Social Functions of Buddhist Practice By Wong Weng Hon IntroductionThe entire Buddhist practice is crystallized into a condensed, celebrated saying of the Buddha thus:
This intriguing utterance of the Buddha can be rendered into English language thus:
This profound, concise proposition of the Buddha comprises two dimensions of Buddhist practice. There are two components of exoteric or outward dimension of the Buddhist practice and one component of the esoteric or inward dimension of the practice. ‘No to do evils and to cultivate the good’ is the exoteric journey and ‘To purify the mind’ is the esoteric journey. The formal is the training of morality (sīla) and the latter is the training of concentration (samādhi) and wisdom (paññā). Pañcasīlas and DasasīlaAbstention from the commission of evils or unwholesome kammas can be implemented by adhering to the five moral injunctions of the Buddha known as the fundamental Buddhist doctrine of Five Precepts (Pañcasīlas). The Pañcasīlas, promulgated by the Buddha, are enumerated as follows:
The non-transgression of the Pañcasīlas constitutes the practice of moral-self-restraint or self-discipline in dwelling in a social community in which all the members of society interact and communicate in social intercourses. Good self-restraint or self-discipline constructs harmonious and peaceful individuals and, in turn, construct a harmonious, cooperative social environment to create productivities and prosperities for the particular community or society. The ethical strength of a Buddhist can further be enhanced or value-added by restraining oneself morally by undertaking the Ten Wholesome Precepts (Dasasīlas). The Dasasīlas are the expansion of the Pañcasīla by supplementing the 4th item of the Pañcasīlas with three additional verbal moral restraints and its 5th item is replaced by three mental moral restraints from greed (lobha), hatred (dosa) and delusion (moha) . Dasasīlas are primarily a perfect edifying set of moral menu. All primary universal values are incorporated in the Dasasīlas including the cleansing or purification of the mind of three poisons of life (greed, hatred and delusion). Dasasīlas consummate character formation of a harmonious, peaceful, friendly and productive individual. The Wholesome Precepts are enumerated as follows:
The Five Precepts and the Ten Wholesome Precepts constitute the exoteric dimension of the Buddhist practice, that is, the wholesome aspect of character construction. However, mere moral restraint through non-transgression of the Buddhist precepts constitute only one-half of the Buddhist ethics. They are merely the ‘Don’t -aspect’ of the Buddhist practice which ought to be complemented by the other half ‘Do-aspect’ of the practice in order to consummate the character formation by observation of Buddhist precepts. AntidotesThe antidotes of Pañcasīlas and Dasasīlas are the Do-aspect or Virtue Aspect of the Buddhist practice. Their antidotes are enumerated as follows: Antidotes of Pañcasīlas
Antidotes of Dasasīlas
These ten universal moral values invigorate the character formation established from the antidotes of the Pañcasīlas. The perfection of morality prepares the moral foundation for the mental development known as Buddhist meditation to develop ascension of concentration and wisdom. The complete Buddhist three-fold training model of sīla-samādhi-paññā formulated in the Noble Eight Fold Path (Ariya aṭṭhangika Magga) of the Theravāda Tradition or the Six Perfections (Sx Pāramitā-s) of the Mahāyāna Tradition. Five Faculties or PowersThe Three-fold training of Sīla-Samādhi-Paññā is undertaken in order to develop the Five faculties or Powers of Faith, Energy, Mindfulness, Concentration and Wisdom which collectively canalize and unlock the door of discerning the Insubstantiality (Anattā) of the Five Aggregates (microcosm) together with the insightful penetration into cosmic illusion of the multiplicity of the empirical world (macrocosm). This unveils the relationship between the conventional truth (sammuti sacca) of concepts and language and the ultimate truth (paramattha sacca) of actuality of the world of sense experience. The ultimate actuality of the empirical world is that all phenomena are non-substantial or signless (animitta) without any permanent substance called Self (Attā) or Soul ātman). Such a self-realization is the Buddhist insight which results in mental purification Mental purity annihilates the illusive or superimposed self or ego which evokes greed, hatred and delusion. Greed, hatred and delusion evoke further into their negative offshoots or unwholesome sub values, such as avarice, envy, anger, disputations , cruelty, , friction, conflict, tension, conceit, arrogance, hypocrisy vanity and multitude of erroneous views. All these unwholesome or destructive emotions devalue the EQ (Emotional Quotient ) of an individual. EQ is expedient device to measure and evaluate the emotional management of an individual. A poor score of EQ rooted in greed, hatred and delusion disharmonizes human relations evoking tensions, frictions, disputations, quarrels, fights, conflicts and so forth. The main objective of Buddhist meditation is to purify the human consciousness to develop released consciousness or non-manifestative consciousness free from any form of grasping or clinging upon (upādāna) the five aggregates (pañcakkhandhas) or anything in the world. Succinctly put, Buddhist meditation (bhāvanā) is to eliminate nescience or ignorance (avijjā). When nescience is annihilated, the self-awakened person attains a perfect score of EQ. One who has a maximal score of EQ is capable of harmonizing himself or herself and thus helps construct social harmony. When an eye is diseased, ointment is applied on the eye forming a veil on it. Thus, this ointment blurs the vision of the eye. When the eye has recovered its normalcy, the ointment is removed. Likewise, when the Dhamma eye or Wisdom eye is developed through wisdom of insight (vipassanā), the ointment of nescience is removed. The Dhamma eye or wisdom eye illuminates the five aggregates and the multiplicity of the cosmos. Thus the self-awakened one discerns clearly the Insubstantiality or Emptiness of the five aggregates and illusion of the multiplicity. One, who has developed the Dhamma or Wisdom eye becomes a maximally, ethically perfect person. The maximally perfect person in knowledge (ñāṇa) and conduct (caraṇa) harmonizes himself or herself and others constituting a harmonious social environment. ConclusionThe Dhamma is learnt, cultivated, practised and mastered to perform diverge social functions in all places at all times. Religion is meant to make any human society a better place to dwell in. Spirituality does not collide with secularity but they mutually penetrate and co-exist. It is practically possible for a lay person to practise the profound Dhamma amidst the secular or mundane life. Any lay person, who can live concurring with the Dhamma, is heroic as the challenges are relatively enormous in comparison with the life of a bhikkhu or bhikkhuṇī. The Buddha never confines the profound Dhamma to be the wisdom property right of the monastic community. Intrinsically, the mind of a lay person, that of a monastic member and that of a Buddha do not differ at all. The three minds are identical innately. The distinction lies only in the level of spiritual development or the degree of the profundity of self-awakening – the varying state of mental development of all sentient beings. All esoteric religions, such as Zoroastrianism, Taosim, Upaniṣads or Hinduism, Confucianism, Neo-Confucianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, advocate the intrinsic supremacy of human species.
Editor’s Note:
I wish you happy coursing in both the exoteric and esoteric journeys to intuit your own five faculties – the innate sublime human capacities from which the first class human capital can be developed and utilized for the good of the many. This is the common message of all religious masters, sages, messengers, prophets or patriarchs. Nobody can help us unlock or unveil the innate treasure in us but only by ourselves through self-redemption. Happy journeying outwardly and inwardly. One needs only to go beyond and to go beyond the beyond – The highest Truth is beyond all religions.
|
Resources |
Puja |
Links |
Downloads |
Cards |