What's the difference between China Buddhism and Indian Buddhism?

After the Song Dynasty, China scholars put forward the idea of the integration of the three religions. Until today, most people in China still believe that the three religions are of the same origin, that China people should naturally believe in Buddhism, and that Buddhism is the traditional culture of China. Then, let's see if Indian Buddhism and China's inherent culture are the same thing, and is it possible to completely integrate them?

Mr. Lv Cheng, a famous contemporary Buddhist master, believes that there are essential differences between China Buddhism and India Buddhism, and the basic point of the difference is that India Buddhism advocates "sexual silence" while China Buddhism advocates "sexual awareness". This idea of "sexual consciousness" is reflected in Tiantai Sect, Huayan Sect, Zen Sect and Pure Land Sect. Except for the Pure Land Sect, the three major sects all have strict philosophical theory systems and are the representatives of Buddhism in China.

Origin theory is the basic idea of Buddhism, and I think it is a very important way to study the differences between China Buddhism and Indian Buddhism from the dimension of origin theory. Here, it is quite different from Mr. Lu Cheng's research.

Origin theory is a unique philosophical theory of Buddhism. Buddhism believes that "this matter has a cause, this matter has no cause, this matter has a life, and this matter has a cause." Life and death are relative to existence, leaving asexuality. The so-called origin means that everything in the universe was born by fate, hence the name origin. Origin is the negation of self-entity, and origin is the relationship and condition. "All laws are born of reason, and I say they are all empty", that is to say, the origin is decisive. Finally, the Buddha attributed the teachings to three dharma seals, namely, impermanence, selflessness and nirvana silence. In the Mahayana Sutra, the three dharma seals are summed up as a real seal, that is, "all dharma have no self-nature, this is static, and self-nature is nirvana." Whether it is Sanfa seal or real seal, it is a violation of the self-entity, so Buddhism is based on no ego and no way. As long as we take the right dharma as the principle, it is not difficult to see the true colors of Buddhism thoroughly. In Indian Buddhism, due to different views on the origin of Buddhism, several different forms of origin theories have been formed, such as the origin of use, the origin of sense of occupation, the origin of eight non-existence, and the origin of Aryan knowledge. These theories of origin all regard the theory of origin as truth and believe that truth is eternal, so they are right and wrong.

However, there is a * * * similarity among the three categories of Buddhism in China, that is, they all talk about the origin theory from the perspective of inaction, that is, they all take truth as the ontology and truth as the origin of all laws. In China Buddhism, truth such as noumenon has two meanings, one is the unchangeable meaning, that is, body meaning and rational meaning, and the other is the incidental meaning, that is, material meaning and practical meaning. China Buddhism followed the unique body and function theory of China's traditional philosophy, and combined the cosmogenesis theory of Confucianism and Taoism with the ontology of Buddhism, forming a new theoretical system different from Indian Buddhism and surpassing China's traditional philosophy. The origin theory of China Buddhism is the unity of ontology and cosmogenesis (on ontology and cosmogenesis, the traditional culture of China is just the opposite, which is very similar to God's creationism, the only difference is that China culture does not think that this ontology is intentional and moral), which is undoubtedly essentially different from the origin theory of Indian Buddhism, which only talks about ontology but does not talk about cosmogenesis. This fact cannot be denied.

