New Way Of Approach In Buddhist Studies

Author(s): Hajime Nakamura
Publisher: Hajime Nakamura

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26) A NEW WAY OF APPROACH
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One should forgive them. Then what is the basis for this altristic attitude in Buddhist philosophy? Meditation on the elements which constitute our "Self” (dharmas) dissolves other people, as well as oneself, into a conglomeration of impersonal and instantaneous elements. It reduces each individual into the five heaps of constituent elements, plus a label. If there is nothing in the world except bundles of constituent elements, instantaneously perishing all the time, there is nothing which friendliness and compassion could work on. This way of meditating or explaining, however, is to abolish our deep-rooted egoism in our own existence; it aims at cherishing compassion and love towards others. By dissolving our human existence into component parts one can get rid of the notion of Self, and through that meditation we are led to a limitless expansion of the self in a practical sense, because one identifies oneself with more and more living beings. The whole world and the individuals are intimately and indissolubly linked. The whole human family is so closely knit together that each unit is dependent upon other units for its growth and development. To bring out the goodness in us, each one of us should try to reproduce in his own wheel of life the harmony with great universe which comprises us and enables us to exist. "All actions, by which one acquires merit, are not worth the sixteenth part of friendliness (metta), which is the emancipation of mind; for friendliness radiates, shines and illumines, surpassing those actions as the emancipation of mind, just as all the lights of the stars are not worth the sixteenth part of the moon-light, for the moonlight, surpassing them all, radiates, shines and illumines”. (Itivuttaka, No. 27) Love or friendliness could be called the highest virtue. .
The golden rule is expressed in the maxim: 'Doing as one would be done by, kill not nor cause to kill. (attanam upamam katva, SBE. X, pt. i, p. 36) The universal ideal of the Golden Rule is found practically in other religious systems also. In the Hindu Epic Mahabharata (XIII, 113, 9; XII, 260, 22; V, 39, 72) we have the versions of the Buddhist teaching (Dhammapada 129; 132). Lao Tzu taught us to do good to those who are good to us, and also to those who are not good to us. (Tao Teh Ching, p. 63) Confucius, "Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you". There can be no doubt that this proverb is stated in the negative form, not once but three times (Analects XII, 2; XV, 23; The Doctrine of the Mean XIII), but a negative statement does not necessarily mean a negative idea. The Chinese have always understood it to be positive. The Confucian ideal of Jen is comparable to Buddhist Maitri and Christian love. Love was stressed by Jews also in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (B. Russell: History of