WHERE IS THE BUDDHA?
(By the late Venerable Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda Nayaka Maha Thera. 18th
Mar 1919- 31st Aug 2006, his last article. The first edition, 31st
August 2006 50,000 copies for free distribution)
People always ask this question, where did the Buddha go or where he
is living now? This is a very difficult question to answer for those
who have not developed a spiritual way of life. This is because
everybody thinks about life in a worldly way. It is difficult for
people to understand the concept of a Buddha. Certain missionaries
approach Buddhists and say that the Buddha is not a god, he was a man.
He is dead and gone. What can someone gain by worshipping a dead man?
But we must understand the Buddha is called Sattha Deva-manussanam,
teacher of gods and men. Whenever the gods have any problems, they
approach the Buddha to get his advice. Then they claim their god is
living and that is why everyone should pray to Him instead.
According to science it has taken millions of years for us to develop
our mind and understanding. When their mind was not fully developed
people became aware that there are some powers which make nature work.
Because they could not understand how exactly nature works, they began
to think there must be a person who creates and maintains these
occurrences. To help others understand this concept they transformed
this energy into a form and represented it physically as statues and
paintings. These "spirits" or powers were important to make humans to
do good and not to do bad things and to reward them if they were good.
Always we have fear, worry, suspicion, insecurity, so we need someone
to depend on for our protection. Eventually this force was transformed
into a single God. Now some people depend on God for everything. That
is why they try to introduce the idea of an eternal soul that departs
from here and remains in heaven eternally. That is to satisfy the
craving for existence forever. The Buddha says anything that comes
into existence is subjected to change, decay and extinction.
When we analyze the life of the Buddha, we see he never introduced
himself as a son of god or messenger of god but as an enlightened
religious teacher. At the same time the Buddha was not introduced as
an incarnation of another Buddha. The Buddha is not created by another
Buddha, so Buddha is not the re-incarnation of another Buddha. He is
an individual person who by working a long period, life after life
developed and cultivated all the great qualities, virtues, wisdom
which we call paramitas or perfections. When he perfected all the good
qualities he gained enlightenment: which is a complete understanding
of how the universe operates. He discovered there is no God who
created the universe.
People ask how he could gain enlightenment without support from any
god. Buddhists maintain that every individual can develop the mind to
understand everything. The meaning of the word manussa, in many
languages is human being. But the meaning of the word Mana is mind.
Therefore manussa is a human being who can develop and cultivate the
mind to perfection. Besides humans there are no other living beings in
this universe who can develop the mind up to that extent, to gain
enlightenment. Not even divine beings can become Buddhas because they
cannot develop their mind up to such an extent. They have worldly
sensual, peaceful, prosperous existences but their thinking power is
very poor. Only manussa or human being can become the Buddha or
Enlightened One. When people say Buddha is not a god, we should not
try to prove that he is a god. If we try to prove this then we
actually lower the concept of enlightenment. Some people claim that
their god has given a message to humanity. If that message is for all
human beings in this world, why does the god not proclaim his message
in the public, instead of revealing it only to one man. The Buddha did
not encourage anybody to believe anything or claim that he had been
instructed by a higher power to do so.
One day, a Christian priest came to see me with his followers to
discuss about Buddhism and asked, "Actually can you tell me what
Buddhists believe?" Then I told him very frankly that Buddhists do not
'believe' anything. Then he pointed to my book "What Buddhists
Believe" and asked "why did you write this book?" I told him, "That is
why I wrote this book, for you to read it to see whether there is
anything for you to believe." "In that case," he asked, "can you tell
me what Buddhists do?" I told him, the Buddha has given the answer to
that question, Buddha has advised us what to do. Instead of believing,
one must practice pariyatti, patipatti and pativeda. There are three
ways to practise. First we must try to understand because we must not
blindly believe anything that we cannot understand. The Buddha says
you must first try to understand.
In his teachings of the Eight Fold Noble Path,the first item is
sammaditthi, right understanding. Buddha started his mission by asking
his followers to develop right understanding rather than blind faith
or belief. After learning we gain wonderful knowledge about Buddha and
his teachings. You have to practise what you have learned. If you have
not understood you will create ideas according to your own
imagination. His advice was to practise what you have learned with
understanding. After practicing you experience the result or the
effect. Then you come to know that it is true. These are the three
methods that the Buddha taught, to learn, to understand, to practise.
This is the way to live in this world to get rid of our suffering. Now
you can understand that the Buddha's way of introducing religion was
not by asking us to believe anything but to learn, practise and
experience the results.
For instance, the Buddha says that you must be kind, you must be
honest. After understanding the teaching, you try to practise it and
after that everybody respects you when they come to know you're very
kind, very honest. Nobody wants to disturb you or accuse you, but they
respect you. That is the good result that you experience. At the same
time the Buddha says you must try to understand according to the level
of your own experience. You can test the results of the practice
yourself. You understand why some things are wrong and why some things
are right and you do not follow them because the order or commandment
comes from heaven. You have a thinking mind and common sense to
understand. Our understanding and our own experience is enough to
understand why something is wrong or right. For example the Buddha
advised us not to destroy other living beings. He did not introduce
this as a religious law because an understanding human being should
know that killing is cruel. It is not difficult for us to understand
why it is bad because when another person comes and tries to kill us
we certainly do not like it. Again he says when you have valuable
things stolen by somebody, how would you feel? In the same way when we
steal others' property they also do not like it. It is not necessary
for us to get orders from any god or Buddha or Jesus to understand
this simple concept. Religious teachers appear in the world to remind
us what we have neglected or forgotten. Your own experience and
understanding is more than enough for you to know why certain things
are right or wrong.
