I heard about the
enlightening culture some twenty-five years ago from my spiritual teacher,
Ajahn Khemanandha who previously learnt it from the late Ven. Buddhadasa of
Suan Mokkh. At that time, the teacher used the term “the ancestral culture”. I
can vividly remember that my heart was filled with great joy and happiness when
I heard how noble the Thai people had been in the past. I was very proud that I
was born into one of the wealthiest cultures in the world. I was quite
disappointed that I was not old enough to witness some of the rich traditions
such as people building huts for passers-by and stocking food for them and so
on. At that time, the idea of a “peace and friendship water-jar” was a popular
talking point among us, Ajahn Khemanandha’s followers.
Having grown up in the
hectic city of Bangkok, I was inspired by the notions of my two spiritual
teachers, which caused me to fall in love with the countryside where I could
soak up the rich tradition that our ancestors had created for us. Having spent
some time with villagers in various part of the country and learnt about their
simple way of life closely linked to their local temples, I could truly
appreciate such a valuable culture. Although Thailand before I left for England
some eighteen years ago had already shown the signs of cultural deterioration
due to opening her arm to the spread of consumerism during the last three
decades, the signs of cultural ruin are undoubtedly much worse by now. Having
said that, living in Britain for eighteen years also makes me realise that
although Thai culture has been terribly ruined, Thai people as well as other
Buddhist nations have a better chance to understand the supreme goal of life
than other religious traditions. The reason is that the direct route to
ultimate reality is with these people. If we could make the Buddhists
understand the real value of their priceless culture, it might be possible to
restore those valuable traditions and way of life. This might be a way to slow
down the speed of destruction, which is spreading rapidly all over the world.
Why do we have to preserve the old and create
the new enlightening culture?
Although to enter Nirvana
or to return to the great kingdom of God and live in eternity, is the ultimate
purpose of all lives, it doesn’t mean that everyone has the same ability and
potential to reach that supreme state. The Buddha compares humans to the four
types of lotuses, which bloom at different times. Likewise, there are three out
of four types of people who have the ability to know the dhamma;[2]
some can know quicker than others. To understand and to witness the real dhamma
is indeed an individual matter. There is no formula of teaching which can make
a mass of people know the dhamma at the same time. Even when the Buddha taught
a congregation, he had the telepathic ability to know which individual would
know the dhamma on that day. He then would aim his teaching to help that person
to reach the dhamma.
Although to enter Nirvana
is the result of the maturity of the different internal factors e.g. faith,
effort, awareness, concentration, wisdom and so on, there are however external
factors too. Faith cannot just happen on its own, should we not be in the right
environment. Being born in a Buddhist culture as well as in a family which has
the right view (samma-dhitti)[3]
are significant factors leading to having faith. We cannot expect someone who
grows up among a tribe in Africa to enter Nirvana if he has never heard of the
four foundations of awareness. Although tribal people have the highest
potential to know the dhamma due to their natural surroundings and they have
indeed been gifted by the dhamma, they won’t be able to know it because there
is no appropriate culture. If they are Thai, Laotian or Burmese who grow up within
a Buddhist environment e.g. hearing monks chanting every morning and night,
helping parents to prepare food for alms offering, being cajoled to do
meditation with parents, etc. these people will certainly have a better chance
to understand the dhamma. Therefore, we can see that growing up in the
appropriate culture is a most significant factor to help and prepare people to
easily understand the dhamma.
This is precisely why we
need to talk about the enlightening culture, which indeed is aggregated by
morality, wisdom and meditation (the noble eightfold path). That is because
such a culture can prepare people from all walks of life to understand the
dhamma some day in their lifetime. Simply living within the atmosphere of the
enlightening culture, members of society will be prepared one way or another to
know the path (morality, wisdom and meditation) which can help them to reach
the goal of life sooner or later[4].
