Page 52 - EH67

50 EASTERN HORIZON | FACE TO FACE

given tradition would yield far better results than mere to take any chances on experiments which might turn
online research when it comes to the question of finding out to be a waste of time. Instead, I tried to find out
one’s “spiritual home”. which of the living traditions prides itself on being the
earliest, most original, most preservative, and most
In my personal Dhamma journey as a young man in authentic of all traditions, which – despite having
Austria – long before I became a monk in Myanmar – started out in the Tibetan lineage – eventually brought
after my first encounter of the four noble truths and me to Theravāda Buddhism.
the joining of a meditation group, I started to derive
immense benefit from and gain trust in the Buddha’s Now, many years later, I noticed that even outside
teachings. the Theravāda lineage the early Buddhist texts
are available; but unfortunately, their study is not
Having gained faith in the immeasurable wisdom of encouraged within those traditions. Instead, emphasis is
the Buddha, my next question was not “Which among given to much later texts: sūtras that were composed by
the many traditions do I like the most?”. Instead, the later generations of scholars and meditators, such as the
question I asked myself was “Which among the many famous Lotus, Diamond, and Heart Sūtras.
traditions has done the best job in preserving an
authentic version of the Buddha’s teachings?”. These “sūtras” – despite their wide popularity due to
the depth of their exposition – do not have parallels
The reason why I would evaluate the earliness and outside their own schools of origin, which from a text-
authenticity of a tradition as more important than my critical perspective points to a historically later origin.
personal preference is because it became painfully This in itself does not diminish their utility, but for
apparent that I could not always trust my intuitions. someone like myself whose trust is solely rooted in
What I like may be truly beneficial to me, or it may the Buddha and His teachings, the discourses that all
not. What I like may or may not be the true teachings traditions hold in common have a much greater appeal.
of the Buddha.
Are there certain core teachings in Early Buddhism
In fact, if my own discernment of what is right and that are most relevant for our modern world today?
wrong were completely reliable then I should have
escaped Saṁsāra already many lifetimes ago. It is It is the timeless nature of the Buddha’s teachings,
by still being stuck in the mud that one can humbly as well as the unchanging nature of the human
acknowledge that one’s own wisdom is still quite predicament with its propensity for suffering (dukkha),
limited. Despite knowing only a little of the Buddha’s that make the directness of the early Buddhist teachings
teachings back then, the little that I knew was particularly suited for our modern day and age.
enough for me to understand that the wisdom of the
Buddha was vast, deep, and far beyond my scope of Many of our present-day issues – both on a personal as
comprehension. well as on a global scale – are rooted in craving in one
form or another.
So, rather than trusting my own intuitions about which
tradition I like the most and making this the basis for It is because of our fear of sickness and death that we
my choice, the question that I thought was far more agree to give up our interest in data privacy and are
important was: “Which tradition maintains the earliest allowing governments and private corporations to track
version of the Buddha’s teachings?”. our movements, heartbeat, sleep-cycles etc. It is because
of our craving for profit that we have cut down many
This very question was of such crucial importance to me of the forests and keep burning our way through fossil
because my trust and faith was not in any contemporary fuel, contributing to global warming and the destruction
teacher, but rather in the Buddha himself. I didn’t want of the environment. It is because of our desire for status