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Learn to Face Facts in Life
Because of selfish desire we like to lead a perpetual permanent, peaceful and prosperous life notwithstanding the fact that things that which appear before us are all impermanent. So our selfish desires cannot ever be satisfied because everything is impermanent. Change is a universal constant. Nothing remains static, and we are condemned to grasp at things which forever remain beyond our reach - because we, and the things change the moment they are touched.
But regardless of such changes, goaded by delusion and selfish desires we desperately hope for an unchangeable life. One day the Buddha advised Ananda, “If anybody should ask the question as to why death takes place, you will have to tell them that death takes place because of birth. If there is no birth then there is no death. If you try to prevent death by force, then you do not understand the nature. You are in fact going against the laws of nature”.
People generally are happy with birth but have an intense fear of decay and death. If there is no birth then there will be no death. The setting sun in one country becomes the rising sun in another country. So a setting sun is not the end of the sun. In the same manner, death itself is not the end of a life for death in fact is the beginning of another life.
Birth then is the beginning of death. Death is the beginning of a life. Birth brings the death certificate. So if we want to avoid death, we must prevent birth. Therefore we must be wise not to repeat our follies and prepare ourselves not to suffer again. Through observation and study we understand why there is so much injustice and inequality in the world. We begin to see that it is pot the wok of a whimsical creator but the working of our own good or bad action (karma) in the past. We can even observe the good or evil effects of our actions in this very life: good begets good, evil begets evil.
Buddhism for Worldly People
Worldly life is indeed very troublesome. It is therefore not so easy for laymen to practise a religious way of life. If they try to be religious by changing their habits then that can become a nuisance to others who live in their midst. Their family members and friends may not appreciate their new way of life.
However if they change their ways gradually others will have a chance to adapt to them and make adjustments. On the other hand, one can also become religious without disturbing others by cultivating loving-kindness, honesty, patience, tolerance, unity, harmony and understanding. However, these good qualities can also create disturbances when others take the advantage for their own benefit. It is really not necessary to go to extremes to renounce everything. lust lead a normal life.
The Buddha introduced this practical religious way of life for lay-people and householders according to their worldly demands. Without renunciation, lay people should not try to emulate the way of life of monks and nuns. Similarly, monks also should not follow lay peoples’ way of life. Today, some of them have mixed up many of these methods.
By recognising the difficulties they have to face in discharging their duties, responsibilities, commitments and obligations which n they have to fulfil in order to support their families, people have to do certain things. The Buddha said they can maintain four kinds of happiness by earning and investing; experiencing worldly pleasures in a reasonable way from income righteously earned; by avoiding indebtedness through proper management of their income and expenditure, and by leading a righteous life. When people come to realise that they have not done any harm to anybody, then they need not have any guilty feeling. This blissful feeling is indeed the most remarkable happiness one can experience. All the other kinds of gross happiness will disappear from the mind.
This happy state that they maintain and retain in the mind will remain until their death and support them to have a better rebirth because they will depart from this world without having any form of confusion in their mind. This is the way people have to adjust their way of life if they want to lead a meaningful worldly life. Apart from the majority of householders a few men and women decide to voluntarily renounce the worldly life altogether and resort to the life of a monk or nun. Such people find happiness and peace of a different sort.
Open-mindedness in Buddhism
Upali, a very wealthy follower of another religion, once came to see the Buddha saying that he wanted to become his disciple. The Buddha asked, “Why do you want to become my follower?” Upali replied “People say that your teachings are wonderful”. Buddha then asked, “Have you heard any of my teachings?” When Upali replied in the negative, Buddha’s next question was, “Then how do you know whether you can practise my teaching or not? That is not the way for a man to change his religion. One must study and try to understand the teaching before one is convinced”.
Then Upali, became even more determined to follow the Buddha and said, “Venerable Sir, I think this advice of yours is more than enough for me to understand the nature of your real teaching. If I had approached another religious leader, he would at once have accepted me and would have announced that so and so had also become a follower of his religion. But instead Sir, you advised me to study and consider whether to accept your teaching or not”.
When the Buddha wanted to give a sermon, he did not conduct it just like giving a public talk. He would first study the minds and understanding capacity of his listeners and advise them according to their mental capability so that they could grasp his teaching easily.
How to see the Buddha
One of the disciples of Buddha named Vakkali had a regular habit everyday of gazing upon the Buddha’s person. The Buddha having noticed this, asked him, “What are you doing here? Vakkali’s reply was, “Venerable Sir, when I look at the serene features and good complexion of your body, that itself gives me a lot of satisfaction”.
The Buddha then asked “What do you expect to gain by admiring this body which is dirty, ugly, smelly, impermanent? One who sees the Dhamma, sees the Buddha. This should help you to understand how to see the real Buddha. If you indeed want to see the real Buddha, then you must create that Buddha in your mind through his teaching”.