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Buddhism in China is deeply influenced by China's traditional philosophy. China's medieval philosophy was also deeply influenced by China Buddhism. In the history of Buddhism in China, there is a phenomenon worthy of our attention, that is, the masters of Buddhism in the Han Dynasty are all great translators, such as Kumarajiva, and almost all the classics of Confucius came from his translation; Master Xuanzang translated many important classics. The wise man of Tiantai Sect, the Fazang of Huayan Sect and Huineng of Zen Sect are not Buddhist translators and have never been to India. Of course, their cultural background is mostly China's subjective spirit. For China people, Buddhism is a foreign culture after all, which was originally based on Sanskrit. Language and writing are closely related to people's way of thinking. Because of the differences in form and function between language and writing, there is also a psychological distance in understanding. The translation history of Buddhist scriptures in China has gone through three stages: one is "meaning", that is, comparing Buddhist scriptures with local cultural concepts; The second is "free translation", that is, the translator can master two languages and translate in the form of partial sentence structure with the meaning understood by the translator (represented by Kumarajiva); The third is "literal translation", which is the most accurate. Translate directly according to the grammatical structure of the original text (represented by Master Xuanzang). However, for people who have always been used to thinking in Chinese, it is particularly difficult to directly translate Buddhist scriptures. In translation, if we want to conform to local customs, we will lose the original classic appearance. You should take it directly, it's not distorted, but it's hard for locals to understand. Therefore, China Buddhism directly influenced the culture and history of China, while the original Indian Buddhism did not exist for a long time, but only kept the literature. This concept was not invented by missionaries long ago, nor by Ouyang in modern times. Liang Qichao, Wang, Lu Cheng, Yin Shun and other generations of Buddhist masters have come to this conclusion through rigorous research. However, most of their conclusions were not accepted by the monks, but the monks could not produce any evidence to refute them, but only resisted them emotionally. )

Buddhism was introduced into China from the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the history of translation has spread for nearly a thousand years. In this Millennium, China's culture and foreign culture were merged on a large scale for the first time. Since the Song Dynasty, China's culture has tended to be the integration of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and China's inherent academic employment was formed in the pre-Qin period. Due to the influence of Qin fire, many Confucian classics were lost. In the Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu advocated "ousting a hundred schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone", and Confucianism became the political philosophy of China feudal society for more than 2,000 years. In fact, the philosophical thoughts of Han and Confucianism are not systematic. It was not until Zhu Cheng in the Song Dynasty that a complete system of Confucian philosophy was formed. However, Confucianism in Song Dynasty was deeply influenced by Buddhism. Both Han Confucianism and Song Confucianism have a certain distance from primitive Confucianism. Therefore, Ouyang, a master of modern Buddhism, did not say: "There is no real hole after Mencius", which is reasonable.

There was no Taoism in the pre-Qin period, only Taoism in Laozi and Zhuangzi. After the Han Dynasty, Taoism in China was established in the form of Buddhism with the help of the mysterious words and deeds of Laozi and Zhuangzi and the magic of magic. Taoism and Taoism are almost completely opposite in philosophy, but in the eyes of Taoism, Laozi has always been regarded as the embodiment of Taoism and worshipped by them. Confucianism is only one of the nine schools in the pre-Qin period, but it is a kind of social ethics theory and does not have the religious characteristics of ultimate concern. In Song Confucianism, influenced by Buddhism, Confucianism was endowed with religious connotation because of its own metaphysics. There is no religious system in China's pre-Qin culture, only religious ideas. After the Han Dynasty, influenced by Buddhism, China's religious system-Taoism and Confucianism-was formed with Chinese culture as the main body.

China culture is a kind of culture with continuous history, so its main body runs through ancient and modern times, and it is a continuous flow of local culture. China's culture is not developed in philosophy and methodology, so it is necessary to seek the help of foreign civilization in the pursuit of religion and even theory, so Buddhism was invited to China. Buddhism was introduced and accepted by China people, serving the local cultural psychology. Once it does not conform to the local cultural psychology, this culture naturally has no vitality. In order to adapt to the psychology of China people, Buddhists began to work on Buddhism in China. The more suitable the result is for the population of China, the greater the alienation of Buddhism. On the other hand, after accepting these alienated Buddhism, China intellectuals began to criticize and transform the traditional culture of China, which objectively promoted the development of China's inherent culture. In this way, the original Indian Buddhist theory was hidden and replaced by Buddhism combining Confucianism and Taoism. We should see that there are essential differences between Indian Buddhism and China's philosophy, and China Buddhism based on China's philosophical principles is also very different from Indian Buddhism.

