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The Buddha understood what is transient

Excerpts from the keynote address was made by Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, at the commencement of 2550th Buddha Jayanthi celebrations held in Buddha Gaya, India on February 14 at which Hotlines the Dalai Lama was the chief guest, attended by over 5000 persons, including about 2000 Buddhist monks from India, Japan, Burma, Thailand, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.

The event will be followed by the chanting of the Tripitaka by three groups of Buddhist monks from Sri Lanka, Burma and Thailand, which commenced from February 14 will go on till March 13, 2006. The Sri Lankan group of Buddhist monks is led by Most Ven. Kiribathgoda Gnanananda Thera, and consist of 30 Buddhist monks from Mahamewna Meditation Centre.

They will chant the Sutra Pitaka continuously from 7.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. every day during the month-long period immediately below the sacred Bodhi Tree at the Buddhagaya. The group of Buddhist monks from Burma chant the Abhidamma Pitaka, whilst the group of Buddhist monks from Thailand, chant the Vinaya Pitaka during the same period.

I consider it a rare privilege and a sacred duty to address this venerable, distinguished and eminent gathering, in commemoration of the Buddha Jayanthi, being the 2550th anniversary of the Buddhist era.

This event is supremely auspicious being at Gaya, a place of highest sanctity to Buddhists, where our Lord Buddha unguided by any super-natural agency, and solely relying on His own efforts and wisdom, eradicated all defilements, ended the process of grasping and realizing things as they truly are, by His own intuitive knowledge gained enlightenment.

The attainment of Samma Sambodhi is the culmination of an incalculable period of time during which in many lives and many a form the Bodhisatta (meaning, intent on enlightenment) perfected ten transcendental virtues (Parami). These virtues are; generosity (dana); morality (sila); renunciation (nekkamma); wisdom (panna); energy (viriya); patience (khhanthi); truthfulness (sacca); determination) (adhithana), loving kindness (metta) and equanimity (uppekkha).

Mahathera Narada in his book titled the "The Buddha and His Teachings" states the following as to the paramis:

"According to the Cariya Pitaka commentary, Parami are those virtues which are cultivated with compassion, guided by reason, uninfluenced by selfish motives, and unsullied by misbelieve and all feelings of self-conceit.

The actions of a Bodhisatta are absolutely selfless, being prompted solely by compassion towards all beings. So boundless in his care and so pervasive is his infinite compassion, that increasingly throughout the series of his countless lives he strives to diminish suffering, to elevate to greater honour the poor and the lowly, and to help the needy in every possible way" (p. 341)

These are the attributes of a true Buddhist personality, imbued with harmlessness, characterized by compassion and manifested by beneficent kindness. This is not a passive or sterile way of life as it is, at times wrongly thought to be.

On the contrary, accounts of the many lives of the Bodhisatta reveal a wholly dynamic and useful way of life. But, it is widely different from the relentless pursuit of material gain that we see in the world around us, motivated by acquisitive greed and repressive dominance.

The Buddha's way for the layman is one in which material progress and spiritual uplift go hand in hand. One is not forsaken for the other. Primarily, what is required is a careful reflection on words, deeds and thoughts.

The admonition given by the Buddha to his son Rahula (Ambalathikarahulovada sutta - 61 - Majjima Nikaya) is that upon such reflection to desist from actions conducive to your own harm or to others harm or harmful to both and to continue with wholesome actions with pleasant consequences. As graphically stated in the Karaniya Metta Sutta such care and compassion should extend to all living beings.

The Buddha's concern for the preservation of the environment and the balanced path for material progress is very much in line with the currently advocated model, for a sustainable economy based on environmentally friendly energy efficient technologies.

This is completely different from the resource intensive model for economic growth, practised for more than a century and which brought about a depletion of our natural resources, environmental degradation, climatic changes, global warming and devastating natural calamities. It is timely therefore for the world to awaken to the Buddha's path.

