THE BUDDHA AND HIS DHAMMA

§ 2. To Make the World a Kingdom of Righteousness

SECTION ONE: THE FUNCTIONS OF SADDHAMMA

§ 2. To Make the World a Kingdom of Righteousness

    1. What is the purpose of Religion?

    2. Different religions have given different answers.

    3. To make man seek after God, and to teach him the importance of saving his soul, is the commonest answer one gets to this question.

    4. Most religions speak of three kingdoms.

    5. One is called the kingdom of heaven. The second is called the kingdom of earth; and the third is called the kingdom of hell.

    6. This kingdom of heaven is said to be ruled by God. The kingdom of hell is described to be a place where the supremacy of the Evil One is undisputed. The kingdom of earth is a disputed field. It is not under the dominance of the Evil One. At the same time God's sovereignty does not extend to it. It is hoped that one day it will.

    7. In some religions the kingdom of heaven is said to be a kingdom in which Righteousness prevails, no doubt because it is directly ruled by God.

    8. In other religions the kingdom of heaven is not on earth. It is another name for heaven. It can be reached by one who believes in God and his Prophet. When he reaches heaven, all the carnal pleasures of life are placed within the reach of all those who are faithful.

    9. All religions preach that to reach this kingdom of heaven should be the aim of man, and how to reach it is the end of all.

    10. To the question "What is the purpose of religion?" the Buddha's answer is very different.

    11. He did not tell people that their aim in life should be to reach some imaginary heaven. The kingdom of righteousness lies on earth, and is to be reached by man by righteous conduct.

    12. What he did was to tell people that to remove their misery, each one must learn to be righteous in his conduct in relation to others, and thereby make the earth the kingdom of righteousness.

    13. It is this which distinguishes his religion from all other religions.

    14. His religion emphasizes Panch Sila, the Ashtanga Marga, and the Paramitas.

    15. Why did the Buddha make them the basis of his religion? Because they constitute a way of life which alone can make man righteous.

    16. Man's misery is the result of man's inequity to man.

    17. Only righteousness can remove this inequity and the resultant misery.

    18. That is why he said that religion must not only preach, but must inculcate upon the mind of man, the supreme necessity for being righteous in his conduct

    19. For the purpose of inculcating righteousness, religion, he said, had certain other functions to undertake.

    20. Religion must teach man to know what is right and to follow what is right.

    21. Religion must teach man to know what is wrong and not to follow what is wrong.

    22. Besides these purposes of religion, he emphasised two other purposes which he regarded as of supreme importance.

    23. The first is [the] training of man's instincts and dispositions, as distinguished from offering prayers or performing observances or doing sacrifices.

    24. This the Buddha has made clear in his exposition of Jainism in the Devadaha Sutta.

    25. What Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, affirmed was that whatsoever the individual experiences, be it pleasant or unpleasant, all comes from acts done in former births.

    26. That being so, by expiration and purge of former misdeeds and by not committing fresh misdeeds, nothing accrues for the future; as nothing accrues for the future, the misdeeds die away; as misdeeds die away, misery dies away; as misery dies away, feelings die away; and as feelings die away, all misery will wear out and pass.

    27. This is what Jainism affirmed.

    28. On this the Buddha asked this question: "Do you know that, here and now, wrong dispositions have been got rid of and right dispositions acquired?"

    29. The answer was "No."

    30. "What is the use," asked the. Buddha, "of a purge for former misdeeds, what is the use of not committing fresh misdeeds, if there is no training of the mind to turn bad disposition into good disposition?"

    31. This was in his opinion a very serious defect in religion. A good disposition is the only permanent foundation of, and guarantee of, permanent goodness.

    32. That is why the Buddha gave the first place to the training of the mind, which is the same as the training of a man's disposition.

    33. The second thing to which he gave great importance is courage to stand by what is right, even if one is alone.

    34. In the Sallekha-Sutta the Buddha has emphasised this point.

    35. This is what he has said:

    36. "You are to expunge by resolving that, though others may be harmful, you will be harmless.

    37. "That though others may kill, you will never kill.

    38. "That though others may steal, you will not.

    39. "That though others may not lead the higher life, you will.

    40. "That though others may lie, traduce, denounce, or prattle, you will not.

    41. "That though others may be covetous, you will covet not.

    42. "That though others may be malignant, you will not be malignant.

    43. "That though others may be given over to wrong views, wrong aims, wrong speech, wrong actions, and wrong concentration, you must follow (the Noble Eightfold Path in): right outlook, right aims, right speech, right actions, right mode of livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

    44. "That though others are wrong about the truth and wrong about Deliverance, you will be right about truth and right about Deliverance.

    45. "That though others may be possessed by sloth and torpor, you will free yourselves therefrom.

    46. "That though others may be puffed up. you will be humble-minded.

    47. "That though others may be perplexed by doubts, you will be free from them.

    48. "That though others may harbour wrath, malevolence, envy, jealousy, niggardliness, avarice, hypocrisy, deceit, imperviousness, arrogance, forwardness, association with bad friends, slackness, unbelief, shamelessness, unscrupulousness, lack of instruction, inertness, bewilderment, and unwisdom, you will be the reverse of all these things.

    49. "That though others may clutch at and hug the temporal, nor loose their hold thereon, you will clutch and hug the things that are not temporal, and will ensue [=pursue? ensure?] Renunciation.

    50.  I say it is the development of the will which is so efficacious for right states of consciousness, not to speak of act and speech. And therefore, Cunda, there must be developed the will to all the foregoing resolves I have detailed."

    51. Such is the purpose of religion as conceived by the Buddha.