A Case of Buddhism
Buddhism continues to exert a fundamental influence on the cultures of the world and also play a leading role in the contemporary affairs of the world. This paper draws on the understanding that the humanistic aspect of world encompasses problems that are said to be evil from the religious perspective and the fundamental objective of the religion amid these human problems is to provide solutions in relation to the absolute. As such, a manifold of worldly problems today; economic justice, insecurity and peace, human rights and protection of the environment call for the universal corporation of the human as well as religion in solving them.
Towards obtaining solutions for these human problems, Buddhism as a religion build on their belief system to establish helpful ideas that touch on and are related to the absolute. Essentially, the relevant sphere of action focus on the pedestal of humans understanding that the world poses characteristics of humanity and in a collective sense, individual Buddhists as human beings face these problems within the nature as the physical environment.
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With this principle in focus, Buddhism effort to solve the problems for human by drawing from the divine provision and agency between the supernatural realms, the human beings as well as the natural environment that humans operate in. Introduction The central idea behind the problems in the world encompass the larger perspective of humanism and towards solving the resultant problems, Buddhism focuses on the stipulated divine agencies.
Considered to be on of the world major religion, Buddhism adheres to religious tenets that typify it as a religion in addressing concerns that rise in the physical world. In so doing, Buddhism understands that a universal humanitarianism is an essential component towards solving global problems. As such, compassion is regarded among the pillars of world peace. Accordingly, Buddhism draws on its several doctrines and belief system to embrace the concept of absolute set of values which in the very least serve as guiding absolute ethical principles.
In addition, the position of the life after death, which is a post mortem kind of existence guides how Buddhism as a religion helps its members to understand the numerous human problem and strike a balance in approaching the very problems in a bid to solve them As a result, the question of evil is highly addressed in the attempt to understand the many human problems where the future of Buddhist in life after here contends the approach used in solving the human problems. Historical Overview of Buddhism The history of Buddhism ps the 5th century BCE to the present 21st century.
Obviously, the birth of Gautama Siddhartha, famously referred to as Buddha, in Ancient India marked the beginning of Buddhism because, he grew up to evolve Buddhism into a religion that spread through central, Southern and East Asia. Warren (2007) asserts that the history of Buddhism is typified by the development of several schism and religious movements such as Mahayana, Thervada and Vajravana traditions. Buddha founded Buddhism after asceticism and meditation which sparked him to establish a path of moderation that sought to move away from the extreme modes of life of self mortification and self indulgence.
Scholars argue that after Buddha attained divine enlightenment when he was seated under the papal tree, he managed to leverage the ruler of the Magadha who was an emperor and made him accept Buddhism as his personal faith. This incidence allowed for the establishment of the numerous Buddhist Viharas that later spread through the entire Asia into well established Buddhism (Herman, 2003). Before his death, Buddha instructed his followers to embrace the doctrine and teachings of Dharma in order to avoid the problem of this world and attain supremacy in life after death.
These instructions from Gautama laid the foundation for the absolute ethical and divine principle, that prescribes the present rules of discipline and community living that characterizes Buddhism (Warren, 2007). On these tenets, Buddhism developed into a world’s religion that took great pains in addressing the problems of humans through transmitting the teachings of Buddha in the most accurate form. Koslowski (2001) agrees that the Buddhist follow the ideas and practices of Buddha; a concept that has developed from early Buddhism to the present Buddhism.
Bearing in mind that the first followers of Buddha were as homeless as their teacher, they wandered all over receiving material gifts of food from lay people and ended up settling in the outskirts of cities and town to mainly teach the laity about the meditative way of life that Buddha taught. Accordingly, it becomes evident that the Buddhist community has for so many years regarded the teachings of Gautama as the enlightened teachings that should be used to seek divine intervention.
