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Fundamental Buddhism - Buddhism is one of the world’s
great religions. The religion is based on the teaching of
Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as The Buddha, who lived
approximately 557 B.C. to 477 B.C. The word "Buddha" means a
Supremely Enlightened One or Fully Awakened One (also a
Tathagata) who has won the realization of the True Permanent
Absolute Reality, THE ULTIMATE TRUTH.
The fundamental Buddhism we promote is
based on our extensive study and interpretation of the English
translations of the Buddha’s discourses, almost 5,000 pages, translated
in 16 volumes by the Pali Text Society. They are part of the Pali Canon
Collection (Tipitaka), a total of 12,800 pages.
These Pali Text Society translations are
available through direct purchase from the Pali Text Society. These
discourses were compiled almost immediately after the Buddha’s death by
the thousands of monks the Buddha established during his 45-year
ministry. They were committed to writing in 29 B.C. They contain the
heart of Buddhist teachings and are recognized by all Buddhist scholars
as the oldest in existence. To obtain your own copies of the Pali Canon,
write or e-mail for the MAIL-ORDER BOOK LIST from the Pali Text Society.
Their mail and e-mail address is at the end of this summary.
For a definitive understanding of what
the Buddha really taught, there is no substitute for these recognized
oldest written records of what the Buddha actually said. The first 3
volumes that we heartily recommend for study are the Middle Length
Sayings (Majjhima-Nikaya, Majjhima Nikaaya, Further Dialogues of the
Buddha), Volumes 1, 2 and 3. These three volumes contain most of the key
essentials for understanding fundamental Buddhism, for thoroughly
understanding the way things truly are, and for knowing the course back
to True Ultimate Reality.
The next discourse volumes are:
Kindred Sayings (Sanyutta-Nikaya, Sa.myutta-Nikaaya, The Book of the
Kindred Sayings) Volumes 1 to 5, then Gradual Sayings
(Anguttara-Nikaya, A"nguttara-Nikaaya, The Book of the Gradual Sayings)
Volumes 1 to 5, followed by Dialogues of the Buddha
(Digha-Nikaya, Diigha Nikaaya, Dialogues of the Buddha) Volumes 1, 2 and
3.
These discourses uttered by the Buddha,
which deal with realizing True Permanent Reality, ARE AN EFFECTIVE
TEACHER to those seeking Enlightenment, for those seeking Nirvana
(Nibbana), for those seeking the escape from all anguish and suffering,
for those seeking the Ultimate Truth.
Siddhartha Gautama was born a prince in a
kingdom around what is now the border area between India and Nepal. At
the age of 29, desiring to know the path that lead to the ending of all
impermanence and anguish, to ensuring his permanent well-being, he
renounced everything of the world, becoming a homeless ascetic, vowing
to find the way to True Ultimate Reality.
He was a Bohdisattva, which is one who
goes through an intense period of development and practice in order to
attain the realization of Perfect Wisdom, Total Supreme Enlightenment,
Buddhahood.
At the age of 35, by way of total focus
of his entire being on this single goal, he accomplished his purpose and
attained the realization of Perfect Wisdom. He found the answer that
lead to the complete cessation of all impermanence and anguish, that
lead to reaching the other shore that is Permanent True Reality –
Nirvana. He then began to teach, instruct and guide others who similarly
were seeking Wisdom and Enlightenment. It is the teaching of The Buddha
that is the foundation of Buddhism.
In fundamental Buddhism, the emphasis is
on seeing Truth, on knowing it, and on understanding it. The emphasis is
NOT on BLIND faith. The teaching of Buddhism is on "come and see" but
never on come and believe. Buddhism is rational and requires personal
effort, stating that by only one’s own efforts can Perfect Wisdom be
realized. Each individual is responsible for his or her own emancipation
from anguish and suffering.
Buddhism allows each individual to study
and observe Truth internally and requires no blind faith before
acceptance. Buddhism advocates no dogmas, no creeds, no rites, no
ceremonies, no sacrifices, no penances, all of which must usually be
accepted on blind faith. Buddhism is not a system of faith and worship
but rather it is merely a Path to Supreme Enlightenment.
