Chapter 38. The Universal Principle of Buddhist Practice
The Three Universal Principle of
Buddhism
The original Buddhist teachings taught
by the Lord Gotama Buddha are available in numerous categories. And the Lord Buddha selected the right Dharma
topic to teach people with different preferences. To simplify, we can claim that the Lord
Buddha ‘put the right man to the right Dharma.’
For example, the Lord Buddha once demonstrated a famous beautiful lady’s
corpse to teach his disciples the contemplation on decaying of impermanent body
whereas, on the another occasion, the Lord Buddha used his magic power to
create the image of beautiful female angel to motivate one of his royal cousin
to practice meditation in order to meet and enjoy the angels in heaven.
Despite of the fact that there are
numerous Dharma topics to learn and practice, the Lord Buddha had made an
exclusive essential teaching called Ovadapatimokkha Discourse on Magha
Puja Day (the full-moon day of the third lunar month) or The Fourfold Assembly
Day. The discourse concludes the principle
of Buddhism which requires three practices namely (1) Doing no bad deed (2)
Doing only good deed, and (3) Keeping up with mental purity.
Moreover, according to Ukkatitanyu
Discourse, the Lord Buddha compared and contrasted people to different stages
of lotus flowers as follows:
(1)
Lotus flowers
in the mud are people who have wrong views and are not ready to learn the
Dharma.
(2)
Lotus flowers
in the water are those who are eligible to learn and practise the Dharma to
attain enlightenment later on in the future.
(3)
Lotus flowers
on the water are those who are ready to learn the Dharma and become enlightened
very soon.
(4)
Lotus flowers
above the water surface are competent people who can attain enlightenment
promptly when they come across the Dharma.
In Dhammonomics, we can use a graph to express
the universal principle of Buddhism by synchronising to the Lord Buddha’s
comparison of people to the four stages of lotus flowers as the followings:
(a)
One who
abstains from doing bad deeds has better quality of mind, and this can be indicated
on the x-axis of our graph. The more one
abstains from bad deeds, the higher value of ‘x,’ and the less is toward the ‘-x,’
where x-axis is accounted as the ‘water surface.’
(b)
One who does
more good deeds has better quality of mind, and this can be shown on the y-axis
of our graph. The more good deeds one does,
the more value of ‘y,’ and the less is toward the ‘-y.’
(c)
(x,y) and (-x,-y)
can be plotted on our graph to show how one can have more or less purity of
mind (m) as the result of abstaining from bad deeds (x) and doing good deeds (y);
otherwise, the plotting will be on (-x) and (-y).
(d)
Each of (x,y)
and (-x,-y) marks each of the four stages of lotus flowers in comparison and
contrast to different groups of people who do or do not put the universal principle
of Buddhism into practice.
(e)
(-x1,-y1)
marks the lotus flower in mud, representing one who does not follow the three
practices in the principle of Buddhism. Thus,
one is too incompetent to learn the Dharma.
(f)
(-x2,-y2)
marks the lotus flower in water, representing one who, somewhat, avoids bad
deeds, does good deeds, and has pure mind up to a level. This one is more
likely to be successful in learning the Dharma, but it will take a longer time
for achievement. However, (x) and (y)
can be both or either positive or negative in this case due to variation of
people.
(g)
(x3,y3) marks
the lotus flower on the water surface, meaning one who applies the three
practices at the greater extent to enjoy noble fruition so soon.
(h)
(x4,y4) marks
the lotus flower above the water surface, signifying one who can promptly
attain enlightenment with fulfilled requirement of the three practices.
(i)
The dotted
graph (m) represents the purity of one’s mind in relationship with the value of
avoiding bad deed (x) and doing only good deed (y) and vice versa.
In conclusion, our graph of the
universal principle of Buddhist practice is the typical one, but there can
possibly be more variation of (x), (y), (-x), and (-y) while the lotus flowers
can shift to other positions to represent different type of people.
According to the aforesaid, we can see
how Buddhist teachings correlate to form a single functional system. More importantly, Dhammonomics reveals how we
can convert the Buddhist doctrines into ‘natural philosophy’ and render them
with economic tool such as a graph to prove their logic which is universal for
all to learn.
by Pirajak Tisuthiwongse
(former name/
pen name: Pirajak Suwapatdecha,
Pittaya Tisuthiwongse, Pittaya Wong)
First
Version: 27 June 2021, 17:37 pm. (Thailand Time)
Second
Version: 28 June 2021, 9:52 am. (Thailand Time)
www.meditation101.org
Source of study:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
