Different people have different perceptions of what the Buddha Dhamma or the Buddha’s Teaching is and what it is not as a religion. Samma ditti or A Right Understanding of the thrust of the Buddha Dhamma would help to remove the distortions. This will in addition enable a person to simultaneously benefit fully from the profound teachings and life-lessons the Buddha bequeathed for the benefit of all humankind and the world.
It is important for us to first recognise that the Buddha Dhamma is not a Doctrine for theorising religious ideas, concepts and beliefs. Neither is it a platform for us to indulge in speculative reasoning or to crystal gaze or delve in hypothetical conjectures about our present life and the life hereafter. Equally important is the fact that the Buddha was clearly not interested in insisting that we should all be highly knowledgeable of the Buddha Dhamma by earnestly studying the scriptures and retaining all the Teachings and stanzas in our heads through rigorous memorisation.
The Buddha placed instead a singular emphasis on the practice and practical application of the Buddha Dhamma in daily life as the primary purpose of the religion. This distinct thrust on the internalisation of His Teaching in daily life is succinctly captured in numerous insightful teachings. One which underlines this fundamental teaching is: “A single day of practice of the Dhamma is more valuable than a hundred years of its theoretical study and memorisation.” The essence and benefits of the Buddha Dhamma is clearly in the practice and practical application of the sublime, timeless teachings and in ‘being’ and not in merely ‘knowing’ the religious scriptures and quoting them by chapter and verse. As the age old saying goes, “the test of the pudding is in its eating”. So, to benefit fully from the Buddha Dhamma one should practise the Timeless Sublime Buddha Dhamma in daily life.