An-Hue, Thich See all items with this value

2002

3

118-126

1530-4108 See all items with this value

We humans thrive physically in our 3-foot-by-3-foot-by-6-foot aura (personal domain) and learn, as we progress through the various stages of life, the skills necessary for survival. We give care to the business of living healthfully, happily, prosperously and peacefully by taking action to insure these conditions of existence. The inner space of our minds is in constant flux, affected by the greater space "out there", our environment. This paper points out that our attention to life and its complexities is the result of a four-pronged paradigm, a progression, as it is, from thoughts, to feelings, to emotions, to intuitions, or attitudes. When attitudes are established they govern the ways we move about, adjust to cope with, and survive in our space -- out there. Elements of our environment are thought of mostly as things happening, in a permanent way or just passing, and we complain about the discomfort, or express joy about the pleasantness. Humanistic Buddhism teaches that each human (and all sentient beings) survives by a dharma of co-dependent origination. This states that for all things in our environment, we humans and life's conditions are dependent, one on all the others. By observing the doctrinal moral guidelines set out in the Six Paramitas, viz. generosity, ethics, patience, energy, concentration and wisdom, we can develop compassionate attitudes with respect to treatment of ourselves, other beings and our environment within our ethical aura, which we discover can be changed through the power of spiritual, mental and physical unity.