Dhamma Greeting
At its core, Buddhism is an educational journey. It promotes a worldview, which encourages peace and happiness through self-understanding and respect to others. It might seem unlikely that a religion that was born over 2500 years ago, would find a place in this modern, technological age. However, as Buddhist Monks, we believe that Buddhism is closely aligned to our lives in today’s world. Einstein himself said that “If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism”.
But why?
From our point of view that is because Buddhism is scientific. Buddhism demands that we train our minds. First, to better understand ourselves through meditation and active discussion of where our thoughts and feelings come from. Then, through actively questioning what we have learned about the world. The idea is that we can only succeed in this world by understanding ourselves and others.
However, this is not an easy task. From childhood we are exposed to views which result in ideas that promote divisions between nations, cultures and individuals. The media often tells us how much better our lives will be when we own whatever it is on offer. Be it a political philosophy, a new clothing line or car, we learn to expect that owning it, even in a mental construct, makes our life better.
But is it?
We believe that is unlikely. The fact is that only in scientific endeavour can we find certainty of a sort. Relationships seem permanent yet sometimes can end up disappointed: no one is on your side forever. Political ideas end up causing distrust and division between people, only fading away when seemingly different, better politics come along. Yet are they better? Any form of communism with its demands for obedience limps along. Democracy and individual freedom falls foul of our inner desires. Greed and selfishness sometimes dictate the direction society takes. The rich get richer while the real needs of the poor are downplayed through graphs and statistics. The brash, demanding and greedy person rarely makes lasting relationships. The kind, thoughtful person gets trodden on, used by others to make themselves feel good. Yet the kind are the very ones who make the best relationships eventually.
Consider life itself. We are born, get sick and eventually we die. We do our very best to avoid sickness and cure the ills when we get them but it is rarely easy to avoid the problems that beset us. Life is a challenge full of ups and downs. The Buddha called these disappointments Dukkha, not satisfactory or suffering are probably closest in meaning. Through self-enquiry, while meditating he found the answer to our suffering. The root of this idea he called the Four Noble Truths:
1. The truth of suffering.
2. The truth of the cause of suffering.
3. The truth of the end of suffering.
4. The truth of the path we must take to end suffering.
How does this change us for the better?
Well the Buddha tells us that we can develop our own happier futures through understanding ourselves, which is our motivations, and those of others by understanding this simple but deep process of enquiry. Looked at as a process of enquiry we can see that if we:
One. Define a problem.
Two. Find its cause.
Three. Explore how we might solve it.
Four. Then we can set out a path to resolve the problem.
This is just what we as Buddhists do with all problems and is why we wanted to promote this understanding to people.
Ven. ChaowKhun PhraRajawithetpanyakhun (Dr Laow Panyasiri) Buddhist Monk Chaplain