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The abridged version of THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM which appears on this site is compiled
from various editions which followed it's first publication in 1881 by Col. Henry Steel Olcott, providing not only an excellent introduction
to Buddhist history and practice, but also the fundamental beliefs shared in common by all Buddhists.
[1] Q: What is the meaning of the word "Buddha"?
A: The enlightened, or he who has the perfect wisdom.
[2] Q: You have said there were other Buddhas before this one?
A: Yes; our belief is that, under the operation of eternal causation, a Buddha takes birth at intervals, when mankind has been plunged into misery through ignorance, and needs the wisdom which it is the function of the Buddha to teach.
[3] Q: How is a Buddha developed?
A: A person, hearing or seeing one of the Buddhas on earth, becomes seized with the determination so to live in such a way that at some future time, when he has become fitted for it, he also will be a Buddha for the guiding of mankind out of the cycle of rebirth.
[4] Q: How does he proceed?
A: Throughout that birth and every succeeding one, he strives to subdue his passions, to gain wisom by experience, and to develop his higher faculties. He thus grows by degrees wiser, nobler in character, and stronger in virtue, until, finally, after numberless rebirths he reaches the state when he can become perfected, Enlightened, All-wise, the ideal Teacher of the human race.
[5] Q: While this gradual development is going on throughout all these births, by what name do we call him?
A: Bodhisat, or Bodhisattva. Thus the Prince Siddhartha Gautama was a Bodhisattva up to the moment when, under the blessed Bodhi tree at Gaya, he became Buddha.
[6] Q: Have we any account of his various rebirths as a Bodhisattva?
A: In the Jatakatthakatha (Jataka Tales), a book containing stories of the Bodhisattva’s reincarnations, there are serveral hundred tales of this kind.
[7] Q: What lesson do these stories teach?
A: That a man can carry, throughout a long series of reincarnations, one great, good purpose which enables him to conquer bad tendencies and develop virtuous ones.
[8] Q: Can we fix the number of reincarnations through which a Bodhisattva must pass before he can become a Buddha?
A: Of course not; that depends upon his natural character, the state of development to which he has arrived when he forms the resolution to become a Buddha, and other things.
[9] Q: Have we a way of classifying Bodhisattvas? If so, explain it.
A: Bodhivattvas --- the future Buddhas --- are divided into three classes.
[10] Q: How are these three kinds of Bodhisats named?
A: Pannadkika, or Udghatitajna --- "he who attains least quickly"; Saddhadhika, or Vipachitajna --- "he who attains less quickly"; and Viryadhika, or Gneyya --- "he who attains quickly". The Pannadhika Bodhisats take the course of Intelligence; the Saddhadhika take the course of Faith; the Viryadhika take the course of energetic Action. The first is guided by Intelligence and does not hasten; the second is full of Faith, and does not care to take the guidance of Wisdom; and the third never delays to do what is good. Regardless of the consequences to himself, he does it when he sees that it is the best that it should be done.
[11] Q: When Siddhartha became the Buddha, what did he see as the cause of human misery? Tell me in one word.
A: Ignorance (Avidya).
[12] Q: Can you tell me the remedy?
A: To dispel Ignorance and become wise (Prajna).
[13] Q: Why does ignorance cause suffering?
A: Because it makes us prize what is not worth prizing, grieve when we should not grieve, consider real what is not real but only illusionary, and pass our lives in the pursuit of worthless objects, neglectecting what is in reality most valuable.
[14] Q: What is that which is most valuable?
A: To know the whole secret of man’s existence and destiny, so that we may estimate at no more than their actual value this life and its relations; and so that we may live to ensure the greatest happiness and the least suffering for our fellow-men and ourselves.
[15] Q: What is the light that can dispel this ignorance of ours and remove all sorrows?
A: The knowledge of the "Four Noble Truths", as the Buddha called them.
[16] Q: What are the Four Noble Truths?
