Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen once said, “Buddhism is the mother of philosophy.” He also stated, “Buddhist studies can remedy the biases of science.” This is because science places excessive emphasis on matter while offering no education for the mind; Buddhism can precisely supplement what science lacks in this regard.
Russell
Bertrand Russell, one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century, a British thinker and recipient of the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature, stated after examining various religions: “Among all the religions of the world, the one I favor is Buddhism.” Russell also wrote a well-known book titled The Problems of Philosophy. Though slim in volume, it presents his views on several fundamental philosophical questions.
What kind of world do our eyes actually see? In what ways do we come to know the world? The Problems of Philosophy offers some very insightful discussions on such questions, and these discussions bear certain similarities to Buddhist logic (pramāṇa) and Madhyamaka thought. However, if you read the book carefully, you will come to realize just how great the Buddha was, and how great Nāgārjuna Bodhisattva was—Nāgārjuna’s teachings completely transcend all of these ideas.
Russell’s The Problems of Philosophy uses modern language to organize and summarize certain philosophical issues, which is why anyone studying philosophy should read it. Russell also said, “Among all the religions of the world, the one I favor is Buddhism.” He could not help but favor it, because the rigor of Buddhist logic and the effectiveness of its methods for actualizing that logic are unmatched by any other philosophy or religion.
Other religions often demand faith alone. Buddhism also speaks of faith, but in terms of reasoning, it may even require you not to believe so easily. For example, Chan Buddhism says: small doubt leads to small awakening, great doubt leads to great awakening, and without doubt there is no awakening at all—you must doubt; you cannot believe blindly. Madhyamaka is the same: what it most strongly opposes is the claim, “I understand.” When you say you understand, it usually means you understand only on the surface, while many blind spots remain in your thinking. You must question yourself: do I really understand? Through repeated reflection, and even debate with others, you uncover those blind spots in your thinking. This is why Buddhism is truly rational—profound and expansive. If Russell had not favored Buddhism, we probably wouldn’t bother reading The Problems of Philosophy—just kidding.
As for those who casually slander Buddhism today—let alone winning a Nobel Prize, many of them probably never even earned the title of “model student” in elementary school. Such people truly have no grounds to criticize Buddhism. In fact, many who disparage Buddhism do so purely based on feelings, influenced by past propaganda that labeled Buddhism as superstition. Others think that studying Buddhism brings no practical benefit. Today, parents often demand that their children hurry to make money, secure a good social status, or obtain a favorable marriage. The moment children say they want to study Buddhism, parents immediately imagine that the child will never marry—or might even become a monk.
But is that really the case? We are all studying Buddhism here—are there any monks among us? And even in the future, there won’t be many who become monks. Most people begin to resist and guard against Buddhism before they even understand it. Some parents think that once their children study Buddhism, they will lose ambition, that learning Buddhism means becoming passive and withdrawing from the world. They don’t realize that studying Buddhism does not necessarily mean giving up striving. We are studying Buddhism too—are we being passive and escapist? Obviously not.
Yet many people attack Buddhism without understanding it. They don’t know that lay practitioners who study Buddhism can still pursue certain worldly goals. If all lay practitioners stopped working altogether, how would you survive? You can’t live on air—so how could you even continue practicing Buddhism? How could you practice Buddhism like that? That’s not how it works. You can go to work, but you must understand that you are a lay practitioner: where the ultimate truth lies, what you truly rely on, where you are ultimately headed, and how you are going to get there. These are the things you need to be clear about.
Studying Buddhism does not mean that the moment you begin, you must renounce the world, run off to a cave, and practice like Milarepa. Among people like us, how many could really be Milarepa? Forget Milarepa—even if we talk about going to a meditation center and giving up everything to practice, anyone in our company who is willing to go, I will approve it immediately and let you go right away. Is there anyone willing? Raise your hand. You can’t even manage to lock yourself away somewhere to practice without ordaining—so does that mean we shouldn’t study Buddhism at all? Of course not. We have other ways: working while studying Buddhism.
