Buddhism is based on the teachings and life of Gautama Buddha. The Buddha was born as a privileged Indian Prince, named Siddhartha Gautama. As a young man he was shielded from the suffering and mortality of human life and given all the worldly privileges that his family could offer him. They wished to shield him from suffering because it was foretold that when the young prince came upon suffering he would renounce the world to live the life of an ascetic. However eventually Siddhartha ventured from the Palace into the outside world and for the first time came across death, illness and suffering.
This led the Buddha to question his worldly life. Although he had all of life’s material comforts these could no longer satisfy him. Therefore Siddhartha Gautama renounced the world and went in search of truth.
For many years Siddhartha practised severe austerities bringing his body close to collapse, through constant fasting. However this did not bring him enlightenment. At one time a passing woman brought The Buddha some food and this revitalised his body giving him renewed energy to meditate. From this point onwards the Buddha decided to practise “The Middle Path” shunning both extremes of severe austerities and indulgence of desires.
Finally the Buddha achieved enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. For the remaining years of his life the Buddha travelled all over India spreading his message of the path to Enlightenment and Nirvana. His teachings attracted many followers and after his passing his teachings started to be written down, these formed the basis of Buddhism.
His contemporaries describe him as having a noble appearance, with a serene countenance and distinguished features. The Buddha was so tolerant that he did not even exercise his power to give commandments to his lay followers. Instead, his teachings were delivered in the form of advice or suggestions. The Buddha extended such tolerance to men, women, and all living beings. The Buddha’s teachings of tolerance and free inquiry and the suggestion to not accept his teachings for purely emotional reasons helped make the spread of Buddhism a peaceful one.
The Buddha opposed animal sacrifice and admonished his followers to extend their loving kindness to all living things, no matter how small. He held that no man had the power or the right to destroy the life of another since all living things shared a connection. He took care of his followers and paid daily visits to the sick. On one of many such occasions, he bathed and treated a monk who was suffering from dysentery and had been neglected by the other monks because he lay in his own excrement; the Buddha commented, “He who attends the sick attends me.”
The Buddha did not claim to be unique in his enlightenment. According to his teaching, everybody can become a Buddha and that the only miracles that need to be performed are to teach those full of passion, craving and greed to free themselves from passion, craving and greed; to help others control their hatred and anger; and to enlighten the unenlightened.
His will, wisdom, universal love, boundless compassion, selfless service, purity, magnetic personality, and exemplary methods gave credence to his the teachings.
POEMS and SAYINGS by the BUDDHA
JOY
Let us live in joy, not hating those who hate us.
Among those who hate us, we live free of hate.
Let us live in joy,
free from disease among those who are diseased.
Among those who are diseased, let us live free of disease.
Let us live in joy, free from greed among the greedy.
Among those who are greedy, we live free of greed.
Let us live in joy, though we possess nothing.
Let us live feeding on joy, like the bright gods.
Victory breeds hate, for the conquered is unhappy.
Whoever has given up victory and defeat
is content and lives joyfully.
There is no fire like lust, no misfortune like hate;
there is no pain like this body;
there is no joy higher than peace.
Craving is the worst disease;
disharmony is the greatest sorrow.
The one who knows this truly
knows that nirvana is the highest bliss.
Health is the greatest gift;
contentment is the greatest wealth;
trusting is the best relationship;
nirvana is the highest joy.
Whoever has tasted the sweetness
of solitude and tranquillity
becomes free from fear and sin
while drinking the sweetness of the truth.
The sight of the noble is good;
to live with them is always joyful.
Whoever does not see fools will always be happy.
Whoever associates with fools suffers a long time.
Being with fools, as with an enemy, is always painful.
Being with the wise, like meeting with family, is joyful.
Therefore, one should follow the wise, the intelligent,
the learned, the patient, the dutiful, the noble;
one should follow the good and wise,
as the moon follows the path of the stars.
AWARENESS
Awareness is the path of immortality;
thoughtlessness is the path of death.
Those who are aware do not die.
The thoughtless are as if dead already.
The wise having clearly understood this,
delight in awareness
and find joy in the knowledge of the noble ones.
These wise ones, meditative, persevering,
always using strong effort,
attain nirvana, the supreme peace and happiness.
If a person is awake, aware, mindful, pure, considerate,
self-restrained, and lives according to duty,
that person’s glory will increase.