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In China's philosophy, Tao is the ultimate existence. Laozi said: "Things are born in harmony, and they are born naturally." There is another cloud: "Tao gives birth to one, life gives birth to two, life gives birth to three, and life gives birth to everything." "Everything is born, and everything is nothing." Yi Zhuan says, "Those who are prone to Tai Chi will have two instruments, two instruments will have four images, and four images will have eight diagrams." The two most authoritative classics in the history of China's philosophy have the same idea on cosmogenesis, and both believe that Tao is the origin of the universe (China culture is about eschatology and pursuing the future, but its essence is based on the creationism similar to God's creation of all things). Laozi and Confucius have different outlook on life. The philosophical basis of Laozi and Confucius is the Book of Changes, but their interpretations of the Book of Changes are different. Laozi regards the virtue of Kungua as the law of life, so Taoism is still feminine and quiet; Confucius regards the virtue of divination as the law of life, so Confucianism stresses masculinity, self-improvement and self-denial. Their Tao has two meanings: one is the origin of existence, and the other is the law of all things. China's traditional philosophy says "Tao gives birth to all things", while China's Buddhism says "Truth gives birth to all things". How similar they are! The theory of Mahayana belief in truth has two meanings: one is unchangeable, and the other is random. Invariant means that it is rational, and casual means that it is a fact. Reason is noumenon, and things are interoperable. Mahayana belief theory emphasizes body and application, which is consistent with China's theory of body and application, but different from the truth of Indian Buddhism. The truth of Indian Buddhism has only one meaning, that is, "as true as it is, there is no law." Truth is the principle, the reason and the reality of all laws. The three dharma seals of Buddhism are the basic definition of truth. Because the Buddha is silent about metaphysics, Indian Buddhism basically does not answer the question of the origin of the universe. They believe that the origin of time is only an abstract metaphysical problem, not an existential problem, and Buddhism is based on the real realization of Buddhism, so it is not a philosophical meditation. Indian Buddhism believes that truth is the cause of everything, not everything. In other words, the truth is the increase of various laws, not the pro-business of various laws. Truth is like law, and truth is like regulation. It is not an existing entity, but a universal legal nature recognized by the highest wisdom. In the principle of the theory of origin, the unchangeable self of all things cannot be established, and the origin must be empty. Indian Buddhism adheres to the thorough theory of the origin of ego. As a thing, whether it is in time or space, whether it is established in an instant or in a permanent time, whether it is set as an infinitesimal body or infinity, it is a variant, and its body is non-self. The Taoist style of China's philosophy has the meaning of "nothing is bigger, nothing is smaller, nothing is scattered, nothing is dense", which is an ontology that cannot be proved by experience, and the truth of Buddhism in China has this nature. According to Indian Buddhism, what is true is not unchangeable, and what is unchangeable is not unchangeable. If truth is changeable, it is not true. This understanding is consistent with what the Buddha said, and we should take it as the true solution. The truth of China Buddhism has undergone a qualitative change with Indian Buddhism, and its combination with China's philosophy has helped China's philosophy to complete the construction of its logical system structure. In a sense, China Buddhism makes the system of China's philosophy more complete, concise and philosophical. With the development of China's philosophy, Indian Buddhism was lost in China. In modern times, Buddhists have retrieved the original Indian Buddhist classics that have been lost for thousands of years from Japan, and Ouyang has never been resurrected in order to understand the true Buddhism in India. At the same time, I think India is the birthplace of Buddhism, and all Buddhist scriptures come from India. It is reasonable to study the true nature of Buddhism and propose "returning to India" from the cultural dimension. Master Yin Shun thinks that "China's books are not necessarily bad, and India's books are not necessarily good", which is of course objective, but from the perspective of textual research and seeking truth from facts, Indian literature can undoubtedly better reflect the Buddha's nature. From the perspective of cultural and academic rigor, I think the research direction of Zhina Inner College is desirable. (Chinainner Academy was founded by Mr. Ouyang Jason Wu to study Indian Buddhism. His thought is rigorous and critical of Buddhism in China, which is intolerable to monks in China. The scholars in the Inner Court are not only proficient in the state religion, but also in Indian classics. Their academic views are carefully put forward. However, most opponents are not knowledgeable people, but are mostly covered by emotions. They can't bear to have their 2,000-year tradition destroyed, and they are afraid of Taoism for the sake of cults. If the monks in China can really persevere and seek truth from facts, as the Buddha said, then I think we don't have to avoid the fact that there are obvious differences in the basic principles of philosophy between China Buddhism and Indian Buddhism. Of course, this kind of understanding is based on human rationality, not on some kind of god's understanding.

