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A Ray of Light in the Darkness: “Life of the Buddha” in Different Cultural Contexts

Abstract: Pursuing the Buddha’s life is narrating “consummation” in a sense. Few people may lead such a life as the Buddha’s, which is astonishing both to his contemporaries and to today’s public. In accordance with the Buddha, we should live in the present, integrate both body and soul with the current time and place with introspection into our own mind and lead a simple, free and happy life. By keeping away from greed and desires we have the hope of achieving ultimate Nirvana. The essence of his edification is not to interpret this world, but to lead us to mindfulness, for the current era is characteristic of greed and desires. The Buddha is similar in various cultural contexts and his instructions can penetrate the fence between cultures just like a ray of light in the world, in which greed and desires prevail.


Key words: the Buddha; different cultures; context


Zou Guangsheng is Professor of Chinese Literature in the Chinese Department at Zhejiang University. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, Harvard University, Cambridge University, and Heidelberg University. His recent publications include “The Divine Tranquility: on Johannes Vermeer’s Painting” (2015), “Confucius and Socrates: Investigating from The Analects and The Dialogue” (2014), and “The Writing Reflects the Author: The Conflict between the Literary Quarlity and the Author’s Character in the Chinese Classic The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons” (2014).