The Buddha referred to his teaching as
simply a raft to leave this shore of suffering and impermanence, and to
get to the other shore of bliss and safety, True Permanent Reality,
Nirvana. Upon realization of Nirvana, the raft is no longer needed.
The Buddha referred to his teaching as
the Middle Path, called this because it avoids the extremes of both
self-indulgence in the world and the self-mortification of strict
asceticism. The path he taught incorporates both intellectual progress
plus spiritual progress with practice that reflects compassion,
morality, wisdom and concentration while at the same time seeing and
understanding the world of existence as it truly is.
It should be noted in this dialogue,
which attempts to outline what Buddhism really is, that no coercion, no
persecutions and no fanaticisms play any part in Buddhism.
Buddhism is the PATH OF ESCAPE for those
seeking the permanent end here and now of all anguish. And what exactly
is anguish? Anguish is birth, suffering, pain, sorrow, sickness,
disease, old age, decay, death, grief, despair, poverty, evil,
lamentations, woe, tribulations, misfortune, war, insanity, hunger,
unfulfilled wants, unfulfilled basic needs, association with the
unwanted, disassociation from the wanted, and is what is unstable and
uncontrollable. Buddhism is for those who have come to see that what has
been CREATED is IMPERMANENT; and that whatever is impermanent is
inherently ILL. No permanent bliss or happiness is to be found in what
is impermanent, only pain and peril.
The aim of living the path of the
doctrine of Buddhism is to plunge into Nirvana. It has Nirvana as its
goal. Nirvana is its ending. True Reality realized. The Uncreated, the
Unborn, the permanent bliss of Nirvana. The Eightfold Noble Path of
Buddhism is the means to this end. Eight activities – a very specific
course of actions – that must be simultaneously developed to realize the
goal, Nirvana.
The first part of the Eightfold Noble
Path is RIGHT VIEW or RIGHT UNDERSTANDING. This means knowing the Four
Noble Truths.
The First Noble Truth is the
knowledge that ALL that has been CREATED is IMPERMANENT. And
whatever is impermanent is inherently ILL. And what is impermanent
and ill is SELFLESS.
Two is the knowledge that the arising
of ill is based on ignorance and it is perpetuated by the craving
and intoxication for sensuality and sensations, becoming and
rebecoming, delusion and ignorance.
Three is the knowledge that the
CEASING of this ill that has arisen, the stopping of all future
becomings, is Nirvana. True Reality realized, freed of this ill.
Four is the knowledge of the
Eightfold Noble Path that leads to the cessation of this ill and to
winning the goal: Nirvana. True Permanent State of Self, Permanent
Changeless Absolute Reality ITSELF, Suchness, Perfect Wisdom.
The second part is RIGHT THINKING or
RIGHT AIM. This means to aspire to attain realization of Perfect Wisdom,
the Ultimate True Permanent Reality. To abstain from all evil acts of
thought. To attain the total destruction of all cravings. To renounce
all manifesting, all constructions, all that is "created" make-believe.
To develop dispassion, total detachment,
absolute renunciation, self-surrender. To bring about the cessation of
all "created" realities. To Self-Realize the Incomparable Awakening of
Self. To win the freedom of Mind, the freedom through Perfect Intuitive
Wisdom, the sane and immune emancipation of Will.
The third part is RIGHT SPEECH. To
abstain from all lying speech, all perjurious speech, all evil abusive
speech and all frivolous speech. To engage in speech and discussion that
pertains to and leads to Nirvana, to what’s actually PERMANENT and REAL.
The fourth part is RIGHT ACTION. To
abstain from all killing of all creatures. To abstain from all stealing.
To abstain from all sensual and sexual misconduct. To abstain from all
evil acts. To abstain from all forms of intoxication.
The fifth part is RIGHT LIVING. To
abstain from all evil ways of living; to abstain from all evil methods
of livelihood.
