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Introduction to Buddhism
by Ngagrampa Lobsang Sherab
August 13th 2014, Gyumed Monastery
Ngagrampa Lobsang Sherab of Gyumed Monastery in Hunsur gave
a brief introduction on Buddhism to a group of Buddhist devotees who visited
the Monastery. He started with the need of religion in our life. We all want
happiness and abhor suffering. And this concept of happiness also differs from
the view point of people with small, middle and big perspective.
In Buddhism, you need to accept the three jewels: Buddha,
Dharma and Sangha as the source of refuge. This is called kyabdro. In order to
make kyabdro strong, you should have fear and faith. Fear that if you don't do
good thing, you may get reborn in bad rebirth. Faith that the refuge in three
jewels will deliver your from this bad rebirth.
Religion can be practiced from body speech and mind. One
done though mind is the best and lasting. You may do prostration with your
body, and recite prayers, but in your mind you have hatred and animosity. This
religion performed by body and speech serves no purpose as religion. In
Buddhism, mind is important. It is the motivation of the act that counts.
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| Debate session at the assembly hall |
Buddha, Dharma and Sangha can be compared to a Doctor,
medicine and the nurse. Just as doctor looks after our ailment, the Buddha
looks after our problem. Just as a doctor
prescribes us medicine, the Buddha gives us teaching to show us our way. Just as nurses looks after us, the Sangh
community help us in our practice. These three jewels need to be understood and
respected in terms of two pang-lang - what is to be respected and what is to be
avoided. Any object representing the Buddha should be revered irrespective of
the material texture or the quality of the statue. Taking refuge in earthly
gods and deities should be avoided. In Dharma, all written words are sacred,
therefore even a single written word should be given due respect. Any teaching
encouraging hatred and animosity in the community should be avoided. In Sangha,
all monks and practitioners should be respected, and bad company should be
avoided.
Then one needs to study and follow the tripitikas of
Buddhist teaching: Vinanya, the discipline; Sutra and the wisdom - བསླབ་པ་གསུམ་སྟེ། ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས།
ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་དང་། ཤེས་རབ།. Vinayana teaching is about
how to conduct ourselves to follow the path of enlightenment. It talks about
avoiding ten non-virtuous acts in our life: three of body, four of speech and
three of mind. Three of body being: taking life, stealing and sexual
misconduct. Four of speech being: telling lie, divisive talk, abusive word and
gossip. Three of mind being: wrong view, envy and malicious thought. Therefore,
the Vinaya teaching is the foundation which the practitioner needs to follow to
practise the Buddhist teaching. It is the base on which the seeds of sutra and
tantra could grow and flourish to lead the practioner to the path of Nirvana.
Unfortunately, present day trend is that many try to grab the higher teaching
without first trying to build the base on which the higher teaching could grow.
This is a brief teaching by Ngagrampa Lobsang Sherab, he
invited questions from the participants and ansewered to their satisfaction. In
Gyumed monastery, Ngagrampa is title is used for someone who has done
equivalent of Lharampa in Sera, Drepung and Gaden Monasteries.
Above is a note
taken by the writer, error or omission cannot be ruled out. Serious students
are requested to consult and confirm from authentic teachers
