VOLUME 1. BUDDHA DESANA
Part I. The Buddha
Desana.
1. THE TEACHING
OF THE BUDDHA
One of the great religions
commonly known to various part of the world as Buddhism is the Teaching of the
Buddha. In general, the real essence of Buddhism is not properly understood by
many people of the world especially in the West. The term Buddhism is generally
used all over the world as a religion which is believed by the Buddhist people.
Some scholars who have earnestly done research in comparative study of
religions understand Buddhism correctly in its proper sense. However, many are,
as a matter of course, liable to be mistaken with other 'isms' as the word
Buddhism" itself is exposed with its suffix 'ism'.
The teaching of the Buddha
in terms of Buddha desana was discovered by Gotama the Buddha who was fully
enlightened and awakened in the Four Noble Truths (ariya sacca) in India
over 2,500 years ago. Gotama is the name of a clan; and the term Buddha is a
Pali word which literally means the Enlightened One. This particular name was
given to the holy man who had perfectly realized the Noble Truths and became an
All-knower or Omniscience (sabbannu).
Before he became the
Buddha, he was born as a prince of King Suddhodana and Queen Mahamaya. But
perfections for aeons of time in long long past lives searching for the Noble
Dhamma and aiming at the cessation of sufferings for himself and for all
sentient beings as well. That is, Buddha intended if He could attain Nibbana He
would help other beings so that they also could attain it like Himself. He,
having practised through strenuous effort and by human means, found out the
very state of utter liberation in Nibbana and revealed it to others with His
enlightened wisdom. That is, He taught to all mankind His Dhamma - the only
straight path of enlightenment that lead thereto. And as such, the main
objective or the final goal of His Teaching is for the attainment of Nibbana -
the ultimate liberation from all the endless sufferings in samsara (the cycle
of birth and death). Here, in order to attain the state of happiness of Nibbana
we have only to follow devotedly the footpath of the Buddha or the principles
of the Dhamma laid down by the Buddha.
2. NOT AN
'ISM'
As the term
"Buddhism" is exposed with the suffix 'ism', many are, however, led
to believe incorrectly that it is a kind of sins like several other ideological
'isms', such as socialism, communism, capitalism, feudalism etc. Since the term
is liable to confusion with other 'isms' as described above, I am really afraid
that Buddhism, especially Theravada Buddhism, is not well understood in its
proper sense by the majority of the people of the world.
As you may know, an 'ism'
is a system, theory, doctrine, method of practice and so forth, adopted by
philosophers or politicians. Buddhism, however, is not a system of practice for
material development only, nor is it theory merely to be studied, nor a
doctrine revealed by the miracle power of Buddha. But Buddhism is the natural
principles of man and the universe discoverable only by the supremely
enlightened human individuals for moral and spiritual attainment of the highest
and noblest character now and hereafter or at least for self-purification and
self-enlightenment.
3. NOT A RELIGION
The question of whether
Buddhism is a religion as casually known and accepted depends either on one's
own inner attitude or conviction or on the definition of the term 'religion'
referred to. If religion is defined as constancy in the acceptance of duty as a
divine command or as self-surrender of the human spirit to the Divine Power or
God, or as a belief in the Divine Power or Heavenly Being for guidance on one's
destiny or for sanctifying any committed sins, then obviously Buddhism is not
any such kind of religion.
If on the other hand, the
religion is defined in a modern or wider sense as a system of thought, a
rational faith or practice followed by individuals, or as an object of
veneration and devotion for the attainment of mental perfection and peace of
mind and body, then Buddhism may be called a religion.
Most of world religions
originally based their teachings on the idea of God. The believers in God
always maintain that God is the only Supreme One who is eternally existent
indefinitely everywhere in the heaven and elsewhere. Their ultimate aim is more
or less ever connected or concerned with the will or command of God. They ever
pray to God to get rewards for their good and for sanctification of their sins.
Such being the case, when they say 'religion', they mean only the idea of God.
In most cases, when they come up to the stage of unsolved mystery of thought,
they hand up at last all their problems into the will of God.
Quite contrary to the above
view, in Buddhism there is no Heavenly Being or Almighty God who can guide one
to one's own fate or destiny, make judgements on one's own behaviour or answer
to any supplications of prayer. In short, Buddhism believes in one's own
actions of how one has done either good or bad and in the results of how one
has to reap the fruits as reaction out of their very actions previously done.
For the aforesaid reasons Buddhism, as seen from the Western religious point of
view, cannot possibly be called a 'religion'.
4. NOT A
PHILOSOPHY
Moreover, another question,
that of whether Buddhism is a philosophy or not also depends on the definition
used. If the term 'philosophy' is defined as 'love of wisdom', 'serious
thinking, 'world view of things' or 'speculation about reality', then Buddhism
is obviously not a philosophy.