The sixth part is RIGHT EFFORT. To
destroy all EVIL STATES OF MIND that have already arisen; to keep NEW
evil states of mind FROM arising; to maintain and grow GOOD STATES OF
MIND that have already arisen; and to make grow NEW good states of mind
that have not yet arisen, such as loving kindness for ALL Beings,
compassion and pity for ALL creatures, sympathetic joy and equanimity.
The seventh part is RIGHT MINDFULNESS. To
contemplate as impermanent, ill and Selfless: Body, Feelings,
Perception, Mind, Consciousness, Thought, Mental States, Mental Objects
and Mental Activity. To grow revulsion for the world, seeing it for the
decaying creation that it is, and to grow dispassion, total detachment,
calm, tranquility, seeing that everything is not Self. To disregard all
that is perceived, remaining aloof from both the pleasures as well as
the pains arising from the creation of senses and sensuality.
The eighth part is RIGHT CONCENTRATION.
Aloof from the world, aloof from evil states, aloof from all sensations
from the senses, dwelling in solitude, seclusion, ardent, diligent,
Self-resolute, develop one-pointedness of Mind through intense
meditation and reflection.
To enter in, AND THEN TRANSCEND, eight
higher states of consciousness that lead to increasing Intuitive Wisdom,
Insight and Direct Super-Knowledge, and to destroying the addictions and
cravings, and to realizing True Reality, effectively piercing the shell
of ignorance and delusion. As one attains the higher states of Mind,
Consciousness, the true nature of how things really are can be seen
clearly, both intuitively and with supreme effort, by direct
Super-Knowledge. True Reality unfolding, Self-Enlightenment of Self by
Self.
The developed links of the Eightfold
Noble Path are these: Purity of Moral Habit is of purpose as far as
Purity of Mind; Purity of Mind is of purpose as far as Purity of View;
Purity of View is of purpose as far as Purity through Crossing Over
Doubt; Purity through Crossing Over Doubt is of purpose as far as Purity
of Knowledge and Insight into the Path and what is NOT the Path to True
Reality; Purity of Knowledge and Insight into the Path and what is NOT
the Path to True Reality is of purpose as far as Purity of Knowledge and
Insight into the Course, into Progress along the Path; Purity of
Knowledge and Insight into the Course, into Progress along the Path is
of purpose as far as Purity arising from Knowledge and Insight; Purity
arising from Knowledge and Insight is of purpose as far as Nirvana
realized, without any attachment remaining for what was created,
impermanent, ill and without essence, Selfless.
The Seven Links of Enlightenment to
cultivate begin with MINDFULNESS, contemplating body and feelings, mind
and mental states, thought and ideas, ardent, clearly conscious of them
and mindful of them so as to control the covetousness and dejection
common in the world; followed by INVESTIGATION of the Dharma, learning
and remembering the doctrine that leads to True Reality, the Uncreated;
followed by ENERGY of effort; followed by ZEST; then TRANQUILITY; then
CONCENTRATION; and finally EQUANIMITY.
The Five Controlling Factors are: The
Power of Faith, the Power of Energy, the Power of Mindfulness, the Power
of Concentration, and the Power of Insight.
The Basis of Psychic Power are the
features of Desire, Energy, Thought and Investigation, together with the
co-factors of Concentration and Struggle, with the focus of will: "I
WILL win, attain, realize and abide in Nirvana, the Deathless, the
Unborn, True Permanent Absolute Reality Realized, right here and right
now." And the practice that leads to the cultivation of Psychic Power to
win the goal is the Eightfold Noble Path.
The Three Controlling Faculties are: The
Consciousness that says: I shall know the unknown, the Unborn, the
Uncreated, ALL of what is to be known, THE True Permanent State of
Reality; then followed by the Consciousness of Knowing; and then
followed by the Consciousness of One who HAS the knowing.
And the "knowing" by Intuitive Wisdom,
Insight and Direct Knowledge is this:
The True Permanent State of
Reality is Nirvana, THAT which is the Unborn, the Unmade, the
Unmanifested, the Not-Made, the Unconditioned, the Truth, the
Uncreated, the Unconstructed, the Not-Created, the Subtle, the
Stable, the Undecaying, the Unaging, the Undying, the Deathless,
the Taintless, the Peace, the Bliss, the Purity, the Excellent,
the Perfection and Grandeur of Wisdom, the State of Freedom from
Ill, the Release from Ill, the Nameless, the Serenity and Purity
of Absolute Changeless Reality ITSELF, the Norm, the Wonderful,
the Goal, the REAL.
