6. Buddhist Ethics Provides room for a better tomorrow in Thailand

The force-going enumeration enables us to conclude that the Buddhist ethical principles provide scope for a better way of life, for better tomorrow. The whole world now is on the furnace-burning incessantly with the fire of end-less greed, fire of endless hatred and fire of endless delusion. The dark cloud of ignorance (avijja) has covered the human mind. So, they have lost the power of thinking rationally, thinking for the good and welfare of one’s own self, one’s family and one’s society. The evils of killing, violence, desire for enjoying a luxurious life with ultra-modern and sophisticated amenities of life, dissatisfaction with what one possesses jealous at others’ wealth and happiness, sex, intoxicants and so on. To help the human beings to come out of these evils of self-destruction, evils of universal ailments and malady of life, the Buddha, as the most perfect and best physician, has prescribed universal medicine of Sila, Samadhi, Panna and Brahmavihara.

The Buddha has prescribed Silas for the entire mankind, because Silas are the foundations (patittha) of a better life.^[1]

When we are going to construct any structure (building or anything), what we need first is a good and solid foundation. Because, if the foundation remains weak, the entire structure will collapse very soon. Similarly, if the Sila are not practiced and applied in our day-to-day life, we cannot prosper and our life’s progress will be at stake. Our life would be a truly happy one and our society would become a much safer and more peaceful place to live in, if the Silas (moralities, moral conducts) are observed with real earnestness. According to the Buddha, only Silas can resolve the problems of human suffering in the world and can make a man a perfect man worthy of living in a civilized society. In addition of the Silas, the Buddha has prescribed the four Brahmaviharas as the universal medicine to cure universal human diseases like enmity and hatred, and jealous at others’ happiness and prosperity. To be happy and feel empathetic joy at others’ happiness and prosperity, to help others with a compassionate heart when they are in distress with this and that.

Imagine, an ideal situation in a parliament, in a policy making policy making body in our society where members vow not to involve in speaking what is untrue, not encouraging what is untrue and not sanctioning what is untrue and on the country, the members speak of what is true, encouraging of what is true and sanctioning of what is true.

The same is the case with all other Silas. We should not have any doupt, then our institution of either democracy or kingship, our social position would have been much better, our suffering in this world would have been considerable if Vaisali came again and again, as an ideal kingdom.

What the Buddha taught has a deep social significance.^[2] In present day if this could be extended to the political and other sphere of our social existence, our life and society would have been better. The Buddhist Ethics encourages us to keep vigilance upon ourselves so that we can maintain our livelihood without having or causing exploitation of other. To illustrate the practice of non-violence to all creation and Compassion to all, the Buddha referred to the story of a mother who wanted to protect the life of her only child at the cost of her own life.

As we have seen in Thailand and also in the world, the Buddhist Ethics provides an ideal relation of harmony among all creatures with Nature and it can contribute a lot of addressing many of the ecological problems we face today. By development, the Buddhist Ethics would permit only ‘integral and sustainable development’ or ‘total development’-a development that integrally contribute to physical, mental and spiritual spheres of beings and it’s harmonious relation with Nature. If we emphasis only on one of these aspects, there will be suffering, because all are interdependent. Metta and Karuna bhavana should be our guiding principle in practice for all development.

Physical development and social development are necessary for the achievement of outer peace, i.e. peaceful co-existence with other human beings and the natural environment. Mental development and intellectual development are necessary for the realization of inner peace, or peace of mind. The four aspects of development have to go together so that we can achieve a balanced development in our lives. To emphasize only one of these aspects at the expense of the others may make us slip into one of two extreme positions. A person, who is obsessed with physical and social development, neglecting mental and intellectual development at the expense of physical and social development, may fall in to the extreme of self-torture.^[3]

So that we can say that the Sila is moral practice, abstinence from all unwholesome action (akusala kamma) of body and speech, Samadhi is the practice of concentration, developing the ability to consciously direct and control one’s own mental process and, Panna is wisdom, the development of purifying insight into one’s own nature. These are the important and fundamental aspects of Buddhist Ethics. Without Sila one cannot become moral. In the absence of morality one cannot concentrate his mind. So Samadhi and Panna are regarded as the paths of purification in Buddhism. These are the paths through which one can attain the ultimate goal of life (nibbana).

It is therefore, our conclusion that if the Buddhist Ethical principles are applied in our day-to-day life, we will have a better life, a better tomorrow. And we will find that comparatively the world is no longer a place of pains, suffering and mental agony and dissatisfaction, but it is a place of real joy, happiness and immoral bliss. We can very soon realize that we have interdependent-existence-with fellow human beings, non-human beings, tree and plants along with all aspects of nature. The Buddha advises us to be critical before subscribing to any view and not to accept anything on the basic of authority. He teaches us to follow middle path avoiding all extreme positions both is theory and practice. Without practice, the theory has no value; in fact, he discourages the ‘game of theory making’ in the name of religion. He was against all kinds of dogmatism. He focuses on the gradual way of spiritual uplift through getting one-self fid of false views and consequently of sufferings. As we have said earlier that a sense of ‘belonging’ instead of ‘possession’ has been taught by the Buddha with regard our relation to Nature.

Buddhist Ethics.

Without Sila one cannot become moral. In the absence of morality one cannot concentrate his mind. So Samadhi and Panna are regarded as the paths of purification in Buddhism. These are the paths through which one can attain the ultimate oal of life (nibbana).

It is therefore, our conclusion that if the Buddhist Ethical principles are applied in our day-to-day life, we will have a better life, a better tomorrow. And we will find that comparatively the world is no longer a place of pains, suffering and mental agony and dissatisfaction, but it is a place of real joy, happiness and immoral bliss. We can very soon realize that we have interdependent-existence-with fellow human beings, non-human beings, tree and plants along with all aspects of nature. The Buddha advises us to be critical before subscribing to any view and not to accept anything on the basic of authority. He teaches us to follow middle path avoiding all extreme positions both is theory and practice. Without practice, the theory has no value; in fact, he discourages the ‘game of theory making’ in the name of religion. He was against all kinds of dogmatism. He focuses on the gradual way of spiritual uplift through getting one-self fid of false views and consequently of sufferings. As we have said earlier that a sense of ‘belonging’ instead of ‘possession’ has been taught by the Buddha with regard our relation to Nature.

So at the end we can say that Buddhist education means Buddhist teachings. So Buddhist educations are very much related to Thai society. Thai people obey Buddhist teachings, Buddhist religion, by heart. Most villages had a Buddhist monastery and a shrine for a village deity. The monastery served their spiritual needs as well as the people’s education.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Dipak Kumar Barua, An Analytical Study of Four Nikayas, p.122. Sile patitthaya naro sapanno, cittam pannam ca bhavayam Atapi nipako bhikkhu, so imam vijatye jatam ti. A wise man who is firmly established on morality, concentration, and wisdom become an ardent bhikkhu overcoming the tangle. For details: Visuddhimagga, p. 1.

[2]:

K. Sri Dhammananda, Buddhism as a Religion, pp.36-37.

[3]:

Ibid., p.102.