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Essentials of Buddhism
Ven. Pategama Gnanarama Ph.D.

Essentials of Buddhism is written based on the Theravada Buddhism syllabus of the Postgraduate Diploma Examination in Buddhist Studies course of the Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka. Since the work is meant for students, every chapter appears as a unit by itself and is confined to a few pages. Ven. Ganarama is the Principal of the Buddhist and Pali College of Singapore.

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Dhammapada Verse 182
Erakapattanagaraja Vatthu

Kiccho manussapatilabho
kiccham maccana jivitam
kiccham saddhammassavanam
kiccho buddhanamuppado.

Verse 182: Hard to gain is birth as man; hard is the life of mortals; hard to get is the opportunity of hearing the Ariya Dhamma (Teaching of the Buddhas); hard it is for a Buddha to appear.

The Story of Erakapatta the Naga King

While residing near Baranasi the Buddha uttered Verse (182) of this book, with reference to Erakapatta, a king of nagas (dragons).

Once there was a naga king by the name of Erakapatta. In one of his past existences during the time of Kassapa Buddha he had been a bhikkhu for a long time. Through worry (kukkucca) over a minor offence he had committed during that time, he was reborn as a naga. As a naga, he waited for the appearance of a Buddha. Erakapatta had a very beautiful daughter, and he made use of her as a means of finding the Buddha. He made it known that whoever could answer her questions could claim her for a wife. Twice every month, Erakapatta made her dance in the open and sing out her questions. Many suitors came to answer her questions hoping to claim her, but no one could give the correct answer.

One day, the Buddha saw a youth named Uttara in his vision. He also knew that the youth would attain Sotapatti Fruition in connection with the questions put by the daughter of Erakapatta the naga. By then the youth was already on his way to see Erakapatta's daughter. The Buddha stopped him and taught him how to answer the questions. While he was being taught, Uttara attained Sotapatti Fruition. Now that Uttara had attained Sotapatti Fruition, he had no desire for the naga princess. However, Uttara still went to answer the questions for the benefit of numerous other beings.

The first four questions were:

1. Who is a ruler?
2. Is one who is overwhelmed by the mist of moral defilements to be called a ruler?
3. What ruler is free from moral defilements?
4. What sort of person is to be called a fool?

The answers to the above questions were:

1. He who controls the six senses is a ruler.
2. One who is overwhelmed by the mist of moral defilements is not to be called a ruler; he who is free from craving is called a ruler.
3. The ruler who is free from craving is free from moral defilements.
4. A person who hankers after sensual pleasures is called a fool.

Having had the correct answers to the above, the naga princess sang out questions regarding the floods (oghas) of sensual desire, of renewed existence, of false doctrine and of ignorance, and how they could be overcome. Uttara answered these questions as taught by the Buddha.

When Erakapatta heard these answers he knew that a Buddha had appeared in this world. So he asked Uttara to take him to the Buddha. On seeing the Buddha, Erakapatta related to the Buddha how he had been a bhikkhu during the time of Kassapa Buddha, how he had accidentally caused a grass blade to be broken off while travelling in a boat, and how he had worried over that little offence for having failed to do the act of exoneration as prescribed, and finally how he was reborn as a naga. After hearing him, the Buddha told him how difficult it was to be born in the human world, and to be born during the appearance of the Buddhas or during the time of their Teaching.

Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:
Verse 182: Hard to gain is birth as man; hard is the life of mortals; hard to get is the opportunity of hearing the Ariya Dhamma (Teaching of the Buddhas); hard it is for a Buddha to appear.

The above discourse benefited numerous beings. Erakapatta being an animal could not attain Sotapatti Fruition then and there.
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Dhammapada Verses 183, 184 and 185
Anandattherapanha Vatthu

Sabbapapassa akaranam
ku salassa upasampada
sacittapariyodapanam
etam buddhana sasanam.

Khanti paramam tapo titikkha
nibbanam paramam vadanti buddha
na hi pabbajito parupaghati
na samano hoti param vihethayanto.

Anupavado anupaghato
patimokkhe ca samvaro
mattannuta ca bhattasmim
pantanca sayanasanam
adhicitte ca ayogo
etam buddhana sasanam.

Verse 183: Not to do evil, to cultivate merit, to purify one's mind - this is the Teaching of the Buddhas.

