19 April 2008

The Middle Way

At some point in our lives… correction… at many points in our lives, we wonder about the true nature of life. What exactly is it?

The first point of view recognized only the physical aspect of life. Many empirical minded people tend towards this view. To these people, life starts when we are born and ends when we are dead. Simple and straightforward. In other words, “all living beings will come to non-existent after death” and that since “everything will be gone when we die, we should live to enjoy our lives to the fullest while we are alive.”

But there is a flaw in this manner of thinking. If life only exists when we are conscious, then we will only can for the attainment of relative happiness as explained in my earlier blog entry. This will result in a hedonistic society and decadence into the level of beasts eventually.

The second point of view is to recognized that life exist in a different plane from just the physical body. In fact, the body is viewed merely as a vessel to observe life. It is the mind that is life. We cannot observe the existence of our mind but there is way too much evidence of the existence of our mind to exclude it from our considerations. We have thoughts and dreams and memories. The culmination of these experiences is attributed to the soul in many theistic thoughts.

What it means is that “Everything in the universe is the creation of God and hence, all is predestined and nothing will change.” But this second view is also flawed. Overemphasis on the soul resulted in one treating the soul as pure and the body as being corrupted. This distinction causes people to practice asceticism physically or mentally or both. Life before death is devalued and life after death is treated as a reward or punishment of some kind.

But there is a third point of view. As we mentioned earlier that we perceive life as our mind, hence, as Nichiren shared, “The mind cannot be considered either to exist or not to exist. Life is indeed an elusive reality that transcends both the words and concepts of existence and nonexistence. It s neither existence nor nonexistence, yet exhibits the qualities of both. It is the mystic entity of the Middle Way that is the ultimate reality. Myo (mystic) is the name given to the mystic nature of life, and ho (law), to its manifestations of the mind.”

Therefore, the true nature of life is not just the body or the soul. It is BOTH the soul or myo and the physical body or ho. This holistic view of life is the Middle Way expounded in Buddhism. The Middle way is not just the path of least resistance often misunderstood. The “middle” actually translates to “accurate” path.

The Middle Way takes us away from the flaws of just focusing on the body which is predominant among the thoughts of atheists, and also away from the flaws of just focusing on the soul which is predominant among the thoughts of theism.

The Middle Way recognized that everything that is existent at this point in time are in the state of constant flux – transforming from the state of existent to non-existent, and from non-existent into existent. This change will continue on eternally.”

Life is not something that has a starting or an ending point. It is a profound type of energy. And like energy which follows the law of conservation, it is neither created nor destroy, just constant changing from state to state. Just as life changes from life to death and then from death to life again and again and again.

03 April 2008

Good and Bad Priests

There were 2 events that took place on March 16, 2008 at the Singapore Expo:

The first was an event by the Nichiren Shoshu. It was scheduled to start at 11am. What took place was the arrival of the members at about 8am. The members then waited for almost 3 hours for the priest of Nichiren Shoshu to arrived. They were left there without any briefing, entertainment, food, water, reading materials, etc.

They were cold as it started raining at 11am. After a short speech by the priest, the members were coax to pay a fee.


The second event was the Interfaith Symposium organised by the Singapore Soka Association (SSA). It was scheduled to start at 2pm. The priest of SSA arrived at 12pm to wait for the members. When the members arrived, there was an exhibition on peace for their viewing pleasures completed with guides.

The event was graced by Singapore Minister of Foreign Affairs. There were representatives from many different faiths in Singapore declaring their committment for peace for the sake of humanity. There were also delegates from 6 countries from various parts of Asia.

This event was reported in many newspapers and was highly praised by many in the society. The members went home with a beautiful book launch by the Minister and containing many inspirational quotes.

The rain stopped at 2pm just before the event started.

I think the contrast is clear on which organisation is really working for the good of society and which is only trying to enrich their own pockets.

One priest made the members wait while another came early to welcome the members. The distinction between a good and bad priest is also clear.

Even the weather agrees.