{"id":87,"date":"2019-04-14T20:52:18","date_gmt":"2019-04-14T20:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/?p=87"},"modified":"2019-07-29T15:13:44","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T15:13:44","slug":"a-monk-does-not-bow-down-before-a-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/2019\/04\/a-monk-does-not-bow-down-before-a-king\/","title":{"rendered":"A Monk Does Not Bow Down Before a King"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his work, <\/span>A Monk Does Not Bow Down Before a King<\/span><\/i>, Hui-yuan, a Chinese Buddhist monk, analyses amongst other questions, the role of change within Buddhism. He poses the question to himself, using Lao Tzu as a foil. Hui-yuan uses Lao Tzu\u2019s understanding of heaven and earth and the nature of kings and princes to contrast his own Buddhist understanding of heaven and earth and the nature of kings and princes. <\/span><\/p>\n

According to Hui-yuan, Lao Tzu\u2019s understanding is based upon the fact that kings and princes are the embodiment of obedience, which is what gives them the right to command others to obey. Heaven and earth are \u201cthe source of the myriad changes\u201d; whereas kings and princes \u201chave the power of moving others [to obey].\u201d (282). He writes: \u201cTherefore the wise men of yore made this the subject of noble discourses, and from this the opinion of the multitude may not change.\u201d (283) The subject mentioned refers to \u201cthe embodiment of the Ultimate must of necessity rely depend upon obedience to changes.\u201d (283) Hui-yuan is thus questioning his own philosophy from the Taoist perspective, and more specifically the Buddhist understanding of change and development. <\/span><\/p>\n

Hui-yuan\u2019s response to his own critique offers an excellent perspective into Buddhist philosophy. Hui-yuan writes that there are only two categories of beings who are given life by \u201cthe Great Change\u201d: \u201cthe soulful and the soulless\u201d. (283) The soulful are those who have \u201cfeeling towards change\u201d The soulless \u201chave no feeling towards change\u201d. (283) Those who have, as Hui-yuan asserts, \u201cno feeling towards change\u201d, their lives will end once they die. This, of course, is in reference to the Buddhist belief of reincarnation and karma. Change is Hui-yuan\u2019s method of illustrating the build-up of karma over one \u201csoulful\u201d being\u2019s time on earth. Hui-yuan also writes \u201cLife is fettered by physical form, and life depends on change.\u201d (283) Hui-yuan demonstrates the necessity of change in life as a means of understanding the variety of sins and actions in everyday life. Each action within a lifetime, as asserted by Hui-yuan, will have an impact on the next as Nirvana is changeless as everything is constantly in flux. <\/span><\/p>\n

This question and answer is crucial to Hui-yuan\u2019s argument of why a monk does not bow before a king. The understanding of change and karma as a never ending cycle provides the implication of Buddhists being inherently good citizens as they would not threaten their future lives with disobedience in their current lifetime. \u00a0As such, Hui-yuan writes, Buddhist monks should not be expected to bow before their king, regardless of his status. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his work, A Monk Does Not Bow Down Before a King, Hui-yuan, a Chinese Buddhist monk, analyses amongst other questions, the role of change within Buddhism. He poses the question to himself, using Lao Tzu as a foil. Hui-yuan uses Lao Tzu\u2019s understanding of heaven and earth and the nature of kings and princes … Continue reading “A Monk Does Not Bow Down Before a King”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions\/139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transnationalhistory.net\/world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}