Contemporary Practice Orientation Of Humanistic Buddhism

Throughout the development history of Chinese Buddhism,it has the "rightopportunity deeds"as a mission statement to the fundamental principle.With thevicissitudes of the society, only by following this principle can Chinese Buddhismachieve the sustainable development and play its suitable roles in the modernsociety.Additionally, the Zen Buddhism, during its modern transition, highly stressesthe Zen meditation in the dynamic use and the secular life, the harmonium of life andZen, and the combination of keeping aloof from and coming into the worldly affairs.The crucial issues for modern Zen pursuers to research, however, is how to makecommon people achieve the Zen Buddhist enlightenment in the modern busy life, howto fulfill the further integration of the Zen with the social life, and how to helpcommon people purify hearts, reduce worries and unite the society by their practice.In the light of this, a number of Zen masters home and abroad have proposed newpractice methods and concepts. Over the recent two decades, it is Master Jing Hui, thevice-president of the Buddhist Association of China and the president of the BuddhistAssociation of Hebei Province (B.A.H.) who is considered quite influential on themainland. Master Jing Hui is the most out-performed pupil of Venerable Master HsuYun who represents the leading authority in Zen Buddhism. Master Jing Hui has takenprospering the Zen Buddhism as his duty all his life; based on his experience oflong-term practice and promoting Buddhism, he combined the reforming Zenistthoughts of those bhadantas home and abroad and proposed the concept of “Life Zen”.It is actually the “right opportunity deeds” and protrudes the gist of the integration ofZen with life, which, in the modern society, is the practical pattern of “HumanisticBuddhism” thought of Tai Xu, etc.From the perspective of the modernization transformation of Buddhism andagainst the background of development history of Chinese Buddhism, the thesisanalyzes and sorts out the formation and development of Life Zen’s thought originand theoretical system, detailed content and practice approaches of Life Zen; Fromthe viewpoint of meditation method, it compares respectively the Life Zen with thetraditional meditation methods and the influential ones in the modern society toexplore the life-oriented theory and practice of Zen which is most appropriate forcontemporaries’ fundamental ability; finally, as the integral part of practical pattern of“Humanistic Buddhism”, Life Zen shows a number of disadvantages and limitationsin both its theory and practice. The author, therefore, proposes own thought andperspective that systematization of Life Zen thought, operationalization of the content,diversification of the practice, and avoiding the secularization of its development, etc.are needed. The author expects Life Zen to improve continuously in its developmentand to manifest its universal value and the great significance of elevating life realm.