Buddhist Vows

Any Lay Buddhist simply joins the Three Refuges and undertakes the
Five Precepts like this: Newly bathed, shaved, white-clothed, with clean
bare feet, one kneels at a shrine with a Buddha-statue, and bows first
three times, so that feet, hands, elbows, knees & head touch the floor.
Then, with joined palms at the heart, one recites these memorized lines
in a loud, calm & steady voice:

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Practical Faith

Do not be led by reports, or tradition, or hearsay. Be not led by the authority of religious texts, nor by considering appearances, nor by seeming possibilities; not even by the idea of the teacher.

But when you know for youselves that certain things are unwholesome and wrong, and bad, then give them up … And when you know for youselves that certain things are wholesome and good, then accept them and follow them.

KALAMA SUTTA

• I heard thus. Once the Blessed One, while wandering in the Kosala country with a large community of bhikkhus, entered a town of the Kalama people called Kesaputta. The Kalamas who were inhabitants of Kesaputta: “Reverend Gotama, the monk, the son of the Sakiyans, has, while wandering in the Kosala country, entered Kesaputta. The good repute of the Reverend Gotama has been spread in this way: Indeed, the Blessed One is thus consummate, fully enlightened, endowed with knowledge and practice, sublime, knower of the worlds, peerless, guide of tamable men, teacher of divine and human beings, which he by himself has through direct knowledge understood clearly. He set forth the Dhamma, good in the beginning, good in the middle, good in the end, possessed of meaning and the letter, and complete in everything; and he proclaims the holy life that is perfectly pure. Seeing such consummate ones is good indeed.”
• Then the Kalamas who were inhabitants of Kesaputta went to where the Blessed One was. On arriving there some paid homage to him and sat down on one side; some exchanged greetings with him and after the ending of cordial memorable talk, sat down on one side; some saluted him raising their joined palms and sat down on one side; some announced their name and family and sat down on one side; some without speaking, sat down on one side.

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Buddha Gotama

                     About 623 years before the Christian era, there was born in Lumbini Park in the neighbourhood of Kapilavatthu, now known asPadaria in the district of modern Nepal. an Indian Sakyan prince, Siddattha Gotama by name. To mark the spot as the birthplace of the greatest teacher of mankind, and as a token of his reverence for him, the Emperor Asoka in 239 B.C.. erected a pillar bearing the inscription. ‘Here was the Enlightened One born’.

                     Gotama’s father was Suddhodana, king of Kapilavatthu. the chief town of the Sakyan clan; and his mother, who died seven days after his birth, was Queen Mayar, who also belonged to the same clan. Under the care of his maternal aunt, Pajapati Gotami. Sidhatta spent his early years in ease, luxury and culture. At the age of sixteen he was married to his cousin, Rasodhara, the daughter of Suppabuddha, the king of Devadaha, and they had a son named Rahula.

                     For nearly thirteen years Siddhattha led the life of a luxurious Indian prince, seeing only the beautiful and the pleasant. In his twenty-ninth year, however, the truth gradually dawned upon him, and he realized that all without exception were subject to birth, decay and death and that all worldly pleasures were only a prelude to pain. Comprehending thus the universality of sorrow, he had a strong desire to find the origin of it, and a panacea for this universal sickness of humanity. Accordingly he renounced the world and donned the simple garb of an ascetic.

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The Buddha

A Buddha is one who has attained an ideal state of intellectual and ethical perfection which can be attained by man by purely human means.

The truth dawned upon him, and he realized that all without exception were subject to birth, decay and death and that all worldly pleasures were only a prelude to pain. Comprehending thus the universality of sorrow, he tried to find the origin of it, and a panacea for this universal sickness. Accordingly he renounced the world and donned the simple garb of an ascetic.

Following an independent course avoiding the two extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification _ for the former tends to retard one’s spiritual progress and the latter to weaken one’s intellect _ unaided and unguided by any supernatural agency but solely relying on his own efforts, the consciousness of true insight possessed him. This new path is known as the Majjhima Patipada, the Middle Path, which subsequently became one of the salient characteristics of his teaching.

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