CHINESE BUDDHIST MONASTIC ORGANISATION OF MODERN SOCIETY

Abstract

Buddhism originated in India, flourished in China, and spread all over the world. Buddhism which spread from India to China inevitably had to adapt to China's regime system, social structure, and value sequence. It is because of the sinicization of the ancestral masters of all dynasties, that Chinese Buddhism is full of Chinese Mahayana characteristics. "A day of no work is a day of no eating," is a strict rule of the Zen’s Commandments in the monastery. This phrase can be traced back to the Chinese Zen master ‘Po-chang百丈懷海’. The idea is typically Chinese and quite unimaginable in India. There are two possible reasons for this. Firstly, the Chinese way of life is more active than the way of life in India. The Indian's speculative way of living is not acceptable to the Chinese mind which is more positive, concrete, individualistic, realistic, and extroverted than the Indian mind, which is more abstract, universal, metaphysical, and introverted. This contrast between the Indian and Chinese minds was manifested when Buddhism was introduced into China. Zen’s Commandments were the product of the sinicization of Buddhism, and Zen’s Commandments further promoted the sinicization of Buddhism. This is not only reflected in the combination and innovation of Buddhist theory and Chinese local Confucian and Taoist culture, but also in the absorption and reference of the Chinese etiquette system and ethical norms in terms of monastic rules and taboos. Sinicized Buddhism in the new era pays attention to the practice of Buddhism to purify both body and mind; and this helps to serve the society with kindness, cultivating talents with Buddhist education, and establish a Bodhisattva monastery based on Chinese Buddhism. This research proposes to study the main contents of the Chinese Buddhist monastic organisation of modern society.