BACK.....
Facing the Facts
Buddhism is a religion which always encourages man to face the facts of life without depending on imaginary concepts, and to accept the truth wherever it may be. Therefore, Buddhists do not reject the facts pertaining to worldly matters as discovered by great thinkers and scientists. Although the Buddha paid more attention to spiritual development, He never neglected man’s worldly progress.
His teachings give some sound and practical advice on how to work properly without wasting valuable time and effort, and how to act wisely for the progress of mankind. He said that man should fulfil his duties towards his family, relatives, friends, community, county and the whole world. Therefore Buddhists should not ignore their obligation to make this world more happy and peaceful by contributing their share within their capacity.
He never interfered with the affairs of government or with reasonable laws imposed by government. He was not against social customs and traditions so long as they were harmless and useful to society. It must also be said that the Buddha never sought personal political or military power in order to introduce his spiritual way of life, though kings and the ministers were among His many followers.
Here we have a religious way of life which teaches us
to care for others, to sacrifice our own comfort for the sake of suffering
humanity. It asks us to observe religious precepts or disciplines voluntarily,
not as commandments imposed on us by some unseen beings. By observing such
good principles according to our own convictions, we get the chance to
perfect ourselves and also help others live in peace. Such perfection is
the highest goal which a person must attain before gaining his salvation.
It cannot be obtained through the influence of any God.
Come and See the Results Immediately
According to this religion we can see the results of most of our good and bad actions within this very lifetime. Heavenly bliss or Nirvanic bliss can also be experienced within this very life time. You don’t have to wait until you die.
This is why the Buddha always welcomed people to come and observe His way of teaching; not to come and believe it all at once. He actually advised people on how to choose a proper religion, by considering, analysing and investigating it in various ways without accepting anything through emotion or blind faith. Of course all religions promote faith.
But faith in Buddhism is not a surrender to the unknown;
it is not submission to fear and punishment. Buddhist faith is the courageous
acceptance of what one has found out through careful observation and analytical
investigation. This is why Buddhism is called a doctrine of analysis. This
religion contains a profoundly scientific and psychological analysis of
mind and matter which many great modern thinkers have admired.
Universal Laws
To those who talked about the first cause of this world, the Buddha responded by saying that it is impossible to find a first cause since everything is changing, interdependent and conditioned by other things. Something that acts as the cause in the present may become the effect in the future. Later that same effect may again become the cause. Such phenomenon continues ad infinitum. It is called the universal law of Anicca or impermanency.
With regard to the origin of the world itself, the Buddha did not claim it was the property of Buddhism or that existing world systems and living things were controlled according to the Buddhist Order, but by universal law or natural phenomenon. Man was simply to accept his position in the world and regard himself and all things, animate and inanimate, as a compound.
According to the scholar Dr. Rhys Davids, “in each individual, without any exception, the relation of its component parts to one another is ever changing, so that it is never the same for two consecutive moments. It follows that no sooner has separateness begun than dissolution, disintegration, also begins; there can be no individuality without a putting together; there can be no putting together without a becoming; there can be no becoming without a becoming different; and there can be no becoming different without dissolution, a passing away which sooner or later will become inevitably complete".
The Buddha was the teacher who discovered the real nature
of the universal cosmic law and who advised people to live in accordance
with this law, such as going against nature, and leading an immoral life,
must be ready to face the consequences. It is possible to escape from the
reactions of such cosmic laws simply by praying to god, because this universal
law is unbiased. Yet the Buddha taught us how to stop the reactions of
certain bad practices by doing more and more good deeds, by training the
mind and eradicating evils thoughts from the mind. After violation the
cosmic order of the universal law there is no other method to get rid of
the reaction except by co-operating and conforming with the same cosmic
law.
Mental Energy
The theory of Karma that the Buddha has explained is accepted by the world-famous Swiss psychologist Carl lung as “collective consciousness”. This is nothing but the depository of karmic seeds in mental energy.
