Lama Jampa Thaye: A Buddhist is traditionally defined as somebody who takes refuge in, or relies upon, the Three Jewels: the Buddha, as teacher; the Dharma, as the path to practice; and the Shanga, the community, as the companions with whom they practice Dharma.
Jana Igunma: There are three main traditions, Mahayana, in East Asia mainly, parts of Southeast Asia as well, Vatrayana is more practiced in Central Asia, and Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.
Lama Jampa Thaye: A geographic dispersal, with lack of communication between different centres of Buddhism, even in India, let alone when it spreads outside, definitely geography and accident in a way, played its role in ensuring that one tradition emphasised particular scriptures, another tradition emphasised their particular favourite scriptures. In this kind of happenstance way the tradition grew.
Dr Betty Kunjara: The Buddha was born in a royal family, but at the age of 29 he lived happily, but he found that there’s a samsara, which means that birth, getting old, ill, and dying. So he left the palace and went out to learn how to find the truth of life, and then he practiced by himself as well by Vipassana meditation, training the mind, and at the age of 35, at Bodhgaya under the Bo tree he attained enlightenment, and he knew the truth of life, the way of life, and he was wondering whether, who he can teach, because this is a higher state of knowledge. He went to teach his disciples who used to be with him before, and the first sermon he taught was on the four noble truths, which is the foundation of the Buddha, and how you can get rid of suffering, you have to do a noble ethical path. So when we know the life of the Buddha, we know how to be happy and live the life to the full, with the consciousness and without suffering.
Venerable Phramaha Bhatsakorn Piyobhaso: Our texts are called Tipitaka. The Tipitaka means the three baskets, three collections of the Buddha’s teachings, and there are Vinaya Pitaka, the collection of monastic codes, and rules, rites and rituals, and Sutra Piá¹aka, the collection of discourses given by the Buddha himself, or by his closest disciples, and the last one, Abhidharma Pitaka, the collection of higher teachings, Abhidharma means the higher teachings. In the Theravada tradition, the Buddha’s teachings were recorded in the Pali language, so for us the Tipitaka is the main source, in order to examine, to investigate, and to make a comparison if the teaching is right or wrong. It always goes back to the source. It is very large, I think about over 20,000 pages.
Lama Jampa Thaye: Other schools wrote their scriptures in Sanskrit. The Tibetans translated these from about the 8th century onwards and it took several centuries actually. There are scriptures which we feel are authentically Buddhist teachings which are not included in the Pali cannon but which we include, in short the Mahayana teachings and the Tantric teachings. So we consider them legitimately part of the Tipitaka. Dharma is a Sanskrit word and has, actually, many meanings, but in this particular context we mean the body of teachings that stems from the Buddha’s activity two and a half thousand years ago. So it’s not just literary scriptures but it’s also this presentation, this transmission of teachings as direct personal advice from one master to their disciples. All that is the dharma.
Venerable Phramaha Bhatsakorn Piyobhaso: So basically monks have two tasks: learning and teaching. Learning about the teaching, and then spread the teaching. To be a good monk you need to know all of the monk’s precepts. So there are 277 precepts and are called patimokkha – monastic codes. In fact as a Buddhist monk we have more than that, and there are approximately 3,000 precepts for monks. A minor one for example, as a Buddhist monk, if you have a wound on your face you are not allowed to use a mirror. If you need to take a nap during the daytime, you need to close the door, you can’t simply leave the door open and take a nap during the daytime. But these precepts are not included in the 277 precepts – we call them minor rules.
Venerable Ru Hai: So, the precepts are our foundation and the basis of being a human. Similarly, a country cannot be without laws. A household cannot be without rules. Precepts are standard for Buddhist practitioners. As a female Buddhist, after we renounce to become a monastic, we transcend gender forms. So both males and females have to undertake the same responsibilities; there is no difference.
Venerable Phramaha Bhatsakorn Piyobhaso: For the laypeople their main job is to support the monk’s work, for example to support the monks with food and accommodation, robe. We show appreciation to the sangha, sangha means the members of monastics, for what they have done, from the beginning in ancient times until today. We have a chance to learn about Buddhism because of the sangha, because the sangha members hand the Buddhist teachings from generation to generation until our time.
Melodie Doumy: We’re looking at a horizontal scroll, written in Chinese, that would have been read from right to left, so you have columns of text so they would have also been read then from top to bottom. It’s about five metres long, and so it’s made of several sheets of paper originally glued together. It starts with a beautifully illustrated frontispiece. In the Diamond Sutra the Buddha basically explains that there is no such thing as a permanent not-changing self. This is a very special copy of the Diamond Sutra because it’s the world’s earliest reliably dated printed book. By using printing then monks or Buddhist believers found a method that allowed them to reproduce the text with extreme accuracy, but also on a very large scale.
Hamish Todd: The Lotus Sutra is one of the most influential sutras particularly in East Asia and it’s regarded as being one of the key texts containing the teachings of the Buddha. One of the key doctrines of the Lotus Sutra is that all sentient beings, all living beings, can attain Buddhahood in their current existence.
Venerable Ru Hai: To me, Buddhism and Dharma is not just a faith. It is a philosophy of life that has changed my life and way of thinking. It has also changed the way I deal with things. It is a great wisdom of life.
SOURCE: British Library
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