A clarification from the book "Beyond Suffering: A Christian View on Disability Ministry" by Joni Eareckson Tada, Steve Bundy, Pat Verbal
In this book, Lesson 4 - The Global Reach of Disability, page 66 - 67:
"While most world religions have sacred writings that speak of love, mercy and benevolent service, many of them fail to apply these virtues to people with disabilities. This is due to their faulty worldview on suffering and disability, which we'll discuss in Module 2. The following descriptions are not intended to represent the formal religious views of disability by these religions, rather they are sketches of the realistic outcomes of religious views that are not biblically-based.
In Hinduism a person with disabilities is thought to have "bad karma" and is demoted to the lowest social class.
In Islam a person with disabilities is seen as an object of charity or a disgrace in a "shame and honor" culture. A disability is that person's fate.
Under Communism people with disabilities are identified as non-contributors in society, and therefore, they are of no use.
Buddhism tells a person with a disability to deny and ignore his or her plight. It simply does not exist.
In Spiritism people with disabilities are cursed.
Secular Humanists believe that people with disabilities are victims. They can only be integrated into society at a significant expense.
Under Fascism a person with disabilities is an economic drain on society.
For those who practice "religious legalism" people with disabilities are objects of charity. They are the focus of ministry projects, which highlight results rather then relationships. The real needs of the disability community are the responsibility of the government, not the religious community.
In Christianity people with disabilities are often seen as "problems" to be fixed or "burdens" to endure rather than "people" to be embraced. Christianity often sees people affected by disability as "victims" to be pitied and ministered "to" instead of ministered "with."
------------Joni Eareckson Tada, Steve Bundy, Pat Verbal
In Lesson 6: The Problem of Evil and Suffering, Page 96 mentioned the "Worldview Analysis of Suffering and Disability: Six Perspectives" by Chuck Edwards.
In that article, Edwards wrote:
"For example, the Cosmic Worldview assumes that everything that exists is part of god; god is all and in all—The One. If this is true, then it follows that humans are part of the god-force that is the ultimate reality, described as goodness, blissful peace, and perfect harmony. Suffering, in this view, is either an illusion, being a distorted understanding of the actual situation, or it is the result of bad karma from past lives that must be worked off in this life...
A second implication of Cosmic Worldview assumptions is the concept of karma, the view that what you experience in this life—for good or ill—is the result of how you lived in a past life. Therefore, if suffering is the result of bad karma, than it is deserved, so we should just “accept it.”
---------------Chuck Edwards
I want to clarify that what the textbook said about Buddhism is totally opposite to what I was taught in Buddhism.
This is a part of the course I take in school. Here are my views/answers to the assignments.
The textbook is totally wrong about Buddhism. In Zen Buddhism, and other Buddhism practices in South East Asian countries, people with disabilities are not told to ignore or deny it, or to just bear it as if they should. In contrast, people with disabilities are taught to be mindful, not just them but everyone is taught to be non-judgmental, to accept the fact, to not attach or hold on to a perfect expectation/illusion or idea, and not to look down on anyone, or discriminate someone with disabilities. People are taught to utilize what is available, what can be done, and live life fully as much as they could. It is taught that having a disability in this lifetime is a result of past karma in the previous life or other lives, this doesn’t mean that normal people can judge someone (even in their thoughts) and mark themselves as superior since karma is one of the core teachings in Buddhism. People are all interconnected, which means that we all create some same karma (actions/consequences) in this lifetime on Earth, and it will affect everyone and everything. Life is full of sufferings and if someone creates more suffers for someone, for example, making fun of people with disabilities, they will receive bad karmas either this lifetime or the next life when they rebirth. Compassion, mindfulness, and karmas are some of the core teachings in Buddhism. Because of these teachings, many non-religious parents or poor parents who have a baby born with disabilities often abandon/leave the baby in front of a temple or pagoda gates, and there are various Buddhist temples/pagodas that are, or become orphanages (my personal experiences and many other sources).
"Karma is better understood as the key to spiritual development ... When we add the Buddhist teaching about not-self […] We can see that karma is not something the self has, it is what the sense of self is"
David R. Loy, Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution (Wisdom: Boston, 2008), 61.
- Human often/also cling to the idea that we have a permanent self or soul, and this further makes us self-centered. “The whole idea of the ego, the sense of "I," is a fanatical attachment to nothing but a self-image, nothing but an illusion. Buddha claims that we are merely a group of psycho-physical components: matter, feeling, perception, mental states, and consciousness. Nowhere in this combination of energies is there anything corresponding to an individual self or soul. The self is another way to try to put the constantly changing world into fixed category. All of this resistance and attachment to ourselves and other things is summarized as craving, and it is the cause of suffering” (Billings, 1998). We can overcome suffering by follow the path to Enlightenment, as summarized in “The Noble Eightfold Path.”