In short, THE END – what always was, not
compounded, permanent and IS with ALL that has been CREATED, compounded,
impermanent and fleeting, CEASING TO BE. Existence, with its realms of
sense, form and formlessness, the physical universe and all realms from
the hells to the heavens ARE ALL CONSTRUCTIONS.
Fabricated artificial realities, with
Self, THAT WHICH IS ABSOLUTE PERMANENT REALITY ITSELF, experiencing
"vicariously" senses, sensations and sense experiences through
incalculable manifested creations of Body and Mind -- "Beings" – in
incalculable varieties of manifested created worlds of both materiality
and immateriality – low, middle and high – realms ranging from the
heavens to the hells.
But ALL that is created is impermanent,
subject to decay and ending, and thus inherently a state of ill-being,
and therefore Selfless, for the true nature of Absolute Reality ITSELF
is not truly part of or in these manifestations, this round of playing
"sand-castles" -- this vast puppet show of make-believe fiction, this
delusion supported by a state of Self-Ignorance.
According to Buddhism, any "Being" that
does not resolve to attain Self-Enlightenment and True Reality will
continue to "reform" these constructed fabricated realities of sense
desire, form and formlessness. Continuous future rebirth will be and
each "life" will be good or bad, happiness or unhappiness, pleasure or
pain, or a combination of the two, all according to the good or evil
PAST deeds done of act, speech and thought, with MIND being the
forerunner of all manifestations of constructed realities and created
fabricated individual entity within such conditioned, made states of
existence.
In short, a pendulum of rebirth, going
back and forth continuously between hells, heavens and the physical
universe, UNTIL the SELF of each "Being" decides to make an end of all
manifesting, an end to living vicariously through constructions of
artificial realities, to make an ESCAPE from what has been created, from
what has become a tangled decayed, putrid manifested mass of suffering,
pain and anguish perpetuated by craving, hatred, lust, delusion,
illusion and ignorance.
The evidence of perpetuating, continuous
rebirth and reforming, with future "lives" determined according to
former deeds done in PAST lives, can be readily seen in the wide
diversity of Beings born into this world who immediately have great good
fortune or have great misfortune, EVEN THOUGH NO DEEDS OF ANY KIND HAVE
YET BEEN DONE IN THEIR NEW LIFE! Think about this and then compare your
"present" life to the lives of the other five billion "human" Beings in
this world, and indeed to the lives of ALL the world’s different types
of Beings.
The goal of Buddhism is to escape this
REPEATING ILL that has arisen, this repeating rebirth and reforming, via
the destruction of the "craving" for senses and sensations of the
senses, for rebecoming as this or that, for delusion and for ignorance.
And if you think the world is NOT really
full of despair, suffering, pain and anguish, YOU NEED TO EXAMINE
CLOSELY the nature of this world you live in without the "rose-colored
glasses."
Just because in this life YOUR suffering
and anguish are not "too bad" you may not yet be immune from rebirth
where your next life is as horrible as tens of millions of human lives
are NOW this very day throughout this world.
Think of "life" and ALL THAT HAS BEEN
CREATED as sort of like an addictive repeating daydream – very, very
old, incalculable in age, long corrupted, perverted, debased, become
tainted by decomposition.
To awake from the fantasy, the first step
is for the Self to investigate, analyze and reflect on what is really
going on around here, and thus see, that ALL IS IMPERMANENT, and then to
see and know that what is impermanent, fleeting and subject to change is
inherently ILL, ANGUISH and UNHAPPINESS.
Then, with Perfect Intuitive Wisdom, KNOW
that whatever is impermanent, subject to change and therefore ill cannot
be SELF IN ITS TRUE NATURE. The Self THEN must begin to look for a means
of escape from this addictive daydream, this nightmarish artificial
reality that has arisen that IS pain, anguish and suffering.
