Papernumber: #1276


The Liveable and Sustainable Spirituality System - the Buddha's view and the systemic view on heaven, earth, hell, and liberation


Yan HUANG



keywords: Liveable and Sustainable systems, Taichi Yin-Yang system theory, Spirituality systems, The Four Noble Truths, Vipassana Noble Eightfold Path of Buddha, Vipassana Meditation As Taught By S.N. Goenka, Nibbana, Heaven and Earth, Differentiation



Many cultures have comparable beliefs about where humans come from before birth, and where they go to after death. Generally, Heaven is seen as a better place, while Hell is far worse. Even if Heaven is liveable, the question is whether it is sustainable or not. Buddha said that even life in Heaven will come to an end. Buddha asserts that humans are continuously reborn in the different states of either Heaven, Earth or Hell because of the defilements of craving, ignorance, and aversion. Liberation from these three defilements will result in Nibbana (Nirvana) which is a stable state where the individual is permanently freed from rebirth into any of the other states.

In this paper we employ the ancient and modern system theory to investigate the liveability and sustainability of these four states. Since the actual nature of Heaven and Hell is not easily detectable, the percieved nature of Heaven and Hell is analyzed.

Spirituality as refered to in this paper, is defined as the characteristics of our spirit -- our mind, our mental contents, our conscious -- which are detectable and can hence be analyzed. On this basis, how the mind transits from one of the three states to another is examined. Both system theory and the teachings of Buddha, called dhamma, are utilized in the investigation.

Even if the life in Earth is not the best sustainable state, but we are all here. So how can we make our lives remarkable while they are still liveable.paper we investigate on the art of paying back entropy debt in human systems.