Verse 184: The best moral practice is patience and forbearance; "Nibbana is Supreme", said the Buddhas. A bhikkhu does not harm others; one who harms others is not a bhikkhu.

Verse 185: Not to revile, not to do any harm, to practise restraint according to the Fundamental Instructions for the bhikkhus, to be moderate in taking food, to dwell in a secluded place, to devote oneself to higher concentration - this is the Teaching of the Buddhas.

The Story of the Question Raised by Thera Ananda

While residing at the Jetavana monastery, the Buddha uttered Verses (183), (184) and (185) of this book, with reference to the question raised by Thera Ananda regarding Fundamental Instructions to bhikkhus by the preceding Buddhas.

On one occasion, Thera Ananda asked the Buddha whether the Fundamental Instructions to bhikkhus given by the preceding Buddhas were the same as those of the Buddha himself. To him the Buddha replied that the instructions given by all the Buddhas are as given in the following verses:

Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:

Verse 183: Not to do evil, to cultivate merit, to purify one's mind - this is the Teaching of the Buddhas.


Verse 184: The best moral practice is patience and forbearance; "Nibbana is Supreme", said the Buddhas. A bhikkhu does not harm others; one who harms others is not a bhikkhu.


Verse 185: Not to revile, not to do any harm, to practise restraint according to the Fundamental Instructions for the bhikkhus, to be moderate in taking food, to dwell in a secluded place, to devote oneself to higher concentration - this is the Teaching of the Buddhas.
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Free Buddha Dharma ebook

The Satipatthana Vipassana
By Mahasi Sayadaw Gyi

As mentioned in the introduction to the original text, the daily talks given by the Venerable Mahasi Sayadawgyi to every batch of new yogis since the arrival at the Mahasi Sasana Yeiktha had been tape-recorded on 27th July 1951. This had been transcribed and published in book form in 1954, followed by twenty editions up to now. This Myanmar book had been translated into English by the late U Pe Thin, who had also translated a number of discourses of Mahasi Sayadawgyi. Although the first English Edition was no longer with the Buddha Sasana Nuggaha Organization, it has come to our knowledge that this first English Edition was published by the Department of Religious Affairs in 1954 and again in January 1979.

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Buddhists offered food as "amisa dana" to the monk during collecting alms food or "pindapata"

Dhammapada Verses 186 and 187
Anabhiratabhikkhu Vatthu

Na kahapana vassena
titti kamesu vijjati
appassada dukha kama
iti vinnaya pandito.

Api dibbesu kamesu
ratim so nadhigacchati
tanhakkhayarato hoti
sammasambuddhasavako.

Verses 186 & 187: Not by a shower of coins can sensual desires be satiated; sensual desires give little pleasure and are fraught with evil consequences (dukkha). Knowing this, the wise man, who is the disciple of the Buddha, does not find delight even in the pleasures of the devas, but rejoices in the cessation of craving (i.e., Nibbana).

The Story of a Dissatisfied Young Bhikkhu

While residing at the Jetavana monastery, the Buddha uttered Verses (186) and (187) of this book, with reference to a young bhikkhu who was unhappy with his life as a bhikkhu.

Once, there was a young bhikkhu at the Jetavana monastery. One day his teacher sent him to another monastery to study. While he was away, his father became seriously ill and died without seeing him. But his father left for him one hundred kahapanas with his brother, the boy's uncle. On his return, his uncle told him about his father's death and about the one hundred kahapanas left to him. At first, he said that he had no need of the money. Later, he thought that it might be better to return to lay-life, and as a result, he got dissatisfied with the life of a bhikkhu. Gradually, he began to lose interest in his life and was also losing weight. When other bhikkhus knew about this, they took him to the Buddha.

The Buddha asked him whether it was true that he was feeling unhappy with his life as a bhikkhu and whether he had any capital to start the life of a layman. He answered that it was true and that be had one hundred kahapanas to start his life with. Then the Buddha explained to him that he would need to get food, clothing, household utensils, two oxen, ploughs, pickaxes, knives, etc., so that his one hundred in cash would hardly meet the expenses. The Buddha then told him that for human beings there could never be enough, not even for Universal Monarchs who could call for a shower of coins or gems or any amount of wealth and treasures at any moment. Further, the Buddha related the story of Mandatu, the Universal Monarch, who enjoyed the glory of the devas both in the Catumaharajika and Tavatimsa realms for a long time. After spending a long time in Tavatimsa, one day, Mandatu wished that he were the sole ruler of Tavatimsa, instead of sharing it with Sakka. But this time, his wish could not be fulfilled and instantly he became old and decrepit; he returned to the human world and died soon after.

Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:
Verses 186 & 187: Not by a shower of coins can sensual desires be satiated; sensual desires give little pleasure and are fraught with evil consequences (dukkha). Knowing this, the wise man, who is the disciple of the Buddha, does not find delight even in the pleasures of the devas, but rejoices in the cessation of craving (i.e., Nibbana).

At the end of the discourse the young bhikkhu attained Sotapatti Fruition.
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Under Your Skin

A Thai forest monk explains why a healthy body image is not what you think it is.
By Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Part 1 of 2

During my first year as a monk, when I was staying at a monastery near Bangkok, we received an invitation from the children of a man in the last stages of liver cancer, asking for some monks to visit their father in the hospital, as he wanted to make merit and hear the dhamma one last time before he died. Five of us went the next morning, and the senior monk in the group chatted with the man for quite a while to put his mind at ease and help him prepare for his coming death. Now was the time, the monk said, for him to put aside all concern for his body and to focus instead on the state of his mind so that it wouldn’t be overcome by pain as his body fell apart.

Suddenly the man blurted out that the worst part of the cancer wasn’t the pain. It was the embarrassment. All his life he had prided himself on staying fit and trim while his friends had gotten fat and paunchy, but now his belly was so horribly bloated from the cancer that he couldn’t bear to look at it or to imagine what other people might think, seeing him like this. No matter how much the senior monk tried to reassure him that it was nothing to be ashamed of—that this was part of the body’s normal nature beyond anyone’s control—the man wouldn’t let go of the conviction that his body had betrayed him and was now an embarrassment in the eyes of the world.

All through the conversation I couldn’t help thinking that the man would have suffered a lot less if he had taken some of the time he had devoted to looking fit and spent it on contemplating the unattractiveness of the body instead. I myself had never felt much enthusiasm for this particular meditation theme—I preferred focusing on the breath, and would contemplate the parts of the body more out of a sense of duty than anything else. But now I saw that the Buddha’s teaching on body contemplation was really an act of kindness, one of the many effective and essential tools he left behind to help alleviate the sufferings of the world.

On the way back to the monastery, I also realized, to my chagrin, that I had been complacent about my attitude toward my own body. Despite my contemplation of my liver, intestines, and everything else under my skin, I still took pride in the fact that I had kept fit when other people my age were getting a little flabby. Although I had consciously resisted the unrealistic standards for looking good fostered by the media, I had felt a little moral superiority about staying in good shape. But now I had to admit that even my “reasonable” amount of pride was dangerous: I, too, was setting myself up for a fall. Eating and exercising to be healthy may generally be a good policy, but a concern for looking healthy can be unhealthy for the mind.

Most of us in the West, of course, don’t see it that way. Because the modern obsession with impossibly perfect body images has taught so many people to hate their bodies to a pathological degree, we’ve come to identify all positive body images as psychologically healthy, and all negative body images as psychologically sick. When we learn of the Buddha’s recommendations for contemplating the body, we see them as aggravating rather than solving the problem. What we need, we think, is a way of meditating that develops positive images of the body as a beautiful and sacred vehicle for expressing compassion and love.

From the Buddha’s perspective, though, this attitude is radically deluded. As a prince he had been no stranger to the obsession of trying to measure up to extravagant standards of beauty. If you read the monastic rules describing the means of beautification denied to monks and nuns—creams, cosmetics, jewelry, red dye for hands and feet—you realize that India was just as obsessed with superhuman ideals of beauty as we are.

Through the Buddha’s understanding of how perceptions of the body can function both as aids and hindrances in the quest for liberation, he came to realize that there are four kinds of body images, not just two: healthy positive, unhealthy positive, healthy negative, and unhealthy negative—“healthy” meaning leading to long-term happiness; “unhealthy” leading to long-term suffering and pain.

