《Buddhism as an Education》
Venerable Master Chin Kung (淨空法師）
CHAPTER FIVE：THE INTEGRATION OF CONFUCIANISM AND BUDDHISM
Buddhism successfully merged into Chinese culture；they became inseparable. The basic concept that they share is to give up one's own interest for the sake of others. Confucianism and Buddhism advocate the enhancement and glorification of filial piety, the respect and devotion of an individual for their parents and teachers. Filial piety is a major element in accomplishing world peace.
What is education? It is the meaning and the value of human life, the relationships between human beings as well as those between humans and the universe. Confucian teaching encompasses three main points. First, it is important to understand the relationship between humans, once this is understood we will learn to love people. Second, it is important to understand the relationship between humans and heaven, once this is understood we will learn to respect heavenly beings and spirits. Third, it is important to understand the relationship between humans and the environment, once this is understood we will learn to take care of the environment and to appreciate every single thing around us.
There are four studies within Confucian teachings:
virtue, speech, skills for earning a living and the arts. （德行，言語，政事，文學）
The teaching of virtue is the core of Confucianism; it is absolutely crucial, for without morality and proper conduct we become selfish and concerned only with ourselves at the expense ofsociety. Such be havior can result in world chaos. Today, our education has lost that emphasis. Schools only teach skills that are superficial and not the root of education. When the root is rotten, it shakes the foundation of society and causes the chaos that we are experiencing today. Elementary schools are like the root of education: junior highs, high schools, and colleges are the flowers and leaves. Teachers can start teaching filial piety to our children as early as possible.
By looking at the way Chinese characters were created, we cannot but admire our ancestor's high level of wisdom. We thank them for having given us something that is so valuable and exquisite. The Chinese character "piety" embraces the spirit of Buddhism and the foundation of education as it is acombination of the characters for "old" and "son."
Nowadays, people talk about the generation gap between parents and children, which is something traditional families did not have. In the Chinese tradition, not only are father and son one unit; grandfa
thers and grandsons, etc. are all part of the same continuum. This is a unique concept. Westerners often ask why Chinese people pay respect to ancestors since we barely know them. The remembrance of our ancestors is the foundation of Confucianism and Buddhism, which is the source of harmony in society and peace in the world.
Today everyone longs for world peace, but we need to start from the foundation of filial piety to obtain it. Buddhism emphasizes unconditional compassion for all sentient beings in the universe and beyond; in the past, present and future. The continuum of time and space is inseparable from oneself, for We Are All One Entity. One does not find this extensive concept in religion. "Thus Come One", one of the ten names for Buddha, stands for an enlightened being, which is our basic nature, and also the essence of the universe and human life. This concept is embodied by the Chinese character "piety" and the name of Amitabha Buddha in the Pure Land School. The names may be different but the meanings are the same: unconditional love for all beings that surpasses space and time.
The Five Human Relationships
Confucian teachings are based on five human relationships that are founded on moral principles. The five human relationships include those between husband/wife, parent/child, siblings, friends, and political leaders and the public. Husband/wife represents the smallest and the most intimate circle of human relationships. Outside the small circle is the extended family, which includes the relationships between father and son and those among the siblings. Outside the family there is society which includes additional relationships between the individual and his leader and circles of friends. We now often talk about the need to unite people.
In ancient times, the Chinese had no use for the word "unite," for the five human relationships define rhe union of all peo ple. Everyone on this earth is our brother. Each is responsible for the other; parents being compassionate, sons and daughters being filial to their parents, siblings and friends being respectful to each other. In this way, the country and its people are already aperfect union. The relationships between people
also define responsibilities from one to the other.Everyone has his own duty and responsibility to fulfill.
The Practice of Confucianism and Buddhism
Human beings differ from animals by adhering to human relationships and basic moral principles. The
practice of Confucianism is based on having sincere and proper thoughts, correct behavior, a well-organized and harmonious family and country, and peace for all. This is identical to the views of Buddhism, which also emphasizes practicing and learning. It all starts from generating the Bodhicitta mind（菩提心）. "Bodhi" is a Sanskrit word meaning enlightenment. Enlightenment means an "awakened" mind. It is similar to the sincere thought and proper mind advocated by Confucianism.
A Chinese government official defined sincerity very well. He noted that "Sincerity means having no single thought." There will be no sincerity as long as there are corrupted thoughts, wandering thoughts, or even the rise of a single thought. His definition is identical to that of Buddhism.
The Sixth Patriarch Hui-Neng（六祖慧能）once said "...(the pure mind) contains nothing therefore collects no dust" （本來無一物、何處惹塵埃）However, people in general have a lot of wandering thoughts. How can one be rid of these wandering thoughts? The Confucian answer is "...to fight against uprising desires and achieve wisdom." This practice was stressed in the elementary school of the Confucian system. Buddha said, severing all desires is to stop all worries and troubles.
The Confucian Elementary School System
In the past, the Chinese elementary school students were well trained to guard against the uprising of desires. Schools emphasized training in student's concentration and wisdom. Students started school at the age of seven. They stayed with their teachers and only went home during holidays. They were taught the correct way to interact with everyday life and the proper manner to attend to their teachers and elder schoolmates. This was called the education of moral principles based on human relationships.
When the children went home, they would then treat their parents and siblings with filial piety and respect.
From the ages of seven to twelve, students were required to memorize and recite fluently the ancient texts. The teacher would first select materials which contained the profound wisdom of sages and saints and then encouraged the students to read and recite the material up to one or two hundred times a day. Children would have scattered thoughts if they were not assigned any tasks to do. The purpose of reciting was to focus their mind so that they would eventually obtain a pure mind, concentration and wisdom; even though, they may not have understood the meanings.
