Buddha at Bayon temple"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it." - Gautama Buddha
September 8, 2010By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
Pacific Daily News (Guam)
In a column last month, I wrote about the inevitability that misunderstandings will occur; that to understand what's intended or expressed requires an ability to imagine, relate, compare, identify, interpret and analyze; and that whatever its cause, misunderstanding creates friction, ends friendships, and alienates.
Better thinking -- quality thinking -- about which I have written extensively in this space, helps one avoid misunderstanding, a benefit to any community.
Troubles with words
Words matter. Those I thought of as friends have denounced me for the meaning they took from words I wrote, interpretation based on misperception. It is said that words, once spoken, can never be recalled.
In a culture that gives importance to face and honor, to retract unjustified hurtful words is an acknowledgment of error: "No can do!"
Speedy electronic communication is not always a good thing. Strong words written during a storm of high emotion remain in perpetuity: They haunt, not heal.
Remember French playwright Victor Hugo: "Strong and bitter words indicate a weak cause."
Overcoming
I write often in this space about people who seem entrenched in a destructive course of intolerance, characterized by a lack of civility. Humility -- to be considerate and respectful of others, their ways and their views, their dignity and their worth -- is a virtue preached by the world's major religions and seems to be in short supply.
Last year, I introduced psychology professor Jonathan Haidt's "The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom." Haidt quoted anthropologist Clifford Geertz: "Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance that he himself has spun."
Haidt explained: We live in a world of "human creations" -- not one of rocks, trees, and physical objects -- but "a world of insults, opportunities, status symbols, betrayals, saints, and sinners," all created by humans who "believe in them."
Haidt cited the eighth-century Chinese Zen master Sen-ts'an's poem "The Perfect Way," that reads, "The perfect way is only difficult for those who pick and choose" -- between like and dislike, between "for" and "against." The poem brands "judgmentalism" as "the mind's worst disease," because, as Haidt explained, "it leads to anger, torment, and conflict."
Through the poem, Haidt posited that human beings in all cultures possess this "excessive and self-righteous tendency to see the world in terms of good versus evil," or "moralism," which "blinds people" and makes agreement and compromise difficult. Haidt sees as the "biggest obstacle to world peace and social harmony" the "naive realism" that gives us this world of good and evil: We're good, they are evil.
Haidt's website, CivilPolitics.org, noted that over the past 20 years, political leaders, political parties and mass media outlets have become "more polarized, strident and moralistic (i.e., excessively concerned with morality, and certain about their own virtue)." Haidt wrote: "We must respect and even learn from those whose morality differs from our own."
"When political opponents are demonized rather than debated, compromise and cooperation become moral failings and people begin to believe that their righteous ends justify the use of any means," CivilPolitics.org states.
Just as the Zen master preached nonjudgmentalism, Lord Gautama Buddha taught that meditation is one way to calm man, to tame him to be "less reactive to the ups and downs and petty provocations of life," Haidt affirmed.
Chapter 4 of Haidt's book, "The Faults of Others," begins with two quotes:
One from Jesus in Matthew 7:3-5: "Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? ... You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye."
The other is from Buddha: "It is easy to see the faults of others, but difficult to see one's own faults ... one conceals one's own faults as a cunning gambler conceals his dice."
This is human nature: Human eyes see the failings in others when looking outward; they see not the same when looking inward.
Buddha's teaching
Recall Chinese Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu, who said: "To realize that you do not understand is a virtue. Not to realize you do not understand is a defect."
"There is no shame in not knowing; the shame lies in not finding out," say the Russians.
Buddha taught: "There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills."
And Buddha preached: "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."
How do we observe and analyze, and "accept ... and live up" to what "agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all," if better thinking -- quality thinking -- is lacking in our lives?
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.
Better thinking -- quality thinking -- about which I have written extensively in this space, helps one avoid misunderstanding, a benefit to any community.
Troubles with words
Words matter. Those I thought of as friends have denounced me for the meaning they took from words I wrote, interpretation based on misperception. It is said that words, once spoken, can never be recalled.
In a culture that gives importance to face and honor, to retract unjustified hurtful words is an acknowledgment of error: "No can do!"
Speedy electronic communication is not always a good thing. Strong words written during a storm of high emotion remain in perpetuity: They haunt, not heal.
Remember French playwright Victor Hugo: "Strong and bitter words indicate a weak cause."
Overcoming
I write often in this space about people who seem entrenched in a destructive course of intolerance, characterized by a lack of civility. Humility -- to be considerate and respectful of others, their ways and their views, their dignity and their worth -- is a virtue preached by the world's major religions and seems to be in short supply.
Last year, I introduced psychology professor Jonathan Haidt's "The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom." Haidt quoted anthropologist Clifford Geertz: "Man is an animal suspended in webs of significance that he himself has spun."