When you understand this point, you’ll see that his teachings on the body are aimed at liberating us from unhealthy body images of both sorts and replacing them with both sorts of healthy images. And when you understand the dangers of un-healthy body images—whether positive or negative—along with the freedom that comes from cultivating both sorts of healthy body images, you’ll realize that the Buddha’s training in resetting your body image is both a useful defense against the skewed messages of our culture and a necessary part of the Buddhist path.

Unhealthy body images, whether positive or negative, start with the assumption that the body’s worth is measured by the beauty of its appearance. The damage done by this assumption when it leads to negative body images is common knowledge, but the damage done when it leads to positive images is just as bad, if not worse.

This is because the perception of beauty carries a power. We sense the power wielded by the people we perceive as attractive, and we want to exert the same power ourselves. This is one of the reasons we resist the idea of seeing the body as unattractive, for that would be to deny ourselves a major source of the power we consciously and unconsciously try to wield. We forget, or choose to ignore, the dangers that this kind of power entails.
The desire to use your beauty to exert control over others ends up enslaving you to those you hope to control.

First, it leads to unskillful karma. Because beauty is a quality that invites comparison, it often carries with it a sense of pride and conceit with regard to those you perceive as less attractive than you, along with the kinds of unskillful actions that pride and conceit can so easily engender.

Second, it’s fragile. No matter how hard you try to stave off the signs of aging, they always arrive too soon. The pride that once sustained you now turns around to stab you. Even when the body is at the pinnacle of its health and youth, to perceive it as beautiful requires huge blind spots: that you ignore any external features that are less than beautiful, that you view it only from certain angles and when the lighting is just so—and don’t even think of what lies inside, just under the skin, ready to ooze out of your orifices and pores. Because these unattractive features can show themselves at any time, you need constant reassurance that no one else notices them, and even then you wonder if the people reassuring you are telling you the truth.

When you’re attached to something so fragile, you’re setting yourself up to suffer. The appearance of each new wrinkle becomes a source of fear and anxiety, and when this is the case, how will you not be afraid of aging, illness, and death? And if you can’t overcome this fear, how will you ever be free?

And third, the fragility of this power also enslaves you to others. When you want to look good to others, you’re placing your worth in their hands. This is why people who are self-conscious about their looks resent being the object of someone else’s objectifying gaze. They would prefer that it be an expression of pure admiration, but they know deep down that it often isn’t. Do those who are gazing at you really admire you? What standards are they measuring you against? Even if they do admire you, how pure is the driving force behind their admiration? Is their attention something you really want? Even though you may have cultivated your beauty as a means of power, you can’t control who that power will draw to you, or why.

When you internalize the gaze of others, you’re a prisoner of what, in reality, you’re reading into their gaze—an uncertain process at best. The more you want to believe in your own beauty, the more you become attracted to people who show signs of being attracted to you, but then you find yourself serving their interests rather than your own.

In your quest to develop and maintain your beauty, you also become a slave to the beauty industry in its various forms—an industry that holds out the promise that perpetual beauty is possible but at the same time keeps pushing the ideal of beauty to more and more impossible extremes, requiring more and more of your money and time. These extremes can even compromise our health, as we see in the cult of freakishly thin female models and morbidly muscular men.

This is probably the most ironic aspect of the power of beauty: that the desire to use your beauty to exert control over others ends up enslaving you to those who promise to help you maintain your beauty as well as to those you hope to control.

In contrast to an unhealthy positive body image, a healthy one focuses not on how good the body can look but on the good it can do. As an object of concentration, the body can be a source of rapture and well-being to sustain you on the path. We learn to appreciate the body as a tool for expressing kindness and developing the inner beauty of generosity and virtue—which, as the Buddha noted, are beautiful even through old age (see SN 1.51). With this sort of body image, the appearance of wrinkles is not a threat to the worth of your body but simply a reminder to accelerate our efforts to do good as time is running out.

Most people believe that it’s possible to appreciate the body both because of its potential for beauty and because of its potential for goodness, but an unhealthy positive body image undermines a healthy positive body image because the time and energy spent on shoring up your perception of your own beauty lessens the time and energy you could spend on doing good.

At the same time, the hidden agendas of beauty often confuse and pervert your perception of what “good” really is. This confusion, for instance, is what allows spiritual teachers to claim that sex with their students can be a sacred and healing activity. No one who is free of an unhealthy positive or negative body image would seriously entertain such an idea.

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