In this way, members of the society do not feel like they are doing anything
special or putting in any extra effort but in fact they have indeed gained
spiritual benefit by just living their normal way of life. This is how rich it
is for the society which already has the enlightening culture. Such a cherished
culture is also what the Thai people already have because our Thai ancestors
have created it for us. It indicates that people who lived in this region must
have understood Buddhism right to the core once in the past, to be able to
create such a way
of life which assists and
cajoles people into the right path. Not only Thailand, in fact the whole of the
South East Asia used to be a great Buddhist kingdom once, judging from the
Buddha images, temples, spectacular monuments like Ankor Wat in Cambodia,
Borobudur in Java and so on. Even
Indonesia which is now an Islamic country, must once have been Buddhist, and
its people must have deeply understood the core practice of Buddhism to be able
to build a stone monument as grand as Borobudur. All these great architectural
structures show how deeply people were involved in the Buddhist way of life
which we can still witness nowadays. But as I said, it is rapidly fading away
due to the lack of understanding of the core practice. This enlightening
culture can be compared to a priceless diamond of which the owner must take
good care. If not, it will be swallowed by consumerism which has the ability to
eat everything up. As a matter of fact, this precious gem has already been
partially ruined. As a result, Thai culture has been reduced to just a showcase
which is there to be shown off to tourists and foreigners.
This is the reason why I
see the need to bring this issue up again and seriously connect it with the
ultimate goal of life, so that people can see the reason why it is so urgent
that we must preserve it. I can only talk from my own cultural background which
is Thai and Chinese but it doesn’t mean that other cultures do not have the
taste of dhamma. All Buddhist countries share similar Buddhist traditions and
some of them are still quite faithfully maintained. Due to the suppressive
political atmosphere in Burma, consumerism has not really laid its hand on the
Burmese, so ironically the Burmese culture still contains a strong flavor of
the enlightening culture. Many years ago, I watched a documentary program on
Burma. I believe that it might be on the pavement of Rangoon where I spotted a
few water jars with the scoops for passers-by to quench their thirst. I do not
believe that people were employed to fill these water-jars up which means
people in the immediate area must have been responsible for the availability of
the water in those jars. If it was so, people must have done it from their kind
hearts. This is why it is called ‘a peace and friendship water-jar’. I don’t
know whether people still do this noble activity in Burma or not. I know that
Thai people did but it has almost completely disappeared now unless we still do
it in the country. I have never visited Burma yet so I cannot possibly talk
much about the Burmese way of life although I would love to visit this country
some day. Let alone Burma, even Thailand I still know very little about, as far
as the enlightening culture is concerned.
To observe moral
principles is one of the most significant factors for preparing people for
meditation practice and to gain the subsequent wisdom. Observing moral precepts
can be compared to taking rough edges off a gem stone for further refinement,
which is compared to meditation practice. People’s minds nowadays are rough in
the sense of seriously lacking self-awareness (samma-sati) according to the
Noble Eightfold path. The free economy promoting the atmosphere of high
competitiveness conditions people’s minds to be aware of gain and loss more
than their own physical and mental well-being. Although it seems that people
are aware of what they are doing, it is still awareness in the realm of
darkness. Consequently, the innocent world (the ultimate dhamma) has been
twisted and is closely attached to names, concepts, price and value. This is
what I mean by people’s minds being rough. The only way to refine the mind is
for people to see the importance of morality so that they can be happy to
observe the moral precepts. If not, it is very difficult to bring back
morality. Morality has existed in every society in the world. Every sage and
great teacher of the world emphasised that people should follow moral precepts.
This is the stage of taking away destructive thoughts and not pursuing them.
The fundamental moral principles are quite universal; they are not to kill,
lie, steal, commit adultery and intoxicate oneself. It is obvious that any
society, whose members can follow the five basic moral principles, is
guaranteed to have less social problems. Such a society can live in peace and
harmony. The shocking fact is that not only do the members of some societies in
the world almost completely neglect moral values, they have also twisted and
turned good values into badness and bad values into goodness. This wrong
attitude contains the most disastrous and dangerous ingredients, which not only
destroy individual peace of mind but also world peace. People nowadays can step
over the moral threshold without feeling ashamed or guilty about it. Attitudes
towards lying, cheating, sex, infidelity, drugs, and so on become more liberal.