The Buddha identified the cause of suffering as craving and clinging. From the micro to the macro, from the simplest of human relations to the height of world politics, careful reflection will show that it is craving and attachment in its many manifestations that keep the inexorable and vicious wheel of conflict moving.

This wheel is kept in motion by a failure to understand the true nature of our existence; the causal connection of every happening; the transient nature of things, and the constant process of change. It is only the Buddha Dhamma which makes a holistic and rational focus on the true nature of our existence.

Delving beneath the veneer, on the one hand of transient happiness, joy, power and glory and on the other of pain, grief, and despair that we have to inevitably suffer at one time or the other and, by identifying the causal links of this inexorable process of change. By understanding the truth revealed by the Dhamma and adhering to it, our daily lives become less burdensome, more contented, peaceful and calm, leading to final liberation (nibbana).

The Buddha Dhamma is comprehensive extending from a true knowledge and understanding of what is transient to the ultimate and from the wordly and mundane to the supra-mundane. It is systematic, since it is based on the Four Noble Truths realised and expounded by the Buddha.

They are; the innate and inevitable suffering or unsatisfactoriness of our existence (dukkha), the true cause of such suffering or unsatisfactoriness (dukka samudaya); the cessation of suffering or unsatisfactoriness (dukkha nirodha) and the path leading to such liberation (dukkha-nirodha-gamini patipada). It is holistic, since the path revealed in the Four Noble Truths is one with positive results in your daily life from every step you take on this path leading to ultimate liberation (nibbana).

The Buddha described this path as Majjhima patipada - the middle way. This was the Buddha's way of teaching; "teaching by the middle" (majjhena thathagatha dhammam deseti").

I would in this address make a brief introduction of the majjhima patipada - the middle way (referred to as the Path), following the threefold methodology (tilparivatta) adopted by the Buddha for gaining knowledge and vision of the Four Noble Truths and, present the Path in its three phases. Being the middle way, the Path has to be understood in relation to the extremes which it avoids.

First phase of the Path

The first phase of the Path is to gain knowledge of the true basis and the process of our existence; of samsaric existence from one life to another. Here, the knowledge is both conceptual since it deals with the two extremes and practical, since it focuses on the process of continued existence as clearly comprehended by the Buddha, I would describe the knowledge of the truth of this process as "saccanana".

The second phase of the Path is the knowledge in relation to the extremes, of the practice of the Path leading to the cessation of suffering - dukkha nirodha gamini patipada. I would describe this knowledge accomplished through practice as kiccanana.

The last phase is the penetrative comprehension of the Path. This is an exercise of the mind leading to full understanding - katanana.

The knowledge as to this phase of the Path is in relation to the process of samsaric existence - from life to life. The Buddha expounded the teaching steering clear of two diametrically opposed views that have polarized reflective thinking through the centuries.

At the one end is the view based on externalism (sassatavada) and at the other end is the view based on annihilationism (uchchedaveda). The view based on externalism posits that there is a permanent self within each one, identified as "athma" or "soul" which moves after death as directed by an external force, identified differently in theistic religions.

The other extreme is annihilationism (uchchedevada) which holds that the individual is only the phenomenal personality and that at death, with the dissolution of the body, the person is entirely cut off and annihilated. In the Kassapa Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya, Nidanasamyutta) the Buddha clearly stated that he teaches the Dhamma without veering to either of these extremes by the middle path, being the process of dependant origination - paticca samuppada which I would refers to presently.

In reference to the eternalist view in the second Discourse, the Anattalakkhana Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya - Khandasamyutta 59) the Buddha in a carefully reasoned out exposition demonstrated the absence of a "soul" that could be considered as "I" or "Myself". If there be such a controlling "self" or "soul" then, the body should yield to its direction and be without producing pain and suffering.

The Buddha criticized sharply the annihilationist theory as being devoid of any moral under-pinning.

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