But, if the scope of
philosophy is wide enough to cover the deeper and more profound sense of
'search of truth', then Buddhism may be called, in the same way, a philosophy.
The interpretation 'search of truth' is quite similar to the search after the
Noble Truth (ariya sacca in Buddhism. But generally, most of the
philosophers in the West are usually seeking outward as well as inward to find
out underlying reality behind the temporal manifestations.
They generally avail
themselves of the different ways of finding out Ultimate Reality. They enjoy,
mostly, the intellectual satisfaction in the quest itself and thus are not
necessarily concerned with arriving at the ultimate truth. Philosophy, as is
commonly known, asserted by several well-known philosophers, is found different
in ideas, views and opinions. That is only because of the fact that an
inference asserted by a philosopher was often times rejected by another one
when it was disagreeable to his own view or opinion. That, in fact, proves that
the inferences were not really mature and true enough, but still lacking any
real validity.
The statements of their
philosophy guide one to take part not in a steady and orderly advance form
speculation to knowledge, but in a series of marches and counter-marches of
views and criticisms. They are hardly able to arrive at the final goal, instead
they are choosing to tread in the footsteps of their predecessors. Thus we see
that their quest is essentially speculative.
The Western philosophers,
of course, had admirably reasoned and laboriously worked out what they could,
but their tremendous conflict of opinions largely cancelled out each other's
value and left the students bewildered, ignorant and confused in their attempt
to see in a dim light. Moreover, the Western thinkers usually claimed that
nobody had discovered ultimate truth and that human intellectual limitations
were so narrow that nobody was likely to discover it. However, the Buddhist
canon claimed that the ultimate truth was certainly discoverable and that even
many sages had actually realized it. The Western philosophers, apparently in
such a gloomy search, had not reached the stage of the Noble Truth which was
discoverable only by the Perfectly Enlightened One, as they were naturally
incomplete and lacking in systematic methods or principles of the Absolute
Truth (paramattha Sacca).
In the case of Indian
philosophers, their quest after the Truth was also not absolutely perfect and
final though they exerted themselves to a great extent within their practice.
So what they had realized was not the final goal as seen from the view of
Buddhist sages who had become the Noble Ones (Ariyas). Their
interpretations regarding the Ultimate Reality were true only to the extent of
their own realizations, going no further and not wholly true. The knowledge of
truth that they had attained was only part and partial knowledge. And so the
perfection of human wisdom could never develop out of any mystical hermitage.
In fact, they could enter into mystic trances, yet they were not really
enlightened in the higher stages of insight or supreme wisdom
(adhipanna).
In the case of enlightened
ones in Buddhism, their approach was empirical like the approach of the
scientists and Indian philosophers, but the difference was that the latter
could reach only the culmination of the trance and no further. As for the Noble
Ones in Buddhism, when they came to the end of the meditative journey, there
needed to be no speculation for them as they had fully realized that they had
reached the final end, (Nibbana), by their actual experience of the
Noble Truth (sacca). This decidedly shows that there are the Noble Ones in the
Buddhist dispensation for some of whom there is no more rebirth as they have
attained the final state of Nibbana, i.e., totally cutting off the fetters,
thereby going beyond the mind-body complex, above the space-time and
cause-effect order of life-existence. Therefore it is a true fact that the way
to achieve the Ultimate Reality can be found only in the Teaching of the
Buddha, as the Buddha Himself taught in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta that in this
doctrine and discipline of Him, the Eightfold Noble Path is duly realizable.
5. THE
DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERISTICS OF BUDDHISM
The whole teaching of the
Buddha, in terms of Buddhism, can also be called 'Dhamma', 'Sasana', or
'Desana'. The term, "Dhamma", is a Pali word which means to bear or
to hold up or support. That is, the Dhamma holds up or supports one who lives
up to its principles so that one will not suffer in lower miserable abodes
(apaya). The Dhamma in its full sense means truth, that which really is. It
also means Law, the law which exists in man's mind-body and in the universe. It
consists of the natural principles of its own cosmic order.
The Dhamma has been founded
on the original conditions of man and the universe and therefore man and the
universe are only the states or the conditions of the Dhamma. Just as the
Dhamma, the natural Law exists in the universe, it also positively exists in
the man's mind and body. The Dhamma actually means natural principles of
righteous path for a man to liberate himself from the miseries of life and to
reach the state of supreme peace and happiness — Nibbana. The Buddha
Himself had found out the very state of ultimate liberation and revealed it to
others with His enlightened wisdom, i.e., He taught to all mankind the Dhamma
— the only straight path that leads thereto.
