In week four of ethics, we travelled to the Eastern ethics and values in particularly, China, Japan and Persia. One of the lecturers introduced to us the ethics in China which was taught by a great philosopher, Confucius , which later on became a religion. We got the chance to know more about the ethics and values. One of Confucius quotations grabbed my attention which was “ what you do not wish for yourself, do not wish for others” This saying is also one of the sayings that our prophet Muhammad taught us in my religion, Islam. It is astonishing to know how most of our values and ethics are very similar in fact. Later in the lecture, the talk went from China to Persia, the lecturer told us some of the history of Persia and also of Zarathoustra who was the founder and prophet of Persia (Iran) at that time. Lastly, one of the lecturers shared his experiences when he was living in Japan. He was living there for years and some of the ethical issues and how he dealt with them. He shared some of his stories which were greatly surprising to me. The values and ethics the Japanese follow or possess perhaps, are truly great, that’s why Japan is one the most developed countries in theworld.
In the tutorial class on this week, Mr.John lecture was about the various perspectives of ethics. I choose to write a little bit about Lamaism and the reason why I chose this is because it was my first to hear about this religion. After doing some research I found that Lamaism is in fact is a distinctive form of Buddhism that arose (7th century) in Tibet and the Tibetan religion of about 3 million Tibetans and 7 million Mongols and others. In their belief the Dalai Lama is the equivalent of the Pope for them. A secondary leader is the Teshu Lama (or Panchen Lama). These two are regarded as ‘Living Buddhas’, being reincarnations of Buddha passing from one existence to another. When one dies, his successor is sought from among the baby boys born at the time the leader passed away because it is believed that the soul of the Buddha has only passed into another existence. I also found in other sources where it merely considered Lamaism as a corrupt form of Buddhism. It is sometimes called the Yellow Religion or in some areas degenerated into a form of spirit worship.