By awakening, by awareness, by restraint and control,
the wise may make for oneself
an island which no flood can overwhelm.
Fools follow after vanity, are ignorant and careless.
The wise keep awareness as their best treasure.
Do not follow after vanity
nor after sensual pleasure nor lust.
Whoever meditates with awareness obtains great joy.
When the wise conquer thoughtlessness by awareness,
climbing the terraced heights of wisdom,
free from sadness viewing the sad crowd below,
they gaze upon the fools, like one on the mountain peak
gazes upon those standing on the plain.
Aware among the thoughtless, awake among the sleepy,
the wise advances, like a racehorse leaves behind the slow.
By awareness Indra rose to become chief of the gods.
People praise awareness; thoughtlessness is always blamed.
A mendicant who finds joy in awareness,
who looks with fear on thoughtlessness,
moves about like fire,
burning all restrictions, small or large.
A mendicant who finds joy in awareness,
who looks with fear on thoughtlessness,
cannot fall away, but is close to nirvana.
SELF
If a person holds oneself dear,
let one watch oneself carefully.
The wise should be watchful
during at least one of the three watches.
Let each person first direct oneself to what is right;
then let one teach others; thus the wise will not suffer.
If a person makes oneself as one teaches others to be,
then being well-controlled, that one might guide others,
since self-control is difficult.
Self is the master of self;
who else could be the master?
With self well-controlled
a person finds a master such as few can find.
The wrong done by oneself, born of oneself,
produced by oneself, crushes the fool,
just as a diamond breaks even a precious stone.
The one whose vice is great brings oneself down
to that condition where one’s enemy wishes one to be,
just as a creeper overpowers the entangled sala tree.
Bad actions and actions harmful to ourselves are easy to do;
what is beneficial and good, that is very difficult to do.
The fool who scorns the teaching of the saintly,
the noble, and the virtuous, and follows wrong ideas,
bears fruit to one’s own destruction,
like the fruits of the katthaka reed.
By oneself is wrong done; by oneself one suffers;
by oneself is wrong left undone; by oneself is one purified.
Purity and impurity come from oneself;
no one can purify another.
Let no one neglect one’s own duty
for the sake of another’s, however great;
let a person after one has discerned one’s own duty,
be always attentive to this duty.
GOOD AND BAD
A person should hurry toward the good
and restrain one’s thoughts from the bad.
If a person is slow in doing good,
one’s mind will find pleasure in wrong.
If a person does what is wrong, let one not do it again.
Let one not find pleasure in wrong.
Painful is the accumulation of bad conduct.
If a person does what is good, let one do it again.
Let one find joy in it.
Happiness is the result of good conduct.
Even a wrong-doer sees happiness
as long as one’s wrong action does not ripen;
but when the wrong action has ripened,
then does the wrong-doer see bad.
Even a good person sees bad
as long as one’s good action does not ripen;
but when one’s good action has ripened,
then the good person sees the good.
Let no one underestimate evil,
thinking, “It will not come near me.”
Even a water-pot is filled by the falling of drops of water.
A fool becomes full of evil
even if one gathers it little by little.
Let no one underestimate good,
thinking, “It will not come near me.”
Even a water-pot is filled by the falling of drops of water.
A wise person becomes full of goodness
even if one gathers it little by little.
Let a person avoid wrong actions, as a merchant,
who has few companions and carries much wealth,
avoids a dangerous road;
as a person who loves life avoids poison.
Whoever has no wound on one’s hand
may touch poison with that hand;
poison does not affect one who has no wound;
nor does evil one who does no wrong.
Whoever does wrong to an innocent person
or to one who is pure and harmless,
the wrong returns to that fool
just like fine dust thrown against the wind.
Some people are born again in the womb;
wrong-doers go to hell;
the good go to heaven;
those free from worldly desires attain nirvana.
Neither in the sky nor in the middle of the ocean
nor by entering the caves of mountains
is there known a place on earth
where a person can escape from a wrong action.
Neither in the sky nor in the middle of the ocean
nor by entering the caves of mountains
is there known a place on earth
where a person can escape from death.
THE WISE
If you see a wise person who shows you your faults,
who shows what is to be avoided,
follow that wise person
as you would one who reveals hidden treasures;
you will be better not worse for following that one.
