Today the Buddha Sæsanæ (the Buddha’s Teaching) is 2,522 years old and has the appearance of being advanced and aged in years. But, owing to its truth and accuracy, the Teaching is better, fresher and brighter than ever. As man ages, the food he used to take in his youth becomes indigestible. When this happens, he has to choose and partake of such dietetic food as his Khanda (the fivefold aggregates of his psycho-physical make up) can accept. The reason for this is not the indifferent quality of his normal food but the poor state of his digestion. Similarly, with the ageing of the Sæsanæ (Teaching) in these later times, the people’s faith in it declines and weakens so that traditional observances like Dæna charity) and Søla (Morality) no longer suffice to establish such faith. Bhævanæ (meditation) is needed as dietary supplement for proper assimilation of the teaching. This is not due to the indifferent quality of the teaching but to the declining faith of the people today. It is usual for worldly people believe only when they have experienced, known and seen for themselves, however, just as those who can not believe that man has reached the moon by space. Craft are deficient in scientific knowledge, so also those who lack faith in the Buddha’s teaching are low in the level of their religious (spiritual) perception. They need to practise the Buddha’s teaching themselves in order to raise the level. Diet does not mean extra ordinary food. It is just food that one is accustomed to take, but selected for its suitability for one in accordance with what is called sappæya-sampajañña (comprehension of suitability). In the same way, the Buddha has prescribed the dhamma diet for those who are lacking in faith in the three Gems of the Buddhist religion. Those who take this dhamma diet medicine will be cleansed not only of their physical suffering and ailments, but also of the usual mental defilements like greed and anger. Human suffering in this world is associated with mundane acts of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, thinking, going and coming, performing and speaking. The best diet-medicine of the Buddha for removing this physical and mental suffering and obtaining immediate relief from the same is described in this booklet and consists of meditation by way of noting all acts of seeing, hearing, walking and so on. Ability to distinguish between mind and matter by reading, listening to discourse and engaging in discussion is only of a conceptual nature and falls short of personal experiences and knowing through wisdom. In addition to the general knowledge which may be acquired through learning in the universities of Myanmar and the rest of the world, there is another and deeper kind of knowledge gained in a practical manner through life’s experiences. “Wisdom-knowledge” will conduce several times more to our present and future happiness than “learning-knowledge”. Only practical application of the Buddha’s Teaching will mean that we are taking the dhamma-diet medicine given by the Buddha. Only then will we receive the benefit of attaining Nibbæna, the cessation of all Saµsæric suffering. The Buddha started to turn the Wheel of the Dhamma 2,567 years ago in order to confer this benefit. Since then the Buddha has preached this Dhamma to the multitudes many times. Whenever somebody who could be liberated appeared, the Buddha did not hesitate to proceed to the home, the workshop or the cultivated field of the person concerned to preach and teach the Dhamma to him. In transmitting the Dhamma thus, the Buddha illustrated his teaching by different examples depending on the occupation and disposition of his hearer. Some people criticise the Buddha’s teaching as being archaic, outmoded and socially deadening; All these criticisms are totally incorrect. In the Buddha-dhamma are there not such suttas (discourses) as Ma³gala Sutta and Sa³gala Sutta which are concerned with social matters? By observing the teaching of these Suttas, human life can be made happy and peaceful. How can the Buddhist injunction to minimize greed and anger and to cultivate loving kindness and compassion, adversely affect human rights? It can only promote them. It will ease the processes of governmental administration and commerce. Are not bitter scars left behind in today’s world by the solution of problems and disputes through war, and is not the final solution only through peaceful negotiation? Then Ven. Mahasø Sayædaw’s talks and writings are invariably with the purpose of promoting world and Saµsæric peace. These talks and writings have already appeared in sixty-eight publications by the seventy fifth years of the Ven. Sayædaw’s life: The present booklet, the latest addition to the above collection of publications owes its origin to the suggestion and request of the Rev. Rewata Dhamma (a Myanmar Buddhist monk who has been preaching Buddha-Dhamma extensively in the west) that the Ven. Sayædaw may prepare some three or four talks to be read as lectures in his coming tour in the west. The following are the five talks prepared in accordance with the above suggestion: (1) The Noble
Teaching of the Buddha Of these talks prepared by the Ven. Mahasø Sayædaw in Myanmar, the first, The Noble Teaching of the Buddha, was translated into English by U Nyi Nyi (Mahasø Yogø), and the rest by U Tha Noe, M.A (Writer). The Teaching of the Buddha stresses the importance and value of Vipassanæ (insight) Meditation and describes how this meditation may be undertaken. It goes on to describe, accurately and clearly, the progress of Vipassanæ insight as meditation develops and the gaining of Nibbænic experience through the noble Magga ñæ¼a (Knowledge of the Path). The talk is also embellished and deals with forms of modern (Religious and secular) thought to suit the needs of (latter day) listeners.
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