The Buddha advised us to think and understand. We have the sense of
reasoning. We have common sense unlike other living beings which also
have a mind but cannot think rationally. Their minds are limited to
find food, shelter, protection and sensual pleasure. They cannot
extend their mind further. But human beings have a mind to think and
understand up to the maximum level. This is why scientists have
explored and discovered many things which we never heard of before.
There is no other living being in this world which can develop the
mind up to that extent. That is why only a human being can become a
Buddha. Only by developing their minds can human beings gain
enlightenment. The Buddha told us, to act according to our own
experience. Then we can experience the results. The followers of all
the other religions, greet others, saying "God bless you", but
Buddhists very seldom greet others, saying Buddha bless you. But they
recite "Buddham Saranam Gacchami" (I go to the Buddha for my refuge).
If they believe that they can take refuge in the Buddha why they do
not greet others saying "The Buddha Bless You". Buddha also advised
people to remember the Buddha when they have fear.
So "Where is the Buddha" is our topic. Can we say he is in heaven or
he is living in nirvana or he is living somewhere else? Where did he
go? We must remember that everything we ask is from a worldly point of
view. After gaining enlightenment Buddha said "avamantimaiati
natthidaniDunabavo", this is my last birth and there is no more
becoming again. I have already stopped becoming again and again in
this world, life after life, and experiencing endless suffering.
Pleasure or entertainments that people experience are temporary
emotional satisfactions that disappear within a short period. This
creates unsatisfactoriness. Within a lifetime physically and mentally
we experience enormous suffering, worries, problems, pain,
difficulties, calamities and unsatisfactoriness. There is nobody in
this world who can say that he is satisfied with this life. Everybody
complains and grumbles about physical or mental problems. By
understanding this situation the Buddha stopped rebirth. That is
called salvation. Salvation means freedom from physical and mental
suffering. By existing in physical form or any other form we cannot
overcome our physical and mental suffering. Therefore if we don't like
to suffer, the best thing is to stop this birth. We crave for
existence. This craving and attachment are very strong in our mind.
But we want to exist in spite of all these sufferings and troubles,
pain and sicknesses and many other problems because of our craving and
ignorance. Now look at what is happening in this world. The whole
world is a battlefield, all over the world people create violence and
bloodshed and war and destruction. Animals are living without creating
many of all those unnecessary problems to suffer. When they are hungry
they go out and catch another living being, satisfy their hunger and
go to sleep. But human beings cannot be satisfied without craving for
so many other things. Craving, attachment are so strong in our human
mind. Because of that jealousy, enmity, anger, ill-will, cruelty and
wickedness arises. Other living beings do not develop their cruelty up
to that extent.
Human beings have a religion. Religion is not only to worship and pray
but to do some service to other living beings by keeping away some bad
thoughts so that we can serve others. Devotional aspects of religion
are important but that alone cannot develop the mind to gain proper
understanding or wisdom. Before the passing away of the Buddha many
people assembled with flowers to offer and pay respect to him. The
Buddha asked them to go back. He said if they really wanted to respect
him, instead of offering flowers, and worshipping, they should
practise at least one of the advices given by him. Then they really
respect the Buddha.
Now you can understand what the Buddha wanted. A religious way of life
is not only to pray but to follow some advice given by him. Once a
monk called Bakkula would come and sit down in front of the Buddha and
watch him everyday. One day the Buddha asked him "what are you doing
here?" He said, "when I look at your physical body, it gives me a lot
of happiness." Then the Buddha said, "Bakkula, by watching this dirty,
filthy, impermanent physical body what do you gain? You only entertain
your emotion, you never gain knowledge or understanding but entertain
your emotion. You cannot see the real Buddha through the physical
body. Buddha is not the physical body." Then he said, "Only one who
understands the dhamma taught by the Buddha sees the real Buddha. The
real Buddha appears in the mind when we understand what the Buddha
taught. Here you can understand the Buddha was not particular about
the physical body. When you study the history of India, for nearly 500
years there never was any Buddha image because the Buddha did not
encourage anybody to erect images of himself. It is the Greeks who
created the Buddha images and other forms of religious symbols. Now of
course different forms of Buddha images have spread all over the world.
Followers of some religions condemn us as idol worshippers. Actually
they do not know what Buddhists are doing. A few hundred years after
the Buddha, there was a well-known monk called Upagutha. He was a very
popular preacher. When he gave a talk, thousands of people assembled.
Mara the evil one was very unhappy because more and more people were
becoming religious.
Maras are not living beings but strong mental obstructions and
hindrances which prevent one from leading a religious way of life.
Mara is then personified as the Evil One. This Mara started to perform
very attractive entertainment, dancing, singing and merry making in
front of the temple. Then the devotees slowly turned to watch Mara.
