The Ultimate Truth. —Venerable K. Sri Dhammananda Maha Thera

The Ultimate Truth.
—Venerable K. Sri Dhammananda Maha Thera

The Ultimate Truth can be found in the Teaching of the Buddhism.

Buddhism recognizes two kinds of Truth. The apparent conventional truth and the real or ultimate Truth. 

The ultimate Truth can be realized only through meditation, and not theorizing or speculating.

The Buddha's Teaching is the Ultimate Truth of the world. Buddhism, however, is not a revealed or an organized religion. It is the first example of the purely scientific approach applied to questions concerning the ultimate nature of existence. This timeless Teaching was discovered by the Buddha Himself without the help of any divine agency. This same teaching is strong enough to face any challenge without changing the basic principles of the doctrine. Any religion that is forced to change or adjust its original Teachings to suit the modern world, is a religion that has no firm foundation and no ultimate truth in it. 

Buddhism can maintain the Truth of the original Teaching of the Master even under the difficult conditions prevailing in the modern world. The Buddha did not introduce certain personal or worldly practices which have no connection with morality or religious observances. To the Buddha, such practices have no religious value. We must make the distinction between what the Buddha taught and what people preach and practise in the name of Buddhism.

Every religion consists of not only the teachings of the founder of that religion but also the rites and ceremonies which have grown up around the basic core of the teachings. These rituals and ceremonies have their origins in the cultural practices of the people who accepted the religion. Usually the founders of the great religions do not lay down precise rules about the rituals to be observed. But religious leaders who come after them formalize the religion and set up exacting codes of behavior which the followers are not allowed to deviated from.

Even the religion which we call 'Buddhism' is very different in its external practices from what the Buddha and His early followers carried out. Centuries of cultural and environmental influence have made Burmese, Thai, Chinese, Tibetan, Sri Lankan and Japanese Buddhism different. But these practices are not in conflict, because the Buddha taught that while the Truth remains absolute, the physical manifestation of this truth can differ according to the way of life of those who profess it.

A few hundred years after His passing away, the disciples of the Buddha organized a religion around the Teachings of the Master. While organizing the religion, they incorporated, among other concepts and beliefs, various types of miracles, mysticism, fortune-telling, charms, talismans, mantras, prayers and many rites and rituals that were not found in the original Teaching. When these extraneous religious beliefs and practices were introduced, many people neglected to develop the most important practices found in the original Teaching; self-discipline, self-restraint, cultivation of morality and spiritual development. Instead of practicing the original Teaching, they gave more of their attention and effort to self-protection from evil spirits and sought after prosperity or good luck. 

Gradually, people began to lose interest in the original Teachings and became more interested in discovering ways and means of getting rid of the so-called misfortunes or bad influences of stars, black magic, and sickness. In this manner, through time the religious practices and beliefs degenerated, being confined to worldly pursuits. Even today, many people believe that they can get rid of their difficulties through the influence of external powers. People still cling to this belief: hence they neglect to cultivate the strength of their will-power, intelligence, understanding and other related human qualities. In other words, people started to abuse their human intelligence by following those beliefs and practices in the name of Buddhism. They also polluted the purity of the Buddha's message.

Thus the modern religion we see in many countries is the product of normal human beings living in a country and adjusting to various social and cultural environments. However, Buddhism as a religion did not begin as a superworldly system that came down from heaven. Rather it was born and evolved through a long historical process. In its process of evolution, many people slowly moved away from the original Teachings of the founder and started different new schools or sects. All the other existing religions also face the same situation.

One should not come to a hasty conclusion either by judging the validity of a religion or by condemning the religion simply by observing what people perform through their blind faith in the name of that religion. To understand the real nature of a religion one must study and investigate the original Teachings of the founder of that religion.

In the face of the profusion of ideas and practices which were later developments, it is useful for us to return to the positive and timeless Dhamma taught by the Buddha. 

Whatever people believe and practise in the name of Buddhism the basic Teachings of the Buddha still exist in the original Buddhist texts.

21 July 2023

Modes of Birth and Death

Modes of Birth and Death 

Buddhism explains four modes of birth: egg-born beings, womb-born beings, moisture-born beings, and beings having spontaneous births.

The beings that have a spontaneous birth are generally invisible to the physical eye. 

Conditioned by their past kamma, they appear spontaneously without passing through an embryonic stage. Spirits (Petas), divine beings (Devas) and Brahmas belong to this group.

