The position of eastern religion is that nature is eternal, and that man should find his place in the rhythms and eternal cycling of nature. Nature includes both life and death, health and sickness, good and evil. If nature is the standard, right and wrong disappear. The symbol of Taoism, the Yin-Yang, embodies this worldview, showing good and evil, life and death, a part of each other. The ultimate position of eastern mystics is that everything is good, whether or not it is an outworking of cruelty and violence, such as evolution’s concept of “survival of the fittest, because nature is “the bottom line”.

Buddhists teach the following story: “Once there was a young woman named Kisa Gotami, the wife of a wealthy man, who lost her mind because of the death of her child. She took the dead child in her arms and went from house to house begging people to heal the child. Of course, they could do nothing for her, but finally, a follower of Buddha advised her to see the Blessed One who was staying at Jetavana, and so she carried the dead child to Buddha. The Blessed One looked upon her with sympathy and said: ‘To heal the child, I need some poppy seeds; go and beg four or five poppy seeds from some home where death has never entered.’”

“So the demented woman went out and sought a house where death had never entered, but in vain. At last, she was obliged to return to Buddha. In his quiet presence, her mind cleared, and she understood the meaning of his words. She took the body away and buried it, and then returned to Buddha and became one of his disciples.” (1)

The teaching of the story is that sickness and death, as parts of nature, are all there is. Nature is “the bottom line”. We just have to become perfectly dispassionate in our attitude toward these despairing things. Buddhism teaches meditation into a state of passion-lessness. The Eight-Fold Path of Buddhism is intended to suppress all attachment and desire, and lead to passion-lessness (Nirvana).

How different from the hopeful and victorious message of Jesus Christ! Jesus, through many miracles, healed sickness and death, and whose life, death, and resurrection testified that God, Creator Almighty, the Ultimate Reality, has intervened in love for mankind, in a corrupt and dying world, to make us a part of His reality. For the sake of science, as well as their own sakes, more scientists should have this world-view.

• Mark Cadwallader, Board Chairman of Creation Moments

Ref: (1) The Teaching of Buddha, Buddhist Promoting Foundation, Kosaido Printing Co, Tokyo, Japan, 1966, 29th revised edition, 1985, pg 186. Image: Nava Jetavana Temple, Dharma from Penang, Malaysia, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons, Changes made.

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