01.  FOURTEEN FUNDAMENTAL BELIEFS

 THE FOURTEEN FUNDAMENTAL BELIEFS OF BUDDHA DHARMA

1. Those dedicated men and women who follow the Dharma Path are taught to show the same tolerance, forbearance, COMPASSION and BENEVOLENT AFFECT to all, without distinction; and an unswerving kindness and protective attitude towards the members of the animal kingdom, in fact, towards the diversity of all life.

2. There was was no creation; and all functions according to natural law (Dharma), not at the behest of a Supreme Being. 

3. The truths upon which Buddhism is founded are natural. They have, we believe, been taught in successive world-periods by certain Awakened beings called Buddhas, the name Buddha meaning “Awakened.”

In the West we have this craving for this Awakening, when Buddha declared that it really was useful for nothing at all. He was absolutely correct. The use comes afterward, because all is not illuminated by the Awakening itself. It is the awakening to truth, not the truth itself.

4. The fourth teacher in the present world-period was Gautama Buddha, who was born to a ruling family in India about 1887 BCE. He is an historical person and his name was Siddhartha Guatama. Scientific evidence makes the Buddha's date of birth 1887 BCE.

5. Gautama Buddha taught that ignorance produced from the Dual Mind results in craving and clinging and a consequence of this is suffering.

Negative Karma is both Intention and Action and is the true cause of rebirth, not negative actions as popularly thought. The cycle of Dependent Origination is the generator of suffering.

6.  When ignorance is destroyed, the cycle of Dependent Origination is broken. Ignorance, craving, clinging and the consequential suffering cease. The worthlessness of every such rebirth, considered as an end to itself, is perceived, as well as the paramount need of adopting a course of life by which the necessity for such repeated rebirths can be abolished.

Ignorance also begets the illusive and illogical idea that there is only one existence for men, and the other illusion that this one life is followed by states of unchangeable pleasure or torment.

7.  The dispersion of all this ignorance can be attained by the persevering practice of an all-embracing Bodhisattva path in conduct, the development of natural and correct intelligence, wisdom in thought, and refraining (not renouncement, which in reality causes internal conflict) from sense desires and clinging or the lower personal pleasures.

8.  The perfected individual attains by meditation the highest state of peace called Nirvana, or the Primordial State of No-mind.

9. Gautama Buddha taught that ignorance, that is ,the symptoms of the Natural State, can be dispelled and sorrow removed by the knowledge of the Four Noble Truths, which are:

(1) There is universal Suffering.

(2) The source of Suffering is clinging and craving to sense desires through the dual mind, which never is satiated. 

(3) The elimination of the source. This is called the supreme truth.

(4) The basic means of obtaining this elimination is by following the Noble Eightfold Path:

Right Belief; Right Thought or Attitude;

Right Speech; Right Action;  Right Means of Livelihood; Right Exertion or Intention;

Right Mindfulness; and Right Meditation (the key word to maintain complete accord is Basic. So simple, but effective).

10. Right Meditation leads to spiritual awakening, or the development of a Buddha-like faculty which is latent in every man and woman.

       11. The essence of Buddhism, as summed up by the Buddha himself, is:

To refrain from all error,

To develop Buddhist virtue (this is different from Christian or other virtues), and

To purify the heart (the pure mind). (The heart is used not in a sentimental sense, but to differentiate the pure mind ALAYA from the Stained Consciousness which created the stained ego mind.)

12.  The universe is subject to a natural causation known as Karma. Each person,  therefore, has antecedent causes for the effects which he/she now experiences.

13.  The obstacles to the attainment of positive karma may be removed by the observance of the following precepts, which are embraced in the moral code of Buddha Dharma: 

(1) Refrain from killing; 

(2) Refrain from stealing; 

(3) Refrain from sexual misconduct; 

(4) Refrain from incorrect speech, which includes lying;

(5) Refrain from intoxicating or stupefying drugs or liquor. 

(These are less like religious commandments) 

Five other precepts which are not enumerated here should be observed by those who wish to attain freedom from the cycle of Dependent Origination more quickly than the average layman.

14. Buddha Dharma discourages superstitious practices. The Buddha taught it to be the duty of parents to have their children educated in science and literature. He also taught that no one should believe what is spoken by any sage, written in any book, or affirmed by tradition, unless it accords with direct experience. (Reason never enters in. In fact, it is an impediment.)