“Man
is the highest fruit on the tree of evolution, it is for man to realize his
position in nature and understand the true meaning of his life”
“Explain the Buddhist
notion of the Man and Society”
Ven P Indarathana thera
Lecturer: Ven
Moragaswawe Vijitha
Subject: Man and
Society
Student Number: 13 02
SIBA BABL
Semester 4th
Level 200
Contents
ü Introduction
to man and society
ü Buddhist
attitudes towards man
ü Origin
of the man and society according to Agganna Sutta
ü Responsibilities
of a man according the Sigalovadha Sutta
ü Conclusion
ü Bibliography
Introduction to Man and Society
When
explaining the concept of man and society, it is interconnected to each other;
it is difficult to explain the concept of man without talking about the society,
because man living in the society is a part of it. Man has been described as a
rational animal but along with that he happens to be a social animal to animals
are also gregarious — they live in groups. One cannot live in isolation. Men
were savages in the Stone Age; then they began living in a family; families
came together and formed a village community, then grew the towns, the
metropolises; states, countries, continents and thus goes the tale of the world
society. The man living in the society is a most important character when
considering the concept of man and society. Medium sized dictionaries in common
use today define society as “the sum of human conditions and activity regarded
as a whole functioning interdependently”
As well as according
to the religious views of the man and society is very important to point that.
And those origins of the social relationships also explain according to the
religious concepts. In the Holy Bible the Genesis story gives very important
details related to the social origination. According to that god is the creator
of all living beings including human beings and animals and the world. As a
creator he invented the world within six days.
The
first day, Day and Night
The
second day, the Sky
The
third day, Erath and Sea Vegetation
The
forth day, Sun and moon
The
fifth day, Fish and Birds
The
sixth day, Beasts man and Woman
The
seventh day, called as a holy day
This is the great creation of the god
according to the Holy Bible. In the Bible it is mentioned that man was created according
to the god’s own image or figure. At the beginning man built his first
relationship with the god because he was the creator. As the story goes man and
society was created by as a result of eating fruits of the prohibited tree.
At
the same time there is some definition mentioned in the Rig veda also can be
seen. According to that the elements of the worls is “Purusa” and god have done
a sacrifice which was offering purusa as a scape-goat. As a result of that
scarify the world has created. These are
the few definitions when explaining man and society.
ü Buddhist
attitudes towards man
When
considering man and society it is very important to know that who is called as
man and the nature of the man. According to the Buddhist perspective on man
there are some terms rendered as Satta, Manussa, and Puggala beings man and individual or person.
As well as when considering the nature of man it can be understood according to
the various suttas which is mentioned in the tipitaka. The nature of man is
defined as rupa, saddha, gandha, rasa, potthabba. These things called as man.
At the same time this definition is common both man and the other beings.
Unless a being is redeemed from suffering, he is attached to the five sensual
pleasures. According to the Buddhist point of view man gets special place among
the other beings ( manussa ussannata manussa). The Buddhist view is that every
individual is an entity composed of five categories of phenomena or qualities
that may be thought of as aggregates. Sometimes translated as heaps or
accumulations. They are as follow
Ø The
body matter or form ( Rupa)
Ø Feeling
or sensation ( Vedana)
Ø Thoughts
or perceptions (Sanna)
Ø Mental
formation ( Samkara)
Ø Consciousness
( Vinnana)
The man who is explained in the
Buddhism is a very important person who has thinking ability, evaluating skills
and developing spiritual power. The Buddha’s teachings say that most of the
people who live in the world are wordings or Puthujjana, because of their
attachment they have to suffer in the world. According to the Mulapariyaya
sutta of the majjhima nikaya worldlings understand or experience the earth by
the perception and they think that the earth is me. It is me, it is mine.
Buddhism considers that the man
inherit an evaluative intellect (mental power, intelligent). Only human being
can evaluate ethics. Men who belong to all religions have evaluative abilities.
Man has ability to evaluate both wholesome and the unwholesome deeds or
activities, god and bad, right and wrong as well as merit and demerit.
ü Origin
of the man and society according to Agganna Sutta
According
to the Agganna sutta of the Digha Nikaya it is stated that the origin of the
man and society in a mythological way. As sutta explains the story runs as
follow.
There comes a time Vasettha,
when sooner or later after a long period, this world contracts or Samvatta
kappa. At a time of contraction, beings are mostly born in the Abhassara Brahma
world. Then they dwell, mind made (manomaya) feeding on delight (piti bhakka),
self luminous ( sayampaba), moving through the air ( antalikkhacara), glorious (full
of happiness) and they stay like that for a very long time. According to the sutta
reveals sooner or later after very long period, this world begins to expand again
( Vivatta). At a time of expansion the beings from the Abhassara Brahma world, having
passed away there, are mostly reborn in this world. Here they dwell, mind-made,
feeding on delight, self-luminous, moving through the air, glorious and they stay
like that for a very long time. At that period there was just one mass of water,
and was darkness, blinding darkness. At that time neither moon nor sun appeared,
no constellations or stars appeared, night and day were not distinguished, nor months
and fortnights, no years or seasons, and no male and female, beings reckoning just
as beings.
Not yet finished....................
