Dhamma (Wisdom) Discussion after Meditation Session
with Venerable Na Long Dhammakaya
Which things do Buddhists do differently to those of other
religions?
Answer by: Venerable Nicolas Thanissaro
Buddhism is a very old and diverse religion. Thus, there
have been many attempts to summarize the features which Buddhists have in
common and hence how these differ from those of other religions. The most
famous of these are Colonel Henry Olcott's fourteen points: Buddhists are
taught to show the same tolerance, forbearance, and brotherly love to all men
(people, ed.), without distinction and an unswerving kindness to the members of
the animal kingdom.
The universe was evolved, not created; and it functions
according to law, not according to the caprice of any god.
The truths upon which Buddhism is founded are natural. They
have, we believe, been taught in successive kalpas, world periods, by certain
Illuminated beings called Buddhas, the word Buddha meaning enlightened.
The fourth Teacher in the present kalpa (aeon) was Sakyamuni
or Gautama Buddha, who was born in a royal family of India about 2,500 years
ago. He is an historical personage and his name was Siddhartha Gautama.
Sakyamuni taught that ignorance produces desire (craving
unsatisfied desire is the cause of rebirth, and rebirth the cause of sorrow).
To get rid of sorrow, therefore, it is necessary to escape rebirth; to escape
rebirth, it is necessary to extinguish desire; and to extinguish desire, it is
necessary to destroy ignorance.
Ignorance fosters the belief that rebirth is a necessary
thing. When ignorance is destroyed, the worthlessness of every such rebirth,
considered as an end in itself, is perceived, as well as the paramount need of
adopting a course of life by which the necessity for such repeated rebirth can
be abolished. Ignorance also begets the illusive and illogical idea that there
is only one existence for man (humankind), and the other illusion that this one
life is followed by states of unchangeable pleasure or torment.
The dispersion of all this ignorance can be attained by the
persevering practice of an all-embracing altruism in conduct, development of intelligence,
wisdom in thought, and destruction of desire for the lower personal pleasures.
The desire to live being the cause of rebirth, when that is
extinguished, rebirths cease, and the perfected individual attains by
meditation that highest state of peace called Nirvana.
Sakyamuni taught that ignorance can be dispelled and sorrow
removed by the knowledge of the four Noble Truths, i.e. the miseries of
existence the cause productive of misery, which is the desire (craving, ed.),
ever renewed, of satisfying oneself, without ever being able to secure that end
the destruction of that desire or the estranging of oneself from it.
The means of obtaining this destruction of desire. The means
which he pointed out is called the Noble Eightfold Path: i.e.: Right Belief,
Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Means of Livelihood, Right
Exertion, Right Remembrance, Right Meditation. Right meditation leads to
spiritual enlightenment, or the development of that Buddha like faculty which
is latent in every man, The essence of Buddhism, as summed up by the Tathagata
(Buddha) himself, is " 'to cease from all sin, to get all virtue, to
purify the heart'.
The universe is subject to a natural causation known as
karma. The merits and demerits of a being in past experiences determine his
condition in the present one. Each man (person, ed.), therefore, has prepared
the causes of the effects which he now experiences.
The obstacles to the attainment of good karma may be removed
by the observance of the following precepts, which are embraced in the moral
code of Buddhism: i.e.: (1) kill not; (2) steal not; (3) indulge in no forbidden
sexual pleasure; (4) Lie not (5) take no intoxicating or stupefying drug or
liquor.
Five other precepts which need not here be enumerated should
be observed by bhikkhus and all those who would attain, more quickly than the
average layman the release from misery and rebirth. Buddhism discourages
superstitious credulity. Gautama Buddha taught it to be the duty of a parent to
have his child educated In science and literature.
He also taught that no one should believe what is spoken by
any sage, written in any book, or affirmed by tradition, unless it accords with
reason, If I were a school student, I would be focusing on points 1. (no
violence is allowed even in the name of one's religion), 2. (no creator god is
needed to account for existence) and 9, (salvation is achievable by a man's own
efforts in meditation).
April 6th Pix
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