Why choose Buddhism?---3

Why choose Buddhism?---3

Bhikkhu Dhammavaro

The Dhamma

Buddha’s teachings are called Sutta, which means “thread”, it is the thread which holds all the picked flowers together, we as Buddhist studying the fragrant Dhamma (flowers) must use this thread frequently, so that we would not be introducing our own thoughts and interpretation into the Blessed One’s teaching too liberally.

The Blessed One said to the groups of monks: “The doors to the deathless are opened,
let those who will hear abandon wrong beliefs, now shall I turn the wheel of the great Law (Dhamma), for this I go to the Kasian City, there shall I beat the drum of deathlessness, in this world where people are groping in the dark (of ignorance).” (Majjhima Nikaya)

There are three forms of dhamma: Recorded Dhamma (pariyatti dhamma) is the Buddha's teaching in texts. Learning these Dhamma and put it through practice of virtue, concentration, and discernment. Whether the Buddhism will proper or decline depends on the practice of its followers, not on the recorded scriptures. If we want to attain enlightenment we have to develop our inner quality through Dhamma practice (patipatti dhamma). The attainment of the practitioner is the fruit of practice (pativedha dhamma) which will lead to Nibbana.

The Dhamma of practice means the Noble Eightfold Path: Right view, Right thinking, Right speech, Right action, Right livelihood, Right effort, Right mindfulness, and Right meditation. The target is our five aggregates. These Eightfold path can be summarized into three: Morality, meditation, and wisdom; and is termed the Middle Way by the Blessed One, the core of his teachings.

The Buddha’s teachings have three levels; the development of mindfulness (Sati), the cultivation of intuitive discernment (Pañña) which is from developing mental concentration (Samadhi), and the release from mental defilement (Vimutti). These qualities we must develop within ourselves, so as to gain realization, and attain Arahathood.

In the Sutta there is a story of the monk called Vakkali, who is full of devotion and love for the Buddha, and wishes to admire the majestic body of the Buddha days and nights. Then the Blessed One told him: “What shall it profit you to see this impure body? He, who sees the Dhamma, sees me.” Shortly before the Blessed One passed away, he said: "If a monk or a nun, a devout man or a devout woman, lives in accordance with the Dhamma, is correct in his life, walks in conformity with the Dhamma, it is he who rightly honors, reverences, venerates, holds sacred and reveres the Perfect One (Tathagata) with the worthiest homage."

In his teachings the Blessed One said: “Just as in the great ocean there is but one taste: the taste of salt, so in this doctrine and discipline (dhamma vinaya) there is but one taste, the taste of liberation!” This is the priceless quality of his Dhamma.