Let one admonish; let one teach; let one forbid the wrong;
and one will be loved by the good and hated by the bad.
Do not have wrong-doers for friends;
do not have despicable people for friends;
have virtuous people for friends;
have for friends the best people.
Whoever drinks in the truth
lives happily with a serene mind.
The wise are joyful in the truth
revealed by the noble ones.
Engineers of canals guide the water;
fletchers make the arrow straight;
carpenters shape the wood;
the wise mould themselves.
As a solid rock is not shaken by the wind,
so the wise are not shaken by blame and praise.
As a deep lake is clear and calm,
so the wise become tranquil after they listened to the truth.
Good people walk on regardless of what happens to them.
Good people do not babble on about their desires.
Whether touched by happiness or by sorrow,
the wise never appear elated or depressed.
Whoever for one’s sake or for another’s,
does not wish for a son or wealth or power,
and if one does not wish for success by unfair means,
that one certainly is virtuous, wise, and holy.
Few are those people who reach the farther shore;
the other people here run along this shore.
But those who, when the truth has been taught to them,
follow the truth, will pass over the dominion of death,
however difficult to cross.
Leaving behind the path of darkness
and following the path of light,
let the wise person go from home to a homeless state,
in retirement looking for enjoyment
where enjoyment seemed difficult.
Letting go of all pleasures, calling nothing one’s own,
let the wise cleanse oneself
from all the troubles of the mind.
Those whose minds are well grounded
in the elements of enlightenment,
who without clinging to anything
find joy in freedom from attachment,
whose appetites have been conquered,
and who are full of light,
they are free in this world.
THE WORLD
Do not follow a bad law.
Do not live in thoughtlessness.
Do not follow wrong ideas.
Do not be attached to the world.
Arise; do not be thoughtless.
Follow the path of virtue.
The virtuous rest in bliss in this world and in the next.
Follow the path of virtue; do not follow the wrong path.
The virtuous rest in bliss in this world and in the next.
Look upon the world as a bubble;
look on it as a mirage.
Whoever looks thus upon the world
is not seen by the sovereign of death.
Come, look at this world resembling a painted royal chariot.
The foolish are immersed in it,
but the wise are not attached to it.
The one who formerly was thoughtless
and afterwards became conscientious
lights up this world like the moon when freed from a cloud.
The one whose wrong actions are eradicated by good conduct
lights up this world like the moon when freed from a cloud.
This world is blinded; only a few can see here.
Like birds escaped from the net, a few go to heaven.
The swans go on the path of the sun;
miraculously they fly through the sky.
The wise are led out of this world,
when they have conquered Mara and the tempter’s armies.
Whoever violates the one law, who speaks lies,
and scoffs at another world,
there is no wrong that one will not do.
Misers do not go to the world of the gods;
only fools do not praise liberality;
the wise find joy in generosity,
and because of it become blessed in the other world.
Better than sovereignty over the earth,
better than going to heaven,
better than dominion over all the worlds
is the reward of reaching the stream.
OLD AGE
Why is there laughter, why is there joy
while this world is always burning?
Why do you not seek a light,
you who are shrouded in darkness?
Consider this dressed-up lump covered with wounds,
joined with limbs, diseased, and full of many schemes
which are neither permanent nor stable.
This body is wearing out, a nest of diseases and frail;
this heap of corruption falls apart; life ends in death.
What pleasure is there
for one who sees these white bones
like gourds thrown away in the autumn?
A fortress is made out of the bones,
plastered over with flesh and blood,
and in it lives old age and death, pride and deceit.
The glorious chariots of the kings wear out;
the body also comes to old age;
but the virtue of good people never ages;
thus the good teach each other.
People who have learned little grow old like an ox;
their flesh grows, but their knowledge does not grow.
I have run through a course of many births
looking for the maker of this dwelling and did not find it;
painful is birth again and again.
Now you are seen, the builder of the house;
you will not build the house again.
All your rafters are broken; your ridgepole is destroyed;
your mind, set on the attainment of nirvana,
has attained the extinction of desires.
People who have not practiced proper discipline
who have not acquired wealth in their youth,
pine away like old cranes in a lake without fish.
People who have not practiced proper discipline,
who have not acquired wealth in their youth,
lie like broken bows, sighing after the past.
