What is the Teaching of the Buddha?
(Public Talk 3, Part 2) (14 October 1951)
by Thray Sithu Sayagyi U Ba Khin
In 1951, when Sayagyi was the Accountant General of Burma, he was requested by a religious study group to lecture on Teachings of the Buddha. The study group was headed by the information officer and the economic and finance officer of the Special Technical and Economic Division of the U.S. Government. Sayagyi presented a series of three lectures in Rangoon at the Methodist Church, Signal Pagoda Road. The following is abridged. (the ending part)
My dear Dhamma brothers and sisters!In the teaching of the Buddha we differentiate between loka-dhatu and dhamma-dhatu. By dhatu is meant the natureelements or forces. Loka-dhatu is therefore matter (with its nature-elements) within the range of the physical plane. Dhamma-dhatu, however, comprises mind, mental properties and some aspects of nature-elements which are not in the physical but in the mental plane. Modern science deals with what we call loka-dhatu. It is just a base for dhamma-dhatu in the mental plane. A step further and we come to the mental
plane; not with the knowledge of modern science, but with the knowledge of Buddha-Dhamma in practice.
At least Mr. H. Overstreet, author of The Mature Mind (W.W. Norton & Co., Inc., New York) is optimistic about what is in store for mature minds. He writes: The characteristic knowledge of our century is psychological. Even the most dramatic advances in physics and chemistry are chiefly applications of known methods of research. But the attitude toward human nature and human experience that has come in our time is new.
This attitude could not have come earlier. Before it came, there had to be long preparation. Physiology had to be a developed science; for the psychological person is also physiological. His makeup, among other things, is a matter of brain tissue, of nerves, of glands, of organs of touch, smell and sight. It was not until about seventy years ago that physiology was sufficiently developed to make psycho-physical research possible, as in the
laboratories of the distinguished German psychologist, William Wundt. But before physiology there had to be a developed science of biology. Since brain, nerves, glands and the rest depend upon all processes, the science of the living cell had to have its maturing before a competent physiology could emerge.
But before biology, there had to be chemistry; and before chemistry, physics; and before physics, mathematics. So the long preparation goes back into the centuries. There is, in short, a time clock of science. Each science has to wait until its hour strikes. Today, at least, the time clock of science strikes the hours of psychology, and a new enlightenment begins.
To be sure, the interests explored by this latest of the sciences are themselves old; but the accuracy of research is new. There is, in brief, a kind of iron logic that is in control. Each science has to wait for its peculiar accuracy until its predecessor has supplied the data and tools out of which its accuracy can be
made.
The time clock of science has struck a new hour: a new insight begins to be at our service. May I say that it is the Buddha Dhamma which should be studied by one and all for a new insight into the realities of human nature. In the teachings of the Buddha we have the cure for all the mental ills that affect mankind. It is the evil forces of the mind, past and present, that are responsible for the present state of affairs all over the world.
Nowadays, there is dissatisfaction almost everywhere. Dissatisfaction creates ill feeling. ill feeling creates hatred. Hatred creates enmity. Enmity creates war. War creates enemies. Enemies create war. War creates enemies, and so on. It is now getting into a vicious cycle. Why? Certainly because there is lack of proper control over the mind. What is man? Man is after all mental forces personified. What is matter? Matter is nothing but mental forces materialized, a result of the reaction of the moral (positive) and immoral
(negative) forces.
Buddha said: “Cittena niyati loko” (the world is mind-made). Mind therefore predominates everything. Let us then study the mind and its peculiar characteristics and solve the problem that is now facing the world.
There is a great field for practical research in the Dhamma.
Buddhists in Burma will always welcome whoever is anxious to have the benefit of their experience.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have made an attempt to give you the best of what I know about the teachings of the Buddha. I shall be glad to give any interested person further explanation on any point that he may wish to discuss. I am grateful to you for the kind attendance and the interest taken in my lectures.
May I again thank the clergy of the church for the permission so kindly given for this series of lectures.
Peace to all beings. (The end)
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