A: 1) The miseries of evolutionary existence resulting in births and deaths, life after life; 2) the cause of misery, which is the selfish desire, ever renewed, of satisfying one’s self, without being able ever to secure that end; 3) the destruction of that desire, or the estranging of one’s self from it; 4) the means of obtaining this destruction of desire.
[17] Q: What are some things that cause sorrow?
A: Birth, decay, illness, death, separation from objects we love, association with those who are repugnant, craving for what cannot be obtained.
[18] Q: Do these differ with each individual?
A: Yes; but all men suffer from them in some degree.
[19] Q: How can we escape the sufferings which result from unsatisfied desires and ignorant cravings?
A: By complete conquest over, and destruction of, this eager thirst for life and its pleasures, which causes sorrow.
[20] Q: How may we gain such a conquest?
A: By following the Noble Eight-Fold Path which the Buddha discovered and pointed out.
[21] Q: What is this Noble Eight-fold Path?
A: The eight parts of this path are called angas. They are: 1) Right Belief (as to the law of Causation, or Karma); 2) Right Thought; 3) Right Speech; 4) Right Action; 5) Right Means of Livelihood; 6) Right Exertion; 7) Right Rememberance and Self-Discipline; 8) Right Concentration of Thought. The man who keeps these angas in mind and follows them will be free from sorrow and ultimately reach salvation.
[22] Q: Can you give a better word for "salvation"?
A: Yes, emancipation or liberation.
[23] Q: Liberation from what?
A: Liberation from the miseries of earthly existence and of rebirths, all of which are due to ignorance and impure lusts and cravings.
[24] Q: And when this salvation or emancipation is attained, what do we reach?
A: Nirvana.
[25] Q: What is Nirvana?
A: A condition of total cessation of changes, of perfect rest, of the absence of desire and illusion and sorrow, of the total obliteration of everything that goes to make up the physical man. Before reaching Nirvana man is constantly being reborn; when he reaches Nirvana he is born no more.
[26] Q: Where can be found a learned discussion of the word Nirvana and a list of other names by which the old Pali writers attempt to define it?
A: In the famous "Dictionary of the Pali Language", by the late Mr. R.C. Childers, is a complete list.
Note: Mr. Childers takes a highly pessimistic veiw of the Nirvanic state, regarding it as annihilation. Later students disagree with him.
[27] Q: But some people imagine that Nirvana is some sort of heavenly place, a Paradise. Does Buddhism teach that?
A: No. When Kutadanta asked the Buddha "Where is Nirvana," he replied that it was "wherever the precepts are obeyed".
[28] Q: What causes us to be reborn?
A: The unsatisfied selfish desire (Skt., trshna; Pali, tanha) for things that belong to the state of personal existence in the material world. This unquenched thirst for physical existence (bhava) is a force and has a creative power in itself so strong that it draws the being back into mundane life.
[29] Q: Are our rebirths in any way affected by the nature of our unsatisfied desires?
A: Yes; and by our individual merits or demerits.
[30] Q: Does our merit or demerit control the state, condition, or form in which we shall be re-born?
A: It does. The broad rule is that if we have an excess of merit we shall be well and happily born the next time; if an excess of demerit, our next birth will be wretched and full of suffering.
[31] Q: One of the chief pillars of Buddhistic doctrine is the idea that every effect is the result of an actual cause, is it not?
A: It is; of a cause either immediate or remote.
[32] Q: What do we call this causation?
A: Applied to individuals, it is Karma, that is, action. It means that our own actions or deeds bring upon us whatever joy or misery we experience.
[33] Q: Can a bad man escape from the outworkings of his Karma?
A: The Dhammapada says: "There exists no spot on the earth, or in the sky, or in the sea, neither is there any in the mountain-clefts, where an (evil) deed does not bring trouble (to the doer)."
[34] Q: Can a good man escape?
A: As the result of deeds of peculiar merit, a man may attain certain advantages of place, body, environment and teaching in his next stage of progress, which ward off the effects of bad karma and help his higher evolution.
