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Teaching people who have
only recently encountered Buddhism I am often asked the
question "How do you become a Buddhist?" or "How do you
know when you are a Buddhist?" This type of enquiry is
indeed healthy and to be encouraged not only amongst
those new to Buddhism but also for people born and
raised as Buddhists. So go ahead and ask yourself: "Am I
a Buddhist?"
I expect that there will
be many who will answer "Yes" and those who say "No",
but I wonder how many will be thinking "Oh ... Ahm,.. I
don't know." So let us contemplate this business of
being a Buddhist a bit more.
To begin our enquiry it
may be worthwhile to know what the Buddha said on the
matter. The following episode is taken from the Buddhist
scriptures (Anguttara Nikaya, Vol IV):
"Once, the Lord dwelt
amongst the Sakyans in the Banyan Tree Monastery at
Kapilavatthu, and while there, Mahanama the Sakyan came
to him and asked;
"How, Lord, does one
become a lay disciple?"
"When one has taken
refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the
Sangha, then one is a lay disciple".
"How, Lord, is a lay
disciple virtuous ?"
"When a lay disciple
abstains from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct,
lying and drinking intoxicants, then he is virtuous."
Here the Buddha clearly
states that by taking refuge in the Buddha,
Dhamma and Sangha one becomes a disciple or, in
modern terminology, a Buddhist. The classical formula of
going for refuge which has been passed down from the
time of the Buddha is as follows;
Buddham
Saranam Gacchami
(I go for refuge to the Buddha)
Dhammam Saranam Gacchami
(I go for refuge to the Dhamma)
Sangham Saranam Gacchami (I go
for refuge to the Sangha)
However one does not
become a Buddhist through the mere repetition of these
words nor by the performance of any other ceremony
ritual or initiation. On the other hand, though one has
not performed any ceremony or ritual, one may still be a
Buddhist. Put simply, this means that no one can make
you a Buddhist nor can anyone stop you from being a
Buddhist. It is a volitional choice that one
makes when one has sufficient confidence in the
Teacher and the Teaching. In the commentaries to the
scriptures it explains this as, "It is an act of
consciousness devoid of defilements, motivated by
confidence in and reverence for the Triple Gem"...
Here I would like to
relate something of my own experience to help explain
this point. When I first came in contact with Buddhism I
did not consider myself a religious person. If anything,
I thought of myself as an atheist and felt that religion
had little relevance to real life. However I did find
the Buddha's Teachings and in particular the practice of
meditation very appealing. I had a desire to find out
more about it and this lead me into a monastery where I
was eventually ordained as a monk.
One day a young Thai
student, wanting to practise his English, casually asked
me "Are you a Buddhist?" But in my mind I wondered
whether or not I was a Buddhist. I must confess that it
was a strange position to be in - a Buddhist monk who
doesn't know whether he is a Buddhist! Yet that
situation persisted for over a year before the meaning
of both the question and the answer became clear to me.
During that year as I
continued to study and practise the Dhamma I
began to feel very comfortable with the teaching and
increasingly confident that this was the way for me.
With this came the conscious recognition that I had
chosen the Buddha as my Teacher and considered him as
the embodiment of the spiritual ideals of peace and
liberation. I had also chosen to follow the path
contained in his Teaching (the Dhamma) being
confident that it would lead to liberation. And while on
this path I would seek the guidance and try to emulate
the example of all the noble disciples who constitute
the Sangha. It was indeed wonderful to discover
that I was a Buddhist and not just a Buddhist monk!
Now becoming a Buddhist
does not mean that one has to either agree with or
believe in everything that is taught or practised by all
the countless Buddhist sects and groups throughout the
world. Nor do we have to believe that it is the only way
and that all the other religions are no good. It simply
means that having looked at and probed into this
teaching of the Buddha, having tried it and having seen
that it does work, one has confidence in it and chooses
to take refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and
Sangha.
However if you are still
unsure as to whether you are a Buddhist or you are not,
don't worry about it, just keep on practising.
With Metta,
Jagaro
Bhikkhu.
(Newsletter, April-June 1990, Buddhist Society of
Western Australia.)
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