A: Buddhism is not a religion in the traditional sense of the word in that one has to believe
in God or gods. It is a doctrine taught by Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha in the 6th century BCE. It is neither
a dogma nor a revelation by a supernatural agency. Buddhism is a spiritual path based on personal inquiry an experience, self-knowledge
based on the understanding of the human condition and suffering, and how to overcome it through wholesome living, spiritual
cultivation and wisdom. The Buddha was, in effect, a great Siddha, a knower of truth, a healer of the spirit.
To a seeker of truth it is not important where an idea comes from.
To understand truth, it is not necessary to know whether the teaching comes from the Buddha or anyone else. What is essential
is seeing and understanding it. Most traditional Buddhists do not see Buddhism as a form of spirituality but understand it
as a religion. There are also scholars who study Buddhism as a philosophy. Buddhism should not be treated as a religion or
a philosophy. Our modern society needs a spiritual training process to bring about peace and harmony to all beings and Buddhism
is exactly this. Buddhism as religion tends towards dogmatism, supernaturalism and the occult. Buddhism as a mere philosophy
limits its benefits to man. We should live the truth to realise it. Thus, Buddhism is the raft that ferry us from the bondage
of delusion to liberation.
Buddhism is neither an
abstract philosophy based mere intellectual activity. Philosophy means the love of truth. It is the path of awakening to the
truths of existence and laws of nature. The Buddha's method of teaching was unique; he encouraged people to observe for themselves.
He criticised the enslaving ways of the traditional religious authority and emphasised the importance of observation and analysis.
“Do not believe in anything simply because you’ve
heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken or rumoured by many. Do not believe in anything because it
is written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not
believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. After observation and analysis, if you find
anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
- Siddhartha Gautama (The Buddha)
Q: Can there be Buddhism suited for atheists?
A. Buddha did not deny the existence of gods
or goddesses. Whether you call them God or gods is not important. In Buddhist scriptures, there are numerous references to
gods. Buddhists are neither atheists nor non-atheists. They can be either. Dr. Albert Einstein put it succinctly, "As
a scientist, I don't have any religion, but if I had to choose one, I would choose Buddhism." Buddhism is a body or system
of teachings known as the Dharma taught by the Buddha. You do not have to become a Buddhist to understand the Dharma. The
Buddha was not a 'Buddhist' just as Jesus Christ was not a 'Christian.' All you need is a sensitive, inquiring mind and a
deep wish to understand yourself and the nature of existence better. Consider yourself not a 'Buddhist' but a student of the
Dharma. Siddhartha Gautama did not become a Buddha through Buddhism; he was awakened to the Dharma that is the truth of existence,
the universal laws, the intrinsic justice, the performance of obligatory duties, the ultimate goal of life, the observance
of various rules of disciplining oneself in practical life, the ideal, moral, and ethical way of life, and the realisation
of the Self by means of Yoga. You can say that the Dharma produced a Buddha, and the Buddha proclaimed the Dharma so that
you, too, can become awakened to the Dharma and attain freedom from suffering, ignorance and delusion.
Q: Can there be Buddhism suited for agnostics?
A:An
'agnostic' is by definition a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause as God and the essential nature of
things unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience. Buddhists
do not concern themselves with the knowledge of God. Buddhists study the self and devote themselves to the Dharma and spirituality.
