Buddhism Dhamma the Teacher about Buddha
Uploaded by mkforyou on Jun 29, 2008
We pay homage to the Buddha for revealing to us the eternal truths of liberation
We pay homage to the Dhamma (the teaching of the Buddha) for making known to us the nature of existence.
We pay homage to the Sangha (the order of monks) for preserving the teaching and practicing its precepts.
INTRODUCTION
In recent years Western visitors to Thailand have displayed an increasing interest in our national religion, Buddhism. “Who was the Buddha?” “What did he teach?” “What do Buddhists believe about life after death, good and evil and the beginning of the world?” To answer these and similar questions the present writing is intended.
The Buddha’s teachings can be understood on two distinct levels. One is logical and conceptual and is concerned with an intellectual comprehension of man and the external universe. It is on this level that the above questions are more easily answered.
The second level is empirical, experiential and psychological. It concerns the ever-present and inescapable phenomena of everyday human experience -- love and hate, fear and sorrow, pride and passion, frustration and elation. And most important, it explains the origins of such states of mind and prescribes the means for cultivating those states which are rewarding and wholesome and of diminishing those which are unsatisfactory and unwholesome. It was to this second level that the Buddha gave greater emphasis and importance. For its truth is demonstrable within the realm of everyday human existence, and its validity is independent of any world view or belief about life after death.
However, as a means of introducing Buddhism to those who have little or no previous knowledge of the religion, this writing will give greater emphasis to the first level. The experiential and psychological aspects of the Teaching are outlined at the end.
THE BUDDHA AND HIS TEACHINGS
In this introduction we shall focus our attention on the teachings of the Buddha as preserved in the Pali language. These scriptural writings form the basis of the Theravada school of Buddhism which predominates in Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Ceylon.
About the year 623 B.C., in a region which is now the land of Nepal, a son was born to King Suddhodana, ruler of the Sakya clan. The child was named Siddhattha Gotama, and his father surrounded him with vast stores of material...