How to be a Good Buddhist?
-Bhagwan Das
- 
I have borrowed
nothing excepting title from Liu Shao Chi, the famous Chinese leader and author of the book ‘How to be
a good Communist?’ which converted thousands to Communism. Besides the ‘Communist Manifesto’ and the ‘Das Kapital’ perhaps
the Emile Burns ‘What is Marxism’ is perhaps another world famous book which
appealed to the educated people and explained Communism and clarified doubts.
Sydney Webbs ‘World Communism’ has its own place in the Communist Literature of
the world. But for common people I think no other book can surpass Liu Shao
Chi’s ‘How to be a good Communist?’
I have travelled
through almost all parts of India and wherever I go young men put questions
about Buddhism? Why did Babasaheb Ambedkar choose Buddhism? ‘Can religion be
the panacea of ills?’ ‘Why are the young Buddhists in Buddhist countries
turning to Communism?
What does Buddhism mean to us?’ ‘What must we follow as Buddhists?’ Many more
difficult questions are put and repeated at different places. I am not going to
answer all or any one of these questions in this paper. I am simply trying to
explain, as best as l can, how to be a Buddhist? I am not following the pattern
adopted by Liu Shao Chi but putting it in my
own manner keeping in view the circumstances in which we are placed in India.
To start with we
must clearly understand that Buddha was the greatest religious teacher in the
real sense of the word. He was a teacher and not a prophet, messiah, ‘son of
god’ or’ ‘incarnation born to liberate
the erring masses’ or ‘to save deteriorating ‘dharma’. He was not a ‘yogi’ who could create a
following by working miracles and curing the sick. He was a teacher of morality
and adopted education as his weapon for ameliorating the suffering masses. He
did not promise salvation or a comfortable place in heaven nor freedom from
rebirth. His teaching was more earthly and easy to understand. The only
difficulty was practising his religion. ‘Panch Sheel’, ‘Four Noble Truths’ and ‘Ashtang Marg’ contain the essence
of his teachings. You may and may not read the Dhammapada; you may not be
conversant with ‘Tripitaka’; you may or
may not be able to recite thc Suttas in Pali, if you know the meanings of Panch
Sheel, understand the significance of Four Noble Truths and follow ‘Eightfold
Path’, it is sufficient to make you religious and a ‘man’ in the real sense of
the word Buddha wanted man to be a ‘man’ and not merely a ‘biped’ interested
only in eating, drinking or procreating.
“Buddha,” to use
the words of Tanaka Devi, famous author of ‘Seven Courses of Civilisation’
‘‘was not a Buddhist; nor for that matter was Christ a Christian and Mohammed a
Mohammaden. It was the followers who made them Buddhist, Christian and
Mohammedan.
In most cases it was the politician and warrior who killed the spirit of
religion and began to worship the shell for his own purpose. He exploited
religion for his own advantage. Religion gradually became the hand-maid of
politician and warrior. It is the ignorant who becomes the most fanatic fighter
in defence of religion and political creed. It is at the same time strength and
the greatest weakness of any ideology. A small minority of people are seriously
interested in religious theory. Majority of the people are never seriously
interested in religion or any political theory. They lack the will and the
competence to comprehend. Instead of elevating themselves they try to bring the
level of the religion down to their feet. What they cannot understand or find
difficult to practice they discard. They accept and practice what is easy to
comprehend and follow and give them pleasure. Religions which have chalked out
an easy path for the masses become more popular than those which demand study,
practice, sacrifice and knowledge.
The easiest to
follow is Hinduism. To use the words of Eliot, “it is a jungle.” You are free
to believe or disbelieve anything. What is required is conformity with rituals
and customs, caste and ceremonies and willingness to call him a Hindu. Among
the organized religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam some semblance of
discipline is maintained. But majority of the Christians and Moslems do not
care for their religions. Like the followers of other religions they also
believe that merely following of age old customs is the religion. Most of the
troubles have been created by religions and religious leaders themselves. We do
not know whether Christ said so or not but Christian books say that ‘no man can
enter the kingdom excepting through me.’ Krishna of the Bhagwat Gita said, ‘‘I
am God. Come to me and follow and do anything in my name and I shall save you.”
He claimed to be God, the saviour.
A good Christian
is one who believes in the word of God as embedded in the Bible, has faith in
Lord Jesus Christ and accepts him as his saviour. A person may be very moral
but if he does not believe in the Bible and does not accept Lord Jesus Christ
as his saviour, he is not considered a good Christian. Similarly, a good
Mohammedan is one who believes in God as well as in the
Koran,
accepts Prophet Mohammed as last Prophet sent by God with his message, prays
five times a day, visits Mecca. For a Hindu to be a good Hindu there are no
commandments to follow and no hard and fast rules. He may be an atheist or
agnostic, he may be idolatrous, theist or an iconoclast; he may or may not
believe in any book, scripture, religious teaching or philosophy, he can be a
Hindu perhaps a good one, too, if he belongs to a caste and follows dictates of
his caste. He has to believe in caste system.
