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newcomers and experienced readers In the Buddha’s Words is a landmark anthology of discourses of the Buddha. It brings together selected discourses from the Pali Canon to reflect the overall structure of the teachings of the Buddha by way of a clear scheme. Translations from a wide variety of discourses —164 in all — culled from all over the Pali Canon have been arranged into 10 chapters for this purpose. Ven. Bodhi mostly uses his own translations from the Pali, but has also used some translations of other translators, modifying them to fit his general scheme of translation. Ven. Bodhi realized the urgent need for a structured anthology of discourses from the Pali Canon when he was teaching a course on the Majjhima Nikaya in his monastery in the USA. According to Ven. Bodhi, the volume is intended for two types of readers: “The first are those not yet acquainted with the Buddha’s discourses who feel the need for a systematic introduction. For such readers, any of the Nikáyas is bound to appear opaque. All four of them, viewed at once, may seem like a jungle—entangling and bewildering, full of unknown beasts—or like a great ocean—vast tumultuous, and forbidding. The second type of readers for whom this book is meant are those already acquainted with the suttas, who still cannot see how they fit together into an intelligible whole. For such readers, individual suttas may be comprehensible in themselves, but the texts in their totality appear like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.” Ven. Bodhi hopes that (1) this volume will serve the newcomers to early Buddhist literature as a map to help them wend their way through the jungle of the suttas or as a sturdy ship to carry them across the ocean of the Dhamma whetting their appetite for more and encouraging them to plunge into the full Nikáyas and (2) the volume will assist the experienced readers of the Nikáyas to obtain a better understanding of the material with which they are already familiar. Since the discourses in the Pali Canon are not arranged either in any chronological or subject-based sequence, and there is no single discourse in which the Buddha draws together all the elements of His teaching and assigns them a place within an comprehensive scheme, one cannot obtain an overall view of the structure of the Buddha’s teachings just by reading and studying a few discourses. Even for those who have the capacity to study the discourses in detail, it can sometimes be difficult without a scheme to figure out where a specific discourse (or discourses) fits in the extensive framework of the Buddha’s teachings. It is therefore a praiseworthy endeavour on the part of Bhikkhu Bodhi to have developed such a comprehensive yet accessible scheme that reflects the overall architecture of Buddha’s teachings. Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi mentions that his scheme may be original, but it is not sheer innovation as it is based upon a threefold distinction that the Pali Commentaries make, indicating the types of benefits to which the practice of Dhamma leads. These benefits are (1) welfare and happiness visible in this present life; (2) welfare and happiness pertaining to future lives; and (3) the ultimate good, Nibbana (Skt. Nirvána). Three preliminary chapters—the first one on the basic human condition of suffering in samsâra, the second on the Buddha’s appearance into this world, and the third on the special pragmatic and non esoteric features of the Buddha’s teaching—lead up to the seven chapters embodying the three benefits scheme. These start with a chapter revealing the Buddha’s ample teachings on social harmony and peace—the welfare and happiness visible in the present life—that comes from living in accordance with ethical norms in one’s relationships, livelihood, and communal activities. The fifth chapter is on how one can attain happiness in the next life through the accumulation of merit based on generosity (dâna), virtue (síla), and meditation (bhâvanâ). The next chapter is showing that, though the Dhamma leads to happiness in this life and the next, even a pleasant life is dependent on impermanent conditions and will finally end in death. The Buddha’s teaching is therefore concerned with leading one beyond conditioned and impermanent mundane happiness to the supreme happiness of the Unconditioned, Nibbâna—the ultimate type of benefit. The final four chapters give a general overview of the Path to the Unconditioned, the gradual mastering of the mind through calm and insight meditation, the development of higher wisdom with the aim of attaining the Unconditioned, and the stages of realization transforming the individual from an ignorant worldling into a Liberated One who has fully realized the Unconditioned. The anthology aptly concludes with a few suttas on the supreme qualities of the Buddha and His great power of illuminating the dark world of ignorance. The value of this anthology is greatly enhanced by the general introduction and by the introductions at the beginning of each chapter. These introductions provide the mortar required to build the edifice of the Buddha’s teachings, presenting a careful analysis of the teachings and helping the reader to fit the components of “the jigsaw puzzle” into their appropriate places. The Dalai Lama’s foreword shows how much the different schools of Buddhism fundamentally have in common. In the Buddha’s Words bears evidence again of Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi’s penetrative and analytical understanding of the Dhamma and his great ability in explaining Buddhist philosophical issues to modern readers. Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, born in New York City in 1944, needs no introduction in the Buddhist world. His excellent translations of Buddhist discourses and his profound and illuminating expositions of Dhamma are in constant use across the world. Moreover, he is the editor of many books on Theravada Buddhism published by the Buddhist Publication Society in Kandy, of which he is the president. It is well known that theistic religions have lost their hold in the minds of many educated persons in the modern world and that this has created a deep spiritual vacuum that needs to be filled. Therefore, compiling an anthology of discourses from the Pali Canon that provides a comprehensive and schematic representation of the Buddha’s teachings is quite relevant. Following the footsteps of Ven. Nyanaponika Thera, the main teacher of Ven. Bodhi, who played an important role in shaping the expression of Theravada Buddhism in the latter half of the twentieth century, Ven. Bodhi continues the important mission of shaping the expression of Theravada Buddhism in the first half of the twenty-first century. Respect
and responsibility - values to be retrieved These values like respect and responsibility which have been a part of our cultural heritage have to be retrieved and re-established in Sri Lanka, for the un-discriminated good of mankind as a whole. So insists Venerable Professor Dhammavihari Thera in a thought-provoking booklet just released, titled 'A Thought for the Day - Necessarily a Thought for Life'. Describing Respect as a vital social lubricant which enhances the smoothness of human life, he states that respect is an inalienable virtue in human society - 'puja ca pujaniyanam etam mangala muttmam', quoting the words of the Buddha in the Mangala Sutta. Sounding a warning note, he writes: "We watch with caution and considerable dismay the possible corrosion that could come upon mankind with the large scale unguarded introduction into the human community of test-tube babies and today's speculated techniques of farmyard-like cloning. It is the parents who introduced their young progeny to the world, indicating the relative values within which the younger are to grow, fitting themselves harmoniously to the adult-world in which they must eventually take their rightful place. We witness, day after day, the failure of this duty by parents with the arrival into our midst of teenage boys and girls, or even older ones well above thirty, who distrust their relationships with older ones in society, including their own parents. They are quite often psychopathic or very near being so. Isn't this calamitously tragic? On account of the wise and responsible role they are called upon to play, the parents are referred to as the first teachers in the human community ('pubbacariya')." The venerable Thera reminds us that to the Buddhist, this show of respect, the veneration of humans by humans, on account of each one's relative worth, implies no diminishing of personal prestige or esteem. Nor does it indicate any personality impoverishment. On the other hand, Buddhists are never made to kneel down before believed-in divine beings of any sort, in veneration or fear. Nor in search of heaven-granted favours. For the Buddhist, only the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha who are of down-to-earth visible origin, and who on their own individual enrichment of life transcend the world, stand above them as objects of veneration. "New trends in philosophy and psychology now developing in the western world are sponsoring respect as a primary human virtue in which growing up young humans, of any brand anywhere, must be rooted as they commence their growth into worthy manhood and womanhood. Few in this part of the self-flattering world of ours know about these new courageous changes with regards to value orientation." His
plea to the parents is: "Please come forward, leave alone the
State and those who run it. They are busy otherwise. Keep an eye
on them". The
Thera laments that the world now is passing through a devastating
process of desertification, aided by violent winds of consumerism,
moving hand in hand with a gluttonous sense of gratification.”
It is a delight to see even a distant ray of hope, a hope for survival,”
he says, in a wave of revivalist new thinking which now the western
world speaks of 'delay gratification'. |
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