Nevertheless, Buddhism is
not the kind of revelation created by any Supernatural Being or God, but
natural or universal principles discovered through a practical experience by a
holy human being, the enlightened Buddha. The principles in the Teaching are
something like guidance for one who has mistaken a wrong way, or like the
medicine for a patient who is seriously sick from diseases of defilements, or
like a map for a traveller who is ignorant of the way to take for his journey.
The Dhamma indeed consists of ways and means on how one is to live for one's
mental or spiritual evolution of life towards the climax of ever-lasting peace
and happiness.
The other two terms —
"Sasana" and "Desana" - have also the same connotations.
Sasana is a Pali word which means advice or exhortation or injunction of the
Buddha. There are three kinds of Sasana, namely, 1. study or theoretical aspect
of the Dhamma (pariyatti,), 2. practice or practical aspect
(patipatti,), and 3. attainment of enlightenment in Nibbana by way of
the Path (magga) and Fruition (panna), i.e. realizable aspect
(pativedha). Desana is also a Pali term too, which consists of all the
words or teachings delivered by the Buddha Himself during His life-time.
6. A
PSYCHO-ETHICAL PHILOSOPHY
As the Dhamma is the
embodiment of natural or universal principles, as mentioned above, Buddhism is
therefore in the strictest sense of the term, neither a religion nor a
philosophy, nor an 'ism' as known in many parts of the globe. The Dhamma
discovered by the Buddha through His supreme enlightenment is for every
individual the practice to improve self-discipline, self- morality,
self-purification, to develop self-enlightenment and to strive for
self-emancipation from the miseries of life in Samsara (round of rebirths).
The Buddha not only showed
the ways and means for the attainment of supramundane wisdom (lokuttara
nana), but also prescribed social principles to solve the various problems
of the different classes of mankind in His time. These social principles laid
down by Him over 2,500 years ago are still fresh and quite applicable to the
present age of scientific achievement and computer era.
The Scholars of Buddhism
might find that different branches of study, such as philosophy, psychology,
ethics, sociology and many others in modern cultural arts, are so to speak,
embraced in His Teaching. This is one of the reasons why it is not easy for us
to define exactly whether the Dhamma of the Buddha is a philosophy ,
psychology, ethics or sociology. That is why Theravada Buddhist scholars in
particular prefer to call it "Buddha-dhamma" or
"Buddha-desana" or "Dhamma" or psycho-ethical
philosophy" instead of Buddhism.
7. RELEVANT
PRINCIPLES OF MAN
The Buddha-dhamma which was
discovered by the supremely enlightened man is therefore free from dogmas and
divine commands, and not related to any kind of Divine Power or God. In fact,
there is no punishment nor threat of hell-fire, nor reward of the Heavenly
Being, nor forceful conversion, It only appeals to man's reason to choose a
right kind of belief or faith. Since Buddhism is founded on reasoning
knowledge, compassion (karuna) and wisdom (panna) it encourages
each and every person to have a critical outlook by himself, reason with his
own experiments and to have free thoughts, free choice. It also guides one to
strive with his own effort for the progress of one's mature life because one is
solely responsible for one's own destiny and salvation.
Obviously, Buddhism
believes that good or evil actions are done only by oneself and thereby oneself
is to reap its corresponding fruits, either good or bad as a natural
consequence. The obvious fact is that, in Buddhism, there is no Heavenly Being
or God who can shape or create one or make judgements on one's behaviour or
destiny. In fact, one is wholly responsible to develop one's own standard or
stage of morality (sila), concentration (samadhi) and wisdom
(panna) in order that one can finally reach the very end of Supreme
Enlightenment (adhipanna). By only so doing can one evolve one's
potential stages of enlightenment in life, say from the stages of an ignorant
worldling to a virtuous person, then to a junior Stream-winner
(culasotapanna) who has realized the actual nature of mind and matter as
well as of the cause and effect, then to the Noble Ones or Holy Saints
(ariyas) till up to the Supremely Enlightened One (arahanta).
8. OUTSTANDING
FACTS IN BUDDHISM
The Buddha-dhamma is a
complete discovery of a dynamic cosmic order. So to say, complete
scientifically because it accounts not only for human life, but also for the
life of all sentient beings from the lowest to the highest; and also complete
morally because it includes all these forms of life in the one moral order.
Buddhism, in fact, teaches a cosmic law that exists everywhere; hence the same
moral law of spiritual evolution must prevail everywhere. Cosmic law and moral
order in Buddhism are related to one another as they are not in any other
religious systems.
