Amidst the complexity of Buddhist teachings, we can discern a distinctive essence lying behind the various historical forms which developed to convey the Buddhaand#8217;s oral message. In todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, and#8220;Parable of the Raftand#8221; Sangharakshita describes the essence of Buddhism: the parable of the raft and the advice to Mahaprajapati Gotami. Excerpted from the talk and#8220;The Nature and Development of Buddhism.and#8221;
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The Parable of the Raft
[music] Dharma Bites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for your life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. Thank you, and happy listening. Now, first of all, the nature of Buddhism. What is Buddhism in its ultimate essence? What does it really mean? What is really behind it? Quince does it really spring? I remember these sort of comparisons come naturally to mind. I remember that not so many weeks ago, I was at a place called Delphi. Some of you may have heard of that place. It's a place where in ancient times, there was the article of the God Apana. So I remember that when we were looking over that place, when we were just walking through the olive trees on the slopes of the hill, on which Delphi or on the slopes of which the sides of which Delphi stands, we came across a little spring. So this little spring of water was bubbling very vigorously from rock to rock. It was also a little cascade, and one didn't at first pay it any very great attention. But later on, one found that the same little cascade reappeared higher up. It was falling down from different levels. Then one went higher up still, and one found that this was none other than the famous Castellian spring. If you drink it, you're supposed to become a poet on the spot. And it welded out from between two great rocks, two cliffs on it. In a very mysterious sort of way, you couldn't quite see where it came from or how it came. So in this way, we tracked back, you may see, this little spring to its source. In the same way, we can trace back, we can track back Buddhism to its source. It's a very deep source. In a way, it's a very mysterious source. And what is that? What is the ultimate source of Buddhism itself? The ultimate source of Buddhism, we may say, that which constitutes in the deepest sense the nature of Buddhism, that from which Buddhism in its entirety starts to change one's figure to speech the germ or the seed of Buddhism, when the whole mighty tree grew and expanded is the Buddha's spiritual, if you like transcendental experience. What we call the experience of some body or supreme perfect in life. Everything comes out of that. Sometimes the connection may not be very clear. Sometimes the living waters of Buddhism get as it were lost among the stones and the sand. But if you follow, if you trace back, if you track back, then sooner or later one comes to this living, this ever-living source and found, that is the spiritual experience of the Buddha himself, this experience of supreme perfect enlightenment by virtue of which he did become the being whom we call Buddha, enlightened, awake, aware. And what we call Buddhism, what is traditionally called the Dharma in Sanskrit, the Dharma in Pālichur in Tibetan, is only, though perhaps one shouldn't use the word only, but it is essentially the sum total of all the different ways in which the Buddha and his disciples after him strove to communicate to others some hint, some suggestion of that experience so that they might be inspired, might be helped eventually to have to know that experience for themselves. That's why if we leave aside for the moment all the complexity of Buddhism, all the schools and the systems, the teachings, the doctrines, the philosophies, it's a very simple matter. Buddhism, the Dharma, the way of the Buddha, is nothing else than simply the means to this experience, the way to enlightenment. It's very easy to forget this. It's very easy to become preoccupied with Buddhist culture or with languages, with history of Buddhism and so on, but basically and essentially Buddhism is nothing about this, the means to enlightenment, the way to enlightenment for each one of us. Now, the fact that Buddhism itself is not an end in itself is only a means to an end, is brought up very powerfully even dramatically in a number of passages in the scriptures, most of which I'm sure are quite well known to most of you because I dwell upon them, I insist upon them in fact frequently in various ways, the famous parable of the raft. This is one of the parables of the Buddha which one always tells to newcomers, because it does convey so explicitly so concretely what in fact Buddhism is, what it's trying to do is simply a raft, is simply something to get you across to the other shop. This short of course represents our present ego bound existence, with its suffering, its disharmony, and the other short of course represents what we aspire to be, what we ideally are, our goal. And now there was enlightenment on the Ravana or the Dharmakaya, whatever else one cares or wishes to call it. And Buddhism is simply that raft which carries one, over the intervening waters from this shore to that shore, that's his only passion. And as the Buddha himself explicitly tells his monks in this very same passage, when you get to the other shore, you don't need the raft. "The raft," he said, "I teach, has something to be left behind." So to put that into more contemporary phraseology, religion itself is something to be left behind. It's a means to an end that end of course being enlightenment. Then think of those marvelous words of the Buddha to his aunt and foster mother, Maha Prajakot, he got to me. Even in the Buddha's day Buddhism had become a bit confused, for many apparently contradictory versions, one disciple said this, another disciple said that. So even someone who was so close to the Buddha as his own aunt and foster mother, who had followed in his footsteps later on and become a nun, and who was dwelling in the forest, even someone of that caliber could become confused. So she went to the Buddha, she asked him personally, "How are we to know your teaching? How are we to know what you really taught?" The same question that people often ask today, "What did the Buddha really teach? How can we know his teaching? How can we recognize it?" So she was in the same situation. She said, "Lord, your disciples are teaching so many things as done by them, and becoming confused. How can we recognize what is your teaching?" So the Buddha says in effect, you can recognize it by its inner results. You can recognize it by its transforming influence on your own life, whatever conducive to freedom from conditionings, to passionlessness, to inner peace, to tranquillity, to detachment, to solitude, to awareness, to fuelness of desires, to inner illumination, to the higher life in the broadest sense. Play that as my teaching. In other words, the criterion is not external, not logical, not philosophical, it's pragmatic, it's empirical. But the pragmatism is spiritual. The empiricism is, we may say, transcendental empiricism. That's the criterion. So she went away happy. She knew. We hope you enjoyed today's Dharma Bite. Please help us keep this screen. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donnie. And thank you. [music] [music] [music] [BLANK_AUDIO]