What used to be a stigma has become acceptable in some modern societies.
Contraceptive pills are prescribed to young girls, parents offering cigarettes
and drink to their own children which was unheard of in the past become normal
events in some parts of western society. Such a moral vacuum allows human’s
defilement and the hidden evil quality to flourish. There is less and less
fighting between good and bad conscience in people’s hearts. Most people are
keen to quickly agree with the concept of listening to our hearts, which
fundamentally means we can do whatever we want to do. Consequently, society is
in turmoil. Different kinds of law have to be passed to control people not to
cross over the line. The trouble is if people cannot control their own thoughts
and the drive to respond to their destructive thoughts, punishment, no matter
how severe it is, cannot stop people from wrong-doing. A society that has many
laws to control people indicates a severe absence of moral conscience and a
lack of peace within the members of that society.
The deterioration of
moral vision in the world society is the direct result of lacking an
understanding of Nirvana and God. That is because religious leaders also have
their own trouble in fighting with their defilement. When the practice is not
successful among the religious leaders of all levels, the supreme essence of
religion cannot be propagated. Religious leaders subsequently preach with less
conviction. As a result, they fail to convince people about the real purpose of
life. People cannot make the link
between moral principles and the ultimate purpose of life; therefore, they
cannot understand why they have to stick with the moral instructions against
their will. Naturally, it is easier to answer to our desire, which is our
mental ruler or governor who has power to manipulate and control our mental
self. People are keen to find happiness, which is the result of sensual
pleasure. In other words, we do whatever our hearts crave to do and worry about
the consequence later. When the majority of people do the same thing, it
reaches a point when no one blames anyone anymore. Consequently, shame and
guilt due to wrongdoing disappear from our way of life. When this attitude
happens across the globe, total disaster is imminent.
If only people can understand correctly
the concept of Nirvana, God and the ultimate purpose of life, they will know
that there is also a profound kind of happiness which is the result of being
able to fight and resist our wrong desires. They will understand also that to
observe the basic moral principles can make their lives less messy.
Furthermore, it is the main factor for them to achieve their ultimate goal of
life. Therefore, to follow the moral vision successfully means that people must
understand the supreme goal of life. That is to understand Nirvana, God or
ultimate truth in a way that it is not too far for them to reach. When that
happens, to observe moral precepts is not a difficult matter anymore because
people can understand the reasoning behind them.
In retrospect of the
Thai society, the Thai ancestors have created a way of life which closely
relates to moral principles. Unfortunately, they are quickly disappearing from
our society. People overlook the significance of this because they lack an
understanding of Nirvana.
Buddhist day (wan-phra)
It was only seven to
eight years ago when I was visiting my family in Thailand that I took a boat
trip into the Klong (canal) Bangkoknoi and immensely enjoyed looking at the
people whose simple way of life by the canal hasn’t really changed much over
the years. I ended up in a noisy market by the canal in the suburb of Bangkok
where people were busy getting on with earning their living. I stopped by a
local noodle shop where I could sit on the pavement where tables and chairs
were laid out for customers. It wasn’t the food that I was interested in
particularly; it was the people and their conversation that I wanted very much
to see and hear. No sooner had my bowl of noodles been placed in front of me
than I heard people talking about “wan-phra”. It was from the couple who
prepared the noodles for me. The husband and wife were talking about what they
had to do and prepare for the coming Buddhist day which obviously still plays a
big part in people’s lives. Then someone stopped by and chatted, the
conversation went on and was still revolving around the wan-phra. Later on, a
male customer in the shop joined in with the talk and they still talked about
the wan-phra. My heart began to tremble with joy and I thanked my Thai
ancestors who made wan-phra become our way of life. Such conversations, in
fact, happen all over Thailand especially in the country. That was when I
realised that Thai people still have a brilliant chance to know the profound
dhamma if only Thai people can work a bit harder to make people understand the
heart of Buddhism.