Nobody came and listened to his talk. Upagutha decided to teach Mara a
good lesson and he also went to watch the performance. When the
performance was ended Upagutha said he really appreciated it. "In
appreciation of your performance I would like to put a garland on your
neck." Mara was very proud. When Upagutha put a garland he felt the
garland tightening around his neck like a python. He tried to pull it
out but could not. Then he went to Shakra, the king of the gods and
asked him for help to remove the garland. Shakra also tried his best
but he also could not take it out. Then he went to Brahma who was
regarded as creator god at that time and asked him to remove the
garland. He also tried to take it out but could not take it out. Then
Brahma told him that only the one who put it on could remove it. So
Mara had to come back to Venerable Upagutha and begged him to take it
out otherwise he would die. Then Upagutha said, "it is not difficult
but I can only do it under two conditions. First, you must promise in
future that you're not going to disturb any of our religious
services." Mara agreed. "The second thing is that, you have seen the
Buddha because on many occasions you tried to disturb the Buddha.
You're living a few hundreds years after the Buddha. You have the
supernatural power to represent the physical body." Mara said, "yes, I
can do that if you promise not to worship me when I appear as the
Buddha because I am not a holy man." Then Venerable Upagutha said, "I
am not going to worship you." However when he appeared as a real
Buddha, Venerable Upagutha paid his respects. Then Mara shouted, you
promised that you are not going to worship him. Then Upagutha said "I
did not worship Mara, I worship the Buddha."
This is a very good example for people to tell others the meaning of
worshipping the image of the Buddha. When you keep a Buddha image and
pay homage, you also can take an image as an object for meditation.
That is not worshipping the idol. You invite the Buddha into your mind
through this symbol. It is a religious symbol. How the Buddha image
appeals to the human mind can be understood in the following incident.
During the Second World War in Burma the commander in chief of the
army found a beautiful small Buddha image. It was so appealing to his
mind. He sent this image to Sir Winston Churchill, who was the Prime
Minister of England at that time with a note saying, "please keep this
image on your table. Whenever you have any worries or disturbances
please look at the face of this image. I believe that you will get the
chance to calm your mind."
Mr. Nehru the former Prime Minister of India was arrested by the
British government. When he was in jail he had a small Buddha image in
his pocket. He took out this image and kept it on the table and looked
at it and thought, "In spite of so many troubles, problems and
difficulties in this world, if the Buddha could manage to maintain a
smiling face, why not we follow this great man?"
Anatole France who was a French scholar, visited London Museum and for
the first time in his life he saw a Buddha image. Having seen this
Buddha image, he said, "if god has come down from heaven to this earth
he is none other than this figure." However an image is not essential.
There are many who can practise the teaching of the Buddha without any
image. It is not compulsory that they must have an image. We don't
worship, we don't pray, we don't ask anything from the image but we
pay homage, we respect this image of a great religious man.
One of our members had been keeping a Buddha image for 45 years in his
house. One day some missionaries came and told him that he was
worshipping the devil. He did not know how to reply to them. This is
surprising because for 45 years he had been worshipping the image and
he did not know what to say when people condemned it. This is the
weakness of some of our Buddhists. They follow tradition, worshipping,
praying, offering, chanting but they do not try to understand the
teachings of the Buddha. Now you can understand with or without the
Buddha image you can practise the teachings of the Buddha. Because the
physical body is not the Buddha.
According to the Mahayana school of Buddhism there are 3 bodies of the
Buddha or 3 kayas, sambhogakaya, nirmanakaya, dharmakaya. He used both
sambhogakaya and nirmanakava for eating, sleeping, walking, talking,
advising, preaching. All these activities he has done with the
physical body. When the Buddha attained parinirvana these 2 bodies
disappeared. But dharmakaya or dharma body of the Buddha can never
disappear. According to the Mahayana school of Buddhism, the Buddha
Amitabha is in sukavati, pureland. Those who recite his name out of
respect and those who worship him will be born in pureland and later
get the chance to attain nirvana. According to their way of thinking
and belief this concept gives a lot of hope and confidence that the
Buddha is still living until every living being attains the final
salvation.
The Buddha has mentioned "whether the Buddha appears or not dharma
exists forever in this world". When a Buddha appears he realizes
people have forgotten the real dharma. "This dharma that I understood
is not a new dharma created by me", said the Buddha. This dharma has
always existed but people have misinterpreted, created wrong concept
according to their own imagination and completely polluted the purity
of the dharma. It is even happening today, 2500 years after the Buddha
revealed the truth as dharma. People are doing wrong things in many
countries in the name of the Buddha. It is not that they really follow
the advice given by the Buddha. But they introduce their traditional
cultural practices mixed with Buddhism and introduce it as Buddhism.
As Buddhists, we must try to learn what the Buddha taught and try to
practice what the Buddha taught to seek our salvation.
People ask where the Buddha is. To practice Buddhism it is not
necessary for us to know where the Buddha is, or where he went. Take
for instance we have electricity discovered by somebody. Is it
necessary for us to know the person who discovered electricity, where
he is and from which country he came and his name? Our duty is to make
use of the electricity. Again those who have discovered atoms or
atomic energy, can use this atomic energy for constructive or
destructive purposes. So it is our duty to make use of this energy in
a proper manner. It is not necessary to know actually who discovered
this atomic energy. People have discovered the computer and television
but it is not necessary for us to know the names and the details of
them, our duty is to use them.
In the same manner do not ask where the Buddha is, or where he went.
