What
Buddhists Believe
Venerable K. Sri Dhammananda Maha Thera
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No Sinners
In Buddhism, actions are merely
termed as unskillful or unwholesome, not as sinful.
Buddhists
do not regard man as sinful by nature of 'in rebellion against god'. Every
human being is a person of great worth who has within himself a vast store
of good as well as evil habits. The good in a person is always waiting for
a suitable opportunity to flower and to ripen. Remember the saying, 'There
is so much that is good in the worst of us and so much that is bad in the
best of us.'
Buddhism teaches
that everyone is responsible for his own good and bad deeds, and that each
individual can mould his own destiny. Says the Buddha, 'These evil deeds
were only done by you, not by your parents, friends, or relatives; and you
yourself will reap the painful results.' (Dhammapada 165)
Man's
sorrow is his own making and is not handed down by a family curse or an
original sin of a mythical primeval ancestor. Buddhists do not accept the
belief that this world is merely a place of trial and testing. This world
can be made a place where we can attain the highest perfection. And
perfection is synonymous with happiness. To the Buddha, man is not an
experiment in life created by somebody which can be done away with when
unwanted. If a sin could be forgiven, people might take advantage and
commit more and more sins. The Buddhist has no reason to believe that the
sinner can escape the consequences by the grace of an external power. If a
man thrusts his hand into a furnace, his hand will be burnt, and all the
prayer in the world will not remove the scars. The same is with the man
who walks into the fires of evil action. The Buddha's approach to the
problems of suffering is not imaginary, speculative or metaphysical, but
essentially empirical.
According to Buddhism,
there is no such thing as sin as explained by other religions. To the
Buddhists, sin is unskillful or unwholesome action - Akusala Kamma, which
creates Papa - the downfall of man. The wicked man is an ignorant
man. He needs instruction more than he needs punishment and condemnation.
He is not regarded as violating god's will or as a person who must beg for
divine mercy and forgiveness. He needs only guidance for his
enlightenment.
All that is necessary is
for someone to help him use his reason to realize that he is responsible
for his wrong action and that he must pay for the consequences. Therefore
the belief in confession is foreign to Buddhism.
The purpose of the
Buddha's appearance in this world is not to wash away the sins committed
by human beings nor to punish or to destroy the wicked people, but to make
the people understand how foolish it is to commit evil and to point out
the reaction of such evil deeds. Consequently there are no commandments in
Buddhism, since no one can command another for his spiritual upliftment.
The Buddha has encouraged us to develop and use our understanding. He has
shown us the path for our liberation from suffering. The precepts that we
undertake to observe are not commandments: they are observed voluntarily.
The Buddha's Teaching is thus: 'Please pay attention; take this advice and
think it over. If you think it is suitable for you to practise my advice,
then try to practise it. You can see the results through your own
experience.' There is no religious value in blindly observing any
commandment without proper conviction and understanding. However, we
should not take advantage of the liberty given by the Buddha to do
anything we like. It is our duty to behave as cultured, civilized and
understanding human beings to lead a religious life. If we can understand
this, commandments are not important. As an enlightened teacher, the
Buddha advised us on how to lead a pure life without imposing commandments
and using the fear of punishment.
-ooOoo-
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Source: Buddhist
Study and Practice Group, http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Clubs/buddhism/
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Layout: Chan Duc - Nguyen Thao
Update : 01-11-2002