If there is a timeless spiritual path and some qualities of nobility needed for agnostics to begin on a spiritual journey
of experience, it is through the Dharma. For the Buddha taught Satipatthana, the doctrine of mindfulness and calm
attention in the Dharma - to be mindful of life; to pay attention, to be alert and awake;
to examine and reflect sensibly and without preset views and opinions the physical and mental states of phenomena; and to
be aware of 'what is' from moment to moment. Each of us whether agnostic or not, must
therefore be mindful as we tread the ancient way of the Wise Ones. Each of us must see the path through our own eyes. Each
must know the Dharma through one's own experience. Just reading books is not enough; the value of the Dharma isn't to be found
in books or in rites, rituals and ceremonies. These are external appearances of Dharma, just fingers pointing to the moon
and not the moon itself; they're not the realisation of Dharma as a personal experience. If we realise the Dharma we
realise our own mind; we see the truth there. When the truth becomes apparent it cuts off the stream of delusion. We
must be mindful of our methods and conditioned habits of reacting, of forming opinions and prejudices. Through mindfulness,
we may strip life of its illusions and complexities, its pretences and hallucinations, its fears, anxieties, tensions and
so on. We are able to experience the wordless truth of seeing things as they are in the flame of attention, in the clarity
of perception, free from the conditioning and programming of the mind - labels, judgements, comparisons, criticisms, likes
and dislikes, desires and aversions. The Buddha taught the way of Satipatthana through which the Dharma may be clearly realized.
Mindfulness and reflection in daily life lead to insight, self-knowledge, wisdom, compassion, freedom, and harmony.
Q: What is Nirvana and is this a permanent state of mind?
A: Nirvana is casually defined as a state of freedom from or oblivion to pain, worry, and the
external world. The root-meaning of Nirvana is 'letting go,' a state of mind which is free from craving and attachment, grasping
and clinging, free from all self-centered activities. It is a state of calm and peace, restful, expansive awareness.
The mind is clear, simple and spacious, free and innocent, compassionate, patient, and blissful.
The question of Nirvana being a permanent state is due to our conditioned idea that mental and physical phenomena are permanent
and concrete or that there is a permanent and fixed ego-personality experiencing permanent, unchanging mental-emotional state.
Whenever we are in conflict we believe we're a permanent entity experiencing a permanent problem but this is ignorance and
delusion. With calm attention and insight we begin to see that whatever we are experiencing in the moment is but a temporal
mental state, fleeting moments of the mind, unsatisfactory illusory and not self. Happiness comes and goes, and so does sadness;
they are not really happening to a being or person. We only believe this because we automatically identify with temporary
phenomena out of conditioning. We personalise and superimpose the "I" on what is happening, creating duality in
consciousness that results in conflicts and stress. The idea of permanency is really due to the mind's conditioning of
time, created by the thinking process. Thought is time, as past and future. Man is time-bound and that bondage to time
is the movement of thoughts in consciousness, from past, to present, to future. So where there is an ending to thoughts and
time, there is total attention and insight. So Nirvana is not a permanent and fixed mental
state as some would like to believe, but this sublime state of being arises more frequently when we make the effort to purify
the mind by following the path of morality, mind cultivation and wisdom. Nirvana can arise unexpectedly especially when one
is alone with nature, when the mind is suddenly quiet and calm without effort or desire, when one is peaceful and content
in the moment, open and receptive to the beauty and wonders of existence, when there is no self-centered desire or craving,
fear or anxiety, no mental conflict or stress. Nirvana can arise when you're with others but you're calm and relaxed, open
and receptive to their needs and problems, when you can listen in silence with empathy and patience, when there is no anxiety
to give advice or wanting to change them, when in listening there is appreciation and total acceptance.
Nirvana is the very essence of Samadhi. The last three limbs of Astanga yoga is dharana, dhyan, and Samadhi,
the practice of which will lead a person to nirvana. This benediction cannot be found in sacred books, ideas, religious rites
and ceremonies. It comes when all selfish striving, struggles and hope cease. Then nirvana comes in waves upon waves of bliss.
Love is no longer self-centered desire, pleasure and attachment but unconditioned, universal loving-kindness, compassion,
sympathetic joy and equanimity for all.
How do we use our brains?
In
the short video below you will see that it takes 2553 years after the death of the Buddha (i.e. in 2009) before a brain
scientist experienced Nirvana for the first time in her life and only during the short time when she was having a stroke.
