Faith and Legacy- a journey towards Buddhism
A man, after long years of practice and
contemplation claims by another practitioner “I did it, I am enlightened now,
what about you”. The other man laughingly reciprocates “where is I, keep
meditating”.
Faith by its various
perspectives.
Seeing is believing, or
believing is seeing? Does it touch the term faith?
Pertinent truth of the faith,
from the Buddhist sutras and texts can be seen through the life of Siddhartha
Gautama, the then prince of a kingdom, an only heir to his royal lineage,
before he denounced the beauty and pleasures of a princely life, but worldly. He
was common being like us, bound by the chain of extreme bliss within the four
walls, therefore, a life full of abundance and choices, unheard and unseen of
the existence of so-called suffering. However, by virtue of time or the awaited
destination, one day he happened to step out, where then he encountered various
forms of worldly stages of life- old age, sickness and death, yet unaware of
the fact that he could be one day going through the same stages, nor he knew
that those were the sufferings.
Unlike common beings like us,
where we come across such situations countless and yet untouched to depth of
the heart, his already ripened compassion took him through the extreme and
unbearable pain, which then arose in him, an unshakable faith and determination
to go into depth as to what was that and how to overcome. That very faith and
determination led him towards complete renunciation, physically and mentally from
all the worldly affairs, where then he went into extreme penance, sitting under
the Bodhi tree and sustaining on single grain of rice a day, until he fully
understood the reality of existence, a stage of complete awakening.
Understanding all, he again developed another stage of unshakable faith and
commitment, to instill same wisdom and compassion into all other beings, so
that all other samsaric beings could as well achieve his state of awakening. However,
besides the efforts of teachings to guide us into the right path, in the
virtual world, the term faith is by virtue limited to our physical capacity of
thinking and contemplation, just aimed at meeting ones comfort and choices. For
instance, our faith on education to become doctor, or running a successful
business to become rich. Therefore, all the efforts of faith in this category
are transitory, almost inevitably accompanied by some sort of sorrow, endlessly
cycling through birth, death and rebirth, governed by the principle of causes
and effect.
The Buddha’s realization of the
existence of Buddha nature in all sentient beings and our capacity to be
awakened demonstrates high degree of recognition in the value of life in
sentient beings, which otherwise implies the sense of deep faith in the truth
of this world and the samsara as a whole, its suffering status, the law of
cause and effect, the emptiness and the possibility of awakening. Few of these
wisdom got deeply instilled in myself, that I now feel blessed to have this
birth, in the place governed by conditions to choose the path, to atleast set
my footstep into the journey of liberation with strong faith of achieving, be
it now or in one of the future lives to come.
Let me now talk of faith in
myself, and the journey towards the path of ultimate bliss. I come from a small
village located in South Central Bhutan, which comprises of only two religious
groups- Hinduism and Buddhism, and I am the descendant of Hinduism. An
auspicious start towards Buddha footsteps- in 2003, when I was in high school,
undergoing my 12th standard, I and my elder sister lived in a small rented
apartment in the outskirts, whereby, over a few hundred meters above, on a
small hill top, stands a majestic Buddhist temple with one old monk of late 80s
(and still). Over the period, I found a reason to visit that temple, initially
as a source of blessings and hope for qualifying through my studies, and also
to rejoice the serene beauty of that peaceful environment during cooler hours, so
that I could concentrate well on my studies. The frequency of visits started
increasing either for study or circumambulations, becoming almost a daily
routine, greeting the old monk. One fine day, I remember his soft voice asking
me for a favor, and that favor was to stay with him. Without a second thought,
my voice echoed "yes I will certainly". Taking the opportunity
as blessings, I shifted all my belongings and started living in a temple. Over
the period of our togetherness, his adoption became more of grandson than a
stranger, with full trust, to the extent that he could leave entire temple in
my charge to be guarded upon, making me to offer butter lamps and incense, circumambulation,
or entertaining the visitors during his absence. He guided me at times through
the basics of Buddhism, the meaning, practices and the fruit, though my
approach towards learning Buddhism was minimal, confusingly being divided
between two dharmic paths. Confused because, just few months back only I
completed two large volumes of hindu texts, Ramayan, and Mahabharat, understanding
the path. Anyway, not being so divided by the different views, I enjoyed
closely observing those sacred statues, relics, texts and the type of practices
he did. Finally, I completed my studies successfully and then left for my higher
studies.
Almost 7 years later, after I
joined service in 2010, and having seen the world from various perspectives, I
started feeling the true craving for learning Buddhism, not just to overcome
boredom of free hours, but for true wisdom, and that was when questions started
erupting in my mind; what is Buddhism, where can I find it- in the statues,
texts, or what makes me a different person being Buddhist, and many more. This
longing was not simply a quest to learn, but the true faith and devotion so deep
and unwavering that even seeing the Buddhist statues or simply their thoughts
brought emotions and tears rolling down my eyes. I started feeling that Buddhas
are in me, everywhere and blessing me every time, holding torch of wisdom and
lighting my path. The emotion of love and devotion went so unbearable that I
wanted to leave my profession and family, and enter the monkhood. With same
faith, I once travelled to Sikkim, India to join monkhood. However, not
fulfilling for some reasons, I then went to one of the Buddhist monasteries in
Bhutan, located in a place called Bumthang, to a master, H.H. 7th Namkhai
Nyingpo Rimpoche, literally translated as the one who has the power to fly over
the sun’s rays. Having gone here and there, all through the journey of seeking
the path, I got striking answers, the wisdom and advice to me
that “practicing Buddhism is not external, and one needn’t necessarily
change robe or quit job” however, with the door open for me if I really weigh
the possibility of me being a fervent practitioner besides extreme mental
turmoil of having left everything behind. One very strong grasp of wisdom
on that juncture was that physical display of our practice is just the
discipline and lineage tradition, which too needs to be shed off one day, as I
came across various truths and explanations that Buddhism is more of the
“Science of life” explaining the possibilities beyond this very moment. That
was when I got convinced to seek middle path thereafter, balancing social,
professional and spiritual journey of living Buddhism, and thus I am here today,
not as a monk but simply a practitioner- more appropriate to describe myself as
culturally Hindu, spiritually Buddhist.
Every time I think of my practice, I correlate the immense support and guidance
of my fortune grandfather- the monk who groomed me through basics.
All these I correlate as the
birth of true faith, and in fact the highest state, because as for Buddha,
there was no one to guide him, until he found the answer in himself, whereas
for us, we have thousands of volumes explaining what is truth, thus our job is
just to walk the path undoubtedly.
To talk of legacy, the highest
legacy in Buddhism is the faith itself, the faith in Buddha and their teachings,
the faith in Buddha Nature of all sentient beings, and its full recognition as
the true enlightenment.
To conclude, nurturing the right
faith for right practice under right guidance shall lead us to reap the highest
achievement of mind training and enlightenment. For the purpose, the path is
open to all, just that if one really wish to walk that path.
THE END
