Dhammananda_Why_we_should_practise_Buddhism.pdf

WHY WE SHOULD PRACTISE BUDDHISM

Before we begin to discuss why we should practise the Teachings of

the Buddha, it will be useful to understand why the Buddha decided to teach

a new religious way of life for gaining ultimate happiness in the first place.

You may recall that the Buddha had initially hesitated to declare this

doctrine because he saw how utterly confused people were about their

existence and their condition and how completely different his method was

from what they were used to. It was only when he reflected that there were

some people ‘with little dust in their eyes’, that he decided to impart his

noble and rational Dharma to mankind. He did this out of pure compassion

and to relieve the sufferings of all beings.

The Buddha’s path to Enlightenment in his last birth began when he

saw the four sights – the old man, the sick man, the corpse and the ascetic –

which gave him a glimpse into the insight that suffering is caused by

unsatisfactoriness. Once his mind was made up, he renounced the world and

began his quest for the complete extinction of every kind of suffering. He

noted that this suffering took many forms – social ills, discrimination,

misconceptions. He also saw people trying to escape suffering by becoming

slaves to religious practices like starvation and physical torture, under the

misconception that by abusing the body, they could release the so-called

soul. He also noted that on a social level enormous suffering was caused by

the division of people into four castes. Again women were horribly

discriminated against. Large sums of money were spent on meaningless rites

and rituals causing the death of helpless animals. The future Buddha saw

that all these had nothing to do with an intelligent understanding of the

plight of humanity and he wanted to show the correct path for final

salvation.

He wanted to introduce a noble way of life for human beings to

practise by restoring their natural dignity. He declared that salvation must be

gained through purification of the mind and gaining wisdom and not by

inculcating blind faith or fear of gods and commandments.

At this point it is necessary to distinguish between the teaching of the

Buddha, which we call the Dharma and the religion, Buddhism with its

related activities which were organized by his followers in accordance with

their traditions, customs and way of life. The Buddha had no intention of

founding a religion for people to believe in. On many occasions he declared

that he was not interested in whether people honour him or not. In fact he

encouraged his followers to deeply consider his teachings to decide whether

they were valid or not. He did not condemn anyone who did not follow his

order.

The Dharma which the Buddha realized and taught may be translated

as the Noble Truth, because it shows us the reality of our existence and helps

us lead a respectable harmless life to find liberation. Dharma is formed from

the root ‘Dhar’ which means ‘support’ or ‘hold up’. Therefore it means the

absolute truth on which rests the working of the entire universe. A

knowledge of this truth eradicates ignorance and therefore will help us to be

free from fear and superstition. It frees us to work out our salvation. It

prevents us from falling into unfortunate states of existence both in this

world or the next where we can be born as animals, unhappy spirits such as

hungry ghosts and so on. But do not forget, we need not wait to die to

experience these states – even when we are alive as human we can display

anger, hatred, greed, jealousy and descend into these levels. When we

develop strong mental habits with these defilements as their base, we

manifest them at death and are ‘reborn’ in these lower states. An

understanding of these processes, which is Dharma, will prevent us from

going to unfortunate states of suffering and from repeated birth and death.

As you can see, Dharma has very little to do with ‘religion’ as a system of

beliefs, rituals and priests. It is truly a way to train and purify the mind.

The real nature of the human mind is not explained clearly in any

other religion. But the accurate interpretations of mental activities can be

found in the Buddhist Abhidharma or higher Teachings. Modern

psychologists are still in the dark about certain areas of the human mind. But

they have admitted that when we compare modern psychology with the

psychology which existed 2500 years ago in India, modern psycgology is

still in the infancy stage! The Buddha had explained clearly many things that

people could not understand earlier. In fact, when we see the real nature of

the human mind, we can understand why we are called ‘manusya’ (Sanskrit).

‘Mana’ means mind, and by extension ‘manusya’ means one who can

develop, cultivate his or her mind up to the maximum level. A living being

who uses the mind in a rational way is called ‘manusya’. In the same way,

Chinese philosophy uses the word ‘humane’(ren), to describe those who

have sympathy, kindness and compassion and honesty. If these qualities are

absent in people, then we cannot regard them as real human beings. Western

philosophy defines this word, as referring to those who have a sense of

reasoning. In fact, ‘Homo sapiens’ literally means thinking man. All other

living beings have a mind but their minds are limited only to ensure their

survival, to help them find food, shelter, for procreation and a little bit of

pleasure, but they cannot extend their mind further than that. Even devas and

Brahmas who are regarded as divine or supernatural beings too, have no

intelligence as we have. They do not know what will happen to them after

their death. They do not know how to prepare for their next existence; they

have no such idea. The belief that becoming a deva or brahma should be the

final goal of our existence, is rejected by the Buddha. As long as craving for

existence in any living being exists, then that being will re-exist. We call that

strong desire to exist bhava tanha (craving for existence). Therefore, devas

and brahmas who have strong desires are also not free from rebirth but they

do not know that. Human beings can understand that death is not the end of

a life, but that existence again can take place. Wise human beings are

therefore in a position to prepare for the next existence and ensure that it is

not an unhappy one. This is where the religion becomes a useful aid.

