In many religions in the world except Buddhism, the ultimate
head of the religion is always a God with supernatural power. This
God is almighty, who knows the past and the future, and controls
all beings in the universe. This God is worshipped by mankind. Only
those who believe in this God can be saved and attain eternal
happiness.
Buddhism teaches that every man in the universe is his own lord,
controls his own destiny, and is not controlled by any other man or
any supernatural God. Sakyamuni attributed His own enlightenment,
achievements and results to His own great efforts and wisdom.
Buddhism teaches that a person's luck or misfortune, success or
failure is determined by that person's deeds - good or bad, and his
efforts. The Buddha can show him the way, but he has to do the work
himself. In Buddhism, there is no superior being like God that is
higher than all men. The Buddha was a man, and every man can become
a Buddha.
Sakyamuni, like all of us, was an ordinary man. Through His
wisdom and practice, He was enlightened and became a Buddha. Every
man can follow Sakyamuni's footstep to practise Buddhism and become
enlightened.
"Buddha" is only a term we use to refer to a person who has been
enlightened. it is like referring to someone who can "preach, teach
and solve confusion" as "teacher". There is not only one teacher.
Anyone can become a teacher, and there can be teachers everywhere.
Similarly, Buddha does not refer to Sakyamuni only. Everyone can
become a Buddha. There can be Buddhas everywhere, in this world, in
another world, and in another universe.
Most of the religions in the world only recognize their religion
to be the only "truth faith", and reject other religions as
"superstition."
Buddhism teaches that among all religions in the world, there is
only difference in the complexity of the teachings, with very
little difference in good or bad, right or wrong. Every religion
which can exist in this world for over one thousand years must
provide useful benefits to mankind, to be accepted and followed for
such a long time. Otherwise, these religions would have been
filtered by human wisdom and be discarded.
In the 2500 years of the history of Buddhism, it has always
existed peacefully with other religions, there has never been any
incident in history where the spreading or preaching of Buddhism
had created conflict with other religions resulting in bloodshed.
Buddhism is truly a most tolerant, understanding or peaceful
religion.
Buddhists are taught: "Do not only respect your own religion and
snub other religions, you should also respect other religions. This
way, besides helping your own religion to grow, you also fulfil
your responsibility to other religions. Otherwise, while hurting
other religions, you are hurting your own religion as well." This
kind of tolerance and sincerity is one of the most treasured
characteristics of Buddhism.
From the perspective of Buddhism, "true faith" has no country
boundary, and it doe require the trademark of a religion. It does
not belong to any one religion, or to any one person at any one
time. The "true doctrine" preached h the Buddha is not His
exclusive possession, the Buddha was simply one of the discoverer
of the Truth. Just like Newton discovered the law gravity, he did
not possess the law.
That is why Buddhism teaches that all reasonable, and
everlasting doctrines of any religion are also considered to be
Buddhist principles, and many Buddhist principles are also part of
the teachings of other religions.
"Love thy enemy" came from the Christian bible. Buddhism
unquestionably recognizes this virtuous truth, and this saying is
also stressed in a similar manner in the teachings of Buddhism. A
number of the Christian Ten Commandments are also very similar to
the five Precepts (rules) of Buddhism.
There is no conflict between Buddhism and science, their mutual
goal is to pursue "truth" and "fact". Many teachings of Buddhism
are actually compatible with the modern science discoveries.
a. The Buddha said "Space has no end, and there are endless
number of worlds." This means that the universe has no limit, and
has an endless number of stars and planets.
It was only after Galileo started to observe stars with a
telescope, that man has a more advance knowledge of astronomy. Man
began to understand and accept that the earth is not the centre of
the universe. The earth is only a small planet in this solar
system, and the universe has an endless number of solar
systems.
Over 2500 years ago, without a telescope, the Buddha told us
about the endless space and countless number of stars, He was
indeed an enlightened wise man to describe the truth about the
great mysterious and overwhelming universe.
b. The Buddha also talked about endless lives in this world and
other worlds. He pointed to a cup of water and said that there were
eighty four thousand lives in the water (84,000 signifies a large
quantity).
