This article is about the common 'pessimistic'/'escapist'
perception of Buddhism and what Buddhism actually is.
http://www.jenchen.org.sg/vol5no3f.htm
7. Buddhism speaks of no ego, suffering, emptiness, and
impermanence; isn't it pessimistic?
These are not pessimistic values but the basis of happiness in
life.
The non-ego and impermanence that Buddhism speaks of, is something
that practitioners of Buddhism need to understand.
Impermanence is, for example, the darkness of the night and the
brightness of the day. There is the impermanence of good karma and
evil karma. An adorable newborn baby is not spared from
impermanence too. In twenty years, he becomes a youth. Twenty years
later he enters into middle age, and in another twenty years his
life is nearly over. This is impermanence. A building cannot avoid
impermanence either. When newly completed, it receives
commendations for its architectural beauty. In a few short years,
its condition will begin to deteriorate. Worse still, a natural
disaster such as an earthquake may reduce it to a pile of rubble.
In general, all things experience formation, existence,
deterioration or destruction and eventually emptiness. For human
beings, we experience birth, ageing, sickness and eventually death.
Thus, no one likes impermanence. Instead, everybody yearns for
things to be permanent.
The founder of Buddhism, Sakyamuni Buddha, even at a young age
realised the impermanence of life as we progress through birth,
ageing, sickness and death. He felt that there was no significant
meaning to the mundane life, and therefore sought to find the
'permanent' meaning of life. He denounced the worldly life and
became a monk. He subsequently attained Buddha-hood and realised
the true permanence of the universe.
Emptiness is a manifestation of impermanence. The flower is very
beautiful when it blossoms. However, soon after, it begins to
wither. This process of blossoming and withering is a demonstration
of impermanence. We see this everywhere; even the world that we
live in is a demonstration of impermanence.
Is it pessimistic to be without our ego? The meaning of 'non-ego'
refers to a Buddhism practitioner's attainment of non-attachment to
his own ego. With that, he is naturally able to see through and let
go of the many issues that he encounters in life. This is
definitely not being pessimistic, neither is it gloomy. If the
ruler of a country knows of seeing through and letting go and
declares an end to war, then he saves many lives and resources.
Isn't this a good thing?
From the foregoing, we can see that Buddhism is not pessimistic. We
need to be very clear about what we ought or ought not to do. It is
not pessimistic and gloomy if we do not do those things that we
ought not to do.