Has it not yet occurred to you: WHY do I,
liable to birth, disease, anguish, decay, aging and death seek those
things likewise liable to birth, disease, anguish, decay, aging and
death, that which too is impermanent.
Would it not be to my assured permanent
well-being that I, although being liable to birth because of Self, to
disease, anguish, decay, aging and death, having seen the peril of what
is likewise liable to birth, should instead seek Nirvana, TRUE PERMANENT
ABSOLUTE REALITY, the permanent security from this CREATED manifested
mass of pain, anguish and suffering.
Material shape, feelings, perception,
activities and mind/consciousness are an addictive lure to perpetuating
false realities within these fabricated realms of existence, these
conditioned, made, artificial, temporary, transitory, fictitious states
of existence. Ultimately, desire for these constructions MUST be put
away in order for the permanent bliss of True Reality to be realized.
And WHAT IS SELF, True Permanent Absolute
Reality? From the perspective of a constructed creation in a constructed
world in a fabricated reality, a "Selfless" mind could never know the
nature of the Uncreated. True Reality of Self is unfathomable,
inconceivable, immutable, inscrutable, deep, boundless, unmeasurable,
markless, signless, undefinable, incomprehensible.
Only Self, Supremely Awake, can know
ITSELF. And the Self of a given manifested created "Being" that is FULLY
awake, that is called a BUDDHA.
Now what is seen, heard, sensed, known,
attained, sought after, thought out by Mind is impermanent. Perfect
"CORRECT" views cannot be created from something created, a construction
that is Selfless. Only True Permanent Absolute Reality, through ITS
Self-Realization, Intuitive Wisdom and FULL Self-Awakened Enlightenment
can KNOW.
Absolute True Reality IS Self. But since
ABSOLUTE TRUE REALITY is incomprehensible, is not the view then that
"this" – a manifested BEING after dying, I as this personality, this
individuality -- will become permanent, lasting eternal, not liable to
change, I will stand fast unto the eternal, is this not complete folly
since ALL that is created and impermanent is essentially fantasy, a
mental puppet show. This is why a Buddhist eliminates all false views
and the vain conceit that "IN" what is CREATED and IMPERMANENT there is
"anything permanent" that can truly say, "I AM, MINE, I SHALL BE and I
AM THE DOER."
But… "through" what is manifested, the
following can be said:
Body, feelings, perception,
activities and mind/consciousness are not the Self. Self does not
have body, feelings, perception, activities and mind/consciousness.
Body, feelings, perception, activities and mind/consciousness are
not in the Self. The Self is not in the body, feelings, perception,
activities, mind/consciousness. These constructed things in
fabricated fantasy realities, according to a Being who follows
fundamental Buddhism, are looked at as, "These CREATED things are
NOT mine, these am I not, these things are not the Self of me, and
are not the Self of all Beings in all fabricated realities."
The Ten Fetters that "bind" Beings to
perpetuating themselves in artificial, manufactured, fictitious
realities are:
-
Notions of a permanent individual
personality, soul or self
-
Attachment to wrong views, rites,
rituals, dogma, superstitions
-
Doubt and confusion
-
Liking, attachment, passions, sense
desires, lust, greed
-
Disliking, aversion, hatred, malice,
illwill, spite
-
Lust and craving for perpetuating
forms and hereafter’s of Fine Materiality
-
Lust and craving for perpetuating
formlessness and hereafter’s of Immateriality
-
Wrong views of conceit plus pride and
arrogance, declaring "I am the doer"
-
Excitement for constructions and
perpetuating artificial realities, Self-Delusion and Self-Illusion
-
Addiction to Self-Deception and a
complete state of Self-Ignorance, necessary for the ILLUSION of
artificial realities and individuality to seem real, necessary for
not seeing the impermanence and ill for what it is, and the pain and
peril associated with these addictive, ill-conceived, conditioned,
fleeting states of fabricated fictitious existence.
This comprises "the engine" that drives
the continuation and repetition for each Point of View of Self.