If the dharma, what he taught, is true, available and effective why is
it necessary to know where the Buddha is. The Buddha never said that
he can send us to heaven or hell. The Buddha can tell you what to do
and what not to do to gain our salvation, that is the only thing
Buddha can do. He cannot do anything for you. Your duty is to practise
what the Buddha taught us. Others say that god can wash away the sins
committed by people. Buddha never said that sin is created by one
person, and it can be washed away by another person. Neither Buddha
nor god can do that. When a person is going to die and says that he
believes in god, after all the sinful things that he committed can god
take away his sins? For instance maybe you are very hot tempered and
you know it is wrong but you do not know how to get rid of it. So you
go to god and pray and ask him to please take away the cruelty from
your mind, do you think any god can do that? You may go and worship
the Buddha and ask the Buddha to take away your cruelty. But the
Buddha also cannot take it away from your mind. The Buddha can only
tell you how to remove your anger with your own effort. No one can
help you but yourself through your understanding. You yourself must
realize, "this anger is dangerous, can create lots of trouble,
problems and difficulties and harm and disturb others. I must try to
reduce anger by using my mental energy and create strong determination
to withdraw anger from the mind." So the Buddha or God cannot wash
away sins created by us but we alone can do that. There is a good
advice given by the Buddha. If anyone has committed a bad deed or bad
karma, they cannot get rid of the effects by praying to god or Buddha.
However when they come to know that they have committed the bad deeds,
then they must stop committing bad deeds again. You must create strong
determination in the mind to create more and more good karma or
meritorious deeds. When you develop your meritorious deeds, the effect
of the bad karma that you have committed earlier can be overcome by
good karma.
Take for instance Angulimala, the murderer who killed nearly one
thousand human beings. When the Buddha came to know that he went to
see him. Angulimala wanted to kill the Buddha because he had completed
999 murders. His vow was to kill the thousandth, so he was very happy
when he saw the Buddha and tried to catch him. Occasionally the Buddha
performed a little miracle. Knowing it was difficult to control this
man by preaching, the Buddha walked in a normal way and allowed him to
run. Although he ran nearly 4 miles, he could not come near to the
Buddha. Then he asked the Buddha to stop and the Buddha knew it was
time for him to talk to him. The Buddha said "I have already stopped,
you're the one who run." Angulimala said, "how can you say you have
stopped, I saw you walking."The Buddha replied, "I have stopped means
I have stopped killing or destroying other living beings. You are the
one who is running means you are still committing evil. If you stop
running then you can catch me." Then Angulimala said "I cannot
understand what you said." Then the Buddha said "I have stopped
killing and you're doing just that, that is the meaning of running.
You are running in samsara." Then Angulimala came to know that he was
wrong and decided to follow the Buddha and he became a monk and
started to meditate. Later he attained arahantahood and gained
nirvanic bliss. Bad karma had no chance to come to catch him. He went
on developing good karma and the bad karma had no chance to affect
him. That is what the Buddha said. The Buddha taught this method to
overcome the effect of bad karma not by praying to any god but by
doing more and more meritorious deeds.
If I say that the Buddha is living in any part of the universe in
physical form it is against the teachings of the Buddha. On the other
hand if I say that the Buddha is not living in any part of the
universe in physical form many people are not very happy because they
have craving for existence which cannot be satisfied. Therefore they
say it is nothingness. It is not nothingness; it is the ending of
physical and mental suffering and experiencing nirvanic bliss or
salvation. On the other hand there are some people who really need the
physical form of the image of the Buddha to calm their mind, reduce
their tension and fear and worries. However it is not right for us to
say the Buddha is living or not. If the doctrine or the teaching of
the Buddha is available for us to experience peace, satisfaction in
our life that is more than enough for us. Let us take a doctor who has
discovered a very effective medicine. If the medicine is available, if
it can cure sicknesses, is it necessary for us to know where this
doctor is and whether he is still living or not? The important thing
is to get rid of our sicknesses by taking the medicine. In the same
manner the teachings of the Buddha are more than enough for us to get
rid of our sufferings. The Buddha has given us the right to think
freely to understand whether something is wrong by using our common
sense or reasoning for us to understand the real nature of things that
come into existence.
On the other hand there is nothing in any part of the universe which
exists without changing, without decaying and without extinguishing
because all these are the combination of elements, energies and mental
energies and karmic energies. Therefore it is impossible for these
energies and elements or mental energies, karmic energies to remain
forever without changing. If you can understand this then the
teachings of the Buddha will help you to understand how to face your
problems and difficulties, to overcome our unsatisfactoriness.
Otherwise we will have to face physical and mental suffering,
unsatisfactoriness and disappointment. We have to act wisely to get
rid of our problems. It is difficult for us to get rid of our
suffering simply by praying, worshipping to anybody but through
understanding the nature of our problems and difficulties and the
cause of our problems and difficulties, we will be able to get rid of
such problems.
Many people ask where did the Buddha go? If people say he has gone to
nirvana then they think nirvana is a place. Nirvana is not a place, it
is a mental state for us to achieve to experience our final salvation.
We cannot say the Buddha has gone somewhere or Buddha is existing but
he experiences the nirvanic bliss or the final goal in life. So the
best answer to the question "Where is the Buddha?" is the Buddha is in
your mind which has realised the Ultimate Truth.