- “The true spirit of Buddhism was expressed by Buddha's directions to accept nothing, to find out for oneself, to treat his teaching as a boat needed to cross a river: When finished, leave the boat behind. A great Chinese Zen master, Rinzai, states it even more explicitly: "If on your way you meet the Buddha, kill him. ... O you disciples of the truth, make an effort to free yourself from every object. ... I say to you: No Buddha! No Teaching! No disciple! What are you ceaselessly looking for in your neighbor's house?" (Billings, 1998). In Zen, it’s generally understood that “When you meet the Buddha, kill him” refers to “killing” a Buddha you perceive as separate from yourself because such a Buddha is an illusion” (O'Brien, 2019).
In Buddhism, we believe that we are everything, but we are also nothing. “The Heart Sutra states: "Form (matter) is emptiness; emptiness is form. Form does not differ from emptiness; emptiness does not differ from form. The same is true for feeling, perception, mental states, and consciousness." Here we see Buddha's original analysis of the psycho-somatic organism, but the idea is carried further. Quantum Physics has discovered that matter is nothing but a form of energy. Sub-atomic particles are merely concentrations of a field of energy that constantly appear and disappear, losing their identity as they blend into the underlying field. Emptiness is a term (also called the Void) used by Buddhists to describe the source of life, and is what Buddha called the "Unborn, Unoriginated, Unformed." It gives birth to an infinite variety of forms in the universe, which it sustains and then reabsorbs. Everything -- our bodies, our minds, consciousness, nature -- is constantly being born and dying; everything is vibrations coming from the source. We are a temporary manifestation of the Void, or – in more traditional terms – we are the manifestation of the Absolute Principle. Our real nature is that of the Principle, but we identify ourselves with the appearance, with manifestation. That is why we suffer - because we try to cling to phenomena that are impermanent. This is what Buddhists meditate on: We try to destroy the ignorance that makes us think that we are separate, substantial, autonomous beings living in a world of static, concrete entities. Thus, the Heart Sutra reminds us that we must realize that the world of the senses and of our minds is only a bubble on the ocean: The Reality or Essence or Absolute Principle of the bubble is the ocean” (Billings, A., 1998).
Chuck Edwards’s paper is misleading about what the Cosmic worldview is and he failed to explain it because obviously, he is not a Buddhist nor a Hindu; therefore, he does not understand it. He explained in his paper that the cosmic worldview says that disability is “deserved,” and people (everyone) should just “accept it” (accept that people should deserve their disabilities). This explanation is not what the Buddha taught and obviously a contradiction to what Buddhist teachings: the Noble Eightfold Path, which could be summarized as:
“(1) Right Understanding means that one sees things as they are, not as we want them to be; (2) Right Thoughts are thoughts by which we cultivate compassion, harmony, and peacefulness; (3) Right Speech is to avoid slander and lying; (4) Right Action is to avoid killing or hurting others; (5) Right Livelihood is not dealing in killing, such as weapons, or intoxicants; (6) Right Effort is to keep the mind energetic;(7) Right Mindfulness is to keep awareness to a high degree in all activities; and finally, (8) Right Meditation, which are the deeper practices that lead to the insight that we are Enlightened” (Billings, 1998).
There is no such thing in Buddhism that everyone should look at people with a disability (or anyone who is suffering) as if they deserve it and as if they should suffer it because of what they did sometimes in their past lives. There is no such thing as “you deserve this/that,” because this idea is attached to ego. Edwards’ demonstration does not have the right understanding, which also leads to incorrect thoughts. Acceptance in Buddhism means to accept the fact, for whatever happens, it happens, and accept who we are, what is available, what we have, what we can do, what our abilities are, and letting go of the attachments. Acceptance concept in Buddhism is not about comparing and judging others based on ego, hatred, greed, ignorance, or envy.
“There is a saying: If a person suffering from a disease does not seek treatment even when there is a physician at hand, it is not the fault of that physician. In the same way, if a person is oppressed and tormented by the disease of the defilements but does not seek the help of the Buddha, that is not the Buddha’s fault (JN 28–9). Nor should Buddhism or any religion be judged by those who don’t practice it properly” (Dhammika, n.d.).
For more Buddhism teachings, please take a look at my Buddhist teacher's lessons, who is also a professor at the University of Houston, TX (Dr. Trung Huynh - Thich Hang Dat). Links:
And this video explains what I want to clarify:
May 2021.
Resources:
Bangkok Post Public Company Limited. (2013, May 30). Caring for Vietnam’s “invisible” disabled children. Https://Www.Bangkokpost.Com. https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/352593/caring-for-vietnam-invisible-disabled-children
Billings, A. (1998, April). Why I Am a Buddhist. Buddha Sasana. https://www.budsas.org/ebud/ebdha141.htm
Buddha basic teaching. (n.d.). Buddha Blessed Temple. https://buddhablessedtemple.com/GeneralBuddhism/BuddhaTeaching/basic_teaching/thay.php
Dhammika, V. S. (n.d.). Good Question, Good Answer - Ven. S. Dhammika. Buddhist ELibrary. https://www.buddhistelibrary.org/en/thumbnails.php?album=122
O’Brien, B. (2019, February 7). “If You Meet the Buddha, Kill Him” -- What Does That Mean? Learn Religions. https://www.learnreligions.com/kill-the-buddha-449940
Tada, J. E. (2012). Beyond Suffering Study Guide (with CD) (Study Guide ed.). Joni And Friends.
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