Reply To: Need advice to teach Dhamma to grandparents

#53229
Lal
Keymaster

1. Several factors contribute to the tendency of the majority of people (puthujjana) to reject the Buddha’s more profound teachings.

  • Of course, most people agree with the “mundane versions” of “Buddhism,” which encourage moral living. Most religions share this aspect. 
  • However, sticking to the idea that just “observing five or eight precepts” can remove suffering falls under the wrong view of “silabbata parāmāsa,” one of the three samyojana to be broken at the Sotapanna stage.
  • To stop future suffering, one’s mind must AUTOMATICALLY reject the tendency to attach to sensory inputs. As we have discussed repeatedly, attachment to sensory inputs sooner or later leads to committing akusala kamma. Trying to live a “moral life” by forcefully observing precepts will not remove that inevitability. 
  • Instead, one MUST follow one of the following two approaches:
    (i) One must constantly contemplate the drawbacks of sensory pleasures. For that, it is necessary to understand the Paticca Samuppada process. Even then, it is difficult to stop the tendency to attach to the “built-in saññā” or the “sense of joy” upon experiencing specific sensory inputs.
    (ii). One can make the process easier by understanding that such a “sense of joy” arises from a false/distorted saññā. The external world and each “lifestream” are designed to provide that false/distorted saññāThis is the greatest magic trick. See “Saññā Gives Rise to Most of the Vedanā We Experience” “Saññā Nidānā hi Papañca Saṅkhā – Immoral Thoughts Based on “Distorted Saññā”,” and “Fooled by Distorted Saññā (Sañjānāti) – Origin of Attachment (Taṇhā).” Of course, it is not easy to understand this “trick.”
  • For most people, such an idea is not acceptable. They cannot fathom the idea that sensory pleasures are a mirage. By the way, the word puthujjana comes from “puthu” meaning “most” and “jana” meaning “people.” 

2. Trayal wrote: “I noticed that there are mainly 2 approaches to learning Dhamma – one is the moral approach and the other is the intellectual. For me, taking the intellectual route clearly shows that Buddha’s teachings don’t stem from a mere speculation or religious foundation. It contains rigorous analysis of mental phenomena that can be challenging to even the brightest minds and I’m often discovering something new. But for most people, this approach doesn’t seem to work.”

  • Yes. That is what I tried to explain above. Even before getting into the fact that “saññā” is a mirage, the idea of “stopping rebirth” is a “show stopper” for many. They cannot even fathom living without “sensual pleasures.” Even those who cannot afford that many sensory pleasures are hopeful that one day they will make a lot of money to afford all sorts of such “pleasures.” 
  • To eliminate that notion, one must comprehend the origin of the false/distorted saññā. We are discussing that (again) in the new series of posts in the “Worldview of the Buddha” section.
  • However, it is not easy. As Yash pointed out: “For that one must be open minded and have the ability to analyse any given information ,example , the pleasure cycle, anicca,etc.”

3. Most people tend to seek the “easy way out.” If someone teaches that one can be born in heaven by killing people of other religions, many are willing to accept that on faith. 

  • This is why the Buddha’s teachings tend to “go underground” relatively quickly. They are not easy to grasp, so the tendency to lose the “deep meanings” is very high.
  • That happened in India merely 500 years after the Buddha’s passing. Instead, the Vedic teachings took hold very quickly. While they share many concepts from Buddha’s teachings, those are only superficial. Furthermore, one is guaranteed to “live forever” in a Brahma realm, which plays a huge role in ready acceptance. (Of course, they don’t realize that such a permanent existence is impossible if they examine Buddha’s teachings.) It happened with the previous Buddha (Buddha Kassapa), who appeared millions of years ago. The Vedās propagated the (twisted) teachings of Buddha Kassapa until Buddha Gotama appeared. See “Vedās Originated With Buddha Kassapa’s Teachings.” 
  • Thus, Vedic teachings are a mundane version of Buddhist teachings. Of course, they are much better than many other teachings practiced by puthujjana today.
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