Page 69 - Applied Buddhism

look at the world we live in. Scientists have recorded 20,000 species This “I”, “We” consciousness is further reinforced by the
of fishes, 6000 species of reptiles, 9,000 species of birds, 1,000 dualistic thinking of Ying-Yang, Male-female, Sun-Moon, Right-
species of amphibians, 15,000 species of mammals, 1,000,000 Wrong, Good-Bad, etc., So “I” and “We” are associated with
species of insects and 300,000 species of plants. Isn’t this diverse “Right” and “Good” while others are associated with “Wrong” and
enough? “Bad”. This kind of dualistic thinking runs counter to the diverse
nature of the world, and those who try to impose this thinking on
Human beings are considered one single species, but within others actually inflict suffering onto others.
this single species there are 7 billion individuals, each differing
from one another. No two individual human beings are the same. By the way, Ying-Yang symbol is not dualistic as mistaken by
The word ‘individual’ carries the connotation of being distinct and many. In the symbol, within the Ying (black) there is Yang (white),
separate from others of the same kind. Every single human being and within the Yang there is Ying, meaning within good there is
is unique! Hence you can see that the human race by itself is also some bad, within bad there is some good, or within the masculine
diverse. nature there is some feminine nature, and vice versa. This is a more
realistic interpretation of the Ying-Yang symbol.
This norm of diversity is the support or Dharma (the world
Dharma comes from the root word Dhar, meaning that which Diversity in Religion
supports, or that which upholds, or that which hold things together)
that makes the world operate the way we see today. With diversity, In religious beliefs, we also see a great number of diverse
the biological food chains continue. With diversity, reproduction religions in this world. There are easily more than 20 belief systems
of the species continues. With diversity, you and I can enjoy extra in the world, and each with several sub-belief systems.
public holidays while others are celebrating their religious festivals.
The major belief systems in Malaysia are as shown in the chart
However, despite the obvious fact that diversity is the norm, below.
some people tried to go against this norm – by trying to make
everyone else the same as “I”. This is because in every human
being, there is this consciousness of being an “individual”, or “ego”.
When this ego is strong and intense, there is a strong tendency to
make everyone else the same as our own “ego”. At times this ego is
expanded to include people, things or events that we considered as
the same as us – the “Wego”, in this case we tried to make everyone
else the same as “We”.

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