What are the traditional virtues that are being developed and promoted today?

The traditional virtues that are being developed and promoted today are: humanism

1. The connotation of Confucianism

corresponds to the "Way of Heaven". During the Spring and Autumn Period, it was born with the gradual development of the idea of heaven and man. Zi Chan said, "The Way of Heaven is far away, but the Way of Man is far away, and it is out of reach." Subsequently, various schools of thought on the way of being a human being had many ambiguities. Confucius main push himself and others to perform "benevolence"; Mozi main "love each other, cross benefits"; Lao, Zhuang main "calm and lonely", the law of the Tao of Heaven's inaction; Xunzi important, to Xunzi important, to "Road; not the way of heaven, not the way of the earth, people so Road also", advocating "the system of heavenly life and use it". The Book of Rites puts forward "pro pro, honored, long, men and women are different, there is the Road in the person also".

After the continuous development of Confucianism, the word "humanity" was given a higher humanistic meaning. Humanity has become a pursuit of the basic value of being a human being, and a bottom line of whether one can still afford to be a human being. For example, contemporary scholar Nie Wentao's blog post: "Today, I'm rescuing diabetic children, not for the sake of benevolence. Confucius said the way of benevolence, that is to speak to the gentleman. I, on the other hand, have given up many chances to help children, so I can no longer talk about benevolence. What I want to do today is to be humane, to pursue the basic values of being a human being. In other words, facing these children, can I ask myself: am I still a human being?"

2. Humanitarianism

In modern Western philosophy, humanitarianism is the praise of human values, the defense of human dignity, the enhancement of human status, and the study of the human condition, characteristics, future, and interests with a modern perspective. Humanitarianism's penetration into the heart of every Chinese is based on another term: revolutionary humanitarianism. This is a concept with a specific sense of the times, as opposed to Western humanitarianism. Chairman Mao Zedong's quote: "Save the dead and heal the wounded, and practice revolutionary humanitarianism." It has inspired countless health workers to devote themselves to the defense of people's health. Humanitarianism has become a universal value in the hearts of a generation of Chinese people.

3. Buddhist humanism

In Buddhism, humanism is one of the six paths of reincarnation

All beings are born in the three evil paths because of bad karma, and are called to be born in the three good paths because of good karma. Among the three good paths, being born in the heavenly realm is the most blessed, followed by the Shura path and then the earthly realm, but the earthly realm is the most suitable place for practicing Dharma.

The sufferings of human beings can be categorized into four main types of suffering: birth, old age, illness, and death.

We all know a little bit about the sufferings of old age, sickness and death. For the suffering of birth, we may not understand much, nor can we remember the suffering we experienced in our mother's womb and even during birth. During the nine months in the mother's womb, the baby suffers a great deal. Although we cannot remember it now, it does not mean that we did not feel it at that time. At the time of coming out of the womb, the suffering of the baby is even greater. After birth, we are not even capable of protecting ourselves. If it were not for the guardian care of our parents, we might have survived for only a few minutes before being eaten by wild animals or dying of cold or starvation.

The suffering of old age does not refer to the suffering of old age alone, but to the suffering of gradual progression to death from the time we enter the womb. This suffering is more pronounced if we live to old age. In old age, our body functions decline, it is difficult to walk more than a few steps, our appetite is not good, the skin on our face becomes like a monkey's, and there are many things we want to do but can't do. In the age of the five turbid worlds, young people do not know how to respect the elderly, and the elderly feel more and more unwelcome. This old age suffering is like a thief who steals away our youth without realizing it. For those who do not know the Dharma, old age suffering includes physical and mental suffering. For those who know the Dharma well, they may not realize the suffering in their mind and regard aging as a natural thing, but the physical suffering of old age is still unavoidable.

There are two types of suffering: external and internal. External illnesses are illnesses such as stomachaches, cancer, and lung disease. Their greatest threat is death, and their impact is limited to this life. Internal sufferings are worries such as greed, anger and stupidity. Because they can drive our body, speech, and mind to engage in all sorts of unwholesome behaviors such as killing living beings, which can lead to many rebirths in the future and terrible suffering, they are definitely more serious than external illnesses. If we have a serious stomach illness in this life, we will only suffer for a few years, and at most we will be sick until we die. However, if we develop a strong anger, this will cause our reasoning to go out of whack, or we may even kill a living being as a result, and this creates the karmic consequences of many lifetimes of shortening of life and rebirth in the three evil paths, which will never be repeated. This chain of many lifetimes of suffering also comes from a single thought of anger. From this we can see that the disease of the mind is extremely terrible.

The suffering of death is not only the pain of the limbs and body at the time of death, but also the fear and anxiety that accompany it. We have already discussed these in detail in our discussion of the process of death, so we will not repeat them here.

In addition to the above four sufferings, there are also the sufferings of not being able to seek, of being separated from one another, of grudges and hatred, and of the five skandhas. These are described in the Bodhidharma Sublime Treatise, and Diamond is not going to talk about them now (note: refer to the Venerable Master's book, Manna Dharma Ocean).