In Buddhism, death is assigned to one of the four causes:

1. Exhaustion of the Reproductive Kammic energy -

The Buddhist belief is that, as a rule, the thought, volition or desire, which is extremely strong during a life-time becomes predominant at the time of death and conditions the subsequent birth. A special potentiality is present in this last thought moment. When the potential energy of this Reproductive Kamma is exhausted, the organic activities of the material form in which is embodied the life-force, cease even before the end of the lifespan in that particular plane. This often happens in the case of beings who are born in states of misery; but it can happen in other planes also.

2. Exhaustion of the Natural Life-Span -

The expiration of the life-term varies in different planes. Natural deaths, due to old age, may be classed under this category.

3. Death due to the simultaneous exhaustion of the Reproductive Kammic energy and expiration of the life-term.

4. The opposing action of a stronger Kamma that unexpectedly obstructs the flow of the Reproductive Kamma before the life term expires. Sudden, untimely deaths and deaths of children are due to this cause.

Death, according to Buddhism, is the cessation of the psycho-physical life of any one individual existence. 

It takes place by the passing away of vitality, i.e. psychic and physical life-stream of consciousness. The only difference between the passing of one thought to another in a single life-time and of the dying thought-moment to the rebirth consciousness, is that in the latter case, a marked perceptible physical death is apparent to all.

~ Ven. Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda

WHAT BUDDHISTS BELIEVE ~ Ven. Dr K Sri Dhammananda

WHAT BUDDHISTS BELIEVE 
~ Ven. Dr K Sri Dhammananda

Can the First Cause be Known? 

It is rather difficult for us to understand how the world came into existence without a first cause. But it is very much more difficult to understand how that first cause came into existence at the beginning. 

ACCORDING to the Buddha, it is inconceivable to find a first cause for life or anything else. For in common experience,the cause becomes the effect and the effect becomes the cause.In the circle of cause and effect, a first cause is incomprehensible. With regard to the origin of life, the Buddha declares. ‘Without cognizable end is this recurrent wandering in Samsara (cycle of birth and death). Beings are obstructed by ignorance and fettered by craving. A first beginning of these beings is not to be perceived.’ (ANAMATAGGA SAMYUTTA in SAMYUTTA NIKAYA). 

This life-stream flows on ad infinitum, as long as it is fed by the muddy waters of ignorance and craving. 

When these two  are cut off, only then does the life-stream cease to flow, only then does rebirth come to an end.

It is difficult to conceive an end of space. It is difficult to conceive an eternal duration of what we call time. But it is more difficult to conceive time when there is no time. Likewise it is rather difficult for us to understand how this world came into existence with a first cause. And it is more difficult to understand how that first cause came into existence at the beginning. For if the first cause can exist though uncreated, there is no reason why the other phenomena of the universe must not exist without having also been created. 

As to the question how all beings came into existence without a first cause, the Buddhist’s reply is that there is no answer* because the question itself is merely a product of human beings’ limited comprehension. If we can understand the nature of time and relativity; wemust see that there could not have been any first beginning. It can only be pointed out that all the usual answers to the question are fundamentally defective. If it is assumed that for a thing to exist, it must have had a creator who existed before it, it follows logically that the creator himself must have had a creator, and so on back to infinity.On the other hand, if the creator could exist without a prior cause in the form of another creator, the whole argument falls to the ground.The theory of a creator does not solve any problems, it only complicates the existing ones.

Thus Buddhism does not pay much attention to theories and beliefs about the origin of the world. Whether the world was created by a god or it came into existence by itself makes little difference to Buddhists. 

Whether the world is finite or infinite also makes little difference. Instead of following this line of theoretical speculations, the Buddha advises people to grasp the fact that their present existence is suffering and to work hard to find their own salvation. 

Scientists have discovered many causes which are responsible for the existence of life, plants, planets, elements and other energies. Butit is impossible for human beings to find out any particular first cause for their existence. If they go on searching for the first cause of any existing life or thing, they point certain causes as the main cause but that never becomes the first cause. In the process of searching for the first cause one after the other, they will come back to the place where they were. 

This is because, cause becomes the effect and the next moment that effect becomes the cause to produce another effect.That is why the Buddha says, ‘a first cause is incomprehensible and the universe is beginningless’.

WHAT BUDDHISTS BELIEVE Anatta: The Teaching of No-Soul

WHAT BUDDHISTS BELIEVE
Anatta: The Teaching of No-Soul  {1}

The Buddha countered all soul-theory and soul-speculation with His Anatta doctrine. Anatta is translated under various labels: No-Soul, No-Self, No-Ego.

To understand the Anatta doctrine, one must understand that the eternal soul theory—‘I have a soul’—and the material theory—‘I have no soul’—are both obstacles to self-realisation or salvation. 

