A BRIEF OUTLINE OF BUDDHISMU PO SA
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PREFACE |
This book fulfils a long-standing desire of the writer to offer in the form of a brief outline the Teachings of The Buddha to the English speaking world. Not withstanding the fact that quite a vast literature is available on Buddhism in English in the form of large volumes as well as in brief tracts, there remains the need of a work which should neither allow the fundamental doctrines to be lost in the flood of detailed scholastic discussions generally inevitable in large volumes nor present the Teachings with the essentials un-mentioned, as is generally seen in the booklets. Though conscious of the fact of brevity and comprehensiveness rarely electing to be together, the writer decided upon a plan which is expected to achieve the difficult objective, without at least sacrificing the inclusion of certain vital subjects, however briefly. Obviously, the Ten Perfections, the Two Aspects of Truth, the Constitution of Personality; the Philosophy of Kamma, the System of Causal Relations and the Buddhist Practices are the subjects in view. Whereas these, together with the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Practice of Virtue, Mental Culture and the Final Fruition (Nibbana) have been dealt with in the perspective of the Orthodox Teachings and the life of the Master, the historical side of Buddhism has been purposely restricted to the Great Councils. Also there are several quotations from the words of the Buddha Himself. Another special feature of the book is its considerable freedom from the use of Pali terminology; this will certainly add to the convenience of the reader, unaquainted with this classical language. In view of the wide range of subjects, rarely found mentioned or discussed in a book of this size, certain shortcomings, such as a degree of abruptness here and there and lackof connection between some chapters, are to be expected. However, the object with which the writer set himself about, seems to have materialised to an extent. To what extent? This is left to the judgement of the reader U Po Sa Yangon, Myanmar. 11th, November 1955. |
ABOUT THE AUTHOR |
U Po Sa, A.T.M., B.A., B.C.S. (1), F.R.E.S was born in 1888 in Nattalin Township, Tharyawaddy District, about 150 miles north of Yangon (Rangoon), in Lower Myanmar (Burma). His early profession as a high-school teacher enabled him to pursue further studies on a part time basis in the early days of college education in the country, finally earning him a Bachelor of Arts degree from Calcutta University (India) reading English Literature, Myanmar Literature, Pali and Philosophy. These subjects obviously provided a firm foundation for his later pursuit of Buddhistic studies and authoring many articles in the "Light of the Buddha", an English language monthly journal, and several books including the present "Brief Outline". After his college degree, he joined the civil service and the pre-second world war years saw him serving in succession as a District Commissioner in Dawei (Tavoy), Myeik (Mergui), as District Magistrate of Yangon (Rangoon) and a Commissioner of Land and Land mortgage Banks. The war time government appointed him first as Secretary of Finance, later as Commissioner for Ayeyarwaddy Division. At the end of the war he retired from government service and soon after the country gained her Independence in 1948, he founded the first Myanmar owned "Burmese National Bank Ltd." and became it's first Managing Director till his sudden demise of a heart attack in April 1961 at the age of 73 years. He was survived by his wife and six of his eight children at the time. U Po Sa also authored a book on the "Merits of Vegetarianism" and was himself a strict vegetarian for the last l7 years of his life. |
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION |
This book entitled "A Brief Outline of Buddhism" as its title implies is really a brief outline of the Doctrine preached by the Buddha in India and the neighbouring countries some two thousand five hundred years back. After passing away of the Buddha in 544 BC, the Venerable Maha Kassapa, a senior disciple of His whom praised as the one who has excelled His other disciples in the observance of higher precepts convened the First Council of five hundred Elects of the Highest Order (i.e. Elects in whom greed and lust, anger and hate, bewilderment and delusion were extirpated root and branch) at Rajagaha in India and had His Doctrine recited there and the Teachings of the Master were classified under three heads namely, (1) Discourses (2) Philosophy and (3) Disciplinary Rules for the Congregation, and these three collectively are called Tipitaka a Pali compound expression, in which Ti means "three" and pitaka means "Basket". It is evident that each class of the Doctrine was as if basketful of Canonical Literature, the three baskets together constituting the Tipitaka. The second Great Council was held at Vesali in India, a century later and the Third at Pataliputta (India) under the patronage of Asoka, the Great, a devout Buddhist ruler, whose empire extended from the Iranian Plateau in the west to the River Brahmaputta on the east. After the Council was over, he sent out Buddhist missionaries to many countries including Myanmar(Burma) and Sri Lanka (Ceylon). The latter two had already received the Teachings of The Buddha during His lifetime and are besides considered to have been honoured by the Master's personal visits. It is mentioned in the Buddhist Canon that one of His