Asians Philosophy - Assignment Example

Lecturer Asians Philosophy Question One. Asians have traditions which guide them in their existence. Their teachings are based on Taoism taught from one generation to another (Morgan, 68). For example they believe that truth occurs at three different levels. The first is one involves the vacuum. The Asians believes that a person begins the life in void status and advance towards the status of abundance. Therefore, nothing which has permanent status but instead they all change from one position to another. However, the fact is that nothing which can posses two status at the same time. So, at one point, something is one status and at the other time it is in another status (Morgan, 71). All things survive due to varying nature of the situations. A person does not live in stage of insufficient every time. In the second stage, a person exists in the stage of abundance. This involves transition from stage of void to stage of abundance. There is also a stage in which people exist between insufficiency and abundance. This is the hub track which all things exist. This is due to the fact that nothing which can be absolutely in the status of abundance or void. Normally, a person or a thing will be in between the status of insufficiency and abundance. This Tien Tai reality is based on the teachings of White lotus Sutras of human existence and the nature of fact. This gives light regarding interrelationship of the human survival. According to Tien Tai beliefs, these stages of realities guide human beings on how they conduct themselves (Morgan, 78). They form basis for judging between excellence and evil deeds of a human being. People strive to live according to the teachings and the doctrines of the community in which a person exist. Those realities are the guiding principles among the Asians since they define the customs of their community. They determine the individual freedoms in what they do and what they perceive. There is no person who likes living deviant life. Without guiding principles between what the society want and what individual does, people will never know what they are expected to do. Therefore, knowing the truth and abiding b it gives an individual peace and liberty of the mind and physical liberty. The doctrines of the Asian culture recognize realities which guide individuals in their existence. They distinguish between void living and abundance living (Morgan, 79). This poses a difference between physical living and the spiritual life. Once people get to understand the realities, they are able to live according to the customs. This gives them liberty in their existence. Without proper comprehension of the reality of living, people cannot accept the teachings and therefore, they cannot have real meaning of life (Morgan, 81). For people to be at liberty with their actions, they should learn the reality envisaged in the teachings of their Buddhism. Question Two. According to Shen-hsiu teachings, a person exists in righteousness and must put effort to improve his or her spiritual being. This process involves several stages as person moves from one status to another (Jorgensen, 74). The teachings emphasize that the transformation of a human life is not a one moment event but is a continuous process. It is a whole life occurrence which involves both physical bodies and the mind. This means people must always be conscious of their actions and must endeavor to make them upright. Their memories will help them determine between morally upright and morally wrong episodes. On the other hand, intelligence should guide people in choosing what actions they should take. People should make it a practice to watch their actions and thought failure to which they will fail to maintain wholesomeness. According to the teachings of Hui-neng, a person’s existence is either in the void or in the abundance (Jorgensen, 85). The change from one state to another occurs at once after a person has realized the truth. He emphasizes that in the first instance, a person exist in the void life without any facts. However, the realization of the facts occurs abruptly and then a person moves from state of complete darkness to a state of light. As such, there is no chance for mixing both light and darkness. It is a person is in the side of the darkness or in the side of light but not in the hub (Jorgensen, 87). For example, when a Buddhist reads the word from their religion, this word should bring complete understanding of the facts and should no longer continue living like someone who has not read the word. Shen-hsiu teachings require the followers of the religious doctrines to pursue reality every moment for the rest of their lives (Jorgensen, 96). According to him, it is not possible to undergo complete transformation immediately after reading the word. Since people acquire some light after reading the religious word, they should meditate upon it from time to time as a way of refreshing their memories. The memories reflect what individuals will do and therefore, failure to refresh their memories will make them forget the facts. Therefore, learning the word should be a continuous activity so that people can continue existing in the reality. On the other hand, Hui-neng teachings imply that people should learn the word once and for all (Jorgensen, 98). After people have known reality they should reform and no need for reverting to their evil activities. As such, people should cross entirely from the void side to abundance side. Once the fact is identified, it is engraved in the memory and there is no reason for not putting it into practice. Reliance on these teachings will result into wholly transformed religious followers who will recognize either fully converted individuals or totally untransformed people. Question Three Intellectual intuition is the ability of a person to recognize the occurrences when they take place and make personal judgment about what has happened (Wilkinson, 47). This is based on individual perception and understanding of what has occurred. A person must first recognize that something is happening and using his or her personal judgment they will be able to determine what has happened. It is the base in which people perceive things differently even if it is of the same nature. The mind of a person is what interprets what has occurred rather than the actual nature of the event. This is engraved in peoples mind and they mind translates it into what a person perceives it. However, as people get used to some things, they will always perceive it as such (Wilkinson, 49). This also affects our talks and our feelings. The individual feelings about their personality is replicated in their mind and is what influences personal characters. There could be a difference between what a person perceives and what the rest thinks about it. There is a possibility that a person could perceive things differently if they did not have prior knowledge about the same (Wilkinson. 53). This means that prior knowledge about something will influence the interpretation of the mind about that thing. Therefore, when a person encounters a thing he or she had come across before, the past memory will affect the current perception about that person. The individual feeling and memory influences the actions of an individual. People will tend to believe and do what their memories tells them is what is right. People will always desire to do things in accordance to a specific protocol rather than do things haphazardly. Therefore, practice and the individual perception will affect their imaginations and desires to do things in a certain way. Religion involves practicing what the community believes if right and acceptable. It requires people to develop a culture of doing things in a specific way (Wilkinson, 55). These are basically considered to be righteous or upright in the doctrines of a particular religion. For an individual to be able to follow the doctrines of a particular religion, they must have conscious of what is morally acceptable and morally unacceptable. Practice makes individuals to mirror themselves in the community and gauge their level of adherence to the religious doctrines. The past memory of right or wrong affects the individuals conducts in the community (Wilkinson, 57). The ability of the individuals to do things in a specific way and to be able to make personal judgment between moral upright and morally unacceptable conducts forms a community of followers of certain religion. Failure to control personal behavior and thinking will affect adherence to religious regulations in the community. Works Cited Jorgensen, John. Inventing Hui-neng, the Sixth patriarch Hagiography and Biography in Early Ch’an. Netherlands, 2005.801 Morgan, Diane. Essential Buddhism. Greenwood Publishing Group, United States of America. 2010. 247 Wilkinson, Robert. Nishida and Western Philosophy. Ashgate Publishing Company, USA. 2009. 177. Read More