(By the late Venerable Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda Nayaka Maha Thera. 18th
Mar 1919- 31st Aug 2006, his last article. The first edition, 31st
August 2006 50,000 copies for free distribution)
People always ask this question, where did the Buddha go or where he
is living now? This is a very difficult question to answer for those
who have not developed a spiritual way of life. This is because
everybody thinks about life in a worldly way. It is difficult for
people to understand the concept of a Buddha. Certain missionaries
approach Buddhists and say that the Buddha is not a god, he was a man.
He is dead and gone. What can someone gain by worshipping a dead man?
But we must understand the Buddha is called Sattha Deva-manussanam,
teacher of gods and men. Whenever the gods have any problems, they
approach the Buddha to get his advice. Then they claim their god is
living and that is why everyone should pray to Him instead.
According to science it has taken millions of years for us to develop
our mind and understanding. When their mind was not fully developed
people became aware that there are some powers which make nature work.
Because they could not understand how exactly nature works, they began
to think there must be a person who creates and maintains these
occurrences. To help others understand this concept they transformed
this energy into a form and represented it physically as statues and
paintings. These "spirits" or powers were important to make humans to
do good and not to do bad things and to reward them if they were good.
Always we have fear, worry, suspicion, insecurity, so we need someone
to depend on for our protection. Eventually this force was transformed
into a single God. Now some people depend on God for everything. That
is why they try to introduce the idea of an eternal soul that departs
from here and remains in heaven eternally. That is to satisfy the
craving for existence forever. The Buddha says anything that comes
into existence is subjected to change, decay and extinction.
When we analyze the life of the Buddha, we see he never introduced
himself as a son of god or messenger of god but as an enlightened
religious teacher. At the same time the Buddha was not introduced as
an incarnation of another Buddha. The Buddha is not created by another
Buddha, so Buddha is not the re-incarnation of another Buddha. He is
an individual person who by working a long period, life after life
developed and cultivated all the great qualities, virtues, wisdom
which we call paramitas or perfections. When he perfected all the good
qualities he gained enlightenment: which is a complete understanding
of how the universe operates. He discovered there is no God who
created the universe.
People ask how he could gain enlightenment without support from any
god. Buddhists maintain that every individual can develop the mind to
understand everything. The meaning of the word manussa, in many
languages is human being. But the meaning of the word Mana is mind.
Therefore manussa is a human being who can develop and cultivate the
mind to perfection. Besides humans there are no other living beings in
this universe who can develop the mind up to that extent, to gain
enlightenment. Not even divine beings can become Buddhas because they
cannot develop their mind up to such an extent. They have worldly
sensual, peaceful, prosperous existences but their thinking power is
very poor. Only manussa or human being can become the Buddha or
Enlightened One. When people say Buddha is not a god, we should not
try to prove that he is a god. If we try to prove this then we
actually lower the concept of enlightenment. Some people claim that
their god has given a message to humanity. If that message is for all
human beings in this world, why does the god not proclaim his message
in the public, instead of revealing it only to one man. The Buddha did
not encourage anybody to believe anything or claim that he had been
instructed by a higher power to do so.
One day, a Christian priest came to see me with his followers to
discuss about Buddhism and asked, "Actually can you tell me what
Buddhists believe?" Then I told him very frankly that Buddhists do not
'believe' anything. Then he pointed to my book "What Buddhists
Believe" and asked "why did you write this book?" I told him, "That is
why I wrote this book, for you to read it to see whether there is
anything for you to believe." "In that case," he asked, "can you tell
me what Buddhists do?" I told him, the Buddha has given the answer to
that question, Buddha has advised us what to do. Instead of believing,
one must practice pariyatti, patipatti and pativeda. There are three
ways to practise. First we must try to understand because we must not
blindly believe anything that we cannot understand. The Buddha says
you must first try to understand.
In his teachings of the Eight Fold Noble Path,the first item is
sammaditthi, right understanding. Buddha started his mission by asking
his followers to develop right understanding rather than blind faith
or belief. After learning we gain wonderful knowledge about Buddha and
his teachings. You have to practise what you have learned. If you have
not understood you will create ideas according to your own
imagination. His advice was to practise what you have learned with
understanding. After practicing you experience the result or the
effect. Then you come to know that it is true. These are the three
methods that the Buddha taught, to learn, to understand, to practise.
This is the way to live in this world to get rid of our suffering. Now
you can understand that the Buddha's way of introducing religion was
not by asking us to believe anything but to learn, practise and
experience the results.
For instance, the Buddha says that you must be kind, you must be
honest. After understanding the teaching, you try to practise it and
after that everybody respects you when they come to know you're very
kind, very honest. Nobody wants to disturb you or accuse you, but they
respect you. That is the good result that you experience. At the same
time the Buddha says you must try to understand according to the level
of your own experience. You can test the results of the practice
yourself. You understand why some things are wrong and why some things
are right and you do not follow them because the order or commandment
comes from heaven. You have a thinking mind and common sense to
understand. Our understanding and our own experience is enough to
understand why something is wrong or right. For example the Buddha
advised us not to destroy other living beings. He did not introduce
this as a religious law because an understanding human being should
know that killing is cruel. It is not difficult for us to understand
why it is bad because when another person comes and tries to kill us
we certainly do not like it. Again he says when you have valuable
things stolen by somebody, how would you feel? In the same way when we
steal others' property they also do not like it. It is not necessary
for us to get orders from any god or Buddha or Jesus to understand
this simple concept. Religious teachers appear in the world to remind
us what we have neglected or forgotten. Your own experience and
understanding is more than enough for you to know why certain things
are right or wrong.