[35] Q: What are they called?
A: Gati Sampatti, Upadhi Sampatti, Kala Sampatti, and Payoga Sampatti.
[36] Q: Is that consistent or inconsistent with common sense and the teachings of modern science?
A: Perfectly consistent; there can be no doubt of it.
[37] Q: May all men become Buddhas?
A: It is not in the nature of every man to become a Buddha; for a Buddha is developed only at long intervals of time, and seemingly, when the state of humanity absolutely requires such a teacher to show it the forgotten Path to Nirvana. But every being may equally reach Nirvana, by conquering Ignorance and gaining Wisdom.
[38] Q: Does Buddhism teach that man is reborn only upon our earth?
A: As a general rule that would be the case, until he had evolved beyond its level; but the inhabited worlds are numberless. The world upon which a person is to have his next birth, as well as the nature of the rebirth itself, is decided by the preponderance of the individual’s merit or demerit. In other words, it will be controlled by his attractions, as science would describe it; or by his Karma, as we, Buddhists, would say.
[39] Q: Are there worlds more perfectly developed, and others less so than our Earth?
A: Buddhism teaches that there are whole Sakwalas, or systems of worlds, of various kinds, higher and lower, and also that the inhabitants of each world correspond in development with itself.
[40] Q: Has not the Buddha summed up his whole doctrine in one gatha, or verse?
A: Yes.
[41] Q: Can you repeat it?
A: Yes.
Sabba papassa akaranm,
Kusalassa upasampada
Sachitta pariyo dapanam
Etam Buddhanusasanam.
"To cease from all evil actions,
To generate all that is good,
To cleanse one’s mind:
This is the constant advice of the Buddhas." |
[42] Q: Have the first three lines of this verse any striking characteristics?
A: Yes. The first line embodies the whole spirit of the Vinaya Pitaka; the second, that of the Sutta; the third, that of the Abhidhamma. They comprise only eight Pali words, yet, as the dew-drop reflects the stars, they sparkle with the spirit of all the Buddha Dharma.
[43] Q: Do these precepts show that Buddhism is an active or a passive religion?
A: To "cease from sin" may be called passive, but to "get virtue" and "to cleanse one’s own heart", or mind, are altogether active qualities. Buddha taught that we should not merely not be evil, but that we should be positively good.
[44] Q: Who or what are the "Three Guides" (see note below) that a Buddhist is supposed to follow?
A: They are disclosed in the formula called the Tisarana: "I follow Buddha as my Guide; I follow the Law as my Guide; I follow the Order as my Guide." These three are, in fact, the Buddha Dharma.
Note: The word "Saranam" has been inappropriately rendered as "Refuge" by not only by European scholars, but has also been accepted as such by native Pali scholars.
[45] Q: What does a person mean when repeating this formula?
A: He means that he regards the Buddha as his all-wise Teacher, Friend and Exemplar; the Law, or Doctrine, as containing the essential and immutable principles of Justice and Truth and the path that leads to the realization of perfect peace of mind on earth; and the Order as the teachers and exemplars of that excellent Law taught by Buddha.
[46] Q: But are not some of the members of this "Order" intellectually and morally inferior?
A: Yes; but we are taught by the Buddha that only those who diligently attend the Precepts, discipline their minds, and strive to attain or have attained one of the eight stages of holiness and perfection, constitute his "Order". It is expressly stated that the Order referred to in the "Tisarana" refers to the "Attha Ariya Puggala" --- the Noble Ones who have attained one of the eight stages of perfection. The mere wearing of yellow robes, or even ordination, does not in and of itself make a man pure, wise, or entitle him to reverence.
[47] Q: Then it is not such bhikkhus as they, whom the true Buddhist would take as his guides?
A: Certainly not.
[48] Q: What are the five observances, or universal precepts, called the Pancha Sila, which are imposed on the laity in general?
