Dharma and Heaven
( This post may read as an addition to the previous post Dharma = System )
In the east a word Heaven ( Ten in Japanese, Tien in Chinese ) having somewhat similar meaning like
the word Dharma. Heaven can be just a sky above but not necessary a Paradise like in the west.
Heaven is where the invisible but ultimate power, the Ruler reside. Or the Rules itself.
As the Heaven cover everything on the earth, there is no escape therefore this notion affects every other
notions and the fundamental philosophy and the ethos.
Unlike under western humanised or personified notion of God, in the east there is no margin of negotiation
to the morality, like the situation of crime and punishment. There is no such things like ” If the God doesn’t
arrow this I’ll go to another God, or our church justify this killing since enemy is pagan”. Killing is killing.
( I’m not talking the sheer number of execution in China, or having sever punishing flood and earthquake)
Without having the insight of this fundation of ethos, ” Wrong is wrong. There is no escape” it is hard to
understand the hidden psyche of Fatalism in Taoism or Zen Buddhism.
As the basis of the Buddhism lie in the word / notion of the Dharma which is all the Existence /
Nature and the Rules behind or Existence / Nature itself is the Rules, it is naturalto see why
eastern culture is so well harmonized with the nature,
or to see why the Hinayana Buddhism says The man’s life itself is the Enlightenment —— as
the man born with the Dharma within.
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