The goal is to destroy the addictions,
the cravings, that perpetuate the manifesting of constructed realities
where there is the VICARIOUS experience of senses, sensations and
feelings within constructed worlds within fabricated realms, all of
which are impermanent, ill and Selfless. This ending of all cravings,
addictions and manifesting equals Nirvana, the True Permanent State of
Reality, FREED from what has arisen.
Buddhism and the Dharma (dhamma) or
doctrine is the Path to ending the addictions, the craving, the becoming
again and again of constructed false states of existence; and instead,
attaining the goal, THE TRUE STATE OF PERMANENT REALITY. And with the
realization of that true state of permanent reality, that is the end of
all suffering and anguish, the ending of all rebirth, the ending of all
that is created, impermanent, ill and Selfless.
All craving, all addictions, all fetters
MUST ultimately be renounced, destroyed, ended, forsaken and abandoned
in order to end all rebirth, to end all renewal of false manufactured
realities, and to win Nirvana, the Deathless, the true permanent state
THAT IS IN FACT THE ONLY TRUE REALITY.
All constructed false states of existence
and all constructed creations of all elements of both materiality and
immateriality, material shape, body, sense organs, internal and external
sense fields, sensations, feelings, experiences, perception, activities,
mind, consciousness, thought and mental states are impermanent, ill and
without Self. All constructions from a Buddhist perspective are looked
at as, "Not mine, these creations am I not, these are not for me the
Self, the Self of me." The true nature of Self, which is not OF or IN
these things is the Unborn, the Uncreated, the Deathless, THAT which is
inconceivable.
"Whatsoever, anywhere, in anything that
has become, manifested; is put together, constructed; is thought out and
affected, mentally created; is dependent on something else, on anything
else, IS IMPERMANENT. What is impermanent that is inherently
unhappiness, anguish, ill. What is impermanent, unhappiness, anguish and
ill that is not mine, or of me, that am I not, that is not the Self of
me."
SELF IS; but this, all else, is not. What
is permanent is what is real. What is impermanent is what is not real.
All "this" – everything -- is created,
thought out and affected, fleeting, impermanent, and is but a Selfless
fantasy, an exhausted intellection, a notion, an imagining, a state of
delusion, ALL made of thought, which must inherently end in dissolution.
Everything is a decomposing round of make-believe fiction. And for one
who no longer has any attachment or desire for what does not exist in
truth, there is no longer mental anguish or rebirth.
Things are created, they are inherently
subject to decay, and then finally, they are dissolved again.
For a very long, long time each Mind,
each "point of view" of Self in this round of make-believe, has been
tainted by craving, by lust, by hatred, by delusion and by illusion. And
by a tainted Mind, and point of view of Self, "Beings" are tainted. By
Purity of Mind, and point of view of Self, Beings are made pure. Mind
and each point of view of Self have been ensnared in delusion, addicted
to illusion, craving the pleasures of the concept of six spheres of
sense; craving individuality and continuing rebirth as this or that;
craving false views that support the delusion; and craving ignorance to
continue what has been created, what has arisen.
Consider this: If the cravings and
fetters of a given Being – a point of view of Self – had been destroyed
in the previous "expression" of a constructed reality, there would have
been no becoming again, NO new rebirth, no reforming of a new body and
mind and continuing point of view. And thus, there would have been no
new struggle, no new suffering, pain, anguish, grief, sorrow,
lamentations, despair, sickness, disease, old age, decay and death. Each
Being, each point of view of Self, must resolve, sooner or later, that
IT SHALL NOT BE AGAIN, AND MINE IT SHALL NOT BE. This point of view has
come to closure – Nirvana.
But until "a point of view of Self"
awakes, makes an end of the craving for senses, sensations and pleasures
of the senses; for perpetuating continued individuality, the rebecoming
again and again of point of view in these manifestations; for delusion
and false views; and for ignorance; then these artificial "created"
realities will continue, and the pain and anguish and suffering of them.
And while these fabricated artificial
existences continue, there is the CONTINUED PERIL of future pain,
anguish and suffering, of future rebirth, manifesting AGAIN within LOWER
fabricated worlds of increasing anguish because of past EVIL deeds of
thought, word and action.
