Chapter 1 - 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 Masters 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 Buddhas 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.