Positive Belief vs Superstition 1/7 - Compare Buddhism & Christianity 正信 vs 迷信

(English subtitles) Lectured by Daoist teacher Rui-Lie Lee (李瑞烈, 1921-2015)
Subtitles:
Tonight, we are going to talk about religion. Most believers are superstitious. I'm going to address this topic, positive belief. Let's do some study. Many people go to my house and ask. “Teacher, what religion do you actually believe in?”
“Why do you ask that?” I say.
“Because I come to your house and see the divine idols on your altar are very strange.”
“Why is it strange?” I say.
“If saying you believe in Buddhism, you are not a Buddhist. If saying you believe in Daoism, you are not a Daoist. If saying you believe in Christianity, it's not either. Because on the altar, you enshrine the Buddha, enshrine The Heavenly Lord of Dao, and enshrine Confucius, also Jesus and Allah. You enshrine them all there. Sometimes, I listen to your sermon, and you are preaching the Buddhist sutra, like Platform Sutra by Sixth Patriarch, The Diamond Sutra, The Lotus Sutra, These are all Buddhism. Sometimes, you are preaching Daoist reason, like The Book of The Way, or Jade Pond Golden Mom's Scripture. Sometimes, you speak Confucianism. Such as the Doctrine of Mean, Great Learning, and Analects of Confucius. I am really confused after I listen.”
“It doesn't matter which religion you believe,” I said. “As long as you have a positive belief.”
2:00
As a practitioner, if you do not have positive belief, any religion you believe in is useless. Each religion has roughly the same goal and reason. But there are many religions in Taiwan now. The followers of every religion say their religion is the best. Only the religion that I believe in is valid. Let's say Buddhism. You have to believe in Buddhism before you can go to the West. If for the Daoists, You have to believe in Daoism before you can go to the Everlasting. For the Christianity, You must be a Christian before you can go to Heaven. You said they are the same. The goals they are going are obviously different. Why do you say the same?
Gentlemen, different names but the same place. Hearing my words, some would say, Is that so? Don't argue about whether it's true or not. For example, an elder and a young man, a grandfather and a grandson together,.are taking a train. People ask, Where are you going? Sir. The young man says, I am going to Kaohsiong. When ask the elder, Where are you going? I am going to Hitdog. Strange enough, they are taking the train together but going to the different place. If fact, they are the same places. Kaohsiong is the modern name. Hitdog is the old name in the past. The name of a place could change at any time.
4:05
So, those places you mentioned, whatever the West, Heaven, or Everlasting. To say the least, are the same place. So, the 1st phrase of the Book of the Way. The way can be said is not an eternal way. The name can be named is not an eternal name. If you explain the way with mouth, that is not the real way. The real innate way can only be comprehended by our heart. It can not be expressed by mouth. If you can name something, it's not a real name, it's a pseudonym. Nobody know its original name. People just blurt out a name.
Hence, names can be controversial occasionally. Sometimes, one thing has different names. Sometimes, one single name means different things. Do you believe it or not? Once I met a Japanese who asked me for directions. “Sir, I want to take a gas vehicle, may I ask where the parking lot is?” When I heard gas vehicle parking lot, I thought he want to take a bus. I pointed to the bus station. “No, that's not gas vehicle, that's auto vehicle,” he said. “What kind of vehicle do you want?” “Run the railway.” “Run the railway, that's a train.” Japanese say train as gas vehicle.
6:00
In Chinese, gas vehicle is a car. They Japanese say train station as parking lot. We Chinese say train station as fire vehicle stand. They say train station as parking lot, that's much different, and say train as gas vehicle. How do you argue with him, that's in vain. So, people give the names arbitrarily. What can you do? Therefore, whether you say the West, the Heaven or the Everlasting, in fact, you are going to the same goal. No need to argue about that. Every religion originally tells us to cultivate. Every religion originally tells us not to do evils.
What is the cause of religious controversy today? That's neither the fault of the Buddha nor the fault of the religious lords. That's the fault of a certain missionaries. Those missionaries don't preach according to the scriptures, don't lecture according to the reason, Only based on their own will. In order to attract more followers, they do whatever they can. All say my religion is the best, others are not good. When it comes to Buddhism, you must come to convert or you won't be accepted. When it comes to Christianity, you have to baptize. It's all like this.
My take is whether you convert or baptize. If a person doesn't cultivate or behave, it's useless whether you are converted or baptized.