SO TO ZEN - Shasta Abbey

The Religion of the Future 97present, social morality is considered more important than theformer feudal morality, which was concerned essentially withthe relationship between lord and vassal. Under democracy wemust all help each other and seek peace and happiness. Individualmorality is of course important, but social morality is evenmore important because the individual cannot live apart fromsociety. The development of religion is accelerated by theelevation of moral ideals. Accordingly, we may say that themore highly religion is developed, the greater the number ofmoral elements it will contain.It is an undeniable fact that changes in social structurestimulate the development of religion. It is said that societyprogresses from feudalism to capitalism and then to socialism.Of course, there are many problems concerning order, valueand other points in this development, but it clearly shows thatman is always looking forward to the realization of an idealsociety. The ideal society which Buddhism seeks is a worldfilled with compassion and justice. It is problematical whetherin the final analysis this wish can be realized in the presentworld. However, great men of religion have already broughtthis about within themselves in the present world. Even ifperfection of society is not possible, we should not abandonthe ideal. Ancient religion reflects the social structure of thesociety in which it developed. Therefore, we cannot ignore theinfluence which alterations in the social structure exert on