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Dharma Thoughts

not be verified by personal experience and abode awaiting the faithful in the after-life
empirical evidence. Throughout his ministry as a reward for blind allegiance but a state
the Buddha adviced his followers to be guided of mind in the present comprising loving
by the evidence of personal experience and kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and
not to rely on the testimonies of others: “ equanimity. He called them Brahmā Vihāra
But Kālāmas, when you know for yourselves, or Divine Abidings (heavenly states). Anyone
these doctrines and practices are wholesome, could practice them with varying degrees
praised by the intelligent, undertaken and of intensity and thus experience heaven-
observed they lead to benefit and happiness, on-earth. In the Kālāma Sutta (AN3.17) the
you should live by them.” (AN 3.17) Buddha declares that some one who lives
suffused with the Four Brahmā Vihāras has
This emphasis on personal experience and four assurances:
verification is encompassed in the description
of the second component of the Triple Gem, “If there is a world beyond, and kamma does
the Dhamma, or the sum of the teachings: take effect, then at death I will be born in
heaven.
Well expounded is the Dhamma by the
Blessed One If, however, there is no such beyond, then in
To be self-realized this life I live sorrowless and free.
With immediate fruit Again, if evil kamma produces negative
To be but approached to be seen results, since I am blameless, evil cannot
Capable of being entered upon touch me.
To be attained by the wise, each for himself
And finally even if evil kamma does not
The greatness of the Buddha lies in his produce results then in both ways I hold
unsurpassable ability to reduce the highly myself pure.
complex mysteries of human existence to
surprisingly simple terms, thus justifying his Therefore the noble person who is free from
title as ‘satta devamanussanam’: teacher of hostility, affliction, untainted and purified in
gods and men. When asked to summarize his this very life receives these four assurances”.
teaching which spanned a period of forty five
years he declared simply: Besides the Brahmā Viharās one can also
develop wholesome states of mind which
To do good promote immediate happiness. The scriptures
To avoid evil contain numerous teachings aimed at
To purify the mind helping lay people to help them experience
This is the teaching of all Buddhas mundane happiness on a daily basis like the
Sigālovāda Sutta, Dīghajāṇu Sutta, Mangala
And for this purification he prescribed very Sutta and Mettā Sutta, to name just a few of
basic techniques which were within the grasp the best known ones. They encourage the
of even the simplest of minds. Describing development of basic values like humility,
his method he said that his teaching is loving kindness, gratitude, kindliness,
like the ocean, very shallow at the beach friendliness, filial piety, generosity, honesty,
but becoming progressively deeper as one loyalty and truthfulness. It is not necessary to
develops the confidence to venture further. develop all these virtues all at once because
He taught that heaven was not some lofty that can be daunting. People are encouraged