However, the current educational system, in existence since the Revolution of 1911, eliminated this two thousand-year-old tradition and adopted the western educational system. This change, upon close examination, leads one to the root of modem China's social problems.
The Confucian Tai School System
At the age of thirteen, children were sent to Tai school, as there were no junior or high schools in ancient China. Tai school emphasized the analysis and discussion of the materials students had already memorized in elementary school. The teachers were experts in their fields and would concentrate on that field throughout their entire career. Each of them taught a small class with ten to twenty students and the lectures were not necessarily given in the class room with textbooks.
During that period, all the text books were printed in the universal format: twenty words per column and ten columns per page, with no space in between. The format was standard for the entire country regardless of the publisher. Both teacher and students memorized the textbooks so well that they even knew exactly where the study materials were located. Since everything had been memorized earlier, there was no need for books after elementary school.
Teachers often took their students on field trips to broaden their knowledge and experience. As they traveled, knowledge was imparted to them along the way. Thus, the trips were without textbooks or restraints but accompanied with wine and food and filled with joy. The students would attend to the needs of the teacher. Therefore, as they concluded their travels to the many beautiful places, the course would close as well. For many, attending Tai school was the most joyful time of their lives.
In Taiwan, those who are in their eighties or nine ties may have experienced this kind of education. My late teacher, Mr. Lee, then in his nineties, could still apply materials he had memorized in elementary school when writing articles; no reference materials were needed. This was the method he used to acquire the original wisdom that comes from the pure mind. With the pure mind, true wisdom arises. Having true wisdom is to know a person's past and future and also to understand the laws of cause and effect.
One should not judge things by their appearance, but know and understand how events came about. The wisdom of knowing nothing emphasized in Buddhism is the original wisdom. Only when one has a pure mind, which contains nothing, will he also know everything when he is in contact with the external world. Therefore, the practicing and studying of Buddhism begins with eliminating all thoughts in order
to obtain a pure mind.
All this made me think of our children, who are so pure, so innocent and uncontaminated in their thinking which is why it is best for our children to start learning Buddhism early in childhood. With little effort, children can truly and easily benefit from it. The experiences of a person with a pure mind are so different and profound that no ordinary person can truly appreciate them.
World Peace Can be Achieved if the Mind and Body are Well-trained, the Family is Well-run and the Country is Well-governed.
A true practitioner will keep himself from being greedy, angry, ignorant and arrogant toward others and his environment. If one has any of the elements just mentioned, then he is neither sincere nor proper. Sincerity and proper thoughts and viewpoints are the basis for training the mind. A person with a pure mind and body will not become ill. We suffer from illnesses because our minds are filled with wandering thoughts and worries that are derived from greed, anger, ignorance and arrogance.
As mentioned earlier, sincerity and proper thoughts and viewpoints are the basis for purifying one's mind. A purified mind leads to a purified body and naturally, a person will become immune from illness; thus, a realized practitioner would never get seriously ill. Moreover, if a person is determined to follow the path of Buddha, he or she will not die in the conventional manner. A conventional death means a person does not know exactly when they will leave this world, nor where they will go after wards.
On the other hand, true practitioners with confidence in themselves and in Amitabha Buddha, who cultivate in accordance with Buddhist teachings, will be capable of controlling both the time of leaving this world and of being born in the Western Pure Land. This is neither unusual nor a fairy tale, but the simple truth, and can be achieved by cultivating the pure mind and vowing to reach the Western Pure Land. Therefore, one needs to understand how important it is to be free of worries and attachments.
Every Buddhist should maintain a pure mind and body at all times, treating everyone and everything with equality and composure. Only then would the family be in harmony, the society in unity and the world at peace. No longer would we have feuds, conflicts or wars. The peace and happiness, which we all wish for today, would no longer be a dream. World peace can be achieved if we combine Confucianism and Buddhism into our educational system.
The Eight Basic Confucian Moral Principles
Loyalty, filial piety, compassion, love, trust worthiness, responsibility, peace and equality（忠孝仁愛信義和平） are the eight basic Confucian moral principles and are represented by four Bodhisattvas in Buddhism. Di Tsang Wang（地藏王菩薩） (Earth Store /Kristigharba) Bodhisattva represents filial piety and therefore the Di Tsana Sutra（地藏經）is known as the Filial Piety Sutra（孝經）.
This is because it teaches filial respect for both parents and teachers, who are both equally important in Buddhism and Confucianism. To treat one's parents with filial piety and to respect teachers are the innate virtues of human nature. The goal of Buddhist teaching is for us to realize the true nature of the mind, which can only be achieved by discovering its virtuous nature, without which one will never become enlightened.
Guan Yin Bodhisattva（觀世音菩薩）symbolizes compassion and represents kindness and love. Wen Shu Shi Li (Manjusri) Bodhisattva（文殊師利菩薩）symbolizes wisdom and represents faith and loyalty. Pu Xian（普賢菩薩）(Universal Worthy/Samantabhadra) Bodhisattva symbolizes great vows and putting the Buddha's teaching into prac tice including filial piety, compassion and wisdom. He represents peace and equality. With compassion and wisdom, one can generate merits. To enjoy merits is to build upon the foundation of equality and purity - this is the greatest enjoyment for humankind.
To cultivate merits in childhood, generate merits in middle age and enjoy merits in old age are described in Chinese as truth, virtue and beauty. One who enjoys merit in old age is called the complete person, which is similar to Buddha. We must under stand that Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are not gods but the most perfect and happiest beings for us to learn from.
Wise ancestors in China long evoked these principles long ago before Buddhism was introduced there. Buddha Shakyamuni, Confucius and Mencius never met, but they all had identical concepts and teaching methods. That was truly a coincidence and as is said in Chinese, "Heroes would have similar views" or said in the West, "Great minds think alike".（英雄所見略同）
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