Priests do not Disseminate Buddhas Teaching

The message conveyed by Buddhist priests to the layman is "Feed us,build monasteries for us, offer us robes as we are the authorities to make your existence in this world happy and we are authorised to issue boarding passes to the realms with happiness ,after death".

I have been to Katina Pinkamas since I was a child. Now I am a old man. Only thing I have heard is that as a result of taking part in the event everybody around will born in heaven after death.I have heard the same thing over the last fifty odd years.

Buddhas teaching is not anywhere near this.In dhamma kathika sutta Buddha advised priests to preach only the way of getting out of samsara.On the contrary they are preaching the way of sticking on to samsara.

Under whatever circumstances we have a duty to look after the temples and priests.They are necessary to introduce the dimension of spiritual life to the children.The fault is we do not get anywhere beyond the introduction.
I am happy to have acquired some in depth knowledge of Buddhism which I did by associating practising Buddhists who are lay people.I continue to join them in dhamma discussions on Poya days.

Buddhists Need Not Observe Sil

"Nahi seela watan hothu,

Uppajjanthi ththagatha,

Attakkara theenapada

Sambuddhena pakasitha,'

"Buddhas do not reccomend precepts.They preach a teaching with eight letters and three words.

Gothama Buddha : Udana

The three words are anicca ,dukkha and anatta ( impermanence, unsatisfactoriness,and non self).The letters are repeated when writing and thus only eight letters are there.

When prince Siddhartha conceived ,according to the scriptures the Queen Mahamaya was observing eight precepts.Thus Buddha cannot be the person who drafted the eight precepts.Scriptures never mention about Buddha proclaiming five precepts.That is because he never proclaimed it.But Buddha never condemned these.There is simply no imposed discipline in Buddhas teaching.But a real follower of Buddhas teaching will be more disciplined than demanded by five precepts or eight precepts.

Pathimoksha seela meant for Bhikkus with 252 precepts came out only after 10 years of Buddhahood.If precepts were an absolute necessity to follow his teachings declaring the precepts would have been the very first thing done by Buddha after enlightenment.But it was not so.Paathimokkha seela was declared to maintain discipline among the ever growing clan of of Bhikkhus ten years after enlightment. The only "seela" declared by Buddha for all followers of his teaching is dhittincha anupaganma seela mentioned in Karaneeya metta sutta. This means to be constantly aware that both world and self are illusions.

Buddhists Need Not Pray

Last Sunday I happened to be at Bellanwila temple as my wife wanted to go there.People in hundreds were praying looking at the Bo tree.They were in fact begging.Their faces were full of anxiety.As a keen student of Dhamma this was a disgusting site to me. A person armed with Buddhas teaching need not beg !

The surroundings has been designed to encourage the begging.We must clearly understand that Buddhism has no solutions for our worldly problems.Buddhists should not expect any thing worldly from his/her spiritual activities.

Buddhist clergy do not educate the Buddhist about this .Some of them are not aware of this fact.Those who are aware take advantage of keeping the Buddhists ignorant.

For a well informed Buddhist ,recovery from illness,passing an examination,unfaithful spouses,non loyal business partners,success in litigation are too trivial things to look for a solution within Buddhas teachings.

The Twenty First Century Homo Sapiens

A new phenomenon is surfacing as the middle east political crisis.There is up rising against existing political leaders.There are no leaderships in these up risings.The twenty first century homo sapiens is well aware of his rights.There has been information explosion since last decade of last century owing to advances in communication particularly the Internet.He knows his rights.He will not listen to so called the leaders spelling out his rights.In fact he does not need leaders.Leaders are necessary only to guide if majority are ill informed.Information has disseminated and most are potential leaders.In fact existing leaders are less informed than the majority.What is happening in middle east is a new intellectual phenomenon.

Last century there were lot of scientific discoveries.The materialistic development took place.Weapons of mass destruction too developed.The leaders used these for their advantage.The twenty first century man resents rulers.He lives in the global village.There are no boundaries.The words like eastern ,western or even patriotism does not make sense to the twenty first century homo sapiens.Universal mutual respect nullifies the necessity for leaders.Only co workers are necessary.Each one is accountable to everybody