乾县铁佛寺移动版

Parents are honored and respected by their children, the crime rates are relatively low, divorce and suicide are rare, and traditional values like gentleness, generosity, hospitality   to   strangers,   tolerance    and   respect   for   others    are   still   strong. Economically  backward  but  perhaps  a  higher  quality  of  life  than  a  country  like America. However, even if we judge Buddhist countries in terms of economics alone, one of the wealthiest and most economically dynamic countries in the world today is Japan where a good percentage of the population call themselves Buddhist.

QUESTION:  Why is it that you don't often hear of charitable work being done by Buddhists?

ANSWER: Perhaps it is because Buddhists don't feel the need to boast about the good they do.  Several years ago the Japanese  Buddhist  leader  Nikkyo  Nirwano received  the  Templeton  Prize  for  his  work  in  promoting  inter-religious  harmony. Likewise a Thai Buddhist monk was recently awarded the prestigious Magsaysay Prize for his excellent work among drug addicts. In 1987 another Thai monk, Ven. Kantayapiwat, was  awarded the  Norwegian  Children's  Peace  Prize  for  his  many years of work helping homeless children in rural areas. And what about the large scale social work  being  done among the  poor  in  India  by  the  Western  Buddhist Order? They have built schools, child-minding centers, dispensaries and small-scale industries for self-sufficiency. Buddhists see help given to others as an expression of their religious practice just as other religions do but they believe that it should be done quietly and without self-promotion.

QUESTION:  Why are there so many different types of Buddhism?

ANSWER: There are many different types of sugar - brown sugar, white sugar, rock sugar, syrup and icing sugar - but it is all sugar and it all tastes sweet. It is produced in different forms so that it can be used in different ways. Buddhism is the same: there  is  Theravada  Buddhism,  Zen  Buddhism,  Pure  Land  Buddhism,  Yogacara Buddhism and Vajrayana Buddhism but it is all the teachings of the Buddha and it all has the same taste - the taste of freedom.

Buddhism has evolved into different forms so that it can be relevant to the different cultures in which it exists. It has been reinterpreted over the centuries so that it can remain  relevant to each  new  generation. Outwardly, the types of Buddhism  may seem very different but at the center of all of them are the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. All major religions, Buddhism included, have split into schools and

sects. Perhaps the difference between Buddhism and some other religions is that the various schools have generally been very tolerant and friendly towards each other.

QUESTION: You certainly think highly of Buddhism. I suppose you believe it is the only true religion and that all the others are false.

ANSWER: No Buddhist who understands the Buddha's teaching thinks that other religions  are  wrong.  No  one  who  has  made  a  genuine  effort  to  examine  other religions with an open mind could think like that either. The first thing you notice when you study the different religions is just how much they have in common. All religions acknowledge that humankind's present state is unsatisfactory. All believe that a change of attitude and behavior is needed if the human situation is to improve. All teach  an  ethics  that  includes  love,  kindness,  patience,  generosity  and  social responsibility,  and  all  accept the  existence  of some form  of Absolute.  They  use different languages, different names and different symbols to describe and explain these things. It is only when people cling narrow-mindedly to their particular way of seeing things that intolerance, pride and self-righteousness arise. (责任编辑：admin)