I. Buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi
Ordinarily, for the world to experience happiness and harmony, there has to be a teaching or tradition generally respected as good. This being the case, bodhisattvas arise – people who develop goodness on the grand scale for the sake of attaining right self-awakening. Once they have reached this goal, they are termed ‘Buddhas,’ Awakened Ones. For bodhisattvas to succeed in this way, they have to give themselves over to perfecting ten qualities –
1. Dāna-pāramī: generosity.
2. Sīla-pāramī: virtue.
3. Nekkhamma-pāramī: renunciation of sensuality (and of the household life).
4. Paññā-pāramī: the search for discernment.
5. Viriya-pāramī: persistence.
6. Khanti-pāramī: endurance, patience.
7. Sacca-pāramī: truthfulness.
8. Adhiṭṭhāna-pāramī: determination.
9. Mettā-pāramī: goodwill.
10. Upekkhā-pāramī: equanimity (in proper cases, i.e., in areas that are beyond one’s control).
These ten perfections are the factors that enable a bodhisattva to succeed in becoming an arahant, a Pure One, in the world. Once he attains this state, three qualities – called actualized virtues – arise in his heart:
Visuddhi-guṇa: purity.
Paññā-guṇa: sharp discernment.
Karuṇādhiguṇa: compassion for living beings throughout the world.
These qualities enable the Buddha to teach the Dhamma in a beneficial way. His conduct in this area is of three sorts: Having achieved his own purposes (attattha-cariyā), he acts for the benefit of living beings throughout the world (lokattha-cariyā) and teaches the Dhamma to his own circle of relatives (ñātattha-cariyā).
There are three aspects to the Buddha:
1) The physical aspect – the body (properties [dhātu], aggregates [khandha], and sense media [āyatana]), which is the external aspect of the Buddha, called Buddha-nimitta, or the symbol of the Buddha. (This is like the bark of a tree.)
2) The good practices he followed – such as virtue, concentration, and discernment, which are aspects of his activity. These are called dhamma-nimitta of the Buddha, symbols of his inner quality. (These are the sapwood.)
3) Vimutti – release from ignorance, craving, clinging, and kamma; attaining nibbāna, the supreme quality, a quality that does not die (amata-dhamma). (This is the heartwood, or essence of the Buddha.)
A person of little intelligence will use bark to build himself a home; a person of medium intelligence will use sapwood; while a person of sharp intelligence will build his home of heartwood. So it is with those of us who take refuge in the Buddha: We’re like the three types of people who take wood to build ourselves a home. But in any case we’re better off than people without a home. Like rats or lizards who have to live in the hollows of trees and are in for trouble if people set the trees on fire: If we place our trust in our bodies, our worldly possessions, or our livelihood, we’ll have no refuge when the fires of death reach us. Or as when a boat sinks in the middle of the ocean: A person without a life-vest is in serious danger. For this reason, we should educate ourselves so as to find a refuge that will benefit us both in this life and in lives to come.
Another comparison: The sages of the past used the term Buddha-ratana, comparing the Buddha to a jewel. Now, there are three sorts of jewels: artificial gems; gemstones, such as rubies or sapphires; and diamonds, which are held to be the highest. The aspects of the Buddha might be compared to these three sorts of jewels. To place confidence in the external aspect – the body of the Buddha or images made to represent him – is like dressing up with artificial gems. To show respect for the practices followed by the Buddha by giving rise to them within ourselves is like dressing up with rubies and sapphires. To reach the quality of deathlessness is like dressing in diamonds from head to toe.
But no matter what sort of jewels we use to dress up in, we’re better off than savages who go around hanging animal bones or human bones from their necks, who look unkempt and – what’s more – are bound to be haunted by the bones they wear. The bones, here, stand for our own bones, i.e., our attachment to the body as really being ours. Actually, our body comes for the most part from the bodies of other animals – the food we’ve eaten – so how can we seriously take it to be our own? Whoever insists on regarding the body as his or her own should be called a savage or a swindler – and, as a swindler, is bound to receive punishment in proportion to the crime.
So we should regard the body as money borrowed for the span of a lifetime, to be used as capital. And we should search for profits so as to release ourselves from our debts, by searching for another, better form of goodness: the qualities of the Buddha that he left as teachings for all of his followers. These qualities, briefly put, are –
1. Sati: the continual mindfulness (wakefulness) found in the factors of jhāna.
2. Paññā: the intuitive discernment that comes from developing the mind in concentration.
3. Vimutti: release from defilement
These are qualities that all Buddhists should develop within themselves so as to gain awakening, following the example of the Buddha, becoming Sāvaka Buddhas (Disciple Buddhas), an opportunity open – without exception and with no restrictions of time or place – to all who follow his teachings.
Buddhists who revere the Buddha in the full sense of the word should have two sorts of symbols with them, to serve as reminders of their tradition –
1. Buddha-nimitta: representatives of the Buddha, such as Buddha images or stūpas in which relics of the Buddha are placed. This sort of reminder is like a nation’s flag.
2. Buddha-guṇa: the qualities that form the inner symbol of the Buddha, i.e., the proper practice of his teachings. Whoever takes a stand in this manner is bound to be victorious both within and without, safe from such enemies as temptation and mortality.
Our nation’s flag and the people of our nation are two different things. Just as our flag will have value only if the people of our nation are good and preserve the fullness of the nation’s qualities; so too, we Buddhists have to respect both our flag – images of the Buddha – and the qualities of the Buddha if we are to turn ourselves into good Buddhists. Otherwise, we will suffer from not having fulfilled our responsibilities.
To take an example, we Thai people, in order to be Thai in the full sense, have to possess a number of qualifications: the ability to speak and to read Thai, acquaintance with Thai customs and traditions, the ability to benefit ourselves (attattha-cariyā) and to spread those benefits to help care for the needs of our parents, spouses, and children (ñātattha-cariyā). And not only that: If we have the ability and the energy – physical, mental, financial, or the energy of our virtues – we should expand those benefits to help other groups in general, our companions in happiness and suffering, throughout the nation (lokattha-cariyā). This is what it means to be Thai in the full sense of the word. In the same way, we who revere images of the Buddha and the Buddha’s good qualities should have them with us at all times if we are to receive the full benefits that come from respecting the Buddha’s teachings and to maintain the peace and well-being of Buddhists at large.
