How to make Buddhism competitive

After the Great East Asia Conference, which was jokingly called, an internal meeting was held to discuss the construction and control of spiritual civilization beyond the material civilization of the colonies.

"Historically, the Buddhist temples of the 700-year-old shogunate period have a distinctly feudal surname, which is simply the same as those Shinto shrines. Countless powerful ministers and emperors and generals in temples are like their own vegetable gardens, using the transcendent caste of Buddhism to play remote command and religious asylum. Bai Jia is well aware of the degree of plagiarism of Li Ji's layout.

"This is the killer weapon of our religious and cultural diplomacy in this country! The poor in the spiritual world will be wary when they see the rich taking the initiative to come to their homes! Only the rich will be wary when they see the poor entering their homes! If you don't use this advantage, how can you colonize the book? How to establish the spiritual and cultural position of the Chinese co-prosperity circle? ”

"But what does this situation have to do with our tropical colonies?"

Chen Guanxian became excited: "Buddhism is not only a tool of our colonial system, but also the source of some of our guiding ideology and basic national policies. Who of us, the good young people of the information age, who has experienced countless wonderful cases of Buddhist monasteries and baptism, will have a good impression of Buddhism? Besides, in this era, seeing that the Great Xiangguo Temple is doing such a prosperous job of loan sharking, commercial street operation and wholesale business, who will regard those high-ranking monks as simple religious practitioners?

If any of those high-ranking monks, who are high-level intellectuals, entrepreneurs, activists, and financiers, are not the top ruling class elites in later generations, even if they enter Goldman Sachs in the United States, it can be as simple as drinking water.

It is very reliable to have these top people to help us establish a new religious order. ”

Zhao Shouzhong said his thoughts: "As long as you do a good job of prevention, you are not afraid that they will not lose their tail." Mistakes like those of the past dynasties that overtwine Buddhism are unlikely to occur in the capitalist era. The core is to do a good job of separating duties, monasteries are just a place of learning, and the elites who come out cannot be part-time teachers, but can only become entrepreneurs or scholars who return to the world; In this way, a subtle spiritual connection and transmission can be maintained, without causing religious forces to override the secular regime. ”

"O Reformation! It's a meeting with a sense of the times! You really don't miss any opportunity to change the course of history! Qian Jin teased.

Li Ji said, "Don't talk nonsense, no matter who does this, what should happen will always happen, I just like to have things in my own hands, many birds in the forest are not as good as one bird in hand!" ”

Sun Chang complained and didn't bother to vomit: "The focus of reform is what you said: to promote this Buddhist system at home and abroad?" You don't have a bird in your hand, you have authority. If you don't do it, you're going to die. ”

"How did Protestantism come about? Have you forgotten? Innovation is the key core of the cause, and struggle is just a means of process! Where does the result come from without innovation? Li Ji emphasized.

"What was the social context of the Reformation in Western Europe? Politically, the rise of nationalist ideas calls for the creation of a unified nation-state and the breaking of Catholic control. Economically, with the development of capitalist relations of production, a new bourgeoisie has grown, demanding a break from the spiritual shackles of Catholic theology and removing obstacles to capitalist development. Culturally, the impetus for the Renaissance was to promote individual freedom and equality**, to promote competition and scientific knowledge, and to provide a theoretical basis for people to challenge the Catholic Church. Religiously, the Catholic Church has a strong presence in the divided Germany. Not only dominating Germany spiritually, but also plundering a lot of wealth from Germany. Socially: the spread of the Black Death led to a shaken faith (priests and nuns died of illness, who would still believe that God would know all and be omnipotent)

From the 14th to the 16th centuries, Western European society transitioned from the Middle Ages to modern times, and the social changes that took place in Western Europe at that time were mainly manifested in three aspects.

First, economically, with the development of productive forces and technological progress, the new capitalism sprouted and grew, and the feudal mode of production began to disintegrate.

Second, politically, the bourgeoisie and the new aristocracy began to take shape, opposing the privileges and divisions of the feudal aristocracy. The feudal monarchs of Britain and France established a politically centralized "new monarchy" on the basis of an alliance with the bourgeoisie and the new aristocracy. They strengthened political centralization, promoted mercantilism, rewarded cultural creation, and effectively promoted the development of the nation-state. But there are still divisions in Italy and Germany, and political unity is urgently needed.

Third, in the field of ideology and culture, the anti-feudal and anti-theocratic Renaissance movement of the emerging bourgeoisie emerged. Humanists criticized the obscurantism, ascetic preaching and feudal hierarchical system of the medieval church, advocated individual freedom, equality and self-esteem, and advocated the spirit of competition and enterprising spirit and the theory of scientific knowledge, which greatly promoted the emancipation of people's minds and the renewal of concepts, constituting a huge impact on the Catholic theocracy.