As long as the collective consciousness and the “will to live” remain in the mind, as mentioned by the philosophers, rebirth will take place whether people believe it or not. The elements of the body may disintegrate but the mental current together with the “will to live” will be transmitted and another life will be conditioned according to that collective consciousness or Karma.
Gravitation and the law of conservation of energy as discovered
by the modern scientists like Newton, support the doctrine of Karma, or
action and reaction as introduced by the Buddha.
Man Can Become God
Buddhism upholds the view that man is the supreme being. He surpasses even the devas (gods) in wisdom and strength. The Bodhisatta left heaven and descended to this world in order to attain His Enlightenment. Why? Because gods have neither the purity nor the intelligence to achieve such high development as Enlightenment. Such status can only be gained by man. Buddhism gives pride of place to man who lives in human society.
The uniqueness of man among other living beings is well recognised. The ability to adapt to new situations and control the environment are well within man’s capabilities. The Buddha gave due recognition to the moral and intellectual development of man and further showed the path to its fulfilment. Human birth is not a mere chance of accident. The very existence of man is due to his own karmic results. Thus Buddhism recognises the importance of human birth. No other living beings possess the quality of rational thinking. Hence the superiority of man is upheld.
The potentialities of man are enormous. The faculty of mind which man possesses can be developed to a very great extent. According to Buddhism, man need not depend on any kind of supernatural being. He himself has the capacity to develop up to the state of attaining omniscience. The Buddha’s analysis on this point was given after his own Enlightenment which he attained without the aid of any external supernatural power. According to the Buddha man can even become a god if he leads a decent and righteous life irrespective of his religious beliefs. But other religions advise man only to pray to god for blessings. They also preach that only after death can man go to heaven.
Yet such a heavenly experience will never grant man the
privilege of becoming a god. The Buddha said that humans can experience
heavenly bliss within this life if they do not abused their position. Yet
the Buddhist concept of god is different from that of other religions.
The Nature of the Mind
The rapid changes of mind and the elements of the body have all been explained in Buddhism. According to the Buddha, with every fraction of a split second of time, mental energy appears and disappears. Biology, physiology and psychology also affirm this “fleeting nature of life” phenomena. Therefore life is not static or ready made.
Another noted psychologist, Prof. William Tames, has talked
about the point-moment of consciousness. He explained how consciousness
comes into being and passes away in rapid succession. According to the
nature that causes the continuous process of mind, as soon as a thought
is born, it gives birth to another thought and dies. The thought that is
born in turn gives birth to yet another thought and similarly dies, and
so on. As to the question of how evil thoughts originally appear in the
mind, the answer can be found in the Buddhist religion. The cause of evil
thoughts is man’s selfish motives which exist due to craving for existence
and sensual pleasure.
Everything Is Open
When we study the life and the teachings of the Buddha we can see that everything is open to everybody. There are no secret doctrines. The events which occurred throughout His whole life were like an open book without any hidden and mystical incidents. In the eyes of the Buddha, what many people regard as “supernatural powers” are in fact quite natural, only ordinary man cannot understand them. If all component things are subject to the natural laws of change, how can we call them supernatural powers? Even the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death took place in normal circumstances. He lived as a normal religious teacher.
Evolving Life Process
The Buddha has pointed out the process of evolving from animal life into human status and from human status into divine status - divine life into Brahma status and Brahma life into perfect life. One can also proceed from a noble pure life directly to perfect holy life. The reverse order was also pointed out - that is,
descending from human life into animal life.
Moderate Way of Life
All religions follow a course of training in order to groom the ‘inner-self’. The avoidance of extremes in the sphere of self-indulgence and self-mortification bear the characteristics of Buddhist grooming. The Middle Way is the avoidance of both extremes, eternalism and annihilation.