They arise from the misconception ‘I AM’  Hence, to understand the Anatta doctrine, one must not cling to any opinion or views on soul-theory; rather, one must try to see things objectively as they are and without any mental projections. One must learn to see the so-called ‘I’ or Soul or Self for what it really is: merely a combination of changing forces. This requires some analytical explanation.

The Buddha taught that what we conceive as something eternal within us, is merely acombination of physical and mental aggregates or 

forces (pancakkhandha), made up of body or 

matter (rupakkhandha), sensation (vedanakkhandha), perception (sannakkhandha), mental formations (samkharakkhandha) and consciousness (viññanak- khandha). 

These forces are working together in a flux of momentary change; they are never the same for two consecutive moments. They are the component forces of the psycho-physical life. When the Buddha analyzed the psycho-physical life, He found only these five aggregates or forces. He did not find any eternal soul. However, many people still have the misconception that the soul is the consciousness. The Buddha declared in unequivocal terms that consciousness arises dependent on matter, sensation, perception and mental formations and that it cannot exist independently of them.

The Buddha said, ‘The body, O monks, is not the Self. Sensation is not the Self. Perception is not the Self. The mental constructions are not the Self. And neither is consciousness the Self. 

Perceiving this, O monks, the disciple sets no value on the body, or on sensation, or on perception, or on mental constructions, or on consciousness. Setting no value on them, he becomes free of passions and he is liberated. The knowledge of liberation arises there within him. And then he knows that he has done what has to be done, that he has lived the holy life, that he is no longer becoming this or that, that his rebirth is destroyed.’ (ANATTA - LAKKHANA SUTRA) The Anatta doctrine of the Buddha is over 2500 years old. Today the thought current of the modern scientific world is flowing towards the Buddha’s Teaching of Anatta or No-Soul. In the eyes of modern scientists, a human being is merely a bundle of ever-changing sensations. 

Modern physicists say that the apparently solid universe is not, in reality, composed of solid substance at all, but is actually a flux of energy. The modern physicist sees the whole universe as a process of transformation of various forces which include the processes which constitute a human being. The Buddha was the first to realize this. 

W.S. Wily, an author, once said, ‘The existence of the immortal in human beings is becoming increasingly discredited under the influence of the dominant schools of modern thought.’ 

The belief in the immortality of the soul is a dogma that is contradicted by the most clear, empirical investigation.

Anatta:  The Teaching of No-Soul  {2}

The mere belief in an immortal soul, or the conviction that something in us survives death, does not make us immortal unless we know what it is that survives and that we are capable of identifying ourselves with it. 

Most human beings choose death instead of immortality by identifying themselves with that which is perishable and impermanent by clinging stubbornly to the body or the momentary elements of the present personality, which they mistake for the soul or the essential form of life. In reference to those researches of modern scientists who are now more inclined to assert that the so-called ‘Soul’ is no more than a bundle of sensations, emotions, sentiments, all relating to the physical experiences, Prof. William James says that the term ‘Soul’ is a mere figure of speech to which no reality corresponds. It is the same Anatta doctrine of the Buddha that was introduced in the Mahayana school of Buddhism as Sunyata or voidness. 

Although this concept was elaborated by a great Mahayana scholar, Nagarjuna, by giving various interpretations, there is no extraordinary concept in Sunyata that is far different from the Buddha’s original doctrine of Anatta.

 

The belief in Soul or Self and the Creator God, is so strongly rooted in the minds of many people that they cannot imagine why the Buddha did not accept these two concepts which are indispensable to many religions. In fact some people get a shock or become nervous and emotional when they hear that the Buddha rejected these two concepts. 

That is the main reason why to many unbiased scholars and psychologists Buddhism stands unique when compared to all the other religions. At the same time, some other scholars who appreciate the various other aspects of Buddhism are convinced that Buddhism would be enriched by deliberately re-interpreting the Buddha word  'Atta’ in order to introduce the concept of Soul and Self into Buddhism. The Buddha was aware of this unsatisfactoriness of humanity and the conceptual upheaval regarding this belief. 

All conditioned things are impermanent, 

All conditioned things are Dukkha-Suffering, 

All conditioned or unconditioned things 

(Dharma) are soulless or selfless. 

(DHAMMAPADA 277, 278, 279)

There is a parable in our Buddhist texts with regard to the belief in an eternal soul. A man, who mistook a moving rWHAT BUDDHISTS BELIEVE

Anatta: The Teaching of No-Soul ope for a snake, became terrified by that fear in his mind. Upon discovery that it was only a piece of rope, his fear subsided and his mind became peaceful. The belief in an eternal soul is equated to the rope—man’s imagination.

~ Ven. K Sri Dhammananda