44. Diamond Sutra
There exist lots of books on Buddhism, yet among them the most well-known one is Diamond Sutra.
Buddhist sutra includes the Mahayana and the Hinayana. As far as I am concerned, only the Mahayana amounts to the title Buddhist sutra and constitutes the true intention of Buddha since it focuses on holistic research within the psychological domain of the whole mankind while the Hinayana just focuses on individuals as research subjects. In comparison, the Hinayana places more emphasis on individual behaviour and ethical cultivation while the Mahayana tends to be influence and work for social system.
As in my point of view, Buddhist sutra and Tao Te Ching depict the same thing, just from two different angles. They resemble a lot in terms of the theme conveyed and techniques employed, and Tao Te Ching has relatively more detailed and diversified expressions.
In Buddhist sutra, people with great wisdom are called Buddha, while in Tao Te Ching, they are called gentlemen. Buddha is wise people, while Taoism is the great wisdom.
One talks about wisdom from the perspective of humans, while the other approaches it from matters.
All matters are conducted by humans, so the core of the two turns out to be the same.
In Buddhist sutra, people with wit and wisdom are asked by the Buddha to take saving all living beings as their own responsibilities. And they are required to save all living beings by the roots and take them out of misery, not just solve a certain problem temporarily.
As the productive force changes, people have increasingly improved productive force. As a result, people’s individual awareness range and social demands as well as the conflicts and misery they are faced with keep changing all the time. That is to say, when the productive force is very poor, what people want most might be something to eat and some clothes to put on; as the productive force improves, people began to demand for personal rights and development space, hence the emergence of the slogans and concepts of democracy and human rights.
With the development of productive force and improvement of people’s awareness, people have needs at much higher levels. Just as what’s in Maslow’s hierarchy of social wants, the society also develops gradually from lower levels to higher levels.
With the improvement of people’s living standard, apart from food and clothes and certain material foundation, people have more needs in self-actualisation and need to love and to be loved. The harmonious society is exactly an embodiment of self-actualisation in loving and being loved.
To love and be loved is actually a kind of social security at a higher level from its essence and profound significance.
Therefore, what Buddha needs to do is in constant change with the development of productive force. Yet the purpose is the same—to save all living beings by the roots and take them out of misery instead of to solve the problems temporarily. That is what Buddha needs to do and also what is conveyed in Diamond Sutra.