February 18, 2023

A philosophy book influenced my decision to believe in Buddhism


Author: Tao Qing Hsu (Hsu, Tao-qing)  

 

When I was a student in the university, I was curious about the life and religion. In that time, Taiwan goes into the free and democratic society, and there are a lot of books and articles written or spoken by the Buddhist monks or nuns, or the persons who have the knowledge about the Buddhism. One of my classmates who buys many such books. When she has completed the reading, she sends those books to me and shares these books with me. That is why I have a chance to know the Buddhism.

 

 

In general speaking, the content of those books is prose, which purpose is to convey the basic Buddhist idea for those people who obsess in material world, or to encourage the people who are in suffering. It is very helpful in our life, but it is not enough if we want to learn Buddha profoundly. 

 

One day in a book store, I found a book which caught my attention, so I bought it and read. I translate the name of book as “The Lecture About The Philosophy Of Life”. The author is a professor of philosophy in Taiwan University, whose whole name is Fang Dong-Mei ( The year 1899-1977). 

 

The content of this book is concerned about the same or the different parts in the religion of Christianity, Islam and Buddhism, and how it might benefit our life, if we want to choose one of them as our belief in life. Of course, it is only mentioned about the whole concept, and is not mentioned about the details. He explained it from an objective perspective. I think it is reasonable that is why I can accept it. Philosophy pays attention to speculation, which is thinking, discerning, reasoning and debate, and should be logical, not blind faith. After reading this book, that is also why I can accept the Buddhism by the objective and rational perspective.

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