乾县铁佛寺移动版

‘Do not go by revelation or tradition, do not go by rumor   or  the  sacred scriptures, do not go by hearsay or mere logic, do not go by bias towards a notion or by another person's seeming ability and do not go by the idea    “He is our teacher.” But when you yourself know that a  thing is good, that it is laudable, that it is praised by the wise and when practiced and observed that it leads to happiness, then follow that thing.’ A.I,188

So we could say that although Buddhism is not entirely scientific, it certainly has a strong scientific overtone and is certainly more scientific than any other religion. It is significant that Albert  Einstein,  the  greatest  scientist  of  the  20th   century,  said  of Buddhism:

‘ The religion of the future  will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend a personal God and avoid dogmas and theology.  Covering both natural and

spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual and a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description. If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs, it would be Buddhism.’

QUESTION: I have sometimes heard the Buddha’s teachings called the Middle Way. What does this term mean?

ANSWER: The Buddha gave his Noble Eightfold Path an alternative name, majjhima patipada, which means ‘the Middle Way’ . This is a very important name because it suggests to us that it is not enough to just follow the Path, but that we have to follow it  in  a  particular  way.  People  can  become  very  rigid  about  religious  rules  and practices and end  up  becoming  real  fanatics.  In  Buddhism  the  rules  have  to  be followed  and  the  practice  done  in  a  balanced  and  reasonable  way  that  avoids extremism and excess. The ancient Romans used to say ‘ Moderation in all things’ and Buddhists would agree with this completely.

QUESTION: I read that Buddhism is just a type of Hinduism. Is this true?

ANSWER: No, it is not. Buddhism and Hinduism share many ethical ideas, they use some common terminology like the words kamma, samadhi and nirvana, and they both originated in India. This has led some people to think that they are the same or very similar. But when we look beyond the superficial similarities we see that the two religions are distinctly different. For example, Hindus believe in a supreme god while Buddhists do not. One of the central teachings of Hindu social philosophy is the idea of caste, which Buddhism firmly rejects.  Ritual purification is an important practice in Hinduism but it has no place in Buddhism. In the Buddhist scriptures the Buddha is often portrayed as criticizing what the brahmins, the Hindu priests, taught and they were very critical of some of his ideas. This would not have happened if Buddhism and Hinduism were the same.

QUESTION: But the Buddha did copy the idea of kamma from Hinduism didn’t he?

ANSWER:  Hinduism  does  teach  a  doctrine  of  kamma  and  also   reincarnation. However, its versions of both these teachings are very different from the Buddhist version.  For  example,  Hinduism  says  we  are  determined  by  our  kamma  while Buddhism says our kamma only conditions us. According to Hinduism, an eternal soul or atman passes from one life to the next while Buddhism denies that there is such a soul, saying rather that it is a constantly changing stream of mental energy that  is  reborn.  These  are  just  some  of  the  many  differences  between  the  two religions on kamma and rebirth. However, even if the Buddhist and Hindu teachings were identical this would not necessarily mean that the Buddha unthinkingly copied the ideas of others. (责任编辑：admin)