(B) Responsibility in the Buddhist Sense
A sense of responsibility is the first requisite for doing services to others
and society. What is responsibility? The general conception of responsibility
is this: at work, one is obligated to do his best, otherwise he would be subjected
to reproach consequently. If one assumes responsibility under compulsion, it
seems, he would be no different from horses and cows driven to work unsparingly
by their cruel masters. Refuting this criticism, someone may say, It is
not fear of censure but the dictate of a guilty conscience that is the incentive
of hard-working. In reply, the writer would say, you should admit,
the so-called conscience is a tricky thing which, as explained in the previous
chapter, may direct you to go wrong, and if you disobey, you would be obsessed
with fear of punishment. Now, granted that conscience has power over you, in
that case, what do you think you are, and what are you made up of?; or would
it be possible for you to have double conscience, one good and one bad?
Ironically, nowadays in every society, people are used to say that because they
have a clear conscience, they are men of responsibility. However, it is so easy
for them to fall into evil ways and to become irresponsible. Why? From the standpoint
of Buddhism, it is because of their misconception of conscience that their conception
of responsibility is ambiguous and erroneous. On the other hand, if the true
sense of responsibility is realized, there is no question that they would carry
out their responsibilities without fail. In order to facilitate our understanding
of true responsibility, for expediency, Buddhism calls it truthful responsibility.
To carry out ones responsibility truthfully, it call for an integration
of four fundamental prerequisites: Universal Mind, Compassionate Mind, Grateful
Mind, and an Understanding Mind to apprehend the cause-and-effect relationships
of everything in life. Buddhism tells us that at work we should not look upon
our superior with fear nor should we treat our subordinates with arrogance,
and this is called the Universal Mind. Next, if our subordinates are in difficulty,
we should go a long way to help them, and this is called a Compassionate Mind.
Indebted to the guidance of our superior and the assistance of our subordinates,
we are under obligation to repay both benefactors, and this is called a Grateful
Mind. The fundamental Law of Causality, symbolized by the reap as you
sow slogan, e.g., good seeds bring good fruit and bad seeds bring bad
fruit, operates automatically like shadow following the substance: corruption
breaks up the precept not to steal; indolence leads to idleness;
losing temper breeds anger; rudeness spells arrogance; in short, if in discharging
ones responsibility, one breaks any of those precepts, he is bound to
get the retribution in due time, and to be able to realize the cause-and-effect
relationships in daily affairs and activities is called an Understanding Mind.
If he does his work in keeping with these requisites, certainly he would carry
out his responsibility with these requisites, certainly he would carry out his
responsibility with every satisfaction. And this is called truthful-to-responsibility,
or for short, truthful responsibility. On the other hand, in his dealing with
other people, if he does not understand this principle of Buddhism, he would
run counter to it; to the superior he would be obsequious and to the inferior,
arrogant; to those who he thinks may be useful to serve his interests, he is
all humbleness, but to those with whom he bears grudege, he would revenge with
double effort; being egoistic and self-centred, he knows no gratitude to others;
to him, wealth, power and fame are the substantial practical things in life,
and the Law of Cause and Effect, Fruit and Retribution is false and incredulous.
Unfortunately, this misconception of life is commonly upheld by a vast majority
of the people of the world, owing to their ignorance of this fundamental truth
that whereas man-made punishments, whatever they are, may be averted, the fundamental
Law of Cause and Effect is inviolable, therefore the inexorable wrong-doer not
only inflicts harm on others but also on himself eventually.