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Epistemologically, China-based Buddhism attaches importance to "natural sense", that is, "meditation", which is similar to the "metaphysical view" of China's traditional philosophy. Lao Zi said, "Can I get rid of mysterious views and be flawless?" The note on the river reads: "The mind is mysterious and knows everything, so it is called metaphysical view". The specific approach is to "plug its contacts, close its doors, frustrate its sharpness, resolve its disputes, combine its light and divide its dust." "Yi Chuan" says: "It is easy to do nothing without thinking, to be silent, and to feel the world." All this shows that the ultimate noumenon of all things is not known through people's conceptual thinking, but through the mysterious intuition of eliminating distractions and keeping quiet in people's psychology. However, in the view of Indian Buddhism, the eternal truth is the unity of truth and vulgarity, which is really realized through intuition. However, truth and vulgarity do not have duality, but are two aspects of integration, so intuition and rational wisdom are integrated consciousness. Reason cognizes universal truth with conceptual thinking. Indian Buddhism calls the wisdom of rational thinking law-abiding wisdom and the wisdom of intuitive understanding nirvana wisdom. Enlightenment comes second, first there is the wisdom of protecting the law, and then there is the wisdom of nirvana. Therefore, in the Eight Righteousnesses, the right view is in the first place, the right view is the wisdom of the law, and the three prajna are also in the first place with the written prajna. Influenced by the local way of thinking, Buddhism in China attaches importance to truth and abandons vulgarity, and only talks about intuitive Zen and points to mental consciousness. It is wrong to think that it is lost in words. I don't know that the cleverness and convenience of Buddhism lies in speaking, expressing the truth by words, listening and thinking in order, and thinking like reason, which is still regarded as the key to learning Buddhism. Therefore, Indian Buddhism focuses on listening more and advocates learning more; Buddhism in China is influenced by Laozi's idea that "the more you learn, the more you lose for the Tao, and the more you lose again and again, so that you do nothing, and do nothing without doing it", which proves this point. Many stories are derogatory terms in Buddhism in China. For example, in the Shurangama Sutra, Ananda was caught by many stories. On the physical path, Indian Buddhism seeks truth from the outside, thus gaining wisdom through smoking, which belongs to the educational style; Buddhism in China, on the other hand, is introverted and regards explicit perception as wisdom. Indian Buddhism needs revolutionary innovation, while China Buddhism is the repayment of principal. In short, there is a big difference between the two. Although Tiantai Sect and Xianshouzong also preached and viewed with mutual benefit, they all ended in meditation. This is the basic cognitive difference of Buddhism between China and India.