The Buddha advised us to think and understand. We have the sense of
reasoning. We have common sense unlike other living beings which also
have a mind but cannot think rationally. Their minds are limited to
find food, shelter, protection and sensual pleasure. They cannot
extend their mind further. But human beings have a mind to think and
understand up to the maximum level. This is why scientists have
explored and discovered many things which we never heard of before.
There is no other living being in this world which can develop the
mind up to that extent. That is why only a human being can become a
Buddha. Only by developing their minds can human beings gain
enlightenment. The Buddha told us, to act according to our own
experience. Then we can experience the results. The followers of all
the other religions, greet others, saying "God bless you", but
Buddhists very seldom greet others, saying Buddha bless you. But they
recite "Buddham Saranam Gacchami" (I go to the Buddha for my refuge).
If they believe that they can take refuge in the Buddha why they do
not greet others saying "The Buddha Bless You". Buddha also advised
people to remember the Buddha when they have fear.
So "Where is the Buddha" is our topic. Can we say he is in heaven or
he is living in nirvana or he is living somewhere else? Where did he
go? We must remember that everything we ask is from a worldly point of
view. After gaining enlightenment Buddha said "avamantimaiati
natthidaniDunabavo", this is my last birth and there is no more
becoming again. I have already stopped becoming again and again in
this world, life after life, and experiencing endless suffering.
Pleasure or entertainments that people experience are temporary
emotional satisfactions that disappear within a short period. This
creates unsatisfactoriness. Within a lifetime physically and mentally
we experience enormous suffering, worries, problems, pain,
difficulties, calamities and unsatisfactoriness. There is nobody in
this world who can say that he is satisfied with this life. Everybody
complains and grumbles about physical or mental problems. By
understanding this situation the Buddha stopped rebirth. That is
called salvation. Salvation means freedom from physical and mental
suffering. By existing in physical form or any other form we cannot
overcome our physical and mental suffering. Therefore if we don't like
to suffer, the best thing is to stop this birth. We crave for
existence. This craving and attachment are very strong in our mind.
But we want to exist in spite of all these sufferings and troubles,
pain and sicknesses and many other problems because of our craving and
ignorance. Now look at what is happening in this world. The whole
world is a battlefield, all over the world people create violence and
bloodshed and war and destruction. Animals are living without creating
many of all those unnecessary problems to suffer. When they are hungry
they go out and catch another living being, satisfy their hunger and
go to sleep. But human beings cannot be satisfied without craving for
so many other things. Craving, attachment are so strong in our human
mind. Because of that jealousy, enmity, anger, ill-will, cruelty and
wickedness arises. Other living beings do not develop their cruelty up
to that extent.
Human beings have a religion. Religion is not only to worship and pray
but to do some service to other living beings by keeping away some bad
thoughts so that we can serve others. Devotional aspects of religion
are important but that alone cannot develop the mind to gain proper
understanding or wisdom. Before the passing away of the Buddha many
people assembled with flowers to offer and pay respect to him. The
Buddha asked them to go back. He said if they really wanted to respect
him, instead of offering flowers, and worshipping, they should
practise at least one of the advices given by him. Then they really
respect the Buddha.
Now you can understand what the Buddha wanted. A religious way of life
is not only to pray but to follow some advice given by him. Once a
monk called Bakkula would come and sit down in front of the Buddha and
watch him everyday. One day the Buddha asked him "what are you doing
here?" He said, "when I look at your physical body, it gives me a lot
of happiness." Then the Buddha said, "Bakkula, by watching this dirty,
filthy, impermanent physical body what do you gain? You only entertain
your emotion, you never gain knowledge or understanding but entertain
your emotion. You cannot see the real Buddha through the physical
body. Buddha is not the physical body." Then he said, "Only one who
understands the dhamma taught by the Buddha sees the real Buddha. The
real Buddha appears in the mind when we understand what the Buddha
taught. Here you can understand the Buddha was not particular about
the physical body. When you study the history of India, for nearly 500
years there never was any Buddha image because the Buddha did not
encourage anybody to erect images of himself. It is the Greeks who
created the Buddha images and other forms of religious symbols. Now of
course different forms of Buddha images have spread all over the world.
Followers of some religions condemn us as idol worshippers. Actually
they do not know what Buddhists are doing. A few hundred years after
the Buddha, there was a well-known monk called Upagutha. He was a very
popular preacher. When he gave a talk, thousands of people assembled.
Mara the evil one was very unhappy because more and more people were
becoming religious.
Maras are not living beings but strong mental obstructions and
hindrances which prevent one from leading a religious way of life.
Mara is then personified as the Evil One. This Mara started to perform
very attractive entertainment, dancing, singing and merry making in
front of the temple. Then the devotees slowly turned to watch Mara.
