Chapter 78 read the earth

Originally, I was going to India today, and I stayed in Lahore for a day before entering the country.But the President of Pakistan wants to see us tomorrow, so the trip has to be postponed. I have long agreed to not see the leaders of other countries. When the King of Jordan received our party, I just hid in the street outside the meeting place, admiring the vehicles and guns of the Guards.I also did not attend the meeting with the leaders of Israel and Iraq.The focus of my observation is not on today's political circles, and I am tired of those etiquettes, so everyone took care of me. Well, thanks to the president's blessing today, I have half a day to spare, and I can sit in the hotel and think about something.Facing the window of the hotel is a brownish-yellow mountain range. When the US Secretary of State Dr. Kissinger came to Islamabad, he pretended to be ill and went to this mountain to rest. In fact, he went to China quietly and began to open the door of Sino-US relations.It is said that in order to confuse reporters, his convoy really drove up the mountain, but he took another car to the airport.I see this mountain road now, and it is still very clear.For a while, the mysterious passage between the huge China and the outside world was actually here, and now it seems like a lifetime away.

In fact, this has always been the northern channel connecting the Indus River Basin to Central Asia and East Asia, and of course it is also the land gateway to the Ganges River Basin and even the entire Indian Peninsula.It is no wonder that the pointed Indian peninsula is entirely enclosed by high mountains on land, with the Himalayas to the north, the Suleiman Range to the west, the Rakhine Mountains to the east, and the sea to the south. Then, this passage, this gateway , although the threshold is a little higher, it is very important after all. The history of India is too long, and the Indus civilization that mysteriously disappeared more than 3,500 years ago is really unclear. The starting point of my interest is that a group of semi-nomadic Aryan tribes entered through this northern passage. India settled down, merged, and gradually expanded southward, beginning the Vedic era and the epic era.It was the civilization and wisdom of this era that gave birth to early Hinduism.And Buddhism has also put on a big show here.

Later, Alexander invaded India from here.Whether it is the Maurya Dynasty or the Gupta Dynasty, this place has always been an important place for culture and education.Taxila, which I just visited, used to have some of the most important institutions of higher learning in India, whether it is social sciences, natural sciences or medicine, they are very developed.A Western historian even said that the academic status of this place is equivalent to that of Paris in the Middle Ages. I thought, since so many intelligent minds have gathered here, what were they thinking for centuries facing the mountains in front of my window?

Through the works of some French writers, we have a little impression of Paris in the Middle Ages, but we are very alienated from this important place of oriental learning that is equivalent to Paris in the Middle Ages, let alone what kind of thinking occurred here. Presumably, the most difficult considerations are likely to arise in relation to Hinduism and Buddhism. Both Hinduism and Buddhism were born and raised in India, which are very different from the foreign Islam and Christianity. In my opinion, Buddhism is the highest achievement of Indian civilization. Its arguments are brilliant, its realm is profound, its logic is rigorous, and its charm is sublime.Moreover, due to the advocacy and promotion of monarchs such as King Ashoka, King Kanishka and King Jieri, Buddhism has developed to a huge scale in India.Even if we only read the descriptions of Fa Xian and Xuan Zang, we can still appreciate the prosperity like the flowers and phoenixes, but why was it overwhelmed by Hinduism in the end?

These two religions have had a complementary relationship for a long time.Some concepts such as karma, retribution, reincarnation, etc. have been used in common, and they all advocate charity, tolerance, and non-killing, and they do not exclude other religions.Buddhist scholars have also seriously studied the Hindu classic Vedas, and Hinduism has also absorbed a lot of Buddhist content in its self-renewal. However, from the very beginning, Buddhism opposed the Hindu beliefs about the creation of Brahma and idol worship activities, and also disapproved of the caste system with strict hierarchy and separation of human nature.Buddhism concentrates wisdom on how people can enter the peaceful and liberated Nirvana state by extinguishing desires, having no self or attachment, and loving all beings, and become enlightened people who can completely get rid of the suffering of life.This is obviously much more mature and clear than the polytheistic Hinduism, but the tragedy of human civilization lies here.You want to convince the public, but the public is more willing to worship those unexplainable primitive gods; you want to wash away the impurity and ignorance in spiritual conversion, but people especially fear Shiva, the god of destruction; However, I have long been accustomed to the millennium inheritance and vested interests of the caste system. These opposites facing Buddhism are precisely the natural and cultural ecology of this land, and I know it is ugly and cannot be contained.

As far as Buddhism itself is concerned, because it was once too famous, too many talents, and too high a salary, it was seriously caught up in empty talk and concept play, and lost its vigorous vitality. In the end, it was not only inferior to Hinduism, but even the foreign Islam It is also impossible to face that by the thirteenth century, it basically died out in India. In other words, it is the land of India that buried the best Indian civilization.It seems unreasonable, but unfortunately it is true. From this I want to summarize a rise and fall map.Buddhism is a wise civilization, Hinduism is an indigenous civilization, and Islam is a foreign civilization. The final order of the three is: indigenous civilization first, foreign civilization second, and wise civilization third.This sequence is thought-provoking.

As I write this, it is already evening, and the mountains under the sun have become a tall silhouette.In those nearby institutions of higher learning, many scholars must have stared at this silhouette. How many of them foresaw such an order of civilization?The spiritual currents that the earth supports are more difficult to judge and predict than anything else it supports.So, let me read the earth devoutly. December 8, 1999, Islamabad, overnight from Marriott Hotel