On the differences of moral thoughts between Buddhism and Confucianism.
Around the fifth century BC, two brilliant superstars rose almost simultaneously in the east of the world, namely, Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, and Confucius, the founder of Confucianism. The two ideological systems they founded-Buddhism and Confucianism-had a great influence on the whole eastern civilization.
Both Buddhism and Confucianism discuss human beings, and both put forward methods to achieve the highest ideal state of life through individual moral cultivation practice. In contrast, Buddhism pays attention to the transcendence of secular life and pursues the ultimate perfection of individuals, while Confucianism emphasizes "self-cultivation, keeping the family in order, governing the country and leveling the world" and attaches importance to the harmony and unity of personal cultivation and secular social life. It should be said that there is an essential difference between the two. Although Buddhism focuses on birth, it does not completely deny real life. In order to adapt to the foundation of all sentient beings, Sakyamuni Buddha also initiated the law of "man, nature and goodness" which mainly guides world life.
After Buddhism was introduced into China, many people devoted themselves to understanding Buddhism and Confucianism in order to adapt to China's national conditions and make Buddhism take root and develop in China, a country with profound Confucian culture. Sun Chuo, a famous Confucian scholar and writer in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, wrote On Bi Xing and Taoism, and put forward the slogan "Kong Zhou is Buddha, and Buddha is Kong Zhou". Standing on the position of Confucian scholars, he reconciled Buddhism and Confucianism ideologically. Zong Mi, the founder of Huayan, compared Buddhism and Confucianism with the five precepts of Buddhism (no killing, no stealing, no lewdness, no drinking, no lying) from the perspective of moral norms. In the eyes of ordinary people, it seems that Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism are all about persuading people to be good, and there seems to be no big difference in world law. However, if we study and investigate deeply, we will find that although we are also discussing good laws in the world, there are essential differences between Buddhist and Confucian moral thoughts. This paper focuses on the comparison between Agama, the basic classic of primitive Buddhism, and The Analects of Confucius, which directly records Confucius' words and deeds, and summarizes the main differences between Buddhism and Confucianism as follows:
First, the foundation of moral establishment is different.
Buddhism is based on cause and effect, pointing out that every cause has its consequences, just like a shadow. "Zeng Yi Agama" said: "My wife is good and evil for a reason; Those who are rewarded will not be destroyed in the end. My wife does good and evil for a reason; Good is rewarded with good, and evil with evil. " It is believed that all good and evil actions will have results, good karma will be rewarded, and bad karma will be rewarded. Cause and effect are self-caused, and even father and son relatives cannot replace each other. Therefore, everyone is responsible for his body, mouth and mind. Confucius said: "A gentleman has three fears: fear of destiny, fear of adults, and fear of the words of saints; I don't know my fate, but I'm not afraid of it. I am insulting adults and saints. " The "destiny" here refers to the will of the master who controls everything; "Adult" refers to the Emperor of Zhou and the governors of other countries; The Sage's Word is an ancient book and instruction handed down by Zhou Wengong. It can be seen that Confucius' so-called "gentleman" is based on obeying the destiny and the weekly system, and the ruler is the spokesman of heaven. Therefore, the morality mentioned by Confucius is actually based on the will of the ruling class.
Buddhism's good dharma is based on cause and effect, which is bound to be closely related to people's specific behavior. If people want to be happy from suffering, they should take the initiative to restrain themselves, break evil and repair good. No matter the king or ordinary people, everyone is equal before cause and effect, and no one can have privileges. Even if you are the king of a country, evil will be punished. Confucian morality is different, no matter who occupies the dominant position, he can claim to be the son of heaven and openly ask others to obey. The so-called "winner is king, loser is kou". This morality has actually become a tool used by rulers. Today, people in China often say that "people don't fight against officials". This kind of unequal thinking is actually a violation of human nature. Its root is the Confucian moral concept that has occupied China people's thoughts for thousands of years.
Second, there are different standards of good and evil.
In the Book of China, the king of Persia once asked Ananda: What is good? Ananda: "It means that when you do it, you won't harm yourself, each other or everything. If you are conscious, wise and help each other, you will get nirvana and you will be interested in wisdom, feeling and interest. " It can be seen that goodness in Buddhism has two connotations: first, it respects all beings, does not infringe upon or annoy them, and then helps or even relieves them; The second is to eliminate all thoughts, speeches and behaviors that are not conducive to self-cultivation. In Za Agama, the Buddha pointed out ten evils: killing, stealing, lust, lying, double tongue, foul mouth, slang, greed, resentment and Jaken. These behaviors will lead to self-harm and life degradation, so they are considered bad, and vice versa.