Disciples, Punna by name spent at least a Lent in Suna-pranta, a zone in Myanmar identified with Minbu and neighbouring districts on the west bank of the river Irrawaddy. There is still in the Minbu District a famous Pagoda called Kyaungdawya (i.e., the site of Sacred Monastery) which is said to be the place where the Buddha stayed during His visit to the zone. The missionary zeal of the Great Emperor Asoka is evident by the fact that he sent his own son, the Venerable Mahinda to Ceylon as a missionary and also a year later, his own daughter, the Venerable Sangha-mitta both of whom were the Elects of the Highest Order. Also it was about this time that the Venerable Sona and Uttara came to Myanmar as Missionaries with three followers. The Canonical Literature of Buddhism is as profound as it is extensive. The Discourses are in nineteen books, the Philosophy in seven books and the Disciplinary Rules in five books. These thirty one books as we now have in Myanmar were committed to writing in Ceylon about 25 B.C.. There were then many Elects of the Highest Order in Ceylon, who could recite the whole Doctrine by heart. They felt that the People were getting less righteous than before and visualised that the number of Elects would decrease in course of time and therefore had the whole literature committed to writing so that the true Teachings might endure for thousands of years. The contents of these thirty one books were inscribed on stone slabs in about 1871 A.D., by King Mindon of Myanmar. The inscriptions are still in excellent state of preservation at Mandalay, the last capital of the Burmese kings. In the Discourses, the Buddha preached His Doctrine to individuals, or to assemblies of widely different intellectual attainments and standards of morality. His Discourses are therefore often expressed in the form of stories, parables and illustrations which His audience could easily understand. While dealing with pure Philosophy The Buddha preached it without any embellishment, using no stories, no parables and no illustrations. He first taught the Philosophy, in this world, to His Chief Disciple, the Venerable Sariputta. who in turn taught it to five hundred Elects of the Highest Order. Obviously, the form or literature in "Philosophy" is quite different from that of the "Discourses" and this is as it should be. The "Disciplinary Rules" deal mostly with the rules and regulations for the Elects and Non-Elects. The most important Teachings, however are to be found in all three baskets, namely, the Discourses, the Philosophy and the Disciplinary Rules. For in stance the Law of Cause and Effect Paticcasamuppada ) and many other important Doctrines are found in the two or in all the three Baskets. The religious teachers in Burma therefore often say that the three Baskets have the same objective, viz to guide us to the emancipation form suffering, i.e., the suffering of birth, old age, disease and death. It may not be out of place here to mention that the Buddha preached his Doctrine in Prakrit, one of the popular languages spoken in India in the sixth centuxy B.C. It was a dialect of Magadha, then one of the leading Kingdoms of India. In course of time, this Prakrit or Magadhese, as it was called, came to be known as Pali which literally means a line, a row, or series. It may be that as the Buddha's Doctrine was written in lines or in series, its language began to be termed" the sacred Pali." All the books of the Canonical Literature of original Buddhism are in Pali and have been translated into Burmese. To go deep into the original meaning of the expressions, used by the Buddha, the Doctrine is best studied in Pali and this study, to be fruitful must be accompanied or followed by the practice of charity, observance of precepts and attention to good character and mental culture such as concentration and meditation. By such a study and practice, one realises that there are three kind or degrees of knowledge of the Doctrine, namely (1 )Knowledge acquiredby reading and hearing the Doctrine (2) Knowledge acquired by reasoning, and (3) Knowledge acquired by concentration and meditation. These three degrees of knowledge are of course steps to intuitive knowledge, which is acquired through intensive concentration and meditation. A few words about the dates of the important events in the life of the Buddha are called for here. They are given with full confidence as regards their authenticity from the Buddhist era (which is now 2499.) If the present Christian era, 1955, is subtracted from the present Buddhist era 2499 the remainder is 544 B.C., the date in which the Buddha passed away. He passed away at the age of eighty. From this it wll be seen that He was born in 624B.C. After the Passing Away of the Buddha, His monk and orthodox lay disciples most respectfully and religiously, if not meticulously, preserved the Buddhist era and the lay disciples under the patronage of the monks pour water ceremoniously on the Bo-tree or an off-spring of it or an emblem of it on the Wesak Day eveiy year as He won Enlightenment under the Bo-tree, at Buddha Gaya in India. The aim of the book is to put in a nutshell some of the essaitials of Buddhism and thus stimulate the study of Buddhism. By learning the Canoincal Texts and by the practice of virtue, concentration and meditation, one realises the benefits that Buddhism confers in life here and hereafter. It is thus that one can get rid of greed and lust, anger and hate, bewilderment and delusion and enjoy the real Peace. |
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