Social disorder and terrified unbalanced education in today’s society stimulate public’s attention to ponder the problem of absence in the meaning of life. Therefore, the emergence of life education is to reach the needs of society by enriching the lives of people. The three major fields of life education proposed by Sun Xiao Zhi is the present scheme of curriculum heading on to reinforce the awareness in the community on the importance of life education. Therefore, increasing materials and advanced investigations are required to enhance the development of life education. The Practice and Vows of Samantabhadra (Puxian xingyuan pin 普賢行願品) in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra (Huayen jing 華嚴經) have been valued for its inclusion, in particular the ten great vows which have been also prioritized as the core teaching of the entire sūtra. Consequently, this research attempts to manifest the enriching insights of the ten great vows and lead their significance correspondingly to the three major fields of life education. The explored meanings of these ten great vows are aspirations to substantiate the content of life education. This research divides into five chapters based on philosophical, analytical and interpretive approaches. Chapter II, introduces the background and doctrinal foundation of both the Avataṃsaka Sūtra and the ten great vows of Samantabhadra. Chapter III, constructs an underlying framework to explore the content of the ten great vows. Chapter IV, signifies the affliation between the ten great vows and the three major fields of life education. This research ends up with some concluding remarks in chapter V.
目次
ABSTRACT I DEDICATION II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS III Chapter I: Introduction 1 1.1 Motivation and Purposes 3 1.2 Problem Statement 4 1.3 Research Methodology and Limitation 4 1.4 Literature Review 6 Chapter II: Introduction of Samantabhadra in the Hua Yen Sūtra 12 2.1 Introduction of the Hua Yen Sūtra 12 2.2 Role of Samantabhadra in the Hua Yen Sūtra 17 2.3 The Philosophical Foundation of Huayen Buddhism 24 Chapter III: Ten Great Vows of Samantabhadra 31 3.1 To Respect All Buddhas 32 3.2 To Praise All Buddhas 35 3.3 To Make Offerings Extensively 40 3.4 To Repent Karmic Obstacles 45 3.5 To Rejoice at Other’s Merits 51 3.6 To Request the Turning of the Dharma Wheel 58 3.7 To Request Buddha to Remain in the World 62 3.8 To Constantly Follow the Buddha’s Teachings 68 3.9 To Accommodate All Sentient Beings 73 3.10 To Dedicate All Merits 78 Chapter IV: Ten Great Vows of Samantabhadra and Life Education 86 4.1 Definition of the Three Major Fields of Life Education 86 4.2 Relationship between the Ten Great Vows of Samantabhadra and the Three Major Field of Life Education 95 4.3 Exemplars of Samantabhadra’s ten great vows in life education 113 Chapter V: Conclusion 116 Bibliography 122 A. Primary Source 122 B. Secondary Source 122 Appendix 129 Appendix A: Developments on different stages of life education by Ministry of Education 129 Appendix B: Subcategories of the three major fields of life education 130
