What is the Dharma?: The Essential Teachings of the Buddha by Sangharakshita

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By Sangharakshita

To stroll within the footsteps of the Buddha we want a transparent and thorough advisor to the fundamental ideas of Buddhism. even if we have now simply all started our trip or are a practitioner with extra adventure, what's the Dharma? is an critical exploration of the Buddha's teachings as present in the most Buddhist traditions. continually returning to the query 'How can this support me?' Sangharakshita examines various primary rules, together with: karma and re-birth, nirvana and shunyata,conditioned co-production, impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and insubstantiality, ethics, meditation, and knowledge. the result's a clean, unsettling, and encouraging e-book that lays prior to us the fundamental Dharma, undying and universal.

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Extra resources for What is the Dharma?: The Essential Teachings of the Buddha

Sample text

It was ‘subtle’ – incredibly subtle. And it was ‘for the wise to experience’. But what are we to make of this great truth? For Shariputra – who must have been very receptive – the mere, bare statement of it was enough to give him insight into the truth, but it is hardly likely to have the same impact on us. Indeed, it may be hard for us to make any sense of it at all. Of course, as we have seen, the Buddha himself anticipated this difficulty. Buddhism may essentially be a communication – a communication from the Buddha to those who are not Buddhas, from the Enlightened mind to the unenlightened mind – but such a communication is not easy to make, even for a Buddha, because between the Buddha and the ordinary person there is a tremendous gap.

And they all have the same intention: to help us towards Enlightenment. Part 1: The Truth 1 The Essential Truth IN THE BUDDHA’S TIME, in a village near Nalanda – which later became the site of great Buddhist university – there lived two young men called Shariputra and Maudgalyayana. They had been close friends since childhood; and now they made a pact. They decided to leave home in search of the truth, in search of a great Enlightened teacher – not an unusual thing to do at that time in India. The pact between the two friends was that they would start their search by going in opposite directions.

Or, more simply, it is one human being talking to another, encouraging another, trying to help another. 5 Sometimes we find the Buddha giving a short and simple explanation, in just a few words. Sometimes he doesn’t say anything – he just sits in silence – but nevertheless meaning is communicated. On the other hand, sometimes we find him giving a long discourse, spending an hour, two hours, or even a whole night explaining things in detail. Sometimes he gives teachings of an ethical nature, sometimes psychological teachings, sometimes teachings about spiritual life, and sometimes, even, teachings about politics in the sense of the principles of communal existence.

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