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Methodologically, Indian Buddhism often uses the category of sex to choose all laws. Sex is reason, and phase is thing. Compared with modern nouns, sex is the essence and phase is the phenomenon. Any law is composed of phenomena and essence. Buddhism in China inherited the traditional pragmatism philosophy of China, and interpreted everything in the pragmatic category. In the philosophical category of pinyin characters, essence and phenomenon can be said to be their unique types; China people who use hieroglyphs as tools will inevitably have the concepts of body and use in his philosophical category. Pinyin has the characteristics of continuity and abstraction, hieroglyphics have the characteristics of discontinuity and concreteness, and different languages have different ways of thinking. Buddhism in China externalizes the gender category, which is not in line with the original meaning of the Indian gender category. Sex is the rational provision of law, and phase is the existence of legal things, one is abstract and the other is concrete. Perceptual cognition knows the law, rational cognition knows the law. However, the categories of aspect and use are both perceptual and intuitive facts, the existence of aspect as a whole and the role of usage. The whole connotation of body use is only similar to that of Indian Buddhism, and does not contain the inherent meaning of sex. It is an incorrect misunderstanding to equate body with law and use with law. Historically, Hua Yanzong and Zen Buddhism were both good at using body, and they often taught each other by sex. Recently, Xiong Shili is even more so. This is probably because the original meaning of the concept is not examined from the level of written language, but because the meaning is self-evident. The scope of body use is limited. Physical fitness is the quality, and quality is the real thing. The essence of legitimacy is essence, not quality, and there is a difference between essence and quality. Essence belongs to the category of philosophical idealism, while quality belongs to the category of philosophical ontology. As Heidegger thinks, existence endows existence, and there is a difference between existence and existence. Existence belongs to the metaphysical category, while existence belongs to the metaphysical category, while the pragmatism in China culture only stays in the metaphysical category. On this issue, I think China's philosophy still has a lot of room for development. Here, I want to explain that Chinese is really inferior to Sanskrit and some developed pinyin in expressing highly abstract theories, so the translation of Tibetan scriptures is of higher quality than Chinese in reflecting the original intention. There are many incomparable languages, and the cultural carrier of Buddhism is Pinyin. To understand the original meaning of Buddhism, we should pay attention to this. Of course, I'm not saying that Chinese can't explain Buddhism, but I want to see the characteristics of Chinese when using Chinese Buddhist scriptures so as not to forget the moon.

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In the view of truth, Buddhism stresses the doctrine of the mean, which is the ultimate of Buddhism. China's Confucian philosophy emphasizes the golden mean. Let's do some research on these two concepts. The middle way of Buddhism means objective and legal, and both poles are fallacies. If you don't fall, it is the middle way. The two poles do whatever it takes, and separation is the middle way. For example, The Theory of Great Wisdom says: "One side is always broken, and the two sides are prajna paramita. There is one side, there is no side, and there is no middle way out of it. It is Prajna paramita. " There are too many explanations about the concept of the golden mean in China's philosophy in history. Generally speaking, the primitive Confucianism regarded the golden mean as an ethical thought. The Analects of Confucius said: "The golden mean is also a virtue, even worse!" This is the highest virtue of treating the golden mean as an adult. The Book of Rites, The Doctrine of the Mean, says: "The gentleman's doctrine of the mean is also true." "If you choose the doctrine of the mean and get good deeds, you will be convinced and lose." "Grab both ends and use them for the people." These sentences are the golden mean, and they are people's moral standards and codes of conduct. In short, the Confucian doctrine of the mean means the doctrine of the mean. In this regard, the original Confucian doctrine of the mean has something in common with the Buddhist doctrine of the mean, but the ultimate philosophical principle of Confucianism is different from the basic teachings of Buddhism, so the essence of Confucian doctrine of the mean is different from Buddhism. The Confucian doctrine of the mean actually plays a conservative role and is not transcendental, so it is still possible to accept foreign culture as a supplement.