On the other
hand, a good Buddhist is not one who recites the Suttas correctly, burns
candles and joss sticks before the image of the Buddha, goes on pilgrimage to
the sacred places like Sarnath, Shravasti, Gaya and Kusinara; bows reverently
before the Bhikshus, occasionally gives
‘Dana’, and sleeps with the satisfaction that he has done his duty towards
Dhamma.
Buddhism, unlike other religions does not believe in God, his prophets,
incarnations, salvation, hell and heaven, redemption and forgiveness, prayers,
fasts, sacrifices meaningless rituals.
Buddhism is not
the faith. It is a religion of morality and practice. Buddha at no time claimed
to be omniscient nor gave under importance to his own teachings. “Everything
changes,” he said, “for change is the law of nature.” He laid down a criterion
for judging his teachings. He also laid down certain principles. He exhorted
people not to accept anything on faith. His religion was for the good of many
and for the good of all. His religion was not the end in itself but only an aid
to elevate oneself. Likening the ‘Dhamma’ to a boat, he said that the boat’s place was in water and
the purpose was to carry the passengers across the river. He despised those who
carried the boat over their heads.
‘Trisharna’,
‘Panch Sheel’ and ‘Ashtang Marg’ were the important pillars of his
religious teachings. They are simple to recite but difficult to comprehend and
translate into action. Yet they were not the ‘commandments’ but only teaching
willingly accepted. Violation was not visited by curses and scourges. Bad
deeds, born of evil thoughts led to suffering. Good deeds invariably led to
good results. We cannot remove the pain caused by evil deeds nor can we efface
the evil effects of sinful deeds. At best we can minimize the effects of evil
deeds by doing good deeds in abundance. If each one of us thinks good of our
neighbours and do good, the result would be good and happiness all around. Mind
not body commands. Mind has to be controlled and cultivated. Mind controls the
body. Body does not control the mind. Knowledge alone is not considered enough.
It is the right action with right intention which matters most.
There are
millions of nominal Christians, Mohammedans, Sikhs, Shintoist, Taoists, Zoroastrians and Confucius. Likewise,
there are millions of nominal Buddhists who have inherited their religion like
the property of their ancestors or parents. They may not always be good
representatives of their religions.
A good Buddhist
is one who is striving to attain a higher standard of culture, is truthful,
honest, upright courageous, compassionate and tolerant. He must have a very
high standard of morality. He must try to elevate himself as well as those
around him. No man can be truly great in isolation. Buddhism is opposed to
individualism. A good Buddhist cannot be selfish. He cannot be dogmatic. He is a rational person with compassion and
loving kindness for all.
One can be a
good Buddhist if one reads the books of the Dhamma and ponders over the
truth imparted by the Buddha. He must learn to meditate and assimilate the
noble teachings of the Buddha. He must earnestly try to translate those noble
and lofty principles into everyday life.
He must remain vigilant and not accept everything written in books on
faith. He must judge whether it is good for his self as well for the many.
It is good at
the beginning, good in the middle and good at the end.
Deeds speak
louder than the words. One must always be guarded in his thoughts, deeds
and words. When in doubt one should always flash the torch of Dhamma and see whether the
particular act would be in accord with the teachings of the Dhamma.
A good Buddhist
must always remain vigilant and avoid such acts as are likely to bring bad name
to the Dhamma, his teacher Lord Buddha and the Sangha.
Religious
societies are judged by their practices and not through their professions.
If we do not
keep only the interest of all ‘self’ in mind but work for the betterment and
happiness of many, keeping the ideal of removing the suffering of all living
beings through service and loving kindness we can make this place a true heaven
much better and more real than what the imagination of poets and philosophers
have created or presented in their poems and books. This should be the ideal of
a good Buddhist. Whoever works for attaining this ideal through right means in
accord with the teaching of the Buddha is a really good Buddhist.
Source: Bheem Patrika: Dec,
1973, Vol. 2.
(Late
Sh. Bhagwan Das was a true Ambedkarite. He gave the slogan “Dalits
of the World Unite!” He
was a crusader for internationalization of the issue of Untouchability. He
presented this issue including that of Burakumins of Japan in the UNO in 1983.
He worked as Assistant to Dr. BR Ambedkar for good time. He compiled and edited
“Thus Spoke Ambedkar” in four volumes in
the seventies.)