Nobody came and listened to his talk. Upagutha decided to teach Mara a
good lesson and he also went to watch the performance. When the
performance was ended Upagutha said he really appreciated it. "In
appreciation of your performance I would like to put a garland on your
neck." Mara was very proud. When Upagutha put a garland he felt the
garland tightening around his neck like a python. He tried to pull it
out but could not. Then he went to Shakra, the king of the gods and
asked him for help to remove the garland. Shakra also tried his best
but he also could not take it out. Then he went to Brahma who was
regarded as creator god at that time and asked him to remove the
garland. He also tried to take it out but could not take it out. Then
Brahma told him that only the one who put it on could remove it. So
Mara had to come back to Venerable Upagutha and begged him to take it
out otherwise he would die. Then Upagutha said, "it is not difficult
but I can only do it under two conditions. First, you must promise in
future that you're not going to disturb any of our religious
services." Mara agreed. "The second thing is that, you have seen the
Buddha because on many occasions you tried to disturb the Buddha.
You're living a few hundreds years after the Buddha. You have the
supernatural power to represent the physical body." Mara said, "yes, I
can do that if you promise not to worship me when I appear as the
Buddha because I am not a holy man." Then Venerable Upagutha said, "I
am not going to worship you." However when he appeared as a real
Buddha, Venerable Upagutha paid his respects. Then Mara shouted, you
promised that you are not going to worship him. Then Upagutha said "I
did not worship Mara, I worship the Buddha."
This is a very good example for people to tell others the meaning of
worshipping the image of the Buddha. When you keep a Buddha image and
pay homage, you also can take an image as an object for meditation.
That is not worshipping the idol. You invite the Buddha into your mind
through this symbol. It is a religious symbol. How the Buddha image
appeals to the human mind can be understood in the following incident.
During the Second World War in Burma the commander in chief of the
army found a beautiful small Buddha image. It was so appealing to his
mind. He sent this image to Sir Winston Churchill, who was the Prime
Minister of England at that time with a note saying, "please keep this
image on your table. Whenever you have any worries or disturbances
please look at the face of this image. I believe that you will get the
chance to calm your mind."
Mr. Nehru the former Prime Minister of India was arrested by the
British government. When he was in jail he had a small Buddha image in
his pocket. He took out this image and kept it on the table and looked
at it and thought, "In spite of so many troubles, problems and
difficulties in this world, if the Buddha could manage to maintain a
smiling face, why not we follow this great man?"
Anatole France who was a French scholar, visited London Museum and for
the first time in his life he saw a Buddha image. Having seen this
Buddha image, he said, "if god has come down from heaven to this earth
he is none other than this figure." However an image is not essential.
There are many who can practise the teaching of the Buddha without any
image. It is not compulsory that they must have an image. We don't
worship, we don't pray, we don't ask anything from the image but we
pay homage, we respect this image of a great religious man.
One of our members had been keeping a Buddha image for 45 years in his
house. One day some missionaries came and told him that he was
worshipping the devil. He did not know how to reply to them. This is
surprising because for 45 years he had been worshipping the image and
he did not know what to say when people condemned it. This is the
weakness of some of our Buddhists. They follow tradition, worshipping,
praying, offering, chanting but they do not try to understand the
teachings of the Buddha. Now you can understand with or without the
Buddha image you can practise the teachings of the Buddha. Because the
physical body is not the Buddha.
According to the Mahayana school of Buddhism there are 3 bodies of the
Buddha or 3 kayas, sambhogakaya, nirmanakaya, dharmakaya. He used both
sambhogakaya and nirmanakava for eating, sleeping, walking, talking,
advising, preaching. All these activities he has done with the
physical body. When the Buddha attained parinirvana these 2 bodies
disappeared. But dharmakaya or dharma body of the Buddha can never
disappear. According to the Mahayana school of Buddhism, the Buddha
Amitabha is in sukavati, pureland. Those who recite his name out of
respect and those who worship him will be born in pureland and later
get the chance to attain nirvana. According to their way of thinking
and belief this concept gives a lot of hope and confidence that the
Buddha is still living until every living being attains the final
salvation.
The Buddha has mentioned "whether the Buddha appears or not dharma
exists forever in this world". When a Buddha appears he realizes
people have forgotten the real dharma. "This dharma that I understood
is not a new dharma created by me", said the Buddha. This dharma has
always existed but people have misinterpreted, created wrong concept
according to their own imagination and completely polluted the purity
of the dharma. It is even happening today, 2500 years after the Buddha
revealed the truth as dharma. People are doing wrong things in many
countries in the name of the Buddha. It is not that they really follow
the advice given by the Buddha. But they introduce their traditional
cultural practices mixed with Buddhism and introduce it as Buddhism.
As Buddhists, we must try to learn what the Buddha taught and try to
practice what the Buddha taught to seek our salvation.
People ask where the Buddha is. To practice Buddhism it is not
necessary for us to know where the Buddha is, or where he went. Take
for instance we have electricity discovered by somebody. Is it
necessary for us to know the person who discovered electricity, where
he is and from which country he came and his name? Our duty is to make
use of the electricity. Again those who have discovered atoms or
atomic energy, can use this atomic energy for constructive or
destructive purposes. So it is our duty to make use of this energy in
a proper manner. It is not necessary to know actually who discovered
this atomic energy. People have discovered the computer and television
but it is not necessary for us to know the names and the details of
them, our duty is to use them.
In the same manner do not ask where the Buddha is, or where he went.
