"BUDDHA" - SOME IMPORTANT TEACHINGS
FOUR NOBEL TRUTHS:
1. EXISTENCE OF SORROW
2. CAUSE OF SORROW
3. CESSATION OF SORROW
4. WAY WHICH LEADS TO THE CESSATION OF SORROW
FIVE PRECEPTS:
- TAKE THE PRECEPT TO ABSTAIN FROM KILLING.
- TAKE THE PRECEPT TO ABSTAIN FROM STEALING.
- TAKE THE PRECEPT TO ABSTAIN FROM ADULTERY.
- TAKE THE PRECEPT TO ABSTAIN FROM LYING.
- TAKE THE PRECEPT TO ABSTAIN FROM LIQUOR.
EIGHT FOLD PATHS:
- RIGHT UNDERSTANDING (free from superstition and delusion)
- RIGHT THOUGHT (high and worthy of the intelligent)
- RIGHT SPEECH (kindly, open, truthful)
- RIGHT ACTIONS (peaceful, honest, pure)
- RIGHT LIVELIHOOD (not bringing hurt or danger to living being).
- RIGHT EFFORT (in self-training and in self-control)
- RIGHT MINDFULNESS (the active watchful mind)
- RIGHT CONCENTRATION (in deep meditation on the realities of life)
PRECEPTS:
- DO NOT KILL.
- DO NOT STEAL.
- DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.
- DO NOT TELL LIES.
- DO NOT SLANDER.
- DO NOT SPEAK HARSHLY.
- DO NOT ENGAGE IN IDLE TALKS.
- DO NOT COVET OTHERS' PROPERTY.
- DO NOT SHOW HATRED.
- THINK RIGHTEOUSLY.
ACTS OF MERIT:
- GIVE CHARITY TO THE DESERVING.
- OBSERVE THE PRECEPTS OF MORALITY.
- CULTIVATE AND DEVELOP GOOD THOUGHTS.
- RENDER SERVICE AND ATTEND ON OTHERS.
- HONOUR AND NURSE PARENTS AND ELDERS.
- GIVE A SHARE OF YOUR MERITS TO OTHERS.
- ACCEPT THE MERITS THAT OTHERS GIVE YOU.
- HEAR THE DOCTRINE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
- PREACH THE DOCTRINE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
- RECTIFY YOUR FAULTS.
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON BUDDHA:
Let me tell you... a few words about one man who actually carried this teaching of Karmayoga into practice. That man is Buddha. He is the one man who ever carried this into perfect practice. All the prophets of the world, except Buddha, had external motives to move them to unselfish action.. He is the ideal Karmayogi acting without motive, and the history of humanity shows him to have been the greatest man ever born, beyond compare, the greatest combination of heart and brain ever existed, the greatest soul-power that has ever been manifested...
Buddhism is historically the most important religion- historically, not philosophically - because it was the most tremendous religious movement that the world ever saw, the most gigantic spiritual wave ever to burst upon human society....
