佛教九品往生之生命教育對大學生之啟發 -- 以佛光大學佛學系104-1學期「淨七」課程學生為例=How Elements of Life Education with the Nine-Levels Rebirth of Buddhism, inspire university students -- As seen in the students of the Department of Buddhist Students of Fo Guang University participating in the "7-Day Meditation Retreat" in the 104-1 Semester
Under a bodhi tree in India, Sakyamuni Buddha discovered the Law of Conditioned Causation, thereby gaining for himself the ultimate emancipation and attaining Buddhahood. According to the principle of the conditioned causation law that "this exists because that exists, this is non-existent because that is non-existent; this lives because that lives, this perishes because that perished", where there is life, there must be death. But whether there must be life where there is death? While people who have things be definitely condemned to the endless cycles of transmigration without deliverance? At the present time in particular when global warming and damage to Earth's ecological system cause numerous natural disasters, when humankind fears the uncertainty of its life is a limited duration, religious study that transcends life and death, and is of ultimate practicality, as different from other forms of study, is of great topical significance. And among the various branches of Chinese Buddhism and their different ways of cultivation, the limitless nine-grade future life in the Western World of Supreme Happiness, held in great esteem, is of particular significance. The study of possible links between the limitless nine-grade future life in the Western World of Supreme Happiness and the transient duration of the present life as well as the possible inspiration of the former on the latter is the main theme of this discourse. Why does the Western World of Supreme Happiness provide nine grades of life? What kind of life education is embodied in these nine grades of future life? How does it inspire the temporal lives of university students? This study of the above-mentioned issues, which few academic research have covered, was mainly conducted through the observation of and involvement by the author in class-room group discussions among the 12 multi-national students who took part in the "7-Day Meditation Retreat" the author organized in the 104-1 Semester for the English Group in the Department of Buddhist Studies, Fo Guang University. The students were given the Amitayus Sutra as preached by the Buddha, as translated North/South Dynasties Period, and asked to compare the substance of the Nine-Grade Future Life ass described in the sutra with theories of life education, so as to sort out any relevance there is in the Nine-Grade Future Life in relation to life education in present-day life, and how it might inspire modern university students in life education, so as to highlight the humanistic and practical nature of Buddhism.