And where does this path lead in the end? In reality, everything we work for and desire in this world has no real meaning at the moment of death. Suppose our company goes public, we make a lot of money, everyone drives luxury cars and lives in villas—when you die, will that huge villa be of any use? Of course not. It may even have a negative effect, because once greed and anger are firmly cultivated, you may fall into hell or be reborn as a hungry ghost. But if you persist in studying Buddhism, then what you have learned will actually be useful at the time of death. Those who have cultivated Dzogchen well will be liberated on the spot. If that doesn’t happen, we can be reborn in the Pure Land. How wonderful is that—worldly life is taken care of, and liberation is also secured. This is, in fact, the path we aim to walk.
In other words, those who truly understand Buddhism know that it is not passive world-avoidance, and they will not casually slander it. Those who slander Buddhism usually do so out of ignorance. The difficulty is that we have no way to explain everything to them in detail—they simply have no patience to listen. So what should be done? Education and dissemination are necessary. At present, due to the widespread promotion of Buddhism, it may appear that many people are studying it, but in reality, most do not truly understand it. Most people who study Buddhism are chasing feelings or novelty: “Meditation feels good, it’s comfortable…”—that’s what they want. In fact, they have no idea what they really want. Others just skim through books here and there, reading a lot but understanding nothing in the end.
So both extremes are mistaken. The principles of Buddhism must be disseminated on a broad scale. We must clearly understand what Śākyamuni Buddha actually taught, how we are to realize it, and what benefits it brings us. If what he taught only meant shaving our heads and brought no benefit at all, why would we study it—having hair looks much better anyway. That is why reason must be explained. However, many people today do not know how to reason properly. The dissemination of Buddhist teaching has not been done well, which has led to so much slander. But the fact that many people slander Buddhism does not mean their slander is correct.
You Zhibiao
The natural scientist You Zhibiao once said, “Buddhism is an exceptionally profound science.” He wrote a book discussing Buddhism in which he compares Buddhist classifications with those of the natural sciences. The book is titled A Scientist’s Report on the Study of Buddhist Scriptures.
Lu Xun
Mr. Lu Xun, the renowned thinker, revolutionary, and writer, after reading the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra and the Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish, expressed deep admiration for the Buddha’s wisdom. He said, “Śākyamuni truly was a great sage. I have long had many difficult questions about life, yet he had already understood and revealed most of them.” (In fact, Mr. Lu Xun did not know Buddhism very well. He had only read a few texts such as the Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish, which mainly discusses karmic stories of the Hīnayāna, and already praised Buddhism so highly. If he had received the transmission of the Buddhist Canon and studied the Five Great Treatises, he would have been utterly prostrate in admiration. Just kidding!)
Had he continued reading further, he probably would not have written Diary of a Madman, nor would he have claimed that every Chinese character contains the words “eat people.” Lu Xun actually harbored a certain resistance toward traditional Chinese culture. He disliked traditional Chinese medicine and even made some extremely harsh remarks, saying that Chinese characters made him feel as uncomfortable as maggots—yet he still became a writer, all of which is well documented. Nevertheless, despite all this, Lu Xun never casually attacked Buddhism.
Lu Xun was a true thinker, and he saw the flaws of our nation with great clarity. For example, The True Story of Ah Q exposes certain deep-rooted weaknesses of the Chinese people—pettiness, vulgarity, and the so-called “spiritual victory method.” Another work, Medicine, which many of us have read, tells of a revolutionary who sacrifices himself for the people, only for the people to smear his blood on a bun to cure tuberculosis—an image of the people’s ignorance. Witnessing such phenomena, Lu Xun said he would no longer be a doctor, believing that illnesses of the body are easy to cure, while illnesses of the soul are difficult. Thus he began writing, exposing problems within our culture and the ugliness within human nature. But if Lu Xun had truly gone on to study the Five Great Treatises, we might have lost a great writer and gained a great accomplished master instead.