Until a created "Being" wins Nirvana,
comes to closure, winning the Deathless, then for that Being what has
been CREATED will continue, each Being wayfaring among constructed
worlds and realms – high, middle and low.
There will be fruition of GOOD deeds of
thought, speech and action; AND ALSO there will be fruition of EVIL
deeds of thought, speech and action.
There will be MERIT in deeds of giving,
sacrifice, offering and of loving kindness and compassion in thought,
speech and actions toward other Beings (of all types); and there will be
DEMERIT in such deeds as lying, slander, gossip, abusive speech,
killing, stealing, sensual and sexual misconduct, wrong views and
malevolent thought, speech and actions toward other Beings (of all
types).
Beings ARE the heirs of their deeds.
Deeds determine karma and karma determines future births and future
events. This is how things work. This is what determines the different
"storylines" for each Being for each life.
And this world is, and the world beyond
is. And in this world there are "Beings" who have properly traveled THE
RIGHT PATH OF ESCAPE TO NIRVANA, who have won THE GOAL, who have
completed "the great quest" for the ultimate truth. They have destroyed
the addictions, the cravings, the delusion and illusion, and they have
reached Perfection, who of themselves by Supernormal Knowledge have
fully realized this world, the world beyond, and WHO SEE THE WAY THINGS
TRULY ARE, and proclaim it.
In conclusion, think of Buddhism as a
correct means of ESCAPE from a state of make-believe. And escape from
the satisfaction of the senses and the peril of the senses. It could be
thought of like this: It is like being in a DARK theatre, vicariously
enjoying the "make-believe experience" of a movie – fabricated
existences in a fabricated reality. But the theatre is very old,
decayed, on fire and now a source of pain. The Dharma of Buddhism is the
EXIT SIGN.
If you want to escape permanently the
pain, anguish and suffering, and continuous cycle of rebirth, struggle,
anguish, decay, dying and death, and all the future pain and peril that
go with it, you follow the exit sign. Buddhism IS the sign that says:
THIS IS THE WAY TO SAFETY, THIS IS THE WAY OUT OF ANGUISH. The choice of
when to escape is the decision of each Being.
If you want to pursue this religion, you
should reflect on what you have read – investigating, analyzing, testing
and weighing up the meaning for yourself.
You should purchase the Pali Text Society
translated discourse volumes, beginning with the Middle Length Sayings,
for more detailed study; and you should begin the Eightfold Noble Path,
a course leading to practice and concentration where Knowledge, Insight
and Intuitive Wisdom WILL arise within the SELF of YOU as you progress
along the Noble Path, to be maintained until you win The Goal, Nirvana,
True Reality Self-Realized, freed from ill, freed from all that has
become, freed from all that is created, freed from all that has arisen,
freed from this state of Self-Delusion, freed from this round of
make-believe fiction.
That concludes our belief of what
Fundamental Buddhism is actually all about. For more teaching, you need
to invest in the recommended books plus reflect, study, investigate,
meditate and concentrate.
To obtain your own copies of the Pali
Canon English translations, write or e-mail for the MAIL-ORDER BOOK LIST
from the Pali Text Society.
PALI TEXT SOCIETY, 73 Lime Walk,
Headington, Oxford 0X3 7AD, ENGLAND Website:
http://www.palitext.com/
An alternative source for the Pali Text
English translations is via their USA Distributor, Pariyatti Book
Service, P.O. Box 15926, 7557 Lake City Way, N.E., Seattle, WA 98115,
(800) 829-2748 or (206) 985-1663 Website:
http://www.pariyatti.com/
See our website for our e-mail address
and for posted questions and answers:
http://www.fundamentalbuddhism.com
If you want to make a financial
contribution to help our efforts in promoting Fundamental Buddhism, send
your check to: BUDDHIST INSTRUCTION RETREAT, P.O. BOX 235, ALPHARETTA,
GEORGIA 30009-0235 USA. We thank you. With thoughts of well being to you,
may you have peace, happiness, good fortune, love, compassion, and most
importantly, may you win Nirvana immediately.
Buddhist Instruction Ministry
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