Charles Luk - No Racism In Buddhism.
Mar 9, 2012 12:33:36 GMT 1
Post by Shi Da Dao on Mar 9, 2012 12:33:36 GMT 1
(Quoted from Charles Luk book entitled ‘The Secrets of Chinese Meditation’ – pages 12-13 – and gives a glimpse into Luk’s private life of Ch’an instruction, his view on the state of Buddhism in the East and the West, and his firm stance against racism).
‘The Buddha Dharma has no room for race and nationality and nothing is more misleading than the groundless contention that Westerners are not fit to achieve enlightenment. In their former lives many were virtuous men and women who practiced the Buddha’s Teaching but failed to attain enlightenment; their good karmas have caused them to be reborn in countries where propitious conditions prevail so that they can resume their self-cultivation. Those who have been reborn in the West are capable of understanding the holy Teaching and will certainly achieve satisfactory results in their present life. Therefore, racial discrimination should be cast away for Lin Chi said: “There is not a living being who cannot be liberated.”
Buddhism is in decline in the East because of the division of the Dharma into different schools contradictory and hostile to each other. There are people who, instead of practicing the methods taught in the sutras and treatises, indulge in endless discussions which are empty and give no practical results. Others only learn to recite the sutras by heart without striving to understand their profound meanings. Many are those who worship the Buddha, recite sutras and repeat mantras in the hope of reaping merits for themselves and their families, without knowing that the World Honoured One teaches us to keep from illusions but not to cling merits which are also illusory. We are urged by Him to forsake the cult of ego, then what merit do we earn when we cease to be selfish? What merit can a thief win when he stops stealing? There are also those who, in their study of Sanskrit and Tibetan, pass their precious time in practising the correct pronunciation either by pressing down the tongue or by putting it up against the palate or between the teeth, not realising that philology has nothing to do with self-cultivation. Our modern students of sutras and treatises, instead of studying their profound meanings, seem to be more interested in obtaining historical, linguistic and geographical data which have nothing to do with the Buddha Dharma which is beyond space and time.
During the last few years, in spite of my secluded life, I have met some of my readers in the West and have received very encouraging letters from others, and I have come to the conclusion that many Occidentals are now mature and digest quite well the Mahayana and Ch’an Teachings. At least half a dozen of them have realised their personal experience of the state of dhyana, amongst whom are two British readers in America. My optimism about the future of the Dharma in the West is, therefore, not groundless.’
‘The Buddha Dharma has no room for race and nationality and nothing is more misleading than the groundless contention that Westerners are not fit to achieve enlightenment. In their former lives many were virtuous men and women who practiced the Buddha’s Teaching but failed to attain enlightenment; their good karmas have caused them to be reborn in countries where propitious conditions prevail so that they can resume their self-cultivation. Those who have been reborn in the West are capable of understanding the holy Teaching and will certainly achieve satisfactory results in their present life. Therefore, racial discrimination should be cast away for Lin Chi said: “There is not a living being who cannot be liberated.”
Buddhism is in decline in the East because of the division of the Dharma into different schools contradictory and hostile to each other. There are people who, instead of practicing the methods taught in the sutras and treatises, indulge in endless discussions which are empty and give no practical results. Others only learn to recite the sutras by heart without striving to understand their profound meanings. Many are those who worship the Buddha, recite sutras and repeat mantras in the hope of reaping merits for themselves and their families, without knowing that the World Honoured One teaches us to keep from illusions but not to cling merits which are also illusory. We are urged by Him to forsake the cult of ego, then what merit do we earn when we cease to be selfish? What merit can a thief win when he stops stealing? There are also those who, in their study of Sanskrit and Tibetan, pass their precious time in practising the correct pronunciation either by pressing down the tongue or by putting it up against the palate or between the teeth, not realising that philology has nothing to do with self-cultivation. Our modern students of sutras and treatises, instead of studying their profound meanings, seem to be more interested in obtaining historical, linguistic and geographical data which have nothing to do with the Buddha Dharma which is beyond space and time.
During the last few years, in spite of my secluded life, I have met some of my readers in the West and have received very encouraging letters from others, and I have come to the conclusion that many Occidentals are now mature and digest quite well the Mahayana and Ch’an Teachings. At least half a dozen of them have realised their personal experience of the state of dhyana, amongst whom are two British readers in America. My optimism about the future of the Dharma in the West is, therefore, not groundless.’