A: They are included in the following formula, which Buddhists repeat publicly at the viharas (temples): I observe the precept to refrain from destroying the life of beings; I observe the precept to refrain from stealing; I observe the precept to abstain from sexual misconduct; I observe the precept to refrain from falsehood; I observe the precept to abstain from using intoxicants.
[49] Q: What strikes the intelligent person on reading these Silas?
A: That one who observes them strictly must escape from every cause productive of human misery. If we study history we shall find that it has all sprung from one or another of these causes.
[50] Q: In which Silas is the far-seeing wisdom of the Buddha most plainly shown?
A: In the first, third and fifth; for the taking of life, sexual misconduct, and the use of intoxicants, cause at least ninety-five per cent of the sufferings among men.
[51] Q: What benefit does a man derive from the observance of these precepts?
A: He is said to aquire more or less merit according to the manner and time of observing the precepts, and the number observed; that is, if he observes only one precept, violating the other four, he aquires the merit of the observance of that precept only; and the longer he keeps that precept the greater will be the merit. A person who keeps all the precepts will cause himself a higher and happier existence hereafter.
[52] Q: What are the other observances considered meritorious for the laity to voluntarily undertake?
A: The Atthanga Sila, or the Eightfold Precept, which embraces the five above (omitting the the word "unlawful" in the third), with three additional precepts --- the precept to abstain from eating at an unreasonable time (after twelve noon); the precept to abstain from dancing, music and unbecoming entertainment, the use of garlands, perfumes, cosmetics, and ornaments; and the precept to abstain from using high and broad beds.
Note: High and broad beds referred to are those used by the worldly-minded for the sake of pleasure or sensual enjoyment.
[53] Q: How would a Buddhist describe true merit?
A: There is no great merit in any mere outward act; all depends upon the inward motive that provokes the deed.
[54] Q: But what is said to be the greatest of all meritorious actions?
A: The Dhammapada states that the merit of disseminating the Dharma, the Law of Righteousness, is greater than that of any other good work.
[55] Q: What books contain the wisdom of the Buddha's teachings?
A: The three collections of books called Tripitakas or "Three Baskets".
[56] Q: What are the names of the three collections?
A: The Vinaya Pitaka, the Sutta Pitaka, and the Abhidhamma Pitaka.
[57] Q: What do they contain?
A: The first collection contains the morality and discipline for the governing of the Sangha, or Order; the second collection contains the instructive discourses on ethics; and the third collection contains the phychological teachings of the Buddha, including the twenty-four transcedental laws of the working of Nature.
[58] Q: Do Buddhists believe these books to be inspired or revealed by a Divine Being?
A: No; but they revere them as containing all the parts of the most Excellent Law, by the knowing of which man can break through the trammels of Samsara.
[59] Q: When were the Pitakas first reduced to writing?
A: In 88-76 B.C., under the Sinhalese King, Wattagamini, or three hundred and thirty years after the Paranirvana of the Buddha.
[60] Q: Are all the discourses of the Buddha known to us?
A: Probably not, and it would be strange if they were. Within the forty-five years of his public life he must have preached many hundreds of discourses. Of these, in times of war and persecution, many must have been lost, scattered to distant countries, and others mutilated. History records that the enemies of the Buddha-Dharma burnt large piles of books.
[61] Q: By his own virtue, can the Buddha save us from the consequence of our individual sins?
A: Not at all. Man must emancipate himself; until he does that he will continue being born over and over again --- a victim of ignorance and a slave to unquenched passions.
[62] Q: What then was the Buddha to us and all other beings?
A: An all-seeing, all-wise Counsellor; one who discovered a safe path and pointed it out; one who showed the cause and cure for human suffering.
[63] Q: If we were to try to describe the spirit of the Buddha's doctrine with one word, what would that word be?
A: Justice.
[64] Q: Why?
A: Because it teaches that every man get exactly the reward or punishment he deserves, no more and no less. No good deed or bad deed, however small or secretly committed, escapes the evenly-balanced scales of Karma.
[65] Q: What is Karma?
