The Buddhist Way of Practise

First of all, ‘I pay respect to the blessed one, perfected one, the whole-by self enlightened one’ :

Dhammam Care Sucaritam
Na Tam Duccaritam Care
Dhammacari Sukham Seti
Asmim Loke Paramhi Ca

Follow the law of virtue; (Lead a righteous life) do not follow that of evil. (But Not one that is corrupt.) The Virtuous rest in bliss in this world and in the nxt. 9The righteous live happily both in this world and in the next.)

The Buddha in neither a god nor a prophet or an incarnation of a god. He is a human being, but a supreme being who through his own effort, attained to final Deliverance and perfect wisdom, and became ‘the peerless teacher of gods and men.’ He is a ‘Savior’ only in the sense that he shows men hops to save the selves, by actually following to the end the path trodden and shown by him. In the consummate, harmony of wisdom and compassion, attained by the Buddha, he embodies the universal and timeless ideal of man perfected.

The Dhamma is the teaching of Deliverance in its entirety as discovered, realized and proclaimed by the Buddha. It is not a doctrine of revelation but the teaching of Enlightenment based on the clear comprehension of actuality. It is the teaching of the four-fold Truth dealing with the fundamental facts of life and with liberation attainable through man’s won efforts towards purification and insight. The Dhamma offers a lofty, but realistic systems of ethics, a penetrative analysis of life, a profound understanding, practical methods of mind training in brief, and all-comprehensive and perfect guidance on the path to Deliverance. The Dhamma has and will always have, a timeless and universal appeal wherever there are hearts and mind mature enough to appreciate its messages.

People are different because of different accumulations of experiences in the past. Because of those different accumulations people behave differently. At each moment one accumulates more experiences, and this conditions how one will be in the future and what one will experience in the future.

There are many levels of understanding in the Buddha’s teachings. When one understands more about the different accumulations of different people one is less inclined to judge oher people. Wisdom can develop gradually and thus one’s accumulations can be changed. Those who have higher level of understanding can and should help other people to develop a higher degree of understanding as well.

The Buddha taught peop;e to see things as they really are. The Buddha gave the teachings and showed the ‘Middle path”.

Buddha knew that people have different levels of understanding Buddha surveyed the world with his “Buddha Vision” and saw people with different levels of understanding, some of when would be able to understand his teachings; therefore the Buddha decided to make known the path, which he had discovered.

People have different accumulations they are conditioned in many ways. Everyone should find out for himself how much attachment he accumulates, and whether this brings him happiness or sorrow.

There is not anything, which one can control. Even each Citta, which arises because of conditions, falls away immediately to be succeeded by the next Citta. It seems as if the situation is hopeless. Wisdom, the understanding of reality can condition one to have more wholesome mental states and to do good deeds. The mind is the source from which all deeds spring; it is therefore, not possible to determine the degree of the wholesomeness of any one action from the outward appearance of the deed alone. The degree of whole someone’s depends on the degree of wisdom which accompanies the mind.

It is typical of the Buddhist way of life to study and to be aware of the different mental and physical phenomena, which one can experience through the body, senses and mind. Many people are not used this kind of approach; they are used to looking at the outward appearance of things. In order to know more about those realities, one should study snd try to become aware of one’s mind. If one does not understand oneself, one cannot help other people. Therefore, the Buddha advised people to try to understand themselves. Saying, ‘Let each man first direct himself to what is proper then let him teach others, thus a wise man will not suffer.”

There is no “self” which can suppress out had inclinations, there is no self which can force us to do good deeds. Everyone can verify his in daily life. For example, if we tell ourselves; “today I will be very kind to everyone.” Can we prevent out selves from suddenly saying an unkind word. Most of the time it has happened before we realize it. If we are able to suppress our anger for a while we are inclined to think that there is a ‘self’, which can suppress anger. In reality there are at that moment Cittas which are not conditioned by anger but which arise from other condition. Afterwards there will be anger again because anger is not reality eradicated by suppressing. Only wisdom, seeing things as they really are, can gradually eradicate everything’s which is unwholesome in us.

We can develop this wisdom step by step. Even wisdom is not “self”, in can only arise when there are the right condition. We can develop wisdom is knowing and experiencing all mental phenomena and physical phenomena in and around ourselves When we have experienced that none of those mental phenomena and physical phenomena stays or is permanent, we understand that we cannot take any phenomena for ‘self’.

The Buddha explained to his disciples that, just comprehending, seeing things as they are, will eradicate unwholesomeness. Once the Buddha said to Ananda that when the Bhikkhu, the monk, who is still learning to develop wisdom notices that he has unwholesome Cittas, he is troubled about it, ashamed of it, loathes it”. The “Aryan Saint” whose wisdom is developed, just “comprehends” he knows that there is no self, and that everything arises because of conditions. Thus he is not troubled, he is only a ware of the present moment.

The word ‘comprehending’ is used in the stoops many times. Thus we can see that we do not have to perform extraordinary deeds, we should only learn to be a ware of the present moment in order to see things as they are. Of course, wisdom cannot be fully developed in one day. For a long time we have been used to the idea of “self”. In conventual’s language we have to use the world “I” and ‘self” continuously to make ourselves understood. Thus wisdom is wholesome not understanding things as they are unwholesome and it will bring us unhappiness. Be cause it is rooted with three unwholesome roots or seeds. Such as attachment or clinging to the five sensuous objects; from sound order, taste and contact; overseen or ill will and ignorance, or lack of understanding these processes.

We are inclined to take our body for self-continuously although we know that it does not last. Thus when we suffer from sickness or pain or when we become old, we attach so much importance to those facts that we feel quite oppressed by them. If one of our sense organs does not function or we become an invalid we feel as if we were the unhappiest person in the world. Attachment to our body only brings sorrow. Whereas if we would see changes as they are, there would be less sorrow for us.