The Buddha advised people to follow this middle path in every aspect of their life. But many people have not realised the real meaning and usefulness of this noble middle path. The deeper meaning of this middle path goes beyond the concern with righteous behaviour, avoiding extremes and taking a moderate course in life. The deeper meaning is learning how to use our human sense faculties most effectively, without misuse or abuse.
The formation of the senses is for our own protection, as well as the protection of those around us. Then we can all live in safety and peace. All religions teach us to train the ‘inner-self’; but unfortunately many people spend their whole life in pursuit of the gratification of their senses and misuse them to satisfy only their desire. Finally, their craving becomes so intense that satisfaction becomes an obsessive pursuit.
Many immoral practices, cruel deeds, mental disturbances,
nervous breakdowns, unhealthy competition, tensions and unrest, which are
very common in our modern society, can be traced to this discontented mind
which habitually misuses the senses. Then the power of the senses gradually
starts to decay, and as a result many types of sicknesses affect the human
organs. That is how man pays the price for misusing or over-taxing his
own senses. If there is too much attachment to sensual pleasure in this
world, we have no time to mould and prepare ourselves for our future life
or the next world.
Gentle Attitude
The Buddha told that it would be cruel and unfair for us to destroy living being for any purpose; but many other religious teachers have ignored this important sympathetic aspect. Destroying the lives of other living beings is not the only way to deal with their being a nuisance. In fact human beings have become the real nuisance to all the other living beings.
The aim of Buddhism is not to create certain wild imaginations
in our mind - it is
not to please mere human emotion or indulge in certain
worldly desires. The aim of Buddhism is to awaken mankind to the possibility
of attaining the highest happiness through a clear understanding of life
and nature.
Real Nature of Life
The purpose of life is a very complicated issue since different people give different interpretations. But from the Buddhist point of view, the purpose of life is only to find out a complete solution to the problems of life and attain everlasting happiness. Medical theory, science and technology have yet to discover any remedy for man’s mental pain, frustration and dissatisfaction in life. Yet Buddhism offers us a very clear picture by declaring its stark prognosis: Suffering has a cause, and so does Happiness.
What is Wisdom?
From the Buddhist point of view, wisdom is based on right understanding and right thought, the realisation of universal law and the development of insight. Insight means not only to see the truth, but to perceive the way of complete liberation from the state of unsatisfactoriness in life.
Therefore, real wisdom cannot be found in academic institutions or in the laboratories of scientific research, nor even in a place of religious worship where people go and pray or perform rites and rituals. Wisdom is within the mind itself. When experience, understanding, realisation and purification are complete, this wisdom, comprising of the highest perfection, will arise and be seen. The aim of life is the attainment of this wisdom. Instead of searching into outer space, man should make the effort to explore the space within. Then he could reach his final goal.
Man can overcome the worldly forces which hamper his progress
through strengthening and purifying his mind. Then he would reach a supramundane
state of happiness where evil forces have no power to function anymore.
A Practical Method
One philosopher holds the opinion that religion contradicts all that man has ever experienced. If this is so, Buddhism does not belong to that type of religion, since Buddha has taught us everything from His own experience.
Many philosophers, great thinkers and scientists have only relied on their worldly knowledge and power of intellect. Through the discipline of their minds they have managed to find out many new things. Yet even with such intellectual knowledge it is difficult to understand the real nature of existing phenomena without the purification of one’s mind. When we study certain statements made by some scholars we can see some truth in their sayings. But many of their sayings remain as dry philosophy because they have only used their mind with much illusion and concepts.
But the Buddha used His brain and heart together as refined intelligence coupled with compassion. Thus he gained the wisdom to understand things in their proper perspective. This is why His teachings never became mere dry philosophical theory, but remain a practical method for solving human problems. Religion is meant for the emancipation of living beings. Therefore all religions must make a concerted effort to fill the gap of human limitation through the science of spiritual insights and the moral training of the inner-self. Religion and ethics are inseparable.
CONTINUE.....