A: A causation operating on the moral, as well as on the physical and other planes. Buddhists say there is no miracle in human affairs, what a man sows he will reap.
Note: Karma is defined as the sum total of a man's actions. The law of Cause and Effect is called the Patiche a Samuppada Dhamma. In the Anguttara Nikaya the Buddha teaches that your action is your possession, your action is your inheritance, your action is the womb which bears you, your action is your relative, your action is your refuge.
[66] Q: What words have been used to describe the essence of Buddhism?
A: Self-culture and universal love.
[67] Q: What doctrine ennobles Buddhism and gives it its place among the world's religions?
A: That of Mitta or Maitreya --- compassionate kindness. The importance of this doctrine is emphasized in the giving of the name "Maitri" (the Compassionate One) to the coming Buddha.
[68] Q: Did the Buddha believe or advocate idol worship?
A: No; he opposed it. The worship of gods, deamons, trees, ect., was condemned by the Buddha. External worship is a fetter that one has to break if he is to advance higher.
[69] Q: But don't Buddhists make reverence before a statue or image of the Buddha, as well as his relics and the monuments that enshrine them?
A: Yes, but not as idolaters. The Buddha's image and the other things mentioned above are only revered as mementoes of the greatest, wisest, most benevolent and compassionate man in this world-period (Kalpa).
Note: The Buddha image is meant to represent the embodiment of the phyisical attributes and qualities of the Enlightened One --- his serenity, composure, peacefulness, and purity.
[70] Q: Did the Buddha say anything definite on this subject?
A: In the Maha-parinirvana Sutta he says that emancipation is attainable only by leading the Holy Life, according to the Noble Eightfold Path, not by eternal worship (amisapuja), nor by adoration of himself, or of another, or of any other image.
[71] Q: What was the Buddha's attitude toward ceremonialism?
A: From the beginning he condemned the observance of ceremonies and other external practices, which only tend to increase our spiritual blindness and our clinging to mere lifeless forms.
[72] Q: Are charms, incantations, the observance of lucky hours and devil-dancing a part of Buddhism?
A: No; they are repugnant to its fundamental principles. The mixing of these arts and practices with Buddhism is a sign of deterioration.
[73] Q: What are the striking contrasts between Buddhism and what may properly be called "religions"?
A: Buddhism teaches the highest goodness without a creating God; a continuity of life without adhering to the superstitious doctrine of an eternal soul-substance that goes out of the body; a happiness without an objective heaven; a method of salvation without a vicarious Savior; redemption by oneself as the Redeemer, without rites, prayers, penances, or priests; and Nirvana, attainable in this life and in this world by leading a pure, unselfish life of wisdom and compassion to all beings.
[74] Q: Does popular Buddhism contain nothing but what is true and in accord with science?
A: Like every other religion that has existed for centuries, it now contains untruth mingled with truth. The poetical imagination, the zeal, or lingering superstition of Buddhist devotees have, in various ages, and in various lands, caused the noble principles of the Buddha's moral doctrines to be coupled more or less with what might be removed to advantage.
[75] Q: When such perversions are discovered, what should be the true Buddhist's earnest desire?
A: The true Buddhist should always be ready and anxious to see the false purged from the true, and to assist, if he can. Three great Councils of the Sangha were held for the express purpose of purging the body of the Teachings from all corrupt interpolations.
[76] Q: When did these Councils occur?
A: The first, at Sattapanni cave, just after the death of the Buddha; the second at Valukarama, in Vailali; the third at Asoka-rama Vihara, at Pataliputra, 235 years after the Buddha's death.
[77] Q: In what discourse does the Buddha himself warn us to expect this perversion of the true Doctrine?
A: In the Samyutta Nikaya.
[78] Q: Are there any dogmas in Buddhism which we are required to accept on faith?
A: No; we are told to accept nothing on faith, whether it be written in books, handed down from our ancestors, or taught by the sages.
[79] Q: Did the Buddha actually teach that noble rule?