Confucius put forward that "self-denial is benevolence", and the standard of "benevolence" is "see no evil, don't listen to evil, don't speak evil, don't move evil", and "courtesy" is the standard to measure good and evil. The "ceremony" mentioned by Confucius refers to the Zhou ceremony, that is, the patriarchal hierarchy of "monarch, minister, father, son and son". He believes that this patriarchal hierarchy is untouchable and above all else. All behaviors are good as long as they conform to the "ceremony", even if they don't look at the nature of the behavior itself. He said: "The father is the son, and the son is the father, straight in it." Even if the father commits a crime, the son must hide his father's crime in order to be filial. On the other hand, fathers have to hide their son's sins. Confucius thinks that this kind of mutual protection is the most just and selfless morality, and so does the minister to you. Lu's marrying a woman with the same surname violated the Rites of Zhou. Someone asked Confucius if Zhao Gong knew about etiquette, and Confucius replied, "Knowing etiquette". Until someone pointed out that it violated the etiquette, Confucius did not refute it, but said, "Qiu is also lucky." If you have, people will know. " He covered up his mistakes and never mentioned Zhao Gong's mistakes.
Buddhism believes that any behavior that causes harm to others is evil, and even if you do evil for your parents, you will be rewarded. According to the records in the Sutra of the Middle Ages, the relic pear asked Brahma Tuoran: "If people do evil for their parents, they will end up with bad lives and be born in prison. He was born in hell, and when the jailer tried to catch him, he said to the jailer,' jailer! When you know, don't bother to treat me! So what? I do bad things for my parents. Yunhe, Tuoran! Can he get rid of the torment of the underground jailer? A: "No." It can be seen that Buddhism does not believe that ethical relations can transcend cause and effect.
Buddhism is based on the cycle of cause and effect, and believes that all beings are equal, even the right to life of animals should be respected, and it is impossible to kill them casually. In Za Agama, the Buddha said to the long-body brahmin who was preparing to kill and sacrifice, "Why did the cloud give birth to all kinds of bitter swords?" It is said that there was a general meeting made by the Lord, which personally killed the Ersot cattle and even killed all kinds of sperm, which was a bitter reward under the sword. He was born a sin, even though he was thinking, giving and supporting. "If we constantly get rid of our greed and delusion, and hope to kill all sentient beings as a sacrifice to seek happiness for ourselves, we will only create a sinful career and increase our bitter reward.
But Confucius thought that ceremony was more important than life. Zigong wanted to get rid of the live sheep used for the moon festival. Confucius said to him, "Give it! I love my sheep and I love my ceremony. " Compared with Buddhism, the difference between them is obvious!
Third, moral practice pursues different goals.
The ideal of Confucian moral cultivation is "self-cultivation, keeping the family in order, governing the country and leveling the world", which is based on the pursuit of the perfection of personal moral quality and the harmony and stability of family and social ethical order, and has not surpassed real life. Although Buddhism is also a guide to real life, it does not aim at the prosperity and happiness of earthly life, or even at the enjoyment of ascension. Because life in heaven is too enjoyable, it is not conducive to cultivation and is not worthy of envy. The world of suffering and pleasure is more conducive to practice, so it deserves more attention. Buddhism's good law finally points to wisdom and liberation, and its moral practice focuses on breaking evil and turning to good. First, don't fall into evil ways and be born in good karma, so that you can further practice Buddhism and get rid of it when you are born, that is, "say the Dharma first, and then become a Buddha's wisdom."
Starting from the maintenance of universal ethics, Confucius believes that filial piety is obedience to parents: "The father is guarding his will; Father didn't pay attention to his actions; It is filial piety not to change the way of the father for three years. " When Meng asked Confucius what "filial piety" meant, Confucius replied: "No violation." Although Buddhism also advocates filial piety, requires supporting parents and loving the king, a monk who practices the holy law does not have to worship his parents and the king. On the contrary, he can accept the worship of the king and his parents. This is really a great disloyalty and unfilial to Confucianism. When Buddhism was introduced into China, it caused great controversy for the sake of "Shamans don't respect kings", and some conservative Confucian scholars even proposed to destroy Buddhism. All these reflect the fundamental differences between Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism in moral pursuit.
To sum up, although Confucius' Confucianism and Sakyamuni's thought of harmony between man and nature both emphasize moral cultivation in real life, their moral views also have distinct characteristics because of their different foundations, different standards of good and evil and different goals. Buddhist morality is based on cause and effect, advocating equality, respecting individual life and power, and pursuing wisdom and liberation; Confucian morality, on the other hand, is based on the concept of destiny and attaches importance to the patriarchal ethics system represented by Zhou Li, so its moral orientation is different from hierarchy, intimacy and neglect of people.
In the social environment where contemporary ideas of equality, fraternity and respect for human rights are increasingly valued and advocated by people, although Confucian moral thoughts have a certain positive effect on maintaining social order and family ethics, Buddhist moral views of attaching importance to equality, respecting life and respecting self-rights will be more suitable for the needs of the times and have more practical significance. Today, with the emphasis on "ruling the country by virtue", if everyone can take cause and effect as the standard to measure his words and deeds and achieve "no harm to himself, no harm to him and no harm to both", violence, fraud and various inequalities in society will naturally be less; Maintaining social stability, realizing self-harmony and happiness, and building a pure land on earth will not be far away.
Forums for turning to underground storage.