A Comparative Study on the Buddhist and Brahmanic Conceptions of the Relationship between the Secular World and the Emancipation Realm

Yao Weiqun

Peking University

Abstract: Buddhism and Brahmanism were two important religions in ancient India and their religious philosophies continue to be the fundamental components of contemporary Indian culture. However, these religions share common theoretical problems like explanation of the relationship between the secular world and the emancipation realm. This article examines this issue.

Keywords: Buddhism, Brahmanism, secular world, emancipation realm

Buddhism and Brahmanism both hold that the world in which mankind lives is full of pain, and that mankind should seek the realm of emancipation which is free of suffering. Both religions stress that to transmigrate and break away from suffering, mankind should obtain the highest wisdom regarding the world as this is the effective way to reach the realm of emancipation. Buddhism and Brahmanism have both paid close attention to the way of wisdom emancipation, believing that when people have obtained the highest wisdom, they will cease the pursuit of unreal things.There will be no corresponding actions and karma, and hence it will then be possible to overcome suffering. Both religions hold as a major premise that the realm of emancipation and the secular world cannot be separated. Emancipation is in fact the realization of the true nature of the secular world.There is no emancipation realm independent of the secular world.

But the two religions’ understandings about wisdom are different. According to the main viewpoint of Buddhism, the highest wisdom is the realization of the truth of dependent origination or emptiness. According to the main precept of Brahmanism, the highest wisdom is knowing that all things in the secular world are in fact basic reality.

Buddhist and Brahmanic conceptions of the relationship between the realms of the secular and the emancipation are a main point of discussion between these two religions. Their investigation in this respect in fact entails an analysis of the nature of things and an analysis of the value and the object of human behavior, both of which have an important significance in the history of Indian thought. Through research on these problems, we will gain a keener insight into perspectives on the ancient Indian conception of the world and of human life, and a better understanding of the development of Indian thought.

Buddhism and Brahmanism are the religions which had great influence on ancient India.The two religions hold that the world is full of suffering and they want to completely get rid of suffering and reach the supreme realm through wisdom in their religious theories. In the two religions, the secular world is also called the mundane world, and the supreme realm is usually called emancipation. The relationship between the realms of secular and emancipation is an important problem and both Buddhism and Brahmanism are concerned about it.

Theories of the Relationship between World Things and Brahman in Upani?ads

Buddhist Theories of the Relationship between the Secular World and Nirvāa

① T. 30, p. 25a.

② T. 12, p. 402a.

③ T. 12, p. 390a.

The Wisdom Emancipation Theory of Brahmanic Philosophical Schools

Comprehensive Comparative Analysis