Bioethics and Buddhist Teachings

ABSTRACT

This text will contemplate on religious education of Buddhism based on the teachings of bioethics. The view toward life in Buddhism can be found in Buddhist scripts, which states that life is the very essence of a being, and ‘life’ means the ability to sustain one’s warmth and consciousness. Meanwhile, death means the exact opposite of it; neither time nor warmth remains, all the organs are destroyed, separating the life from the body. Therefore, life is the union of The five skandhas, death is the separation of them, and killing is the devastation of them. According to the script, one is bound to kill when The five skandhas are not in control, so the script alerts that one must tame one’s skandhas by keeping six sensory organs in control. There are two things which should be considered as top priority in Buddhist teachings: wisdom and compassion. If wisdom is a cure for overcoming temptations and restoring humanity in modern society, compassion is the motivation for the act of salvaging people. These are two keywords that represents the elemental will of Buddhism - protection of all lifeform’s right to live. When practicing good deeds instead of evils mentioned by seven past Buddhas is the nature of the religion, What the religion aims to achieve is to be enlighted oneself as well as guiding others toward it. In other words, Buddhism considers every living creatures to be invaluable, and every single human are also considered to be precious beings with potentials to become a Buddha. Such respect towards life in Buddhism is shown in the practices of releasing captive animals, and having compassion towards others(慈悲喜捨). Buddhist teachings implies great importance of bioethnics, as it mentions that human can co-exist with nature when we realize that all life forms are as equally precious as us.