Author：Gilbert Chen
In 2012, Mr. Stan Shih made a wise declaration: Taiwan should not just be a technological island. Instead, there should be more humane elements involved in this island. It deeply touched me. He is such a prominent personage in this disturbing world. We have been looking for the actual culture position for PSI during the past decade. What is the better way to develop continually and steadily in the future? I would like to introduce more culture position and goals for PSI in the following two issues for better understanding. Meanwhile, I hope all the employees in PSI will be able to gain a higher level of thought about life. The following basic explanations are about ideas on life for human beings. I will introduce the humane working system in the next issue
1. Survival, adequate food and clothing—animal nature
Once after leaving the protection of mother, feeding up himself/herself has become a basic requirement for survival. There are three elements: survival, adequate food and clothing, which are common demand for people and animals. During growth, we further learn certain professional skills to support our living. Hence, survival and adequate food and clothing are the first and basic lessons in our life.
2. The improvement of knowledge and abilities—for a better development and life
Aristotle, St. Thomas and Scholasticism claimed: Life is made up of two parts: One is Matter—Material. And the other is Spirit—soul. Whether they are human beings, animals or plants, they all own these two parts. However, there are certain differences on the spiritual aspects. The soul of a plant just gives it life, making it grow and keeping it alive. It is what we call nutritive soul. The animals possess perception and simple learning ability, so they are considered as having perceptual soul. The rational soul belongs to humans, who have souls and can independently. Because of rational souls, we have intellect and will. With them, we create science, literature, social, economy, law, medicine, art, etc., one generation after another. Because of these developments, people create this prosperous society. Through learning, people can promote their knowledge and abilities, which can be a way for living. The power of knowledge could guide their families into a better development and quality of life, exceeding basic needs for survival and development.
However, it can only satisfy people’s material desire. But humans have the deeper aspect—the spiritual life. Plenty of professional knowledge and luxurious material life can’t make people live happily and satisfactorily. Therefore, after people are free from pursuing in their material life, they will ponder how to enrich their own spiritual life and get into the nonmaterial field of literature, art, philosophy, and moral practice.
3. The practice of philosophy and morality—discuss about life and promote spiritual life.
Philosophy is a reasonable method to solve problems. Such as “soul in life” which mentioned above, life owns its origin and end. Material part in life will pass with the old age, turning into dust. How about soul? Many people in the world have the custom to worship their ancestors and worship the dead prominent personages as the god. This is evidence for the indestructibility of soul. Of course, there are many more religious theories to explain the indestructibility of soul. Now that soul is indestructible, soul needs to find its destiny when life ends. Every religion has a different claim for the destiny of soul. There is a Chinese proverb, “Good and evil must at last have their reward. It will come when the time is right.” On the basis of knowledge and abilities, there should be a higher standard to make the society more civilized.
Though currently this world is an era of knowledge, there are always conflicts: fights for power and wealth in our society, countries and international relationships. This world is full of the people’s dark side. Therefore, knowledge is only a tool in the material world. Without excellent philosophy, morality and the education in literature and art, people at most can be said to be a higher-level animal, making use of the wisdom the god gives and using the animal instinct. A comprehensive education needs more elements from philosophy, literature, art, and morality to fully promote the practice in spiritual level and then brighten our life.
4. Heaven and the world—the promotion of spiritual life and man and integration with nature.
Based on the thought of people’s knowledge, the material in life comes from the combination of negative and positive sides and finishes at the end of life. However, the origin and end is not what we can understand with modern knowledge. Therefore, many prophets now and before, with the inspiration from God, have planned many operation patterns for religions, heaven and the world, and the theories of the soul’s origin and end. With the respect and fear to God, the constraining force of moral conscience in society can be revealed.
On the other hand, if people don’t believe the existence of God, the constraining force of morality will be lost in control. Then people can only rely on laws to constrain their behaviors. Everyone can see clearly how our society becomes with the management of laws. It takes the power of morality to promote people’s behavior. Saints and theology are the supporting power when people accumulate moral and conscience. The practicing basis of saints and theology lies in the classic books and sacred tradition that God inspires the prophets. With the saints’ behavior and the explanations of the classic books made by theologians, we get closer to and understand more about the destiny the god gives human beings. With more people following the norm of God, the social development will be more positive. The explanations above will be stated as the following graph, expressing the contents clearly:
