The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.
1 June 2024
Layperson: Why is Buddhism disappearing in India although the Buddha was born in India?
Than Ajahn: Because India already had other established religion, so it wasn’t easy to change people’s religion. Once people are born in a family with a certain religion, they will follow the religion that their parents and grandparents believe in, it’s a tradition.
Only a few people will be able to break the tradition.
So, that’s the reason why Buddhism has to go to other places where there is no religion that has been established in that place.
Once Buddhism is established in a country, then Buddhism can flourish quickly, like in Thailand, SriLanka and Burma, as these countries didn’t have any established religions.
If Buddhism go to a place where other religion has been established, then it is not easy to develop or to expand.
Like right now, there is Buddhism in the West, but it’s only a small community because Christianity has been developed in the West for a long time, for thousands of years, so it’s not something that people will just abandon right away.
Only people who appreciate the teachings of the Buddha will take up Buddhism. After they’ve read the teachings of the Buddha and they appreciate the benefits that they could get, then they would switch religion. But most people don’t pay much attention to religion.
They only use it as a medicine to cure their fear or their sorrow when they need them, so they don’t see the need to switch their religion.
Only those people who have studied the teachings of the Buddha and have seen their status as being the travelers in the cycle of birth, ageing, sickness and death, and also could see that Buddhism offer a way out of it, then they’d decide to take up Buddhism.
Otherwise, for most people, once they have their religion, they don’t care about other religions.
Layperson: As Hinduism is dominant in India, they believe that the Buddha is only one of the messengers.
There are other supreme beings like God Siva and other gods.
Than Ajahn: Well, the Buddha is a messenger.
He brought us the message of salvation on how to get out of this cycle of rebirth in the saṅsāra, where the mind keeps being reborn. It becomes a human being, and after the body dies, the mind becomes a different kind of spirit, and then reborn as a human again. It continues on doing this forever until you meet the Buddha’s teachings that tell you how to stop this cycle of birth and death.
Layperson: So, there is no concept of the Siva god who created the whole thing.
Than Ajahn: Well, concept is not reality. It is something people create and believe in. The Buddha said that the mind is the thing that has problems, the object that need to be fixed.
Once you fix the mind, then it doesn’t matter whether there is a god or no god. God has no role in Buddhism.
The Buddha said that you are your own refuge. You have to look after yourself. You have to do your own salvation.
No one can do the salvation for you. Even the Buddha himself could not get you out of this cycle of birth and death.
Layperson: As I know, this is the second cycle of Buddhism, so what happens after the next 2500 years of Buddhism?
Than Ajahn: Well, it means people no longer understand the teachings of the Buddha. No one could follow his teachings, so nobody becomes enlightened and nobody can continue spreading his teachings effectively.
Eventually, it will be useless to people because people will not know how to use Buddhism to their benefits.
Layperson: Will there be monks remaining or will Buddhism remain in Thailand or in other countries?
Than Ajahn: There might be some monks left, but eventually, I think they will disappear. See, in Buddhism, the hardest part will disappear first—the meditation part. And then, keeping the sīla part and giving dāna part; and eventually, there won’t be anything left.
Layperson: Ok, it gradually disappears.
Than Ajahn: Yeah.
Layperson: Thank you.
“Dhamma in English, Jun 23, 2019.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
YouTube: Dhamma in English.
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