Today, some worldly people, after attending university and obtaining a bit of academic credential, become extremely contemptuous of Buddhism—such behavior is utterly immature. Buddhism is not like certain Western religions that rely on institutional power or irrational, ignorant means to oppress people. The Buddha’s teachings are verified through debate and reasoning. If they cannot convince people through reason or resolve their doubts, that would indeed be a fault of Buddhism.
Yet throughout the long course of history, such a failure has never occurred. Today, more and more scientists are becoming aware of the profound depth of Buddhist theory. They frequently engage in dialogue, through various means, with visionary, innovative, and wise eminent monks and masters in order to explore the truths of the universe and human life. Especially regarding the mysteries of past and future lives and karmic causality—things utterly beyond laboratory discovery—these mysteries can gradually be clarified through the inconceivable doctrines of Buddhism.
This is simply the reality: Buddhism has never relied on bullying or coercion to make people believe. Buddhism has always relied on reason, and it certainly has never done what some religions have done—executing those who refuse to believe. Buddhism has always persuaded through reasoning, and throughout history, there has never been a war waged because of Buddhism.
Zhu Qingshi
Within the teachings of Buddhism, many questions raised by modern philosophy, science, and even mathematics and quantum mechanics have already been answered. Take, for example, the three major crises in the history of mathematics—within Buddhist logic (pramāṇa), these are hardly problems at all and can be resolved with ease. I have explained the three mathematical crises to you before, so I won’t repeat them here. Likewise, some fundamental questions in physics—such as what energy is, or what superstrings are—are not particularly difficult issues within Buddhism.
There is a scientist named Zhu Qingshi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and former president of Southern University of Science and Technology. He once wrote an article describing how scientists, through relentless effort and struggle, climb step by step, scaling one peak after another. When they finally reach a summit and look up, they find Śākyamuni Buddha already seated there, saying, “Ah, you’ve arrived.” The scientists climb again, reach yet another peak, look up—and Śākyamuni Buddha is there again, saying, “Ah, you’ve come again.”
This is how modern science is: no matter how it climbs, it can never surpass the peak of Buddhadharma. If one can give rise to such confidence, it indicates a genuine understanding of Buddhism. Today, one of our fellow practitioners said during a meal that whenever science comes into conflict with Madhyamaka theory, Madhyamaka will inevitably prevail. He spoke at length, which showed that he had truly assimilated Madhyamaka.
At the very least, on a logical level, he firmly believes that no matter how advanced science becomes—even after another billion years—it still cannot compare with Madhyamaka. At minimum, he understands logically just how great Buddhism is; otherwise, the statement “Above and below heaven, none is like the Buddha” would become empty rhetoric. As it stands, many unresolved issues in science and philosophy can be explained almost entirely through Buddhist principles.
The difficulty lies only in realization. Why is that? To actualize Buddhist teachings, one must engage in practice. This is not like scientific experimentation, where one observes with the eyes or listens with the ears. For example, if I say that I have realized a certain state, you cannot see it for yourself. As Master Xuanzang put it: “Like a person drinking water, only they know for themselves whether it is cold or warm.” If we examine a principle, agree with it logically, then practice accordingly and arrive at the corresponding realization—should we not then accept that theory?
All of this is something Buddhism is capable of accomplishing. We can discuss the fundamental nature of the world: Buddhism holds that the foundation of the world is emptiness, and moreover, that emptiness can be directly realized. This is analogous to physics proposing a theory and then verifying it through experimentation. Yet the emptiness we realize is not like an ordinary physical experiment—physics merely verifies a phenomenon or a law. What is realized here is the ultimate truth of reality. Over two thousand years ago, Śākyamuni Buddha fully revealed it, and to this day it remains beyond refutation, now and forever.Madhyamaka and Yogācāra exist precisely to expound this truth: they present it through rigorous logic and then allow us to directly verify it through embodied experience of body and mind. To call such a theory superstition, to dismiss it without understanding, is itself superstition.
What is realized here is the ultimate truth of reality. Over two thousand years ago, Śākyamuni Buddha fully revealed it, and to this day it remains beyond refutation, now and forever.
This article is a preliminary translation draft and has not yet been reviewed or proofread by the speaker.