If the dharma, what he taught, is true, available and effective why is
it necessary to know where the Buddha is. The Buddha never said that
he can send us to heaven or hell. The Buddha can tell you what to do
and what not to do to gain our salvation, that is the only thing
Buddha can do. He cannot do anything for you. Your duty is to practise
what the Buddha taught us. Others say that god can wash away the sins
committed by people. Buddha never said that sin is created by one
person, and it can be washed away by another person. Neither Buddha
nor god can do that. When a person is going to die and says that he
believes in god, after all the sinful things that he committed can god
take away his sins? For instance maybe you are very hot tempered and
you know it is wrong but you do not know how to get rid of it. So you
go to god and pray and ask him to please take away the cruelty from
your mind, do you think any god can do that? You may go and worship
the Buddha and ask the Buddha to take away your cruelty. But the
Buddha also cannot take it away from your mind. The Buddha can only
tell you how to remove your anger with your own effort. No one can
help you but yourself through your understanding. You yourself must
realize, "this anger is dangerous, can create lots of trouble,
problems and difficulties and harm and disturb others. I must try to
reduce anger by using my mental energy and create strong determination
to withdraw anger from the mind." So the Buddha or God cannot wash
away sins created by us but we alone can do that. There is a good
advice given by the Buddha. If anyone has committed a bad deed or bad
karma, they cannot get rid of the effects by praying to god or Buddha.
However when they come to know that they have committed the bad deeds,
then they must stop committing bad deeds again. You must create strong
determination in the mind to create more and more good karma or
meritorious deeds. When you develop your meritorious deeds, the effect
of the bad karma that you have committed earlier can be overcome by
good karma.
Take for instance Angulimala, the murderer who killed nearly one
thousand human beings. When the Buddha came to know that he went to
see him. Angulimala wanted to kill the Buddha because he had completed
999 murders. His vow was to kill the thousandth, so he was very happy
when he saw the Buddha and tried to catch him. Occasionally the Buddha
performed a little miracle. Knowing it was difficult to control this
man by preaching, the Buddha walked in a normal way and allowed him to
run. Although he ran nearly 4 miles, he could not come near to the
Buddha. Then he asked the Buddha to stop and the Buddha knew it was
time for him to talk to him. The Buddha said "I have already stopped,
you're the one who run." Angulimala said, "how can you say you have
stopped, I saw you walking."The Buddha replied, "I have stopped means
I have stopped killing or destroying other living beings. You are the
one who is running means you are still committing evil. If you stop
running then you can catch me." Then Angulimala said "I cannot
understand what you said." Then the Buddha said "I have stopped
killing and you're doing just that, that is the meaning of running.
You are running in samsara." Then Angulimala came to know that he was
wrong and decided to follow the Buddha and he became a monk and
started to meditate. Later he attained arahantahood and gained
nirvanic bliss. Bad karma had no chance to come to catch him. He went
on developing good karma and the bad karma had no chance to affect
him. That is what the Buddha said. The Buddha taught this method to
overcome the effect of bad karma not by praying to any god but by
doing more and more meritorious deeds.
If I say that the Buddha is living in any part of the universe in
physical form it is against the teachings of the Buddha. On the other
hand if I say that the Buddha is not living in any part of the
universe in physical form many people are not very happy because they
have craving for existence which cannot be satisfied. Therefore they
say it is nothingness. It is not nothingness; it is the ending of
physical and mental suffering and experiencing nirvanic bliss or
salvation. On the other hand there are some people who really need the
physical form of the image of the Buddha to calm their mind, reduce
their tension and fear and worries. However it is not right for us to
say the Buddha is living or not. If the doctrine or the teaching of
the Buddha is available for us to experience peace, satisfaction in
our life that is more than enough for us. Let us take a doctor who has
discovered a very effective medicine. If the medicine is available, if
it can cure sicknesses, is it necessary for us to know where this
doctor is and whether he is still living or not? The important thing
is to get rid of our sicknesses by taking the medicine. In the same
manner the teachings of the Buddha are more than enough for us to get
rid of our sufferings. The Buddha has given us the right to think
freely to understand whether something is wrong by using our common
sense or reasoning for us to understand the real nature of things that
come into existence.
On the other hand there is nothing in any part of the universe which
exists without changing, without decaying and without extinguishing
because all these are the combination of elements, energies and mental
energies and karmic energies. Therefore it is impossible for these
energies and elements or mental energies, karmic energies to remain
forever without changing. If you can understand this then the
teachings of the Buddha will help you to understand how to face your
problems and difficulties, to overcome our unsatisfactoriness.
Otherwise we will have to face physical and mental suffering,
unsatisfactoriness and disappointment. We have to act wisely to get
rid of our problems. It is difficult for us to get rid of our
suffering simply by praying, worshipping to anybody but through
understanding the nature of our problems and difficulties and the
cause of our problems and difficulties, we will be able to get rid of
such problems.
Many people ask where did the Buddha go? If people say he has gone to
nirvana then they think nirvana is a place. Nirvana is not a place, it
is a mental state for us to achieve to experience our final salvation.
We cannot say the Buddha has gone somewhere or Buddha is existing but
he experiences the nirvanic bliss or the final goal in life. So the
best answer to the question "Where is the Buddha?" is the Buddha is in
your mind which has realised the Ultimate Truth.
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