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On the basis of the golden mean, Indian Buddhism put forward a concrete method of transforming knowledge into wisdom-the study of mind-watching. The theoretical starting point of mindfulness is the proposition of "omniscient". As the saying goes, "All laws are knowledge-only" and "The Theory of Knowledge-only" says: "Only cover its territory, those who hold it will lose its truth, and those who leave it blank will be good." Knowing only means that there is no law of independent existence without knowledge. All laws are based on knowledge, and only what is known is known. The only knowledge is not mine, it is only the subject of cognition. Buddhism believes that all laws are different, and each has its own kinds. Rosen's universe has its own causes, but they are all based on what is known, what is known and what is hidden by knowledge. Ordinary people who are obsessed with knowledge will inevitably not be enlightened, but will become vain and upside down, so there will be a cycle of life and death. The purpose of Buddhism is to break the hold and gain enlightenment by turning knowledge into wisdom, while the stability of knowledge-only learning is to turn knowledge into wisdom. The concept of only knowledge is the method of yoga practice. Both mind and environment are methods of origin, and they are based on others. However, the mind has the ability to be interrelated and the environment has its own characteristics. Mind is the best, so words are just knowledge. It is a big mistake to regard knowledge as solipsism. Ceng Yun, Mencius, the sage of Confucianism in China: "Everything is ready for me, and I am sincere and happy." There is another cloud: "If you do it, you will know its nature, and if you know its nature, you will know its sky." "Inside and outside are one"; Lu Jiuyuan, a Confucian scholar in the Song Dynasty, also said that "the universe is my heart, and my heart is the universe". From the superficial meaning of these words, it seems that they are similar to the meaning of knowledge, but because of the different ultimate principles of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, we should also pay attention to their overall philosophy when interpreting sentences. Confucianism talks about the unity of heaven and man, that is, heaven is the ego and man is the ego, that is, the unity of heaven and earth, which is similar to the theory of "the unity of Brahman and Me" in Indian Shintoism and the concept of "the unity of heaven and man" in Christianity. "I" is the soul. Buddhism talks about non-ego, which means denying the concept of soul. Mencius' ego is the true self with lofty spirit (masculinity). He tries his best to understand its essence, that is, the essence of his exhausted true self. "Intellectually understanding the sky" means combining the inner (self) and the outer (self) into one (true self). Buddhism in China also talks about the true self of Buddhism, which is really influenced by Mencius. Mencius' true self is the ontological truth of all things in the universe and the starting point of all things in the universe. Xiong Shili's new theory of consciousness in modern times is actually based on Mencius' theory of true self, which is exactly the same as Lu Wang's theory of mind and nature. He believes that cosmology originated from the Book of Changes, but actually influenced by Hua Yan and Zen Buddhism, and his philosophical system is still within the framework of Mahayana belief theory. The difference between Xiong Shili, Ouyang and Lv Cheng is that the two masters of Oulu originally came from the ancient meaning of Indian Buddhism, while Xiong Shili came from the theory of religious consciousness, based on the ontology of China Tao. Now some scholars think that the inner courtyard of Zhina is anti-traditional Buddhism, which is inaccurate. Zhina Inner Courtyard is a tradition of anti-China Buddhism, not Indian Buddhism. Strictly speaking, Buddhism in China is a stage of Buddhism in history, not primitive Buddhism, and the inner faction headed by Oulu is talking about primitive Indian Buddhism, but they are really traditional Buddhism. Their opposition to Buddhism in China may not be justified, but what they call primitive Buddhism is the true face of Buddhism. We should fully affirm Lv Cheng's academic achievements. In his congratulatory letter to Lv Cheng on his 90th birthday, Mr. Zhao Puchu said that Lv Cheng was "an important place for laymen to learn from the past to serve the present, to absorb the essence, to know more about sages, to make a microscopic exposition, to clear up the accumulation of internal studies, to pursue Buddhism and to make great contributions forever", which is a fair evaluation.

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China Buddhism is closely related to China's philosophy, which is different from Indian Buddhism. This is a fact proved by careful study. This phenomenon deserves serious reflection by all people of insight who are keen on studying China's traditional culture. Why did pure Indian Buddhism not take root in China, nor did it flourish in India? So, does Indian Buddhism meet the deepest needs of mankind? Is it possible for that kind of knowledge divorced from God to take root in people's minds? And why can't Chinese children who have studied Indian Buddhism 1000 years get rid of the shadow of God in the deepest part of their thoughts? Reflecting on the development history of China Thought, we can see that foreign culture has played a great role in the structure of China's philosophical thought. If we want to continue to promote the development of China's philosophy, we still need to introduce foreign culture. However, there are many ways to introduce foreign culture. You can continue to learn Indian culture or Christian thought, and learning materialism is also an option. However, I think the history of China's thought tells us that the work of actively learning from Christian thought in China culture is still very weak! (Source: Hong Kong Baolian Temple)