Alexander (2008) outlines that the basic teachings of Buddha touched on the animate and inanimate phenomena that poses three features of being unsatisfactory, impermanent and lacking an abiding value. In light of this, these characteristics have been applied to the human sphere to evoke the picture of sufferings (dukkha), ageing and death (jar-maraa) as well as the absence of the soul (anatt) to illuminate the rationale for human problems and the hitherto solution that attribute to the absolute (Diederik, 1999).
Problems for Humans in the World and the Solutions of Regarding the Absolute Realm To understand the problem of human within the context of Buddhism leads us to understanding the relation that exist between Buddhism and Humanism. According to Keown (2000), it is definite that humanism opposes the religious tenets of Buddhism and the important point in focus arises in light of understanding the way religion interprets problems that humans face in the world.
Incorporated in the self infused belief systems of dharma, Buddhism holds on the concept of law and norm as opposed to the western religion that upholds the concept of God. In this contradictory framework, the contemporary society faces similar problems and Buddhism stick to the natural laws of compassion to address these universal problems. Minnich (2008) postulates that problems originating for the social, political, economic, cultural and technological paradigms, can succinctly be solved through a concise framework of values and beliefs which are considered absolute.
With regard to this, these values invoke the supernatural forces in a more concise ways because they involve ethical rule that do not attract rational inquiry or rather are they completely relativistic. To illustrate, members of the Buddhism community employ moral approaches towards solving their problems in a criterion that is considered as more satisfying because, viewed from a cultural and ethical perspective, the Buddhist understand the role of applied ethics as an obligation that can help them to execute the good for both the individual and the larger society(Warren, 2007).
To reinforce this argument, the solutions to the human problems in the absolute sense the question of hereafter is well catered for and Buddhists are obligated to do good for the society and individuals so that they may be reborn in order to attain a state of holiness or purity. These supernatural elements make Buddhism to ignore the concept of God but still satisfy the condition of absolute thus addressing the contemporary problems of humans (Freeman, 2007). It is plausible to argue that the major problem of humans within the perspective of Buddhism is the nature of being evil which comes through the process of constant becoming.
Pandey (2008) postulates that evil forms a perpetuation of illusions by aspects of humanity and doing what is unethical. As such, many humans face a manifold of problems due to their ignorance in perceiving that the devoid of self, is impermanent and thus leading to constant sufferings. Whether this is manifested through lack of peace, constant warfare, negative effects of technology on value systems and environmental challenge, it is imperative to note that the problems narrows down to what is inarguably referred to as ignorance in perceiving life through the three characteristics of importance, suffering and self indulgence.
Essentially, the summation of these factor focus on suffering to be problem of human in the world and as Buddha proclaimed, life that exist in evil yields constant sufferings (Fasching, 2008). According to Warren (2007), the noble truth of suffering encompass the holistic life such that aspects of birth, sickness, aging death, sorrow, despair, associating with what is evil all amounts to problems of suffering which characteristically borders the angle of evil and lack of moral tenets as manifested in current worldly problems.
Keown (2000) further agues that the defilement of the mind unquestionably combine with aspects of life to yield suffering and within the angles of absolute solutions, Buddhism seeks to alleviate sufferings and enhance a value system that will not only reduce the instances of humans suffering but also being rewarded by rebirth. Significantly, problems such as greed (raga), aversion (dvesha) and ignorance (avidya) are all products of defiled mind.
In addition, they are products of human desire to experience existence at a personal level and as selfishness and egoism is an illusory effect of desires and defiled minds, selfish human perpetuate the desire for personal existence and benefits; a actor that lead to constant suffering. Buddhism attempts to solve this fundamental problem by enforcing moral, ethical and value systems enshrined in the teachings and beliefs of the Buddha (Warren, 2007). Evaluation of Buddhism All the factors of our lives subsist in a complex of human mutual causality.