A: Yes. The Buddha has said that we must not believe in something just because it has been said; nor in traditions because they have been handed down from antiquity; nor rumors, as such; nor writings by sages, merely because the sages wrote them; nor on the mere authority of our own teachers or masters.
[80] Q: What are we to believe in?
A: We are to believe when the writing, doctrine or saying is corroborated by our own reason and consciousness. "For this," the Buddha said, "I taught you not to believe merely because you have heard, but when you believed your own consciousness, then to act accordingly and abundantly."
[81] Q: What did the Buddha call himself?
A: He said that he and other Buddhas are only "preachers" of the truth who point out the way; we ourselves must make the effort.
[82] Q: Where is this said?
A: In chapter 20 of the Dhammapada.
[83] Q: Does Buddhism teach us to return evil for evil?
A: In the Dhammapada the Buddha said: "If a man foolishly does me wrong, I will return to him the protection of my ungrudging love; the more evil comes from him, the more good shall go from me." This is the path followed by the Arhat. To return evil for evil is forbidden in Buddhism.
Note: An Arhat is a Buddhist ascetic who, by a prescribed course of practice, has attained a superior state of spiritual and intellectual development. Arhats may be divided into two groups, Samathayanika and Sukka Vipassaka. The former have destroyed their passions and have fully developed their itellectual capacity or mystical insight; the latter have equally conquered passion, but have not acquired intellectual capacity. There is a misconception in Sri Lanka that the attainment of Arhatship is now impossible, that the Buddha himself had prophesied that the power would die out in one millennium after his death. This rumor, and a similar one heard everywhere in India, is contrary to what the Buddha taught. In the Digha Nikaya he said: "Hear, Subbhadra! The world will never be without Arhats if the the ascetics (Bhikkhus) in my congregations well and truly keep my precepts."
[84] Q: What did the Buddha say about cruelty?
A: In the Five Precepts and in many of his discourses, the Buddha teaches us to be merciful to all beings, to try to make them happy, to love them all, to abstain from taking life, or consenting to it, or encouraging it.
[85] Q: Does Buddhism disapprove of drunkenness?
A: In his Dhammika-sutta we are warned against drinking liquors, causing others to drink, or santctioning the acts of those who drink. This also includes stupefying drugs which lead to drunkenness.
[86] Q: What does intoxication lead to?
A: To demerit, crime, insanity, and ignorance --- which is the chief cause of rebirth.
[87] Q: What does the Dhammapada say about ignorance?
A: That it is a taint worse than all taints that a man can put upon himself.
[88] Q: Do riches help a man to future happiness?
A: The Dhammapada says: "One is the road that leads to wealth, another is the road that leads to Nirvana."
[89] Q: Does that mean that the wealthy cannot attain Nirvana?
A: That depends on what they love most. If one uses his wealth for the benefit of mankind --- for the suffering, the oppressed, the ignorant --- then his wealth aids him to aquire merit.
[90] Q: What advice does the Buddha give in regard to a man's duty to the poor?
A: He says that a man's net income should be divided into four parts, of which one part should be devoted to philanthropic objects.
[91] Q: What occupations are said to be low and base?
A: Selling liquor, selling animals for slaughter, selling poison, selling murderous weapons, and dealing in slaves.
[92] Q: What did the Buddha teach about caste?
A: That one does not become of any caste, whether Pariah (Harijan), the lowest, or Brahmana, the highest, by birth, but by deeds. "By deeds," the Buddha said, "one becomes an outcast, by deeds one becomes a Brahmana."
[93] Q: Does Buddhism teach the immortality of the soul?
A: It considers "soul" to be a word used by the ignorant to express a false idea. If everything is subject to change, then man is included, and every material part of him must change. That which is subject to change is not permanent, so there can be no immortal survival of a changeful thing.
[94] Q: What is so objectionable in this word "soul"?
A: The idea associated with it is that man can be an enity separated from all other enities, and from the existence of the whole of the universe. This idea of separateness is unreasonable, not provable by logic, nor supported by science.
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