Today, scientists cannot deny the possibility of the existence
of life in other stars or planets. Under a microscope, a cup of
water has millions of micro living organisms. Over 2500 years ago
when the Buddha was able to reveal such true fact without a
microscope he certainly had amazing wisdom.
c. One Of the principles Of Buddhism states that nothing is
unchangeable, substance can be destroyed and can be created.
This contradicted with scientific theories until Einstein's
atomic theory E=MC2 proved that matter can be converted
into energy (disappearance of substance) and matter can also be
converted from energy (creation of substance).
d. The Buddha once said that for the time it took him to finish
a sermon on earth, thousands of years have passed in another world.
This seemingly unbelievable tale did not seem so absurd any more
after Einstein invented his Theory of Relativity.
In the history of mankind, science had been regarded as a threat
to religious conceptions of man and the universe from the time of
Galileo, Bruno and Copernicus who were instrumental in altering
erroneous notions of the universe. The theory of evolution and
modern phycology went against accepted principles of many religions
dealing with man and his mind as recorded in their "sacred
writings." However, basic principles of Buddhism are in harmony
with the findings of science and not opposed to them in anyway.
On May 19th, 1939, Albert Einstein, the great scientist of the
atomic age, delivered a remarkable speech on "Science and Religion"
in Princeton, New Je rsey, U.S.A. He said that "There is no
conflict between science and religion, science asks what the world
is, and religion asks what humankind and society should become."
Einstein expressed this appreciation of Buddhism, "The religion of
the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a
personal God and avoid dogmas and theology. Covering both the
natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense
arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual,
as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description." Highly
appreciative references to Buddhism were also made by philosophers,
scientists, historians, psychologists and thinkers of modern age
including H.G. Wells, Bertrand Russell, Aldous Huxley, C.G. Jung,
Erich Fromm etc.
Science without morality spells destruction. Science plus
religion like Buddhism can save the world and make it a happy place
for people to live in. More importantly, Buddhism moves beyond the
limitations of science.
In other religions, the words spoken by the founder are "orders"
that cannot be refused, and "gospel truth" that cannot be doubted.
Anyone who doubts or does not follow the gospel will be "punished"
by God. There were stories in other religion's "holy book" that men
were punished severely by God because they did not follow God's
orders.
In Buddhism scriptures, there is no record of any anger
expressed by the Buddha. There was no punishment exercised by the
Buddha. In the forty-five years of the Buddha's teaching life, He
had always been kind, calm, and peaceful, to both good and bad
people.
The Buddha never forced His disciples to accept His teachings.
He constantly encouraged them to doubt and to question. He said
"small doubts result in small realization, only great doubts result
in great realization, no doubt results in no realization."
In His last days, the Buddha said to His followers: "I never
think of you as my students or my disciples, I am just one of you,
being with you frequently. I never force anyone to listen to me,
and I do not want anyone to obey me." How kind and touching!
People cannot be forced to accept true faith. They cannot be
persuaded to accept what they do not understand, or what they do
not like. That is politics, not religion. True faith will only
flourish under democracy and total freedom. After careful thoughts
and repeated differentiation, the spirit and value of a true faith
will truly shine.
In Buddhism, the spirit of allowing and encouraging its
disciples to freely doubt, question or even explore the teachings
of the founder of the religion, is certainly unique amongst the
world religions. Among all religions in the world, only Buddhism's
founder and its scriptures are permitted to be doubted, discussed
and explored and questioned. Buddhism welcome people with research
spirit, independent character, and wisdom to study Buddhism.
Buddhism invites anyone to come and see for himself and permits
him to accept only those facts, which agree with reason, logic and
truth. It encourages the seeker of a new way to discard hearsay,
blind faith, miracles and magic. Principles of Buddhism invite
criticism and testing. Buddhism is therefore a most appealing and
most compelling factor that leads the modern minds in the world
today.
[Originally published in Yat-Biu Ching, Buddhism You Too Can
Understand, (Canada: True Faith Buddhism Association of
Canada, 1992), pp. 28-35.]