Humans are the only living beings who can understand that we have the

power to control our own destiny. There is no other living being who is

capable of conceiving a religion. Human beings were able to conceive and

organize religion because of their intelligence. The usual belief is that

religions were originated in heaven and were brought down to this earth by

revelation, but Buddhism declares that religion originated on this earth in the

minds of human beings and later reached heaven. Religion did not come

down from heaven. In fact those deva realms (or heaven) are not really

conducive to spiritual development because they are solely concerned with

pleasure alone, and devas have no idea of the realities of impermanence and

suffering. This explains why the future Buddha had to descend to earth from

Tusita heaven where he was existing as a deva, to gain his enlightenment. A

god, a deva or brahma cannot become a Buddha, only humans can develop

their mind to that level of perfection because they are in a position to

examine the nature of sufferings. Now we can understand that we humans

have all the potential to cultivate our minds to reach the final goal, to see the

end of all our physical and mental sufferings or unsatisfactoriness. It is due

to a lack of understanding of this truth that some people try to ridicule the

Buddha by saying the Buddha is not a god and ask, ‘Why do you worship

him?’ ‘What can you gain from him?’ If we introduce the Buddha as a god,

we lower the supremacy of his enlightenment.

UNSATISFACTORINESS

All of us experience unsatisfactoriness. How many times a day we

experience unsatisfactoriness. That is what the Buddha has described as

‘dukkha’, which is not mere pain or suffering, although this is how we

normally translate this word. We experience unsatisfactoriness. We can

never be satisfied with whatever we gain because we want something else as

soon as we get it. We want to give up something as soon as we gain it

because it loses its attractiveness. We call this Impermanence. So throughout

our lives we struggle to grasp at things, and we always experience

unsatisfactoriness because we ourselves and the things we grasp are always

changing. To be really happy we must overcome this human weakness and

the struggle to realize why we are unhappy should be the aim in our life.

THE EXAMPLE OF THE BUDDHA

The example of the Buddha himself should be adequate to explain

how we can progress along the path to purification. The training process of

the bodhisattva before he became a Buddha was a long and difficult one.

The Jataka stories recount some of the innumerable previous lives of the

future Buddha where he underwent many trials in order to purify and perfect

his mind. Even in his last birth as Prince Siddharta he had to undergo many

trials before his Enlightenment. Even as a child, he observed one day how a

lizard which was eating some ants was swallowed by a snake only to be

picked up in its turn by a hawk. These chain of events impressed upon him

the nature of suffering where beings prey upon each other for their survival.

Then one day his cousin Devadatta wounded a swan which the prince nursed

back to health, convincing him that Compassion was the antidote to cruelty

which beings inflict upon others. He then came upon the famous four sights

– the old man, the sick man, the dead man and the ascetic which brought

home to him the great truth of Impermanence as the ultimate cause of

suffering. This realization led further to his decision to turn his back on the

world with its material comforts and to make the Great Renunciation.

RENUNCIATION

Many people today find it hard to accept Prince Siddharta’s decision

to leave his wife and newborn son and take up asceticism. This was not an

unusual decision in the culture of India where it has always been held that

the noblest path one can take is renunciation: to forgo the pleasures of the

flesh and seek spiritual perfection. It was a decision which brought honour to

the family. Also we know that the prince had discussed this matter many

times with his wife, although on that night before renunciation he refrained

from waking her up and the baby. And we know that the princess understood

and supported the decision saying that she understood his destiny. This was

also in keeping with Indian tradition as we see in the Rama and Sita story

where Sita faithfully supports her husband’s decision to spend 14 years in

the forest as an ascetic. Prince Siddharta’s wife understood his great calling

to save all beings and it would have been selfishness on her part to restrain

him from his mission, not the other way round.

After the great renunciation he embarked on a course of tremendous

austerities which he found fruitless and not leading to peace of mind. He

came to see that when the body is tortured by severe fasting and other

deprivations, the mind cannot be at ease to freely ponder on things as they

really are. He also knew that as a prince his life of excessive luxury was not

only unprofitable but ignoble. He therefore embarked on the Middle Path

between luxury and austerity and found the right formula for cultivating the

mind which eventually led to his Perfect Enlightenment.

BUDDHISM IN CHINA

Buddhism has long been an important force in shaping the cultures of

the people in Asia. For example, why did the Chinese people choose

Buddhism, rather than the other religions in India, such as Brahmanism or

Jainism? They had their own beliefs in China, but they were not satisfied.

They wanted to find out the answers to many questions about existence but

they could not find them in the religions prevalent in China at that time.

They therefore underwent incredible pain and difficulties to reach India by

crossing treacherous rivers, jungles and deserts. It took a long period for

them to reach India. However they had the courage to stay there for several

years, to study Buddhism. This is because when they observed carefully,

they knew that Buddhism was a universal religion. They knew it is easy to

practise Buddhism, because this religion did not make it necessary for them

to change their Chinese way of life, which had been handed down by their

ancestors over thousands of years. Appreciating this, they chose Buddhism.

After Buddhism was introduced in China, it developed to such an extent that

during Emperor Ming Ti’s period, Buddhism was declared as a state religion

in China. The Chinese noticed that the Buddha did not discourage people

from continuing to respect their own cultures and traditions, if they were

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