Coexist with any other religion...
Buddhism is probably the most tolerant religion of the world, as the teaching
can coexist with any other religion. Other religions however, aim to be exclusive
and cannot accommodate Buddhism at the same time. The Buddhist teaching on God
- in the sense of an ultimate Reality - is neither agnostic (as is sometimes
claimed), nor vague, but clear and logical. Whatever Reality may be, it is beyond
the conception of the finite intellect, as it follows that attempts at description
are misleading, unprofitable, and a waste of time. For these good reasons the
Buddha maintained about Reality a noble silence. If there is a Causeless Cause
of all Causes, an Ultimate Reality, a Boundless Light, an Eternal Noumenon behind
phenomena, it must clearly be infinite, unlimited, unconditioned and without
attributes. It follows that we can neither de- fine, describe, nor usefully
discuss the nature of THAT which is beyond the comprehension of our finite consciousness.
It may be indicated by negatives and described indirectly by analogy and symbols,
but otherwise it must ever remain in its truest sense unknown and unexpressed,
as being to us in our present state unknowable.
In the same way, Buddhism denies the existence in man of an immortal soul. The
Enlightenment which dwells in life does not belong to one form of life. All
that is man's changing and mortal; the Immortal is not any man's.
The Buddha examined the phenomenal life objectively. Studying effects, and tracing
their causes, he produced a science of living which ranks with any other science
known to man. Having analysed form, he described the life which uses it, and
showed it to be one and indivisible. Man, he declared, can become Buddha, Enlightened,
by the principle of Enlightenment within. The process, therefore, is to become
what you are, to develop to the full the innate Buddha-Mind by destroying the
ignorance-produced, desire-maintained illusion of self which binds us from life
to life on the Wheel of Becoming. All forms of life, said the Buddha, can be
shown to have three char- acteristics in common; impermanence, suffering, and
an absence of permanent soul which separates each from the other forms of life.
The Buddha pointed out how no thing is the same at this moment as it was a moment
ago. Even the everlasting hills are slowly being worn away, and every particle
of the human body, even the hardest, is replaced every seven years. There is
no finality or rest within this universe, only a ceaseless becoming and a never-ending
change. Buddhism is a natural religion; it does not violate either mind or body.
Its ethics closely approximate the Natural Law. The Buddha became cognizant
of how men are born and die according to their good and evil actions, according
to their self-created Karma (or the consequence of meritorious and demeritorious
deeds). Buddhism is a teaching of the Buddha who was born a prince of Kapilavathu,
at the part of the Himalaya mountains near the border of Nepal in 623 B.C. He
married and had a son. Although surrounded by all the Court's glamour and luxuries,
the sight of a decrepit old man, sick man, dead man and mendicant monk, these
four signs left such a deep impression upon His Mind that, at the age of twenty-nine,
He decided to leave His palace and enter "the homeless life" of a
monk to seek the truth and find a way to salvation for all sentient beings.
In His search for salvation among the teachers, He surpassed them and found
that their doctrines were insufficient, not leading to Awakening, to Extinction
and to Enlightenment and Insight. He departed those teachers and turned to practice
self-mortification for six years with great zeal and effort. Buddha met five
ascetics who offered their services to Him, and finally, the Buddha realized
that the ascetic exercises were not the right way to attain salvation. He had
practiced self-mortification to the limit of His endurance and felt very weakened
without achieving anything. So, He partook of food, regained strength and began
to practice meditation which finally led to His Enlightenment under the Holy
Bodi tree near the town of Uruvela, the present Buddha-Gaya when he was only
thirty-five years old.