Against this social background, the Reformation in Western Europe in the 16th century was aimed at the theocracy of the Roman Church over Europe, and demanded the establishment of a "national church" adapted to the development of the nation-state or a "cheap church" adapted to the needs of the rise of the bourgeoisie.

The Reformation was certainly the product of a change in social reality, but its ideological origins can be traced back to the religious "heretical" ideas of the citizens of the Middle Ages. After the rise of medieval cities in the 11th and 12th centuries, in order to resist the plunder and control of the feudal aristocracy and the church, the cities supported the royal power economically and politically, and the royal power gave the cities the privileges of free trade and even self-government.

With the development of the city, the burgher class gradually rose, and they were extremely dissatisfied with the great unified theocracy and orthodox theology of the church, so they brewed anti-church civic "heretical" ideas. The "heretical" ideas of the burghers effectively attacked the legitimate authority of the theocracy of the Catholic Church, reflected the desire of the burghers to establish a "national church" or a "cheap church", and provided a historical legacy for the Reformation in Western Europe in the 16th century. (Among them, the heretical thought specifically refers to the "double sword theory" and "sun and moon theory" first put forward by the church), "Zhao Shouzhong, a historian, briefly talked about the background of the Reformation......

Bai Jia sighed, "In this way, it seems that the national conditions and background are too far apart, how can I learn from plagiarism!" ”

"You know the copycat, don't you know that history is going up in cycles? We don't have a political impetus, after all, China has entered a unified centralized society nation-state for more than a thousand years, isn't the Yanhuang belief raised to the height of the nation by the ancestral faith? After we build an empire, where is there a political obstacle to capitalism? There is no economic resistance, and the budding of capitalism is almost at the stage of saplings, so how can there be resistance to the feudal mode of production?

Buddhism's theory of equality of all beings and self-cultivation to improve one's realm and become a Buddha has long been cleared of ideological shackles. Did Buddhism have the same power as the Papal States in China, a country of free faith? There is still a need for the unity of the many Buddhist sects that are already divided! Otherwise, how can the religions that are not unified within the suzerainty establish their prestige and make those colonies believe?

In general, our resistance to reform is almost zero relative to that of Western Europe. Therefore, the key is to use what means to promote the unity of Buddhism and to better meet our needs. Zhao Shouzhong analyzed.

"Since there is not much resistance, then we don't need bombs like Martin Luther, and if there is no fortress, we naturally don't need artillery to attack, and I think that the unification will be to convene an uncovered conference, and set up a unified Buddhist assembly in the ancestral garden of Zen Buddhism in the ancestral garden of our best partner, Shaolin Temple, so that the ideologies of all schools and sects can be unified. We need someone who is good at engaging in a united front, not an expert in economic and righteous debate. Wang Xinyu said he did not want to see religious wars.

"Three-legged toads are hard to find, but there are many two-legged people. This is not a question, the question is what is the Buddhism we need? Liu Jiao asked.

"In short, it is the Buddhism that the capitalists want. What is in line with the development of capitalism, we have to add it to Buddhism, and what is not in line with it must be deleted, and those ethics and morality can be retained, anyway, they are all universal values, and different statements are also conducive to cultural pluralism.

For example, cumbersome ceremonies and a large amount of sesame oil money can be abolished, and the upper limit of donations should be set (the absolute amount should be less than 1 million, and the relative amount should be less than 10% of personal property), and the finances of each temple should be open and transparent. I think that's more in line with the need. Liu Xin suggested.

"In addition, Buddhism is now very mercantilist and money worship, and there is no need to engage in Protestant innovations that strengthen business ethics, but to constantly divide the economic industry and religious business of each monastery, and engage in the separation of government and enterprise, oh no, it is the separation of education and enterprise. Practitioners in the field of spiritual guidance and education are not allowed to concurrently hold management positions in the field of education. In this regard, it is necessary to clarify the system of professional managers.

The only way to be reborn in Elysium must be set as one to do good deeds and cultivate the mind, eliminating the idea that sesame oil money can be redeemed by the indulgence. It is our need to restore some of the original Buddhist surnames. Buddhism is a religion of atheism and rationality. In many ways, Buddhism shares the same surname as the spirit of science. Isn't it true that everyone can become a Buddha and reach the state of atheism? The Buddha was opposed to the blind worship of authority and to the unthinking acceptance of any theory. These simple and primitive teachings are conducive to the promotion of the scientific spirit and the idea of rationality. ”

"Generally speaking, it is to convene a victorious and united congress, establish a reasonable, open and transparent financial mechanism, do a good job in the professional division of labor, and establish the goals and directions of religious theory. These are very easy to achieve in our hands now, so it seems that only an empire like ours with money, power and technology can do a good job in this set of reforms, and the previous dynasties and other countries really can't play around. (To be continued.) )