Buddhist day or wan
(day) phra (Buddha or monk) comes once a week according to the lunar calendar.
It doesn’t always fall on Sunday like the Christian culture but the meaning is
very much the same. It is a traditional day for making offerings and
re-affirming a religious commitment.
It is the day when people go to the temple and make the Buddhist-merit
or Tam-boon which involves offering food and other requisites to monks as well
as listening to the chanting and preaching. The day before the wan-phra is
called wan (day) gon (shaving) which is the day when all Buddhist monks shave
their heads. This is also the day when pig slaughter houses will be closed
down, and when the wan-phra arrives on the next day, all pork stalls in the
market are empty. This is a way to give respect to the Buddha on that
particular day. With the invasion of supermarkets nowadays, the empty
pork-stall is fading away from people’s way of life. I can remember that when I
was young and visited my father who lived in the country during my school
holiday, wan-gon and wan-phra were the centre point of conversation, especially
in the market.
Before the food and
requisites offering ceremony begins, the abbot will lead the congregation to
take the five precepts. This is the time when the smell of incense, candles and
fresh flowers in front of the shrine mingles with the familiar smell of hot
steamy rice, aromatic curry, various kinds of Thai food and sweets which are
carefully prepared and well presented. Colors spring out from everywhere - the
set-up of the shrine with the majestic Buddha’s image, the monks’ yellow
saffron, people’s neat clothes, food and so on. On top of those are the smiling
faces and the kind-heartedness of people. The whole event creates the most
inspiring and holy atmosphere and sums up how glorious this tradition is. The
monk will then say the words of each precept and the congregation will follow
those words in unison which are all in Pali - they are refraining from killing,
stealing, committing adultery, lying and becoming intoxicated. Older people and
the more devout ones will choose to take the eight precepts instead which
include not to eat after midday, not to elaborately dress up and use perfume
and not to sleep on thick and comfortable mattresses. This ceremony must have
been repeated over and over countless times in all Buddhist countries since the
olden days until it became a tradition. It is a shame that most people nowadays
do not know the duty behind this familiar tradition. They think that whatever
the monk says in Pali must be sacred words and people must repeat those words
because tradition says so and without knowing what they mean. As a matter of
fact, the wan-phra is a day when people will be reminded to refrain from any
wrongdoing by promising the Sangha or the group of monks that they will observe
the five moral principles.
However, this
tradition is about taking rough edges off people’s rough minds and preparing
them for further refinement or meditation practice.
It
is almost impossible to find an equivalent word in English for the term tam-boon. The term that has been used
most in English is “making-merit”, which I am not totally satisfied with. Merit
in the Oxford English dictionary is refered to as fact, action or quality that deserves reward and therefore the
usage ‘making merit’ is not correctly used.
The simple reason is that there isn’t
any tam-boon culture in Western society. The word tam means to do, action; boon means goodness, virtue or righteousness. It is often linked with giving something
away. However, this term boon links very closely with Buddhist belief. When
Thai people say the word tam-boon, apart from referring to giving something
away, they also think of the gain in relation to their religious goal. To the
mainstream lay Buddhist, that religious gain is about earning a place in heaven
or being born in a better incarnation as a deity or Brahman. Although this is
the mainstream Buddhist understanding, monks who see a bit deeper into Buddhism
try to steer people away from such an understanding because tam-boon becomes a
matter of investment for a better incarnation and leads to bad monks making a
profit by selling tickets to heaven. This is a classical notorious act carried
out by infamous religious officers of all religious traditions. There are often
scandals about monks exploiting people with this tam-boon concept. Good monks
try to tell people that tam-boon is simply an action which makes us feel good
and lighthearted and just that should be enough.
