The Compassion-Contemplation Of Buddhism

Entering the 21st century, owing to the high-speed development of the Internet technology that accelerates the integrated process of global economy and culture, the world becomes a "small village" . With the globalization of the world, the moral predicaments of modern society and mankind soul are also globalizing. Mankind urgently needs an ethical foundation of settling down and getting on with his work to take the common responsibility and obligation of modern life. In the course of the world integrating and the global culture blending, knowledgeable people put forward the idea of setting up global ethics. Every great religion and ethical tradition in the world includes useful resources of spirit of modern ethics. For the oriental traditional culture, the compassion-contemplation of Buddhist ethics is a very important part of spiritual resources. For offering moral resources to the moral predicament of modern civilization, this thesis, in which the order of the gradual progress of era is taken as the axis of ordinates and as the cross axle with more representative Buddhist Sutras to make a textual analysis and induction, is to probe the intension and speciality of the compassion-contemplation of Buddhism, to introduce the method of Buddhist compassion-contemplation, and then to reveal the implied value and ethic significance of the contemporary predicaments of morality.Maitri (loving-kindness) refers to giving happiness which is the main characteristic of loving-kindness that means to love sentient beings, to benefit all living creatures and make them happy. Karuna (compassion) refers to eliminating suffering which is the main characteristic of compassion that means to pity sentient beings with great suffering in six directions of reincarnation. The human beings regard the pain of sentient beings as their pain to help positively the living creatures and eliminate theiragony. Although loving-kindness and compassion are different from each other, they both have the common speciality, that is, giving happiness and eliminating sufferings for the sentient beings. The expansion of the notion "compassion" is concerned with four states of mind unlimitedness, i.e. maitri, karuna, mudita(delight) ,andupeksa (renunciation) . The function of loving-kindness is to eliminate anger, compassion is to get rid of harm, delight is to discard envy, and renunciation is to dispel greed and arrogance. The world who cultivates the compassion -contemplation is not only dispelling anger and greed in the mind but also getting more blessings and virtues to be the king of the Brahma Heaven, if they are reincarnated in the Heaven. If the Sravakas and Praetykabuddhas cultivate compassion-contemplation, they will be in good status of disposition to get nirvana easily. The Bodhisattvas, who hope to take all the living creatures to the nirvana, must regard compassion-contemplation as the principal rule for the living creatures and themselves to reach exhaustive liberation. Therefore, the compassion is the essence of Buddhism and the king in all goodness. Living creatures all depend on the compassion to nirvana. Compassion plays an important role in Buddhism.In the traditional oriental and occidental cultures, love is an important ethical realm. The universal love of Christianity is based on faith, and God is the central idea of universal love. God is the fountain of love. For the object of love, people love God above all and then love other people. Although in the name of loving people, the purpose is to love God. Therefore, universal love is a response to people's God loving, which is the love based on faith. Benevolence of the Confucianism regards the filial piety and fraternal love as the foundation of the love, which pushes love from the relatives to others and advances the idea of putting oneself in the place of another. As the saying goes, never do to others what you would not like them to do to you. The benevolence of Confucianism is the love based on consanguinity. An equal universal love to the whole mankind is Mohists' love, the root of which is Heaven and the purpose of which is to achieve mutual harmony by means of personal activeness and interpersonal interaction. Compared with Christianity,which is regarded as the religion of love, Buddhism is thought of as the religion of compassion. In the teaching of Buddhism, compassion is the central idea and love is the reason of suffering and reincarnation. Broadly speaking, love includes the affliction. As regards the narrow sense of love, it is the same as greed. Both are an attachment to holding things as real. The deeper love is, the deeper hate is. Love and hate are in the close relation, just like two sides of a coin. Compassion is different from love, because of the difference of the foothold of both. Compassion is based on no-self and equality of living creatures, but love is based on self-love. If greed is eliminated, purified and sublimated love is compassion. Another form of compassion is the love with no ego.Primitive Buddhism indicates the period from Sakyamuni's becoming the Buddha to the first division of the community of Buddhist practitioners that started in a century (or