..续本文上一页dhism and Christianity, in my home village, I find that many Christian churches have been built and many people, especially women villagers, are visiting and worshipping in these churches very early in the morning during the weekends. Do you ever wonder how to promote Buddhism so that those who have no faith believe in Buddha
Answer: This question from a faithless PhD student is very good! No matter where I go, I always hope to meet and exchange views with not only Buddhists but also people of other faiths or religions. This is because everyone has different philosophical and cultural background; there doesn”t need to be a stereotype.
Currently, indeed, we can see many people have no faith or religion, especially in countries like China and the former Soviet Union; these people can be found everywhere. In contrast, 95% of Americans are Christian. The President of the USA also mentioned this in a speech that he delivered during his visit to Tsinghua University. This phenomenon is related to the mainstream culture of a country. For example, before the Qing Dynasty in China, such as in the Tang, Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties, many people believed in Buddhism, but due to the karma shared by sentient beings and transitions in history, fewer and fewer people believed in Buddhism.
In fact, what you said is correct. Christianity is promoted widely now, not only in rural areas but also in cities. We even see many universities have dedicated staff recruiting people into Christianity using various methods. They even force people. Just now, someone told me on the phone that she had been asked to join that religion involuntarily; she is not sure what to do.
In contrast, Buddhism does not force anyone to believe in it. Instead, we follow the causes and conditions for everything. Should we attempt to influence people to believe in Buddhism, we do this just for the sake of their happiness. We hope that after they understand the existence of past and future lives, they will no longer only cling to material wellbeing, but seek for spiritual happiness, too. In view of this, when the opportunity arises, we convey some Buddhist teachings to people, especially those who have no faith or religion.
As Buddhists, if we want to promote the teachings of Buddha in the secular world on the same scale as Christians are promoting their religion, we should be well organized, recruit more young people, employ centralized management, and also use various methods. Otherwise, I am afraid that it is not possible to be accepted by people on a larger scale. This is especially true in some universities; setting up organizations for researching Buddhism and Zen societies is necessary. Harvard University and Yale University have Buddhist research institutions, and Peking University and Fudan University have Zen societies. Furthermore, we can see that some of the students there not only have faith in Buddhism, but their understanding is also considerably profound. As such, it is an important and necessary thing for us to promote Buddhism through these methods. I hope we all can keep this in mind.
Then for those secular people who have no faith or religion, when causes and conditions have matured, we should give advice appropriate to the situation to guide them in studying Buddhism and practicing virtue. However, if the opportunity is not there, there is no need to do it grudgingly. Even when Lord Buddha was still alive, the people who didn”t believe in Buddhism represented the majority of the city”s population where Buddha dwelt. This is just the result of sentient beings” karma. We therefore should not force others to study Buddhism. Promoting Buddhism should be done in a way where we seize an opportunity when it arises and teach according to the opportunity.
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