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(Continued from last week)
Buddha himself maintained that the secret of
each person’s complete fulfillment lies within, and is not
dependent on any supernatural power or future life. He taught that
each one holds the key to personal redemption, salvation, guidance,
and liberation. What is Buddha’s path to virtue? It is not as many
Westerners and non-Buddhists think. Virtue is not a weak or
“middle-of-the-road” compromise. The essence of virtue or middle
way is “reverence for the sanctity of life—one’s own life, the
lives of other people, the life of non-humans and all their
extensive and intricate interrelations—coupled with the
determination to make this reverence the basis for all of one’s
actions…when the value of human dignity and life is accorded this
kind of centrality, there can be no question of compromise or
accommodation with forces of destruction and divisiveness that would
threaten life or undermine our humanity.”
Confucius and our parents. In our conversations
with the foster mother of our daughter, I gathered some images of
her devotion and dedication to her aging parents. Without fail, she
visits her mom and dad at least once a week and makes sure she
celebrates important events like New Year, Christmas and special
family occasions.
Confucius has had a profound influence on
Chinese, Korean, and Japanese philosophy. According to Hyun
Hochsmann, his influence is even greater than Aristotle’s
prodigious influence on the West. From The Book of Odes, Confucius
believed that loving one’s fellowman is a central virtue of
Confucian ethics. From The Book of History, he taught his followers
to venerate ancestry and to honor ones parents. Today, the influence
of Confucius among the Chinese Singaporeans is quietly pervasive not
only with the foster mother of our daughter, but also among those I
talked to like the taxi drivers, mall sales clerks and fast food
service providers.
Christ Jesus at the Cathedral of the Good
Shepherd. Attending a sung mass at the Cathedral of the Good
Shepherd, we were treated to a mixture of Gregorian chants
traditional classics. A little Asian girl who was slumped all
through the mass straightened up and told her mom, “I am awake.”
My wife interpreted this as “the awakening of Buddha within.”
This statement could very well have been the congregation’s grand
finale: Our hearts are filled with joy, celebrating the birth of
Jesus Christ who came to redeem us. In Buddhist terms, this
Christian revelation comes as true Enlightenment from within.
My stay in Singapore made Little Philippines
come to life when occasionally we were greeted by our kababayans
serving and cooking in restaurants, welcoming us at novelty shops
and attending to our grocery needs. These acquaintances brought us
closer to a Pinoy milleu in Singapore.
I exhort those who are making their Lenten
resolution to borrow from these sages: Be the Aristotelian in our
unrelenting commitment to improving our mind. Be Buddhist in our
unstinting effort to deepen our compassionate heart. Be Confucian in
our unselfish devotion to serve our kinfolks and fellow beings.
May I add as an Asian Catholic: Be Christian by
loving God with all our heart as we love our neighbor. Rooted within
us are the natural and spiritual keys of the East and West meant for
the betterment of the human condition; we wield awesome natural and
supra-natural powers to make a difference for the true, the good and
the beautiful. Let us then revisit, renew and relearn our ABCs from
Aristotle, Buddha, Confucius and Christ whose basic and primary
concern for humanity have made us human and continue to invite to be
fully human in a world that has gone into extremes.
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Dr. Emiliano T. Hudtohan teaches Business Ethics
and Corporate Social Responsibility at De La Salle Professional
Schools Ramon V. del Rosario Sr. Graduate School of Business and is
a visiting professor of the De La Salle MBA program of Maranatha
Christian University, Indonesia. A lecturer at the Graduate School
of Social Work of Philippine Women’s University, Manila, he also
serves as adviser for human development of OFW Legacy Corporation.
His email: emilhudtohan@yahoo.com.
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