Chapter One

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 What sort of thing am I?

 Where do I come from?
 Whereto am I going?
 What is my future and destiny?
 What must I do to live well and happy?
uan
- According to History of
Philosophy, it means
many things to many
minds; and the proposed
answers to these questions
are as varied as there are
thinkers, asking and
answering their own
questions.
 WHAT IN THE ULTIuATE ANALYSIS, IS
THE uEANING OF HUuAN LIFE?
1) What is the supreme purpose and goal of human
living?
2) What consists man¶s greatest perfection and
happiness?
3) What, in the last analysis, is the ultimate objective
of human strivings? Is it ever attainable by man?
4) What is the summum bonum, the highest good, of
human existence?
5) What is the root cause and remedy to human
suffering?
 The Three Oriental Sages

  
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  c. 563 BCE
 
Lumbini, today in
Nepal
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 c. 483 BCE
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Kushinagar, today in
India
!  Founder of
& ' ! 
Buddhism


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Kassapa Buddha
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uaitreya Buddha
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 According to Buddha (³the Enlightened One´), there is only
one absolute, universal all-
all-pervading Reality, Brahma in which
all things are one.
  ) therefore, in reality was united originally with Brahma
and is called  *
 uan, thus became a mortal body subject to disease, death, and
decomposition. However, Buddha saw a dawn for mortal man
in his own theory of reincarnation according to which man,
despite death, corruption and decomposition of his bodily
components is capable of rebirth and subsequent
regenerations.
  ) +the sinless calm state of mind, the destruction of
earthly yearnings, the absence of lust, the cessation of sorrow.´

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 #",
ñ Irish dramatist who assumed that man¶s life on
earth is doubly tragic, because in life man either gets what he
desires or not.
 Thus, to the question why man is often unhappy in this life,
Buddha answers: because of uncontrolled bodily desires.
 According to Buddha, man in order to be happy, must liberate
himself of this selfishness, subjugate his baser instincts by self
restraints or denial, and in so doing he acquires virtue.
 # teaches men to look away from mundane
 #
happiness ³ to regions invisible´ and inspires him with hopes
of immortality. It preaches humility, charity, benevolence,
truth and justice in human relations for the attainment of
universal brotherhood and peace which, Buddha teaches, is the
highest form of happiness.

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 Earlier view of life as a curse or misery; as false, fake,
and futile striving, contrasts with his later
interpretation of life as a preparation for the perfect life
in Nirvana which is attained only through righteous
and virtuous living.
/01
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Gautama Buddha says:
Never in this world does hatred cease by hatred. Hatred ceases
by love« Let us live happily not hating those who hate us. Let
us live free among men who hate. Let a man overcome anger
by kindness, evil by good; hate by love.

Let him conquer the stingy by gift, the liar by truth.

Of self-
self-restraint, Buddha says:
The well-
well-subdued may subdue others;
Oneself indeed is hard to tame.
One may conquer a thousand in battle;
But he who conquers himself alone
is the greatest victor.
§

 !aozi (!ao
Tzu, !ao Tse,
!aotze, !ao Zi)

 600 BC
  470 BC (aged 130)


  Taoism
 
 Wu wei
  | 
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 | |
 4 book of Lao Tzu where expounds the
postulates of moral conduct for the achievement of a virtuous
life.
 He on the importance of the virtues of humility, self-
self- negation
and absolute calm quietism in the face of misfortune or
calamity or even death-
death- similar to present-
present-day uahatma
Gandhi¶s principle of active non-
non-violence or non resistance.
 He teaches the power of meekness over evil; of love over
hatred; of non-
non-violence over violence.
 uen are often unhappy because in life, in thought and action,
they pretend to be what they are not-
not- through hypocrisy,
pretension, insincerity, pride, dishonesty, lust and inordinate
worldly attachments, and thus separate themselves from the
one in whom they are by nature one.
 
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Wu Wei
 Principle which is translated as action thru inaction-
inaction-
somewhat akin to our `
  or or carefree way of
life.
 Is often misconstrued by critics to mean complete
inactivity, laziness on man¶s part, avoiding worries,
shunning work and shirking responsibilities: whereas it
never is such a way.
 It never means that man should not work nor do his
duty.
 |  means the Way or Virtue which necessarily
| means
implies repeated habitual action.
 |
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The wise man does not accumulate for himself:

He lives for other people
And grows to richer himself,
He gives to other people
And has greater abundance.
 Futility of Contention
To yield is to be preserved whole
To be bent is to become straight
To be hallow is to be filled
To be tattered is to be renewed
To be in want is to possess
To have plenty is to be confused.

The Sages does not reveal himself

And is therefore luminous.
He does not justify himself
And is therefore far-
far-famed
He does not boast of himself
And therefore people give him credit.
He does not pride of himself
And is therefore the ruler among men.
It is because he does not contend
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