I
think the ultimate meaning of tam-boon is creating a righteous action, which
helps to take away the strong sense of self (ego) such as stinginess,
selfishness, self-centeredness and so on. Whenever people do tam-boon, the
rough quality of their minds is being taken away. This is a way to prepare the
mind for higher practice and to eventually enter Nirvana. When tam-boon is in
the culture and is people’s way of life, it means that people are prepared to
create factors which help them to develop further along the right path without
feeling that they are doing anything extra to their minds. So, if people can
give things away or do the Tam-boon without any reluctance and also feel good
and happy about it, it means that those people have kept on taking away all the
bad qualities from their minds. There is a term called im-boon used among the
Thai people who love tam-boon and are very happy due to their righteous actions.
Im means being full up after eating. Im-boon means being full up with joy and
happiness after tam-boon. This is
indeed the richness of Buddhist culture which can mobilise people from all
walks of life to take away their selfishness.
Every
religious tradition has different ways of urging people to give or to take away
their selfishness. The Buddhist way is however rather unique and intensive.
Only the Buddhist has the culture of giving or getting rid of their selfishness
every morning. Buddhists in the Theravadan tradition are familiar with the
sight of a row of monks in their orange saffron robes, holding their alms bowls
walking serenely in the street early in the morning to accept alms from
well-wishers. This is a spectacular sight, which happens in every corner of
Thailand every morning. Bin-dha-bat is the term used when monks go for their
alms round and sai-bat is the term used for well-wishers putting food in the
monks’ alms bowls. Bat means
monks’ bowls, which are usually made from aluminium in a round shape with a lid
on.
Getting
up at the crack of dawn to prepare food for sai-bat is people’s way of life in
the Theravadan tradition. Although Thai people’s faith in the Buddhist
institution has been challenged quite drastically by controversial monks over
the past two decades, causing the number of people giving sai-bat to dwindle,
such a giving spirit is still relatively rich compared to other religious
cultures. Women know well the amount of work they have to do in the kitchen
when they want to give sai-bat especially on the Buddhist day (wan phra) when
requisites have to be prepared too. Tam-boon-sai-bat, by which term people
combine the two words together, involves a lot of hard work and usually the
women in the house are responsible for it. Food is cooked in abundance to
guarantee that there is enough to feed everyone. The tam-boon-sai-bat among
people in the countryside is carried out with great generosity and dedication.
People carry food on their shoulder-poles and walk a fair distance to the
nearest temple just to give it away.
During
my student years, I used to spend some time with a family in a remote village
in Saraburi province, their daily events began at 4.30 am when three women of
three generations got up to prepare food. By 9 am, the grand daughter aged 15,
had to start walking her four miles journey so that the monks whose forest
monastery in the valley, could have his meal by 11 am. There was a day when we
had done half way of our journey, the grand daughter and I were stranded behind
a big herd of cows taking over the whole width of the country lane. There was
no room for us to walk pass the approximately 200 cows. The only way for us to
get to the temple on time was to walk through the big herd of cows. We walked
along with the cows for a while until a few of them could work out that we
weren’t the same species as them and all hell broke loose. Before I knew
anything, both of us were leaning tightly against a barbed wire fence on one
side of the country lane and in the midst of the cloud of dust, three angry
cows were yards away from us. One of them was pointing her horns down and in
the position of attacking. Both of us did nothing but scream away quite nicely.
That was the second time in my 21 years of life when I thought that I was going
to die and was sorry that I didn’t have a chance to say good-bye to my mother.
I just remember that the cows ran towards us three times but for some unknown
reasons, they never hurt us. The cowboy came and rescued us in the end.
Although we both were in a state of shock, we picked up the carnage of the food
and resumed our journey to the temple. The monks never had our food on that
day.
I am sure that people in Thailand
especially in the countryside have so many stories to tell about their journeys
to their temples. Such an incident like the above does not stop people from
doing their duty because they are happy to do it. The grand daughter still
carried on with her two hours journey along that country lane on the next day.
They love to see that monks have the taste of their food so that they can be
comforted by the thought that they have received something greater in return
and that is boon which will give them a good send-off to their next life. This
has to be considered a very rich culture by which people are willing to lose
their selfishness. Westerners must not wrongly interpret the spirit of
tam-boon.
