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  A Comparative study on Mahayana Buddhist and Adventist concepts of suffering

  (Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies, 1993-01) Cho Gyung Hyun

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  Suffering, the fundamental teaching of Buddhism, has occupied the minds of the Korean people for more than sixteen centuries. The concept of suffering has become the basis for Korean philosophy and Iifestyle. The concept of human suffering is also a basic Adventist teaching. These two religions both have the concept of suffering in their beliefs. Both religions highly regard suffering as their religious framework. Adventists, although evangelical in doctrine, do not communicate well with Buddhists. The concept of suffering offers an avenue for dialogue, but Adventists are lacking in knowledge on the Buddhist understanding of suffering. Buddhists believe that suffering is inherent to all living creatures, including human beings, because of their relationship with the Five Aggregates and the Dependent origination. Therefore suffering is and a person cannot escape from its pervasiveness. Buddhists concede that greed and ignorance are the main causes means the Iiberation from suffering, called Enlightenment (nibbana). The Eightfold Path noble guide for mental discipline to become a perfect one, a Bodhisattva. This path is crucial to be practiced by the enlightened ones for their achievement morality, concentration, and wisdom. Adventists understand that suffering is a condition of all human beings, arising because of the weakness of human nature after the Fall. They claim that sin is the primary cause for all kinds of suffering. Sin is universal and therefore suffering is pervasive. Mankind is not left to suffer without hope of liberation, because God initiated the plan of redemption for suffering people through Christ's atonement on the cross. A person is in christ and sanctified by Christ. These two processes are the ways toward liberation. Adventists follow certain paths in the Scriptures, to perfect spiritual discipline. The two religions contain some points of contact between the two concepts of suffering, but the two concepts are quite different in essence. A common point is that suffering is the experience of aII human beings. Buddhists, however, attribute suffering to weakness of body and souI, whereas Adventists include weakness of spirit in addition to that of body and soul. A contrast point is that Buddhists do not have the concept of sin as the cause of suffering, therefore they do not feel a need of a being who can remove sin. A drastic confrontation is that to a Buddhist, salvation is self-salvation (anthrocentric), whereas to an Adventist salvation is God-salvation (theocentric). The two religions both describe religious paths to be followed by believers after gaining Iiberation. To a Buddhist, these paths are morality, meditation, and wisdom which are based on human effort. To an Adventists the paths are based on God and his power. The Adventists in Korean should perceive Buddhists not as pagans, who will perish without salvation, but as Godrs children who should be given the message of salvation by Adventist evangelism. With this commitment in mind, Adventists are obligated to create programs for working for Buddhists. In this program, all possible points of contact should be used to create bridges for meaningful dialogue. Christ should be the center in the Adventist evangelical carnpaign toward Buddhists.

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  A Comparison of productivity between younger and older nurses in Malaysia

  (Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies, 1994-03) Chan Soon Kew

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  Malaysia was facing the nursing shortage problem and yet the government continued with the early ret.irement, policy roused the interest to select this topic for research study. This study was designed to investigate if age contingency of the professional nurse affects level of performance. One hundred and thirty-four registered nurses from two private hospitals were selected in two age categories. The younger age group were nurses from age 25 to 49 while the older ones were from age 50 to 65. A Quality of Performance Model was constructed to use as a framework guiding this study. The study used three methods to measure performance: (1) a Semantic Differential Scale to survey the professional perceptions by supervisors of nurses under their direction; (2) six vignettes to measure the effectiveness and quality in decision making; and (3) observation on the performance of a nursing procedure by simulation, rated on critical criteria. Eight nuIl hypotheses posed were tested using chisquare and z-test of proportions. The results from the three methods indicate that there is no significant difference in performance between nurses in the younger and older age group, except on the work overload situation, the younger nurses made a significantly higher quality than did the older nurses in making quality decisions. On the whole, although there is a tendency to rate nurses in the younger age group higher than the older ones. This tendency was not significant at the < .05 Ievel. A document survey was also done on the origin of the early retirement policy in Malaysia. No specific rationale was found for this policy. Factors which influenced the early retirement might be the shorter life expectancy and high unemployment rate at the time Lhis policy was made. Based on the findings it is recommended that the nursing service administration should consider retaining and hiring healthy nurses, aged 50 and over and match the jobs to their functional profiles.

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