As a conscience, our problems, succinctly perceived by the Buddhists as sufferings, are favored by the interplay of delusion, aversion and perpetual craving that come up due to the lack of poor understanding of roles in the society (Warren, 2007). In essence, humans create a self bondage through forms of reifying as well as holding onto what is naturally transient and contingent. In light of this , Pandey (2008) primarily describes that the problems of human are endemic and so is suffering but the role of religion is to provide a platform that addresses the problems through a situation of eternal rewards that come after death.
Essentially, although sufferings is endless, it can be stopped or rather reduced and towards achieving this solutions, Buddhism emphasis on the need to see the true nature as a phenomenon, which radically forms the human interdependence. Solutions packed for the human problems in the world can be achieved if human cleanse their perception through meditation and maintain purity of conscience through an acceptable moral conduct (Warren, 2007).
This intuitive approach limits its practicality to the absoluteness of values and beliefs which yields a concrete interconnectedness of all things in life and irrespective of the problem or the nature of the problem, the doctrines of Buddhism offers clear ways of understanding deep complicated platform of various social economic, cultural, political and technological links that connects with the life of the human being and others. As a result, the reciprocities of thought and action as well as universe and self direct the individual to uphold meditation, correct moral conduct and purity of conscience (Diederik, 1999).
Moreover, it invokes criticism that as the world and life correlate to the aspects of human consciousness and mentality and this distinctive feature attracts many humans to be endowed with the capacity to choose their destiny. Warren (2007) argues that it is on this conceptualization that human life is considered as a privilege that comes with no price and the practices of Buddhism emphasizes on meditation which gives the individual an opportunity to understand his human existence and seize the opportunity to uphold the value system and make the society a better place for all.
Significantly, the vision of Dharma enhances the fact the humans in the world can be always alive with consciousness, thus providing an inspiration that is powerful for the healing of lives in the world. In the arising world with numerous problems, the Buddhist system of belief helps humans to see important aspects of life such as the deep interconnectedness in the web of life as well as the distinctiveness of human beings together with the ability to choose.
In light of this, it becomes clear that this approach of life and religious practice facilitates a process where human beings are relived of their human loneliness and arrogance (Warren, 2007). Conclusion From the forgoing discussion, it is evident that Buddhism continues to exert a fundamental influence on the cultures of the world and also play a leading role in the contemporary affairs of the world. A manifold of worldly problems today; economic justice, insecurity and peace, human rights and protection of the environment call for the universal corporation of the human as well as religion in solving them.
Towards obtaining solutions for these human problems, Buddhism as a religion build on their theory and perspective to establish helpful ideas that touch on and are related to the absolute. The central idea behind the problem s in the world encompass the larger perspective of humanism and towards solving the resultant problems, Buddhism focuses on the stipulated divine agencies. Considered to be on of the world major religion, Buddhism adheres to religious tenets that typify it as a religion in addressing concerns that rise in the physical world.
Evil forms a perpetuation of illusions by aspects of humanity and dong what is unethically not accepted. As such, many humans face a manifold of problems due to their ignorance in perceiving that the devoid of self, is impermanent and thus leading to constant sufferings. Buddhism seeks to alleviate sufferings and enhance a value system that will not only reduce the instance of humans suffering but also being rewarded by a rebirth. Reference Alexander, J (2008). Responding to Religious Absolutism. London: Routledge Diederik, V (1999). World Views and The Problem of Synthesis. Cambridge: CUP Fasching, D (2001). Comparative Religious Ethics.
London: Blackwell Books Freeman, R (2007). The Search for Absolute Values in the Changing World: A Perspective of Buddhism. Oxford: OUP Herman, C (2003). Participatory Learning and Religious Education in Globalizing Society. London: Brill Press Keown, D (2000). Contemporary Buddhist Ethics. London: Routledge Koslowski, P (2001). Overcoming and Understanding Evil and Suffering in the World. New York: Springer Books Minnich, V (2008). Investigation of Self Human Environment. Texas: Global Books Pandey, C (2008). Ecological Perspectives in Buddhism. New York: Readworthy Press Warren, M (2007). Worlds Religion. Belmont CA: Wordsworth
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