To Build a Harmonious Peaceful Human Society Through Buddhist

Concepts of Mercy and Equality

Ven. Zhenjue

Abstract:

Buddhism believes that ordinary people in the world suffer severely from egoism, tremendous anxieties and worries, and that among all the worries and anxieties, greediness comes out as the foremost. Family conflicts, social turmoil, ethnic separation and world wars unavoidably derive from greediness. As a sutra of Madhyamagama says, because of greediness, mothers and sons argues and scrambles with each other; so it is with fathers and sons, brothers and sisters, and other family members. And because of greediness, quarrels arise from between kings, between people, and between countries. How to eliminate greediness and other annoyances, then? The only solution relies on the Buddhist wisdom of mercy and equality. A world free of worries is indeed a peaceful world, a harmonious world with happy human lives the Pure Land highlighted by the Buddha. "The best result is to endow the emperors with refined morality and ethics; the better is to enlighten and civilize society; the basic is to shorten the term of imprisonment; at least to bring about more happiness rather than misfortunes", Qi Song of the Song Dynasty wrote about the contribution of Buddhism to the society, "To put it another way, provided that every family adopt Buddhism, people will behave themselves; provided that every nation adopt Buddhism, arm forces will be of no use." (Column 11, Guang Hong Ming Ji)In summary, it is necessary to take advantage of Buddhist concepts to build up a harmonious human society.