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32 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS

Whatever makes you more compassionate, more

sensible, more detached, more loving, more

humanitarian, more responsible, more ethical----

The religion that will do that for you is the best religion.

~HH the Dalai Lama~

After death, the state of Buddha is undefinable (MN 22), Understanding this, we realise that the tradition is not
hence there is more than enough room to accommodate important when compared to how wholesome we had
the various traditions’ interpretation of His presence. transformed ourselves because of that tradition.

“Whoever sees the Dhamma sees the Buddha”. From the Theravada tradition, we have the simile of
the Raft crossing the sea, from the Mahayana we have
This teaching makes clear that the physical body of the the teaching of Looking at the finger that points to
Buddha is not the essence of His being, and that seeing the moon instead of looking for the moon, and in the
His body doesn’t tell us much about Him at all. Even process completely missing the moon. These teachings
when one is sitting next to Him, or hanging onto His beg us to remember that the vehicle is NOT the goal,
robe, if one doesn’t know His teaching or sees the truth and ultimately even the raft is left at the shore, and the
He discovered ie the Dhamma, one is really far from finger forgotten when we see the moon.
Him.
Are we of the various traditions Not striving for the
But when one sees the Dhamma, even if one is very far same shore of Nibbana?
away, it is as if one is very close to Him, because one
really sees what Awakening is about. Many of us will require many more lifetimes of Precepts,
Mind Training and acquiring Wisdom before we reach
“He who sees Dhamma, Vakkali, sees me; he who sees the final goal, meanwhile we walk on wholesomely with
me sees Dhamma. Peace, Contentment and Compassion doing our best to
Truly seeing Dhamma, one sees me; seeing me one sees create a better world.
Dhamma”.
Vakkali Sutta SN22.87 Is your tradition providing you with the raft to do all
these and more, and its signboards pointing us in the
“Whatever makes you more compassionate, Right Direction?
more sensible, more detached, more loving, more If so, please carry on!
humanitarian, more responsible, more ethical---- The
religion that will do that for you is the best religion.” It is here in the Core Teachings and Wholesome actions
~HH the Dalai Lama~ that Buddhists of all traditions stand as one. EH