Apparently, Buddhism does
not condemn anybody to eternal hell just because he happens not to be a
Buddhist. If a being goes to the regions of great woeful misery after death, it
is only because his own bad deeds have sent him there, and not because he
happens to believe in the wrong set of dogmas. The Dhamma only teaches that
whatever suffering a man may bring upon himself is commensurate with the
gravity of his own evil actions — neither more nor less. He may suffer
through several lives because of some very heavy evil actions (garu akusala
kamma), but sometime that suffering must come to an end when the evil that
has been generated has spent itself. The atrocious idea or view that a being
may be made to suffer throughout eternity for the sins committed in one short
lifetime does not exist in Buddhism. Neither does the equally unjust doctrine
that he may wash out all his sins by formal acts of contrition or by mere faith
in one particular deity or God for whom man has invented with his own idea.
In Buddhism, there is no
personal judge who condemns, but only the working of an impersonal law that is
just like the law of gravitation. Buddhism indeed indicates that the natural
law is immutably just, in other words, it is an absolute truth or cosmic
principle for which one has to keep up oneself with love, compassion, morality,
nobility, holiness, wisdom, etc., that only makes oneself divine or supreme.
In Buddhism, the first and
foremost fact, most difficult to understand is "rebirth" (jati)
that one oneself has created with one's own action. An ordinary person may
surely find very hard even to appreciate series of lives until and unless he
understands cause-effect cycles of the Dependent Origination
(paticcasamuppada). The very inexplicable question that this present
life is out of measureless eternity, is still unsolved and undiscovered by
modern scientists and philosophers. But the Enlightened Buddha, since over
2,500 years, had vividly shown the ample light of the theory of Kamma and
rebirth, that life-series and samsara are so long that the beginning as well as
the end of beings is unknowable.
Naturally, a serious
thinking person, seeing the various sights of inequality amongst mankind is by
no means satisfied as to why one becomes differentiated from another and ever
in quest of obtaining an appropriate answer of the real cause or reason.
Evidently, there are untold numbers of blind, deaf and dumb, mentally deficient
and diseased human beings whose pitiful conditions are not due to any fault of
theirs in this present life, nor any remediable defect in the organization of
human society.
In this respect, Buddhism
is alone in presenting rebirth as a scientific principle. When I say here
scientific, I mean that it is a principle in accordance with other universal
laws which can be understood scientifically and even investigated by scientific
methods. The principle of change (aniccata), serial continuity
(santati) and passing away (vaya ) is one that runs throughout
nature; all scientific principles are based on it. The three fundamental
characteristics of existence taught by the Buddha are common to each and every
one and everywhere. They are: "all conditioned things are impermanent, all
conditioned things are suffering and all things are insubstantial". What
is transient that is painful; what is painful that is soulless, impersonal or
insubstantial (anatta) i.e. the absence of a permanent unchanging self
or soul or ego in anywhere or in anybody.
All beings must come into
being as the result of past Kamma and pass away again just as we do here in our
human existence. As we all are subject to these three characteristics of
impermanence (anicca), suffering dukkha ) and insubstantiality or
soulless or egoless ( anatta), all sentient beings also follow just the same
universal principles. For instance, the composition of an aggregate of every
being is changing all the time, not remaining the same even for two consecutive
moments.
Similarly, the Four Noble
Truths — suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering
and the way to cessation of suffering — are quite universal principles
relating to each and every being. And this being so, the three characteristics
and the four Noble Truths are utterly valid wherever life exists.
Moreover, with regard to
the phenomena of mind and matter, the Buddha also taught that every being is
composed of mind and matter, yet one finds very hard to know the real fact of
these two phenomena. So one must strive to realize the differentiation between
mind and matter of his own physical and mental being. This also is quite a
valid principle for each and every one of humankind.
In the last but not the
least, the ultimate release, the attainment of the everlasting unchanging state
of Nibbana is something, so to say, the most supreme Peace and happiness of
life, that man can reach since man is the supreme master of himself. This very
state of Nibbana is to be attained only by eliminating all the factors of
rebirth that are rooted in the two fundamental defects of defilement, i.e.
ignorance ( avijja) and craving (tanha), in other words, the
three kinds of canker, greed (lobha), hatred (dosa) and delusion
(moha). Nibbana, which the Buddha described as the Unconditioned
(Asankhata), the Ageless (Ajara), the Deathless (Amata) and the
Ever-permanent (Dhuva) is the Absolute Reality that lies outside the
realms of conditioned and illusory cycles of rebirths (samsara). In
reality, Nibbana can be reached only by the actual practice of giving charity
(dana), of morality ( Sila), and of mental development by
meditation (bhavana); in other words, giving charity (dana)
eliminates greed (lobha), loving kindness (metta) or morality
(Sila) eradicates anger (dosa), and mental development
(bhavana) roots out ignorance (moha). In this way, when all
cankers or defilements are exterminated then only Nibbana can be attained.
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