buddhism in our daily life

BUDDHISM IN OUR DAILY LIFE China Academic Lectures Sponsored by China Institute in America, N.Y. USA By Dr. C. T. Shen LECTURE 4: THE SOURCE OF JOY Let me make it clear, first of all, that the joy I refer to here is not the kind of temporary joy that can be the cause or source of later suffering. For example, one does have a sensation of joy and being carefree when one i drunk, but the actions one might commit while intoxicated could be so foolish that one might feel deep regret afterward, or they could cause such irreparable consequences that the suffering created thereby would be much greater and longer lasting than the temporary joy th...

BUDDHISM IN OUR DAILY LIFE China Academic Lectures Sponsored by China Institute in America. N.Y. USA by Dr. C. T. Shen LECTURE 3: THE TRUTH OF SELF (EMPTINESS) Someone asked me why in the title of this talk I used the word "emptiness" in parenthesis after the word "self." According to Buddhism the answer is that "self is emptiness and emptiness is self." This answer, however, is too simple to comprehend. So before I explain the subject matter of this title, let me make two remarks: Emptiness or void, as used in Buddhism, does not mean nothingness, as in "the room was empty after all the people left." It means, actually, that the Original ...

BUDDHISM IN OUR DAILY LIFE China Academic Lectures Sponsored by China Institute in America, N.Y. USA By Dr. C. T. Shen LECTURE 2: THE TRUTH OF KARMA In last week's discussion of the concept of birth and death, the one-life theory and the multi-life theory were introduced. I also used a familiar natural phenomenon, the multi-form of H 2 O, to illustrate my belief that the multi-life theory taught by Hinduism and Buddhisn is closer to the truth than the one-life theory. We found that H 2 O is a good analogy for the human soul. Then, we observed that H 2 O is not the ultimate substance of the universe. Modern science is gradually conclud...

BUDDHISM IN OUR DAILY LIFE China Academic Lectures Sponsored by China Institute in America, N.Y. USA By Dr. C. T. Shen LECTURE 1: THE CONCEPT OF BIRTH AND DEATH In the Christian Bible, in the Book of John, Chapter XVI, Verse 12, Jesus Christ tells his disciples, " I have yet many things to say unto ye, but ye cannot bear them now. " That is to say, what Christ did teach his disciples was only a small part of what he knew, because the level of understanding of his disciples at that time was such that they could only absorb so much. Unfortunately, Jesus died at the age of 33. Time did not allow him to give his disciples a complete course of...