We have a wrong concept about life. We regard our physical body as our life itself. We cannot see in its proper perspective. Mental energy and the life process both work together. The body is merely the shelter to house our physical being. We devote our whole life to look after, feed, wash and clean to beautify our body by spending so much money not knowing that our body creates enormous unsatisfactoriness and suffering.
Three Main Principles in Buddhism
Discipline (Sila), development of a well trained mind (Samadhi) and the attainment of supreme wisdom (Panna) are the three basic principles in human life. Only human beings can cultivate these good qualities. The prime objective among the three basic principles in Buddhism is the observance of precepts - sila.
Sila
Man is a social being and develops his character in relation to the society in which he belongs, so whatever he does, leaves its impression not only on himself but also on that society. The observance of the moral precepts must, therefore, also leave their impression. Morality, includes all the virtues of the honest respectable person.
It has been identified with virtues in general, and many admirable qualities have been interpreted in relation to the ideals of purification and restraint as they are realised with the body, speech and mind. It is usually understood as referring to the five moral precepts which constitute the layman’s definitive code of practical ethics. He has to begin the spiritual journey by taking the five precepts and every lay devotee is expected to observe these five elementary rules of conduct.
It is in keeping with the Buddhist spirit that observance should be based on experience and reason. The final goal of Buddhism is supramundane, but it is always down to earth and in the observance of the five precepts the Buddhist is kept in close touch with reality. Exercising his will and reason man realised that by taking a certain path he can contribute not only to his own welfare but also to the welfare of the human race. He wills to take that path. Here is the recognition of manhood, of man’s own power and responsibility.
Sila or moral development gain through self-discipline. We must learn how to live as harmless and gentle human beings. In simple language we must know how to live without disturbing the peace and happiness of others. If we are able to do this it will indeed be a great achievement. Discipline, good conduct, precepts and morals are all synonymous with this word ‘sila’. This is the foundation on which to start a religious way of life.
If a house is built without laying a proper foundation, it will be very unstable. Modern man has learnt the hard way how important it is to live in ‘sila’. It means respecting the right of others to exist. If we believe that the world was created solely for our own benefit, then we will take from it whatever we want indiscriminately; without caring about what happens to other living beings and the environment like plants, rivers, the atmosphere and so on. In the end, as a result of major ecological imbalances of nature created by us in our modern way of life, we will be destroying ourselves. A good Buddhist on the other hand has a deep respect and concern for the well being of every other being.
In his infinite wisdom, the Buddha knew that we cannot be perfect at once. Hence, he starts by encouraging us to restrain from committing harmful deeds. Once we make progress in laying down a firm moral foundation, we can gradually practise mental purification. Buddhism allows an individual to make progress on the basis of his level of realisation and does not dogmatically impose on him a rigid code of conduct without regard to his potentials, level of development and attitudes.
Precepts are useful for cultivating humane qualities and virtues. These are qualities important for maintaining peace and happiness. The motivation for upholding these precepts is not the fear of punishment, but understanding and compassion. When the Buddha advised us, “Not to do evil”, it was with the welfare of others in mind. As human beings, it is our duty to perform some service to others by practising generosity, kindness and giving a helping hand to others who need our support to rid themselves of grievances, worries and other problems. By rendering selfless service to others, not only do we bring benefits to others, we reduce our selfishness as well. We should not perform a good deed with ulterior motives, since our deeds will be marred by the impure intentions.
So the real Buddhist concept of “Not to do evil” and “To do good” is not based on
punishment and reward, but on the need to reduce our selfish desire and cultivate our mental purity. We do not use fear to force people into complying with these precepts. Using fear instead of understanding will not give rise to the cultivation of sympathetic feelings and can result in people becoming superstitious and dogmatic.The avoidance of evil and the performance of good are highly commendable, but they are not enough. From experience we know that as long as the greed, anger and illusion which are deeply embedded in the mind are not removed, we are still capable of committing some bad deeds. Hence, there is a need for us to purify the mind. To do this, we will have to constantly watch the mind and remove from it mental impurities. When impure thoughts and motivations are extinguished, the mind is always good and pure, and we will reach the final goal.
As human beings however, we know that our present existence is not the first and the last life. The advantage of becoming a human being is that we know this and can prepare for a life after death. Many people hope to go to heaven after their deaths but when we consider how some religions explain it, we are forced to conclude that they really have no idea what it is or even where it is.
When a rich man asked the Buddha’s advice on how he could go to heaven after his death, the Buddha answered, “Why do you want to wait until you die to experience heavenly bliss? Even while you are living in this world you can experience heavenly bliss if you know how to handle this life properly”.
The Buddha was a practical religious teacher who did not introduce mythology, temptation or fear into people’s minds. People must learn how to make use of life properly, how to avoid problems, troubles, worries and disturbances, so as to gain more knowledge and understanding. After developing understanding, they can adjust their lives accordingly.
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