Hammalawa Saddhatissa (1914–1990)

For readers who know very little about Hudhism, this is a short, great introduction. The author is a Buddhist scholar who dispells many popular myths about the Buddhist culture, such as the rejection of any divine being or divine order. The agenda of a sincere Buddhist is to rid the practicer's live of suffering by ridding it of desires. While many people would classifiy Buddhism as a religion, it does not contain many of the elements that constitute a religion. It is easy to read, short, and informative.… (more)

Here are some notes I took from this book, mostly quoted:

The chain of interdpendent links that binds men to the wheel of suffering is called Paticcasamuppada (dependent origination). A cycle of causation.

The first-named link (of 12) in the chain is ignorance- the failure to realize the truth, the lack of insight into the reality of things. In this soil of delusion subconscious impulses or drives arise. Because of our basic ignorance, these drives, are not recognized for what they are- impermanent and illusory- but are allowed to flourish and bear fruit. Finally, though still unrecognized, they erupt into the conscious mind. Consciousness, as unenlightened as the sub-conscious drives from which it arose, immediately begins to classify and arrange. Instead of the 'constant flux', consciousness posits a stable world of identifiable things. This world of 'ten thousand things' impinges on our senses, and forthwith an emotional reaction is produced. We find the experience pleasant or unpleasant or we 'couldn't care less' and sink back into sleep. This emotional reaction creates a craving; if the experience is pleasant we seek it out, if unpleasant we recoil from it. Out of this craving arises clinging as we lapse into the habit of grabbing or of rejecting. Our response is no longer attuned to the stimulus, which may in fact have ceased to please or displease us, but we continue to cling to it because it is familiar. In this way we are led on towards a new situation but still encumbered with the attitudes of the past. The new situation arises, comes to maturity, decays and passes away. We are back where we started. The experience has taught us nothing. All it has done for us is to add another thread to the rope that binds us to the wheel of suffering.

During one lifetime we fondly imagine that we and our world are stable. Despite the obvious examples of change and decay, of eratic feelings and unpredictable moods, despite the process of growth and decline, despite the microscopic experiments of scientists, we continue to behave as though we were something permanent, something identifiable and 'real'. The Buddha's answer to this attitude was to ask: Where is the 'I'? Is it in the body? Is it in the feelings? Is it in the will? or the mind? Nowhere can be fond a permanent identity. What then passes over after death?

The reply is simple yet unexpected. Life is a constant flux. What we recognize as one lifetime is merely a specific manifestation of this flux. At death the pattern is disturbed but the flux continues. If we try to jump off the wheel by committing suicide we merely interrupt one manifestation of flux. In so far as 'we' existed before, we continue to exist....But just as we cannot detroy the energy mass that we call our body- though we crush it, burn it or blow it to pieces- so we cannnot destroy the other aspects of 'our' life: mind with its feelings, sensations, etc. The flux continues, the chain of dependent origination remains unbroken, the cause of suffering persists- whether we will or not.… (more)