Haidt explained: We live in a world of "human creations" -- not one of rocks, trees, and physical objects -- but "a world of insults, opportunities, status symbols, betrayals, saints, and sinners," all created by humans who "believe in them."
Haidt cited the eighth-century Chinese Zen master Sen-ts'an's poem "The Perfect Way," that reads, "The perfect way is only difficult for those who pick and choose" -- between like and dislike, between "for" and "against." The poem brands "judgmentalism" as "the mind's worst disease," because, as Haidt explained, "it leads to anger, torment, and conflict."
Through the poem, Haidt posited that human beings in all cultures possess this "excessive and self-righteous tendency to see the world in terms of good versus evil," or "moralism," which "blinds people" and makes agreement and compromise difficult. Haidt sees as the "biggest obstacle to world peace and social harmony" the "naive realism" that gives us this world of good and evil: We're good, they are evil.
Haidt's website, CivilPolitics.org, noted that over the past 20 years, political leaders, political parties and mass media outlets have become "more polarized, strident and moralistic (i.e., excessively concerned with morality, and certain about their own virtue)." Haidt wrote: "We must respect and even learn from those whose morality differs from our own."
"When political opponents are demonized rather than debated, compromise and cooperation become moral failings and people begin to believe that their righteous ends justify the use of any means," CivilPolitics.org states.
Just as the Zen master preached nonjudgmentalism, Lord Gautama Buddha taught that meditation is one way to calm man, to tame him to be "less reactive to the ups and downs and petty provocations of life," Haidt affirmed.
Chapter 4 of Haidt's book, "The Faults of Others," begins with two quotes:
One from Jesus in Matthew 7:3-5: "Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? ... You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye."
The other is from Buddha: "It is easy to see the faults of others, but difficult to see one's own faults ... one conceals one's own faults as a cunning gambler conceals his dice."
This is human nature: Human eyes see the failings in others when looking outward; they see not the same when looking inward.
Buddha's teaching
Recall Chinese Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu, who said: "To realize that you do not understand is a virtue. Not to realize you do not understand is a defect."
"There is no shame in not knowing; the shame lies in not finding out," say the Russians.
Buddha taught: "There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills."
And Buddha preached: "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."
How do we observe and analyze, and "accept ... and live up" to what "agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all," if better thinking -- quality thinking -- is lacking in our lives?
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.
12 comments:
this particular column carries depth and weight. it speaks at many levels, society, government, individual, organization, ..., etc. finally there is something worthwhile to read and THINK. Thank Doc.!
Dr. Gaffar is a great teacher, he continues to share wisdom/knowledge to our generation even though he's retired from teaching. My hats off to you, Prof!
Too long, too hard to understand, I'm not in the chair in a classroom.
Dr. Gaffar,
I am wondering whether you have gone back to Cambodia since you the country? If you do - when, and how do you feel about the country compare to while you live there?
Thanks in advance for sharing,
Best,
A lot of people misunderstand the bible and the concept of God. Be it known that God will not adjust to man's ways and reasons, man has to change his ways to be approve by him.
Either you going to do things his way, either way you are going to do it his way. The loser will be man.
God said here is how he planned to saves mankind:
John 3:16-18
-For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
-For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
-He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son (Jesus Christ) of God.
Believing is not logic reason, faith in what God sayth and trusting yourself upon his truth is the essence of salvation.
There is no misunderstanding here; either you will be damn or you will be save.
This world is under God's condemnation because of man's rebellion against him. But God is so loving and want to save mankind from their guilty conducts against him that he hath provide away for an escape through his Son, Jesus as the Savior of the world.
Today is your day of salvation!
There is no misunderstanding in what God had said. Don't let pride barred you from eternal life. I know a lot of my Khmer people want eternal hope in after life. It can only come through what God has promised, not what you had always believed from your parents all way up to our great ancestors.
Brilliant!
Thank you!
Everyone should read this again and again, think about it carefully, then read it again, and pass it on to all their friends (and enemies!) to read it again, and again!
Brilliant!
Thank you!
Thank you Doctor
May Buddha Bless you and all khmers in this World.
Considerate, thoughtful, and peacetful. Thank you for sharing.
Considerate, thoughtful, and peacetful. Thank you for sharing.
If GOD really exists, h's lazy, weak and incompetent because he never come to help anybody otherwise he already stops killing, poverty..
Christians do.
7:09Pm god just hate you stupid communist! fool!
KhmerIsrael ??? So I should have faith in 'God' and trust something which cannot be scientifically proven rather follow the Buddha's scientific and experiential path? There is a reason why I used to be a Christian. Look up the Scientific Method on Wikipedia.
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