more than a hundred years) after Sakyamuni Buddha entered nirvana. Agamas are regarded as the representative sutras. Sakyamuni Buddha with great compassion, getting along with Indian Brahmin personality, taught people that compassion-contemplation is useful to people in reincarnation in the Brahma Heaven. Although it is said that the cultivation of compassion-contemplation will be reincarnated in the Brahma Heaven, however, if we cultivate the compassion-contemplation with the Seven Factors of Enlightenment or other Buddhist practice, then we will be on the way to exhaustive liberation. The merciful affairs of Buddha written in Agama Sutras mainly reveal in the teaching for sentient beings, living under the trees or somewhere people will not reach, establishing disciplines, etc. Buddha was not just kind to living creatures, but also taught his disciples to be kind in acting, talking, and thinking to others, in order to repay all living creatures' kindness. The disciples' compassion was manifested in the begging for the food and the teaching for all living creatures. Also, keeping discipline is the practice of disciples' compassion.Sectarian Buddhism started in the first division of the community of Buddhist practitioners. Abhidharma-mahavibhasa-sa-stra, which is the comprehensiveexpression of the sutra of Sarvastivadin, plays an important role in Sectarian Buddhism. In terms of getting exhaustively rid of agony, the abhidharmika of Sarvastivadin thought that the compassion-contemplation is the imaginary contemplation of paying attention with verification, and that the compassion-contemplation cannot get rid of affliction but control them. However, compared with the opinion of abhidharmika of Sarvastivadah, Buddhaghosa of Mahavihara-nikaya thought the compassion-contemplation is the Bodhisattva's methods to benefit living creatures and make all kindness to perfection. The compassion-contemplation is the fundamental of all good roots.Mahayana Buddhism rose at the first century. The initial stage of Mahayana Buddhism, the Prajna Sutra was regarded as the representatives. Mahaprajn-aparamita-sastra is the most authoritative commentary on the Mahaprajn-aparamita-sutra. In the Mahaprajn-aparamita-sastra, Nagarjuna divided the compassion-contemplation into three different types of compassion which are an attitude of loving compassion, compassion which comes from understanding conditioned dharma, and the great compassion which comes from understanding the identical substance of all beings according to Sutra of Unlimited Meaning, so as to show the difference between the compassion of Sravakas and Praetykabuddhas and the compassion of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. He also put forward the opinions of vowing and manifested the compassion-contemplation that is accordant with "emptiness" .In the latter stage of Mahayana Buddhism, the Mahaparinirvana Sutra is considered as the ultimate teaching in Mahayana Buddhism. As it goes, the compassion is Buddha nature; the compassion is nirvana. All living creatures have Buddha nature. Living creatures all have the great compassion. The compassion originates in mind, possessing eternity, bliss, personality, and purity that are the four transcendental realities. The compassion of Buddha nature in the Mahaparinirvana Sutras extending to nine-dharma realm, being the source of the dharma-realm, and displaying the complete meaning of compassion, pushes the compassion-contemplation ofMahayana Buddhism to the ultimate attainment. The latter half of the seventh century, Mahayana Buddhism became secret Mahayana Buddhism, because of influence of Hinduism. In the latter half of the eighth century, it began to be introduced to Tibet. In Tibetan Buddhism, the Lamrim Chenmo written by Zongkapa has the deepest influence on people. The compassion-contemplation of the Lamrim Chenmo with pronounced idea of paying a debt of gratitude maintains that all living creatures are my parents of the past, present and future who gave, give and will give us a great favor. Therefore, we must think of paying a debt gratitude to them with great compassion to take them to the peaceful nirvana.From what has been discussed above, the compassion-contemplation of Buddhism is a great hope of benefiting others while getting one's own benefit and enlightening others while enlightening oneself, transcending the opposition of all, and eliminating the dualistic thought. For the contemporary world and the whole mankind, its profound connotation and unique value involve the significance of realism and ethics that are useful in improving the ethic character of people, maintaining the global peace and the mankind's life security, introducing people to recognize precisely the relationship with nature and establish the right concept of ecology, and offering the universal and practicable rule of ethics for the peace of interpersonal relationship and the stability of society. If the people utilize the wisdom of compassion-contemplation of Buddhism in dealing with the relationship between people and nature, between people and society, and between people and ego, we believe the new era of Aquarius with peace, development and ecological balance will be coming.