<<Назад Был ли Будда воплощением Бога?

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The Buddha’s Service

The Buddha was born to dispel the darkness of ignorance and to show the world how to be free from suffering.

THE Buddha was the embodiment of all the virtues1 that He preached. During His successful and eventful ministry of 45 years, He translated all His words into actions. At no time did He ever show any human frailty or any base passion. The Buddha’s moral code is the most perfect the world has ever known.

For more than 25 centuries, millions of people have found inspiration and solace in His Teaching. His greatness still shines today like a sun that outshines the glow of lesser lights. His Teachings still beckon the weary pilgrim to the security and peace of Nirvana. No other person has sacrificed so much worldly comfort for the sake of suffering humanity.

The Buddha was among the first religious leaders in human history to admonish against animal sacrifice for any reason and to appeal to people not to harm any living creature.

To the Buddha, religion was not a contractual agreement between a divinity and man but a way to enlightenment. He did not want followers with blind faith; He wanted followers who could think freely and wisely and work out their own salvation.

The entire human race has been blessed with His presence.

There was never an occasion when the Buddha expressed any unfriendliness towards a single person. Not even to His opponents and worst enemies did the Buddha express any unfriendliness. There were a few prejudiced minds who turned against the Buddha and who tried to kill Him; yet the Buddha never treated them as enemies. The Buddha once said,

‘As an elephant in the battlefield endures the arrows that are shot into him, so will I endure the abuse and unfriendly expressions of others.’
(DHAMMAPADA 320)

In the annals of history, no man is recorded as having so consecrated himself to the welfare of all living beings as the Buddha did. From the hour of His Enlightenment to the end of His Life, He strove tirelessly to elevate mankind. He slept only two hours a day. Though 25 centuries have gone since the passing away of this great Teacher, His message of love and wisdom still exists in its pristine purity. This message is still decisively influencing the destinies of humanity. He was the most Compassionate One who illuminated this world with loving-kindness.

After attaining Nirvana, the Buddha left a deathless message that is still with us. Today we are confronted by the terrible threat to world peace. At no time in the history of the world is His message more needed than it is now.

The Buddha was born to dispel the darkness of ignorance and to show the world how to get rid of suffering and disease, decay and death and all the worries and miseries of living beings.

According to some other beliefs, a certain god will appear in this world from time to time to destroy wicked people and to protect the good ones. The Buddha did not appear in this world to destroy wicked people but to show them the correct path.

In the history of the world, did we ever hear of any religious teacher who was so filled with such all absorbing compassion and love for suffering humanity as the Buddha was? We have heard of some wise men in Greece: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle and many others who lived at about the same time as the Buddha. But they were only philosophers and great thinkers and seekers after truth; they lacked any inspiring love for the suffering multitudes.

The Buddha’s way of liberating mankind was to teach them how to find complete freedom from physical and mental suffering. He was not interested in alleviating a few chance cases of physical or mental distress. He was more concerned with revealing a Path that all people could follow.

Let us take all the great philosophers, psychologists, thinkers, scientists, rationalists, social workers, reformers and other religious teachers and compare, with an unbiased mind, their greatness, virtues, services and wisdom with the Buddha’s virtues, compassion and Enlightenment. It is not difficult to see where the Buddha stands amongst all those great intellectuals.

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What the author is trying to express here is precisely what the Buddha mentions in Anguttara Nikaya Books of Two where he says, what I have taught you, I have practiced and what I have practiced I have taught you. The Buddha is not a hypocrite who does not live up to what he preaches…..in modern terms, he walks the talk. There is no dissonance between how he has led his 45 years as a teacher to what he has taught. These qualities or virtues are Charity, Morality, Compassion, Determination, Patience, Truthfullness, Loving Kindness, Equanimity, Altruistic joy, etc.

<<Назад Был ли Будда воплощением Бога?

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Редакция перевода от 03.07.2015 13:30