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25 Aug 2010
by Admin

Three Teachings
The Tri-Pillars of Chinese Civilization

On August 17, 2010, Shaolin Abbot Shi Yongxin (释永信法师) attended an inauguration ceremony of a Confucian status situated in the campus of a Thailand high school.

Comparing to brilliant civilizations of early Egypt, Babylon and probably Atlantis, Chinese one is not the oldest in history, nor is it the most magnificent in appearance, but it is the only ancient civilization that has survived to this very day. What’s the secret to its exceptional sustainability? The secret lies in its three pillars, namely Confucius, Daoism and Buddhism, which deliberate more on susbtence than presentation, and provide solutions to the whole range of issues that a human society would encounter.

While Confucius mainly focuses on helping each person, each nation and entire humanity to better manage existing individual and collective lives, Daoism facilitates people to look at the human existence in a broad universal context and through extended time sequence, while Buddhism lends a hand to those who cherish the highest aspiration of going beyond all existences, all universes and all times to attain ultimate and eternal liberation.

If our lives are dreams, one after another, one contains many and one connects to countless, Confucius coaches us how to manage our current dream, Daoism trains us how to make our next dream a better one, while Buddhism teaches us how to wake up from all dreams and remain totally lucid when re-enter dreamland.

Thus three teachings are complimentary to one another and form a comprehensive instrumental system for Chinese people at all levels, which is wonderfully typified in the theory and practice of Chinese Medicine that seeks to address not only the problems in our body, but in our mind and in our fate.

Shaolin tradition is a Buddhist school with a typical Chinese approach that actively correlates with other valuable teachings to find the most suitable answer for a specific problem in a particular time. It believes that whether our current concen is about our fate, our mind or our body, as long as being tackled in a positive way, it would become part of the enlightenment progress. It is why a monk from the Mahayana Buddhism would travel so far to Thailand, a bastion of Hinayana Buddhism, to greet Confucius.

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