The Ship :  The Nuts and Screws

  K.S.Chow

Introduction
I was once engaged to visit Setiawan, a  flourishing town in West Malaysia with two other  devoted Dhamma comrades to conduct a Buddhist youth training camp there. With profuse rejoicing, there I encountered a  Chinese entrepreneur dealing with logistics transport. He was the former president of a local Buddhist Society known as Setiawan Buddhist Association of Perak. His altruistic compassion was motivated by the benefit of wisdom of Dharma applied in managing  mundane enterprises. He expressed his earnestness to employ a full time Dharma preacher or instructor to impart the profound message of the Buddha. The Dharma teacher or instructor would be required to deliver Dharma lectures or discourses only in his home state of Perak. The discourses were targeted only at the members of various Buddhist societies formed in the  entire state of Perak. The successful candidate would be remunerated with a monthly allowance of RM2,000.00 from his personal generous contribution or dāna.

Generous Dharma protectors in generous  dāna are not unfound in Malaysia. But such generous financial support for a full time Dharma preaching career is extraordinarily rare in Malaysia. He had also spent an enormous sum of his financial resource to purchase and reproduce a countless number of Video CDs for free distributions to the local Buddhist community as well as to those Buddhists who have visited them from other states of Malaysia. He had even donated a Video CD duplicating machine to the Malaysia Buddhist Association, Kedah Branch. I was profusely mesmerized by his generosity and profound altruistic compassion in supporting the noble cause of Malaysian Buddhism.

Secret of Success
As I was captivated by his Dharma disposition and joy in him, curiosity motivated me to enquire about his transport business. He told me that his transport business  was rosy and lucrative. Instantaneously, I made a second enquiry on the contigent or immediate condition which was accountable for his entrepreneurial success. He was delighted and rejoiced in unveiling  the secret of his business success. He explicated thus:

I take very good care of my fellow workers or subordinates, wherever possible. I permit them to use my private cars or assist them financially to purchase their own cars for private utilities. I told them that they and I are traveling on the same ship. Each and every member of the ship is a pair of nut and screw. Every pair of nut and screw is indispensable or an absolute necessity to ensure the security and smooth operation of the body of the ship. The employer and employees swim and sink together. No one can rock the ship.

Wisdom of Insight
I was profusely impressed by the wisdom of this Chinese Buddhist entrepreneur. His business entrepreneurial flair was constructed and established upon the Buddhist wisdom of Emptiness or Dependent Co-arising- the interconnectedness  or interdependence between people and people. At that juncture, I immediately recollected what the highly celebrated Mahāyāna philosopher, Nāgārjuna affirmed in his Mūlamadhyamakakārikā  (MMK.24.14) which expounds thus :

Everything is pertinent for whom emptiness is proper. Everything is not pertinent for whom the empty is not proper.
MMK.24.14

This verse of Nāgārjuna should be interpreted thus : As all phenomena are empty of any impermanent substance or intrinsic nature (svabhāva), change is possible. Change can be effected  by replacing, modifying, altering, improving or upgrading the conditions or factors which determine the outcome or fruit (phala) of any enterprise. In other words, freewill and human efforts (purisa-viriya) can improve performances and results. Succinctly put, human destiny is not fatalistically determined. Any production or service can be improved by improving the conditions. This is the law of cause and effect (kamma-vipāka) known and seen directly by the six supernormal knowledges (abhiññā) of Śākyamuni Buddha. When wholesome conditions are conglomerated into oneness or totality known as a system which may be any category of operation or business system, success is the natural outcome and not otherwise. The duty of a good manager is to manage the conditions which constitute the system. This Setiawan Buddhist entrepreneur is adept in applying the wisdom of Buddhist central doctrine of Dependent Co-arising (paṭiccasamuppāda) and Insubstantilaity (anattā) or Emptiness (śūnyatā) in managing his human resources. paṭiccasamuppāda enjoins us that success is conditioned by managing the conditions wisely and effectively and that conditions are all interdependent and interconnected. Defect  of any condition in the whole system would impair or even jeopardize the smooth or fruitful operation or functioning of the wholeness of the system.  Anattā or śūnyatā admonishes us that every condition is empty of any inherent existence and can be regulated, improved or enhanced to insure operational  success.

Thus, we perceive that the supramundane wisdom of Buddhism may be applied to ensure mundane success. Internationally celebrated great master Ven. Xin Yun, founder of Fu Guang San of Taiwan has reiterated categorically that the supramundane wisdom ought to be utilized to undertake mundane activities for the benefits, welfare and wellbeing of the many. This is Humanistic Buddhism advocated by late great master Ven. Tai  Xi of the mainland China.

Let’s reflect further on the metaphor elucidated by the Setiawan businessman. Every pair of nut and screw is a compulsory component or aggregate of the ship body. Any defective pair will jeopardize the proper functioning of the ship. All the pairs of nuts and screws are the essential conditions for the conglomeration of the various ship components. They are interdependent and dependently co-produce the ship. Without the nuts and screws fastening the ship together, the ship cannot actualize its mission and arrives safely at its destination.

Conclusion
The memory of the tragedy of Titanic ship, a luxury liner, which struck accidently the summit of the iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland in April 15, 1912, still lives  vividly in the minds of many of us who have come to know the true story. It was made into a best-seller movies in 1997  which emerged  to be a great movies for reflections. Being always busily occupied, I seldom watch and enjoy movies . I watched Titanic  by chance. It was worthwhile as I extolled the illusion created by the Director of the Movies. He had successfully made what was unreal appear real. The great religious saints of the ancient, such as Kṛṣṇa, Lao-tze, Gotama Buddha, Jesus and Mohammad expound that the multiplicity of the empirical world is a cosmic illusion. The empirical world of phenomena is merely the images of the Absolute Truth.  Yet, it appears so real that we are deluded or illusioned. The illusive device employed by the movies director did deepen my discernment of this cosmic illusion. Therefore, I assert that it was worth watching it. This was also the reason why I was mesmerized by the movies. Watching movies could be edifying and spiritually inspirational. It depends on what one wants to learn from the movies. A similar movies could be discerned dissimilarly by dissimilar audience. Being esoterically inclined, I spend enormous time and energy in reading religious and philosophical literature to apprehend cosmic illusion and wisdom of the great saints. Consequently, I seldom watch movies. But when I watch, I make sure that I derive a penetrating lesson of ethics  and religious or philosophical wisdom from it.