Lankaramaya,
31/05/03
The message delivered to the
world by the Buddha Sakyamuni Gotama over two and a half millennia ago was
primarily and essentially for mankind as a whole, irrespective of clan and
creed differences. He had no chosen people of any specific region whom he
wished or needed to favor. In the world of the Buddha, men and women were of
equal status, with no insinuation whatsoever of inferiority either of intellect
or in the possibility of spiritual attainments. As a teacher, the Buddha
covered both realms of terrestrial and extra-terrestrial beings. It is for this
reason that he came to called the teacher of gods and men [ sattha devamanussanam ].
The
genesis of this message to mankind came as a result of an observation said to
have been made by young Siddhartha [ born into this world as a human ] while he
was yet unenlightened and was only a Buddha aspirant or bodhisatta, pursuing his goal of
enlightenment. In the physical world of human life, he saw a great deal more
than others, i.e. you and I. This greater vision and keener insight, we are
personally inclined to believe, was the result of a maturity of wisdom acquired
through samsaric evolution. In the living process of
being born, aging and decaying, of being subject to disease and dying, which in
reality are no more than very natural processes, the young prince saw a genuine
core of unsatisfactoriness or dukkha because of
the unfailing and unacceptable trait of change lying within them.
It is our non-acceptance of
these realities of life as they truly are and our inability to streamline
ourselves against their harshness which bring the first category of pain or dukkha upon
mankind. This puts the humans or the loka, as our young
aspirant to enlightenment calls the humans in this context, in a very stressful
situation - kiccham vata ayam loko apanno. He did sense it
and see it. But we, as average worldlings, are too
dull-witted.
There
was also behind this vision the inherited Indian belief that the human life
process is cyclical and continuous. It is called samsara. Death indeed does not
terminate life. From death to death life goes on – mrutyoh sa mrutyum apanoti. The very process of living, and its psychic
acquisitions in this very phenomenon, propels life ad infinitum, i.e. ceaselessly. The greatness of young Siddhartha
and his dauntless spirit of adventure is seen at this point when he challenges
this situation. He is determined to terminate this process. He is convinced
that it is in this termination that there lies the salvation of mankind. It is
called the departure or the stepping out - nissarana. It is the departure from the painful process of continuance in
life.
This
is the goal of Nirvana. Here the painful process of being born again and again
is ended - Ayam antima jati. Natthi
‘ dani punabbhavo. So
said the Buddha on discovering himself to be liberated. Speaking in a different
idiom, it is said that at this stage the wheel of life turns no more – yattha vattam na vattati. Nirvana
undoubtedly is an individual attainment. It is personal to each one. It is
attainable in one's lifetime, here and now, if the needful has been done. Do
not fail to appreciate that our Sakyamuni Buddha attained it at the age of
thirty-five years and enjoyed its bliss for full forty-five years thereafter.
When the Buddha constantly
says in his teachings that he preaches at all times two basic things, it is
this concept of unsatisfactoriness in life or dukkha and its termination and
elimination or nirodha – dukkhanc’aham pannapemi dukkhassa ca
nirodham that is highlighted. It is through a logical analysis of these two
basic items, the search for the cause of dukkha
and the way leading to its cessation that one arrives at the total set of
Four Noble Truths.
Let us now turn to another
area of this dukkha besides the
physical one of birth, decay etc. The Buddha himself presents to us other
psychic or mental areas of dukkha origin.
Being torn off from the company of dear and loved ones [ piyehi vippayogo ]as well as being pushed into the company of
unloved ones [ appiyehi sampayogo ]
bring about mentally painful stresses and strains. So is the inability to gain
what one wishes for – yam p’ iccham na
labhati tam pi dukkham. That is hope differed maketh the heart sick. This
is a remarkably valuable insight, which Buddhism gives to mankind with regard
to one’s personal relations and their inevitable consequences. In this area of
psychic grievances, the Buddha says that all modes of grasping at things of the
world, the process being named upadana, are equally productive of painful
situations and lead to regeneration in a further samsaric continuance.
This, we wish to insist, is
a remarkable insight into the reality of psychic phenomena in the world. In the
area of human perceptual and cognitive activities, it is inestimably valuable
to be forewarned about the consequences of these what appear to be normal
processes of mental activities of humans. They are consequences in terms of the
formation of our character or personality in our present life and also possibly
in our lives to come. They appear to be normal and we choose to call them so in
this context because they are the outcome of our reacting to sense stimuli
received through our sense organs.
Five of these sense organs
like the eye and the ear etc. are visibly located externally in our body. They
literally bombard us all the time, both for attraction and repulsion in terms
of our likes and dislikes. The mind as the sixth sense organ, located within,
has a rich repertoire of built-in experience. In the regular cognitive process
in our daily living, the formation of our judgements are directed by our
acquired and stored up knowledge of the past which we call memory, possibly
extending backwards, even to a life beyond the present. This we call the trans-samsaric consciousness [ vinnana-sota or samvattanika-vinnana ] which
determines the quality of our lives from birth to birth.
We believe we have said so
far enough to clarify the Buddhist position that every samsaric being is a product
of his own creation. For each one, it is an individual self-wrought process at
work, for personal elevation or degradation. There exist no place or person,
within or without, who provides security to beings of the world [ attano loko ]. Nor is there anyone,
according to Buddhism, who directs the destiny of the world [anabhissaro ]. If you seek the one or the other, you could
not do so without stepping out of Buddhism. In doing so one automatically
ceases to be a true Buddhist in spirit, no matter what claim one puts forward
for its justification. Buddhist texts in fact call such a person an outcast.
Buddhism definitely
tolerates no religious bigamy of soliciting or entertaining alien leadership
and guidance – anna satthara. In
Buddhism there is no room for qualitative or quantitative elevation in life through
divine grace or celestial intervention. Affluence, success and prosperity are
always products of endeavor and enterprise [ utthata vinadate dhanam ]. It is more
honorable to take leave of Buddhism totally before embracing other alien
divinities of your choice for favors, grants or whatever one wishes for.
It is this approach in
Buddhism of giving every individual, man, woman or child the right to work out
his or own salvation, without supplicating any external divinity and praying for
grace that entitles it to be called anthropocentric in its process of religious
development and glorification of man. Religious life of man as recommended in
Buddhism gets him not only beyond the stresses and strains of life in the world
as he lives here in our midst, but also redeems and elevates him to a state of
transcendence which is well and truly beyond human.
It is the way of the Noble
Eight-fold Path, worked out through eight successive stages, which brings
humans, in their correctly acquired composure of the mind called samma samadhi, to the
threshold of wisdom called samma nana. It
is from here that one moves to the release in Nirvana, unmistakably known as samma vimutti. This is the highest achievable
elevation and glorification of man, woman
and child to be liberated from being mortals in the painful process of samsara and be admitted to the immortality, eternality and
bliss of Nirvana. Call it by whatever name you will. The choice is yours. Once
you have got there, you need names no more.