I was driving in the car one day with my Thai
friend who was on a business trip to the UK. It was a couple of weeks before
Christmas. As we were chatting along, my friend was looking at the people busy
doing their Christmas shopping and she uttered:
“I don’t see anything that special about
Christmas. I see people busy shopping and exchanging presents. I think it’s
better at home in Thailand). At least we can go to the temple and tam-boon.”
That
was my friend’s observation. What struck me is that I knew that my friend was
not a devout Buddhist. She is like millions of other lay Buddhists who
tam-boon-sai-bat only occasionally, but somehow she knew that tam-boon culture
is better. Should I ask her to explain why, she might not be able to give me a
sound answer. Her judgement was purely based on her upbringing. The culture
told us that tam-boon is good. Westerners and other religious traditions often
get the wrong idea when they see Buddhist monks with their alms bowls. They
think that monks go out to beg which they consider a disgraceful and demeaning
action. I read a story about an English monk (Phra Farang) who was verbally
abused by a group of English tourists in Bangkok, while he was going out for
his alms round for the first time after his monkhood ordination. However, on
that same morning, he also experienced the overwhelming kindness and generosity
of the native Thai too. It isn’t easy for people outside a Buddhist culture to
understand our way of giving. If people do not train themselves to give, it is
very difficult when they need to do so. It is like bending a piece of thin
metal. At first, it is a bit hard to bend but once we keep on bending it, it
will become easy and break in half. Our minds work in the same way. There will
be resistance and reluctance always, if not tight-fistedness, whenever we have
to give. It creates lots of unpleasant feelings although it doesn’t seem
harmful. However, if we have the habit of easily giving, we will feel good
right away.
From
observing religious traditions like tam-boon-sai-bat, the generous spirit
remains in people’s hearts and affects other areas of life too. A glass of
water is served within minutes following a guest’s arrival into the household.
Special drinks and food too will be offered and served later unless the guest
insists not to bother the host. A guest arriving at mealtime is not a problem
in the East, the host will just grab a chair and ask the guest to join in. This
big-hearted spirit can get out of hand in the working environment. Bosses are
expected to treat their circle of employees or junior workers at least once a
year, apart from treating clients and colleagues from time to time. This can
lead to corruption when there is a problem with cash flow in just trying to
keep up with the generous spirit.
Nevertheless,
the Thai people need to understand their own precious culture. If not, a few
bad monks and consumerism can demolish the way of life which took a thousand
years to establish and root deeply and which we can still be part of today.
Thai ancestors created a way of life which helps people on mass to get rid of
their stinginess and selfishness every morning. Of course, not every Thai does
the Tam boon but if anyone want to lose his or her selfishness, the tradition
is there for him or her to practise.
This is not a tradition that comes easy. Thai ancestors had to work very
hard to make it stay. As I said earlier there is an astronomical amount of work
involved in tam-boon-sai-bat but all this hard work becomes easy and willing
because it has become part of our culture. After the tam-boon finishes, people
all round are happy. I cannot emphasise enough how fertile the Thai ancestral
culture is. People slowly have their minds shaped and moulded into the right
frame so that they can develop further along the road to ultimate
enlightenment. The tam-boon-sai-bat tradition has conditioned the Thai as well as
the Burmese, Laotian and Cambodian people to be generous, hospitable, kind and
giving. These are qualities which have been well known to Westerners. Apart
from the breath-taking sight of the Royal palace and temples in Thailand, it is
also the easy-going and relaxed nature of the Thai people which impresses
Westerners. How long this unique quality will stay with the Thai people is
indeed an alarming matter. I just know that if the Thai people are not careful
and keep on taking this culture for granted, we can lose our precious
enlightening culture in no time at all.