Now she's going around the world and on YouTube spreading the word. Her experience demonstrated the fact that anyone
has the potential to experience Nirvana alive, thus refuting the notion that it is some place or state attainable only after
death. Unlike the Buddha, she only told us that she had experienced euphoria or Nirvana during her stroke but did
not show us how to attain Nirvana. Although she asked several very serious questions such as: "Would
you choose to use our right brain?" and "Do you choose to use our right brain?" and "When?",
you don't want to be like her to have a blood clog the size of a golf ball sitting on your left brain before you experience
Nirvana in your life! Unlike the Buddha, she did not deliver a doctrine of daily practice to help us experience
Nirvana. Now members of ABCBC are practicing Divine Maha Yoga, the ancient Yoga that Buddha taught his disciples, along with Neo-classical Avatamsaka Buddhist teachings that
our founder Ven. Master Haiyun Jimeng propounds. You do have ways to practice and experience Nirvana in your lifetime.
Come experience and practise with us.
Dukkha, Wants, Karma, and Arhat
In Buddhist philosophy, how is one supposed to do anything? What causes suffering? What
is the unattached state?
There is a serious misinterpretation of the first Noble Truth
- Life is dukkha or suffering. The author is not alone. In most English texts about Buddhism you will
find this formulation of the First Noble Truth. This formulation that life is all about suffering has given Buddhism a bad
name, that it is pessimistic and negative. For it is neither pessimistic nor optimistic. Something is definitely lost in translation.
True, Buddha says life is dukkha but he did not say that life is only suffering. Dukkha in Pali or Duhkha in Sanskrit is suffering,
Dukkha is impermanence, Dukkha is imperfection, Dukkha is emptiness, and Dukkha is Anatta (not-self). There is no English
word for Dukkha, and so out of respect it is better that we not translate it into suffering.
On
the contrary, Buddha taught in the Pali Canon that there can be Sukha (opposite to Dukkha) in life. Sukha can be enjoyed in
our material as well as spiritual life. For example, there is Sukha in family life, Sukha in the senses, Sukha in renunciation,
Sukha in the physical body, Sukha in spiritual experiences, and Sukha in meditation. Buddha acknowledged these Sukha but he
went on to point out that such Sukha is impermanent and eventually leads to Dukkha. He concluded that impermanence is Dukkha.
Next we discuss the second Noble Truth - the origin of Dukkha. Man suffers externally from the limitation of place and from
the limitation of time. Man also suffers internally from wants. Wants come in three forms: viz. (i) wanting sensual pleasures,
(ii) wanting to live, to continue living, and failing so, to reproduce, (iii) wanting to cease to exist. These three forms
of wants constitute the origin of Dukkha. Wants are not limited to physical attachments such as wealth and power, but also
it includes wanting to hold on to certain ideas, viewpoints, opinions, concepts, theories and beliefs. All conflicts arise
as a result of such wants. Few people can go without food but wanting to eat whale or dolphin meat Sashimi is quite something
else. You can easily see that no matter how hard people try to make harmony, it has been futile because of such wants.
How does one supposed to do anything?
Karma is action, deed, or effort performed through thought, speech, and the body. Karma cause experience and experience
causes further Karma, forming the Karmic cycle. A person does things out of individual and collective Karma. Individual Karma
governs the person alone and collective Karma governs the collective to which the individual belongs. You don’t have
to know this to do things, but everything you do you do out of Karma.
What is the unattached state?
A person who has become an arhat
attained the unattached state. An arhat is someone who is free from all attachments. He does not need to eat, drink, sleep,
breath and is not bound by gravity, space, and time. He can take a journey within a journey – time travel. He can create
a new body, take control of an existing one, or assume a dead one to revive it. He decides when to leaves his gross body and
transforms into pure energy to unite with the Supreme Essence and when he does so, he will not be born again. He is someone
who has truly conquered birth, disease, old age and death.
