Buddhism

There are poor countries in the world today. The Lord Buddha taught us that the poverty grows or spreads among people when the rulers or the government of these countries do not help poor citizens providing means such as food, money, and land to live their lives. If there are poor people in a country, the government treasury of that country and also the other rich countries should come forth and facilitate those people. They should be helped finding jobs and making their future stable by following the ways that Buddha has shown us. I will explain you those ways of [...]

Let us first understand what the meaning of the soul (Aatma) or the view of soul (Aatma drustiya) is. Let us assume that there is something that we can control to our wish. Then, that thing is known as a soul. However, nothing in this world including our own life can be controlled as to our own expectations. Every type of life is made out of objects (rupa), feelings (vedana), recognitions (sangna), deeds/or aims (sanskara), and explicit recognitions (viññana). If someone thinks that these things can be controlled as one wishes, thinking life as me, mine, and my soul, then it [...]

There is no other person than the Buddha Himself who loved the nature. He was even born under a tree called Sal Tree. He also attained the Buddha-hood under a tree (Bodhi Tree) and passed away under two Sal Trees in Upawartana forest. The Buddha used to live in deep forests at time to time since He attained the Buddha-hood, but He never destroyed any trees or leaves. He never killed an animal. Our teacher even established some rules for His disciples to live a harmless life that protects the environment. He ordered His disciples not to cut trees, not to [...]

The Buddha taught us not to involve in killings. In Parajikapali (a part of the Buddha’s teachings included in the discipline part which is known as the Vinaya Pitaka), the Buddha has taught us that it is a sin to kill even one day lasted pregnancy. In fact, Supreme Buddha is the first teacher who made a voice objecting the abortions about 2553 years ago. Thus, you could imagine how marvelous the Buddhism is.

What people knew through science about couple of years ago has changed now. Almost all the instruments we have now are different from what we had before. The knowledge that the science provides us today will be changed by tomorrow. When science proves to comfort people with worldly and luxurious items, they start to depend on it. Some even look for refuge of science ignorantly failing to see the good qualities that human race lacks today. This trend promoted bad habits of people such as killing, stealing, adulteration, lying, telling tales, speaking rude and worthless words, drinking alcohols, and living immoral [...]

There are four truths or realities in this world. They are known as the Four Noble Truths or Chaturarya Satthya. Whether someone has been categorized into being poor, rich, or any other type, that person still has to face the pain, the suffering, or the stress of being born into this world. Every being has to face birth, sickness, aging, death, leaving the loved ones behind, blending with the dislike people, pain or the stress of not getting what is wanted, and etc. This is the first noble truth, which is called the Dukka Aarya Satthya, of the world. This suffering [...]

The disciple Sangha (Bhikkhus) of the Buddha protected their teacher’s discourses by memorizing and carrying them to the next generation by heart for a long period of time. Since that time, everyone’s private opinions have been appeared as Dhamma by shrinking true words of the Buddha even though His true words are still preserved untainted in sacred texts of Buddhism (Tripitaka). As a result, monks were divided into groups of different views at time to time. This is why diverse sects of Buddhism can be identified today. Though, the truth is that one can still attain great Nibbana (rid of Samsara [...]

We have to think twice about you being saying that the Buddhist countries are poor. Let us think about the past for a moment. Buddhist countries like India and Sri Lanka were the most developed countries in the world at the Buddha’s time. This was also true at the time when there were Arahants (the noble disciples of the Buddha who attained Nibbana) among us even after the Buddha’s passing away. This statement can be verified if we go to those countries and check their past. In that time period, these countries have had huge buildings such as castles of seven [...]

There are different types of rituals that are performed in temples to worship the Buddha nowadays. Among these rituals, ringing bells, lighting oil lamps, and offering the scent of fragrant sticks, flowers, and food and drinks are some of them. All of these are done as a part of worshiping the Lord Buddha. Nevertheless, the Buddha told us that the most profound way to worship Him is by traversing the Samsara by following the noble path He taught us.

As Buddhists, we used to select a place to worship the Buddha. This place is called a ‘temple.’ The utmost position of this temple belongs to the Lord Buddha as He is the most fortunate one. This is why Buddhists make the Buddha’s statues to represent Him and place them in the temple. However, we cannot ever make a statue containing the thirty two great bodily characteristics of the Buddha to represent His extraordinary figure. In the temple, we worship the Buddha by thinking him and his endless noble qualities that no one else possesses.