HIS NAME IS AHLOO
To be
a good Buddhist.
His name is Lou
Loo, age about 33years, residing at K.T. I was talking
to him and he said he had done some charity works, such as
distribution of medicine through a well known forest monk.
And lately he had sent some cloth some old warm clothing
to the hill tribes around K.T. Lou Loo:- “I had given
to the charity and being a Buddhist, I suppose I am not like
those who would expect to be in nibbana in return for the
good deeds.”
Ba Thet Gyi:- “ Why did you do it then?”
Lou Loo:- “ I suppose I will get some kusala”
Ba Thet Gyi:- “ What is kusala/”
Lou Loo:- “That is what they said you will get when you are giving charity.”
Ba Thet Gyi:- “ Kusala means wholesomeness. It means
a good job done. You do not get a kusala, but a kusala had been done. For that
we praise the person by saying ‘sadhu’ three times. Meaning well
done.”
Lou Loo:- “ Was that all I got for giving out charity?”
Ba Thet Gyi:- “ What you get is a satisfaction of doing what you intended
to do “
Lou Loo:- “ That is true in one sense. As a matter of fact, I know nothing
about this Buddhism.
Ba Thet Gyi:- “ Well, let me tell you about the Buddhist philosophy.
Our Lord Buddha was born round about 6oo B.C. to a king of India. One of the
learned men had prophesized that he will be a ruler or holy
person. The king wanted his son to be a king. So ever since
the prince’s
younger days, he was shown nothing which were unpleasant or undesirable objects,
and gave him or showered him with all the pleasentaries, joy and happiness.
He was married and his wife bore him a child in his late twenties. One day, he took his chariot and drove
into town, sight seeing and he came across an aged person,
a sick person and a dead body. He asked the charioteer
what were they and he explained that they are age, illness
and death. He also said that one day he could be in those
conditions. He did not like it and in desperation he decided
to search for a cure for the aging, illness and death.
To do that he had left the palace to the forest, and approached
the ascetic, but he wasn't contend. He approached another
whom showered every kind of knowledge, and yet wasn’t
satisfy. He went ahead on his own and after six and a half
years, he realized about it and he pronounced Our Lord
Buddha.
He was afraid of getting old, the illness and death that
made him left the palace in search for the ageless, non-sickness
and deathless. After six and half years, what he found was
not the ageless, free of illness nor the deathless, but the
fear that he had were only his greed, hatred and delusion.
And it was his conceptual thinking that created the fear
and he preached accordingly. The first discourse was the
Four Noble Truths and latter, the Anatta Lekkhana Sutta.
He even went on to discourse the kalama sutta that they are
not to believe anything unless and until you know for yourselves,
from your own experience that it is the truth without any
doubt. It was also mentioned that the dhamma is within this
physical body of one fathom.
When he was enlightened, he was already
thirty five years of age and had preached all over the
country for another forty-five years and demised at the
age of eighty. Just before his pass away, when his disciples
asked him whom they were to follow after his pass away
he replied that he had hid nothing from them and whatever
he knew, he had taught them. When he was gone, they should
take refuge within themselves. That is “ atta hi
attano natho”
Among the discourses, which were printed in Tripitiga, The
Three Baskets, in it for the laymen he preached to live according
to the Buddhist way of living by following the Five Precepts
and to practice dana, sila and bhavana. In conclusion, the
essence is not to do evil at all, do good, if you can and
live with a purified mind. If you can follow it, you are
already a good Buddhist.
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