The Relationships Between Buddhism, Karma, and Nowadays Hong Kong Society

The relationships between Buddhism, Karma, and Nowadays Hong Kong society

After taking the Chinese Customs and Rituals, that is sure that Chinese cultures are so deep and broad since it is over three thousand years. And amount those different topics, karma is going to be the topic of this essay, because it is the most mysterious one and still affecting and existing in today society. In the following, the Buddhism in Chinese will be first discussed, how it came and affected the value of ancient Chinese. Secondly, the detail of karma will be explained by giving examples with the gods of Buddhism. Thirdly, more daily examples which can be found in Hong Kong to suggest the karma is still being trusted nowadays. Lastly, some personal comments and reflection will be mentioned.

Transformation of Chinese Buddhism

Buddhism is originally a Hindu religion from India, there is consensus that the earliest related history in Chinese was Han Dynasty, this foreign religion imported by India missionaries. The original Buddhist scriptures from the first century BC and the detail of Buddha’s life are so important to understand how Chinese people transform the India Buddhism into Chinese Buddhism version.

Between 600 and 400 BC, Gautama Buddha was the founder of the religion. Although the Buddha and his followers did not have any writings to describe the daily, his teachings and rules for monks’ life were remembered and passed down by oral tradition. Until the second century BC, the first Buddhism scriptures were finally written, and the they were brought to China.  

Gautama Buddha was described as a prince of a small kingdom in Nepal. One day, Gautama was sad by seeing an old man and a corpse so that he wanted to solve suffering and death problem. When he was age 29, he was a famous teacher in India, he learnt Hinduism but still found it unsatisfied. Then, he tried to learn the truth by not eating, and starving himself to death and almost drowned. Then, he ate, meditated and avoided being extremes of self-indulgence or self-mortification. Until 35, he vowed to sit under a tree until he realized the truth and became enlightened.

Therefore, he started teaching, aim to let everybody learn to be happy, and he did not mind the background of the students. He opposed the Hindu belief since only high-caste people might be holy, his comments threatened the hierarchical society. Some Hindus thought that the religion of Gautama was false since his idea would destroy the hierarchical society so his enemies tried to kill him. However, he died in old age, he became the primary figure in India Buddhism, he is known as an enlightened teacher and attained full Buddhism. His followers summarized his life, rules, insights by oral tradition and hence described in the first written version.