Sabba Daanang Dhamma Daanang Jinathi, (Offering Dhamma is superior to all other forms of offerings)- Lord Buddha



After observing the lack of content on Dhamma available in the web for the English speaking community; thought of discussing the essense of buddhism to the best of my ability for the benefit of those who are blessed with the wisdom to comprehend the message delivered by Lord Gautam Buddha some 2500 years ago.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Shraddha

Readers may wonder why the term (shraddha) is given such a significance in this blog, when most Buddhist literature starts off either with four Nobel truth(s) or Hethu pala Vada (rationale behind the existence of substance/ life and its expiration with the cessation of the cause of existence).

To answer the question, author would like to remind the reason why you’d be reading this blog or why somebody would be interested in Lord Buddha’s teachings. If the answer is to understand what life is all about or to take at least a step towards attaining Nibbana, then you need to be well aware of the term before you go any further. It is extremely important that you listen to the teachings of Lord Buddha with utmost shraddha if you are to comprehend the true meaning of the teaching. This doesn’t mean that it is expected of you to embrace all the teachings of Lord Buddha blindly without questioning it. What is expected here is to follow the guidance given by the teacher and see whether you can obtain the result, if not then the teachings are to be challenged.

Let’s assume that person A is standing in front of a wall through which he cannot see the other side, and there is person B, sitting on a tall post whose in a better position to see the other side of the wall. And B tells A that there is another person C on the other side of the wall whom A can see if he climbs on to the post. Now if he A rejects B’s claim without doing what he was asked to do, how rational would that be? Sharddha is exactly that, Like A have to believe in what B says in order to find C on the other side of the wall, somebody whose following Buddhist philosophy needs to have utmost faith in Lord Buddha and his teachings to obtain the results.

Now the reader may wonder then what the difference would be between Buddhism and all the other religions of the world [All religions are based on faith], which author see as an argument with complete sense. The difference is that all these states or achievements (Margapala) can be obtained within this life itself, if followed what was taught by Lord Buddha. So the simple answer to that is follow the steps laid down and see whether you can reach first, second, third and fourth dyana(s), if not then question the teachings. Once you reach 4th Dyana do as mentioned in dhamma and see whether you can reach Sowan (1st Margapala). Likewise the path has been properly and very clearly laid down towards the ultimate state 'Arhath' which u can attain within this life time.

Whatever said and done when someone comes across certain sutra Like Agganya Sutta (which talks about how the world was formed) or Chakkawatti seehanada (which talks about the cycles of human existance) the reader may find the teachings abit hard to believe and may tend to lose faith or shraddha towards dhamma. The Authors advice here is that these sutta’s were delivered targeting different audience who were better equipped to grasp the meaning of it and you may not be in the best position to absorb the true meaning of them. Therefore the author feels that it would be best to start with sutra that is simple and pretty obvious like Dhamsak pewathum, sheka sutta etc.