva stressed in Four Hundred Verses that: “We should strive to protect our right view, even at the expense of breaking our precepts.” That is to say, if we have to choose between giving up our precepts or losing our right view, then even if we have to break our precepts, we should not lose our right view. Why

　　 If you have the right view, after your precepts are broken, they can be restored by confession; however, if you lose your right view, it cannot be recovered. For that reason, our views should never go wrong. If our mind is filled with wrong views, we will not believe in future lives, will not fear for negative karma, and will commit all kinds of evil deeds.

　　We should therefore establish a genuine right view. In the Kushalamula Samparigraha Sutra, it also says that: “When right view grows, it will lessen ignorance.” When your right view grows, mental afflictions such as desire, hatred, arrogance, jealousy, anxiety, and so on will gradually diminish; just like when the sun rises, it dispels the darkness. Undoubtedly, to establish this kind of right view, on the one hand we need the guidance of a precious guru. On the other hand, it is also very important for us to put the instructions into practice.

　　I remember, in one sutra, there is a story about someone eliminating his wrong views by relying on a Buddha statue. Eons ago, there was another Shakyamuni Buddha. After this Shakyamuni Buddha had entered into parinirvana, there was a very arrogant prince named JinZhuang (pinyin). He didn”t have faith in the Buddhadharma and had a wrong view. One day, a bhikshu called DingZiZai (pinyin) suggested to him: “Inside this stupa, there is a Buddha statue adorned with jewels. You might want to visit and worship it.” After hearing the bhikshu”s suggestion, the prince went to the stupa to worship the Buddha statue.

　　At seeing the solemn Buddha statue, the prince felt extremely joyous and said to DingZiZai: “If just a statue of Buddha looks so perfect and beautiful, imagine how the true body of Buddha would look.” DingZiZai replied: “My prince, even if you cannot make prostrations in front of the Buddha statue, you should still fold your hands and recite Namo Buddhaya.” The prince took his advice, folded his hands and recited “Namo Buddhaya.”

　　After the prince returned to his palace, the solemn Buddha statue continued to appear in his mind, and he had a dream about that statue at night. When he woke up from the dream, he felt very joyous, and h…

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