Keeping the Light of the Dharma Alive

Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi

As BAUS is now about to complete the first forty years of its history, I take this opportunity to congratulate all those who have contributed to its development, from its founders to those presently responsible for its operations. When its founders started BAUS forty years ago, they probably did not foresee that by the end of the twentieth century Buddhism would become one of the most popular and fastest growing religions in America, with increasing appeal to Americans from all walks of life. In 1964, when BAUS was born, Buddhism was associated with Asian immigrants, hippies, and off-beat intellectuals. Today we can find Buddhists among real-estate agents, lawyers, physicists, computer programmers, housewives, and social workers. Buddhist meditation centers are spread out all across the country, and many of the most prominent Buddhist teachers are Americans who have never left the continent.

For those of you connected with BAUS, it is important that you make every effort to ensure that BAUS continues for at least another forty years, or better yet, four hundred years. Forty years is a full generation, so this means you must make sure that your own children remain devoted Buddhists and bring up their children to be devoted Buddhists. How can this be done? You should recognize that your children are now growing up in America, not in Taiwan or China. Thus their way of thinking and their life style will be more like that of their American friends than like that of their cousins in Taiwan or China. So when you guide them into Buddhism, you need to emphasize those aspects of the Dharma that are timely and timeless rather than those that are bound up with a particular culture that may be far away from them and quite strange to them.

This will take some work on your part, but it is not hard to do, for the essence of Buddhism has always been timely and timeless. Let us consider just four or five key points that you might want to emphasize:

* Buddhism is a religion intended to promote human well-being and happiness. The Buddha did not claim to be a god or a divine messenger, but a human being who discovered the path to true happiness and peace. For forty-five years he taught human beings how to walk that path, and his purpose was to enable us to achieve our own happiness, promote the welfare of our families and societies, and attain the highest enlightenment.

* Buddhism emphasizes a non-dogmatic, experiential approach to truth. The Buddha does not demand that we believe things merely because he says them. He asks us to examine things for ourselves, to investigate his teachings and test them in our own experience. He does not teach a secret doctrine, but truths we can examine and verify for ourselves.

* Buddhism is an ethical teaching. It teaches that we can only achieve our own happiness when we lead a moral life by observing precepts, by abstaining from all actions that inflict harm on other living beings. We must act with compassion and respect for others.

* Buddhism holds that the mind is the basis for human welfare. We cannot depend on external aid, on some supernatural God to rescue us and help us. Also, while modern technology can make life more comfortable and alleviate many physical problems, it cannot bring us perfect peace and happiness. Peace and happiness can come only by developing the mind, and Buddhism teaches us what qualities of mind we should cultivate to attain true happiness and peace.

* Buddhism is something to be practiced, and it is to be practiced in everyday life. Buddhism is not mere rituals; it is not abstract philosophy; it is not just sitting in meditation behind closed doors. There are rituals in Buddhism, there is philosophy, there is meditation; but Buddhism is above all a complete way of life that we have to practice in fulfilling our responsibilities to other people and in realizing our full potentials as human beings.

I believe that if you who belong to BAUS can guide your children to approach Buddhism as a complete, practical, realistic way of life, as clear as sunlight, they will grow up to be devoted and diligent Buddhists and will be eager to pass the Dharma on to their own children. In this way the lamp of the Dharma will be transmitted from generation to generation, and BAUS will continue to thrive.

May the blessings of the Noble Triple Gem be with you all.