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With the exception of Buddhism, all
worldly religions are upholding their almighty gods as ones who
can command the wind and the rain, turning a stone into a piece of
gold. Their gods predestine the fate of all men, be it good or
bad, honored or dishonored. When good food is offered to their
gods, these god followers will sing and praise their gods, and
return all their accomplishments and glories to their almighty
gods. They emphasize that only those who believe in their almighty
gods may enter the heaven, and all non-believers will be condemned
to the hell; and there is no ground for argument.
Soon after Shakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, was born, he
declared, "In heaven and on earth, I am supreme." In the sentence
of "I am supreme", the word "I" does not refer to Shakyamuni
Buddha himself, it refers to all human beings. The proper meaning
of it is that each man on earth can stand upright, and be
responsible for one’s own fate, that is, one's fate is determined
by one's karma resulting from one’s acts, rather than determined
by any man or almighty god. Upon his enlightenment, the Buddha
understood that his accomplishment was the result of his own
efforts and wisdom.
The Buddha understands that each person's life, good or bad, with
blessings or calamity, success or failure, honor or dishonor,
depends upon one's good or evil deeds, and the extent of efforts
in so doing. There is no one person or god who can deliver us to
the heaven or condemn us to the hell. Praising one's almighty god
may not help one get out of suffering, only through practical
cultivation that one can purify oneself, attains perfect
personality and experiences pure happiness. The Buddha advocates
equality among all beings. Even though the Buddha was once a
prince, in his sangha, he treated all sangha members who were
ordinary men, and slaves as equal. His act is selfless, and there
is no man who acted in the same way at his time, so I say that he
is a true advocate of human equality.
Buddhism also advocates "Great kindness even to those with whom
one lacks affinities" and "Great compassion to all beings of
identical substance," and the Buddha advances the meaning of
equality to another level. Here I will provide a simple
explanation as to what is the meaning of "Great kindness even to
those with whom one lacks affinities" and "Great compassion to all
beings of identical substance."
"Great kindness even to those with whom one lacks affinities"
means that we do not only love those with whom we have close
relationships, such as our parents, relatives or friends; we must
also love people with whom we have no personal relationships or
even people whom we don't know, and show them our care as well.
From a Confucius perspective, "Great kindness even to those with
whom one lacks affinities" means "To treat other old folks as our
parents, and to treat other young kids as our own kids."
"Great compassion to all beings of identical substance" means that
when others feel hungry, we feel the same; when others get
drowned, we feel the same; when we see others suffer from coldness
and hunger, we feel the same. That is, we regard all beings in the
universe are of identical substance like ours. Confucius followers
said, "To have intimate friends afar, it is like having close
neighbors". Another saying goes, "For all people around us, they
are our brothers." Wherever we go, whoever we meet, they are like
members of our families; we get along with others just like our
brothers and sisters.
When I think about last month's tsunami in South Asia, over
300,000 of people died in an instant, their close family members
and friends were gone like the wind. Their suffering from the loss
of their loved ones was beyond description of any words.
Irrespective of whether people have learnt about Buddhism, they
can still feel their pain, and want to help in whichever possible
way they can. Due to practical constraints, even though I very
much like to help them in a small way, I was not able to,
therefore, I dedicate my daily morning and evening dharma homework
to those killed in the tsunami, and to those who have lost their
loved ones, and pray that the Buddha's love and compassion can
help them relieve their suffering and attain happiness.
Now we have the opportunity to sit here, listen to dharma
lectures, and chant the sutras and participate in repentance
dharma assemblies each Saturday and Sunday, we are indeed very
fortunate, so we must waste no time and work hard in our
cultivation. A few days ago, I dreamed of Venerable. Master Hua,
he told me something which I could not hear clearly or understand
what he said. But I guess he must be saying, "You, as a Buddhist
disciple, have rested for a while, you must work harder, and
should not be lazy any longer."
In Buddhism, the concept of equality is not only limited to man.
Buddhism opposes the view that all animals other than man are to
be killed for human consumption. We can hear all sorts of dying
calls from the animals in slaughter houses, it is truly
disheartening to see their suffering, hearing their calls for
sparing their lives, and how cruel it is for us to consider eating
their meat. Let's think, when we have a small cut, we can feel
great pain. All animals too have feelings, when the are being
killed, even though we cannot make out what their calls at the
time of their being killed, we must feel their pain and stop
eating their meat.
In Buddhism, it is also believed that those animals which are
killed for human consumption also have the Buddha nature (that is,
if all sentient beings have the opportunity to listen to the
Buddhadharma, and practice in their lives, they also have the
potential to become Buddhas). Even though men and animals appear
to have different forms and different level of intelligence, they
have equal rights to life and the same potential to become Buddhas.
Just like we can understand that in the case of an extremely evil
or stupid, or ignorant man, he must still be regarded as a man. An
ancient saying says, "The heaven cherishes each life," and
another says, "All beings live on earth just like me." These show
that all beings in the universe is equal, only that the concept of
equality among all beings is not expressed in a way as explicit as
what the Buddha teaches.
In summary, we can conclude that the Buddha attains Buddhahood
through cultivation, and that the Buddha and all beings are equal.
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