Eastern children are
brought up to have respect towards the elders and are taught to have filial
piety or feel gratitude to their parents, grandparents or those who bring them
up. To fulfil our duty and express gratitude to our parents for having brought
us up, sons and daughters, once they have reached adulthood must look after
their older parents by tending to their needs. It is customary for Thai and
Chinese children once they are earning to give their parents money on a regular
monthly basis. This is the first sign of fulfilling their filial duty and
expressing their gratitude. As for big families, elder brothers and sisters
will automatically take responsibility for their younger siblings by providing
for their school fees. We often hear that older brothers and sisters have to
leave school early to help their parents earn a living so that the younger
children can afford to go to school. It is very much so in my generation
although modern families are relatively small with just one or two children. I
am the sixth among the seven of us; my elder brother and sisters helped my
parents to pay for my school fees. Among Thai girls who live in England, one of
the main topics of conversation is about sending money home to their parents
and family. The Chinese who were left behind in Thailand after Mao Tse Tung
closed the country, also had a tradition of sending money back to their
families in China. It is a very natural thing for Eastern people to do and that
is because the way we are brought up is to show our gratitude to our parents.
This concept does not
really exist in Western society simply because the standard of living is higher
and the government takes over the role of social security; whilst in the East,
children are parent’s social security. To fulfil the filial duty is in fact the
Buddhist way of thinking. Whilst in the West, sometimes people think that it is
the parents’ fault for giving life to a person who might not want to be born;
therefore, parents have to look after their children and take responsibility.
The Buddhist way of thinking is somehow in reverse; we think that it is very
fortunate to be born as a human being. It is boon or good karma in this sense,
which gives us the chance to be born in a human form. It is a very fortunate
event because we shall have a golden chance to cultivate our minds along the
path to ultimate enlightenment. This golden chance is made possible because our
parents give birth to us and nurture us until we can stand on our own two feet.
Therefore, our parents are compared to god or Phra Arahant in the household
whom we must always pay respect to and care for. We believe that any children
who are very good to their parents will receive good things in return. Their
lives will progress because showing gratitude to parents is the best boon or the best karma apart from
vipassana-bhavana.[5] The Buddha
said that if we carried our parents on both our shoulders and let them do their
business there for the rest of their lives, it would still not be enough for
us, children, to express gratitude to our parents.
Once again, such a
positive concept towards our parents is fading away from Eastern society too.
That is because the family unit is becoming smaller. The free economy resulting
in competitiveness makes people become more selfish. The crumbling of religious
institutions cannot offer the profound wisdom of Buddhism to people and makes
people drift away from the Buddhist way of life. Consequently, a vicious circle
begins.
[1]
I have talked about this concept in my first book “Dear Colin: what is the
meaning of life?” published in 1995 by Minerva Press. It can be ordered in most
bookshops in the UK.
[2]
According to the Dictionary of Buddhism written by Phra Thep Weatee (Prayut
Prayuto), Dhamma has eleven meanings, some of which are. 1) the doctrine, the
teaching of the Buddha 2) the law of nature 3) ultimate reality 4) the
supramundane or Nirvana 5) righteousness; virtue, morality, good conduct; right
behavior; 6) tradition 7) justice 8) thing, everything, phenomena
The most popular meaning known among the
Buddhists is the teaching of the Buddha. The meaning I refer to in this chapter
and the overall of this book is mainly ultimate truth or ultimate reality or
Nirvana.
[3]
The noble eightfold path or the fourth noble truth consists of eight
righteousnesses: 1) samma-ditthi, right understanding 2) samma-sankappa, right
thought 3) samma-vacca, right speech 4) samma-kammanta, right action 5) samma
ajiva, right livelihood 6) samma-vayama, right effort 7) samma-sati, right
awareness 8) samma-samadhi, right concentration. These can be rearranged into
three groups. One and two are wisdom, 3,4 and 5 are morality, 6,7 and 8 are
meditation.
[4] If
they cannot reach the ultimate goal this lifetime, the seedling will pass on to
future in-carnations.
[5]
Vipassana-bhavana or the four foundations of awareness is the direct route to
Nirvana and this is the best action of all.