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has apparent existence because of the apparent union of countless dust particles. Aside from the dust particles, there is no world. Similarly, according to modern scientific view, the world is made up of atoms. Aside from the atoms, there is no world.23
The third argument is that since the Buddha's teaching is the truth, it must contain all the knowledge ever discovered by science. However, the Buddha's words do not contain every detail of science, but they do contain the principles from which science is derived. One writer puts it: "Although Buddhism is not science, it is science and philosophy on a higher level."24 Another writer puts it: "Buddhism is the philosophy from which science is derived.”26 Since Buddhism is super science, it fulfills the a priori conditions of not getting into conflict with science.
The fourth kind of argument is the reconciliation of apparent contradictions between science and Buddhist teaching. One problem discussed is the existence of Amitabha's western paradise. The conviction that the world is a globe spinning round the sun has rendered the interpretation of the term "west" rather problematical. Two essays have been written to solve this problem and I leave the reader to reconstruct the arguments for themselves.20
IV. The Self-perception of the Monks
At the outset of this paper, the observation was made that the monk's self-perception changes in relation to his perception of the reality around him. At whatever point in time, monkhood must maintain its sense of purpose. The monk must find his own life attractive and his sense of value adjusted to his perception of reality, which cannot be totally cut off from the community's perception of it. Hong Kong has experienced a lot of changes in recent decades and these changes posed challenges to the sangha and I have documented some of its major responses. Here I shall discuss the monks' self-perception in terms of these responses.
During the last two or three decades, monks in Hong Kong have experienced great changes in material conditions. There have been great fluctuations in the numbers of monks when immigrant monks came from mainland China and later dispersed