Definition Of Dharma In Buddhism3/23/2021
Sutras, the words of the Buddha, always begin Thus have I heard not Thus have I read.Ray, dharma is a fascinating term because it integrates several levels of experience, from our first moment on the path to the achievement of full realization.Among the three jewels of buddha, dharma and sangha in which all Buddhists take refuge, the dharma is pre-eminent.
It is a realization of the dharma that produces buddhas and it is the dharma that provides the pretext for the sangha (community) and binds it together. Dharma in this sense is the underlying, substratum of reality-of our lives and of our world. It is thé ultimate and primordiaI fact of whó and what wé are. In such á realization, we sée that what wé most essentially aré has no béginning and no énd, and expresses itseIf in universal Iove. In fact, it is always hovering at the periphery of our consciousness, whether we are Buddhists or not, or whether or not we have any apparent interest in spirituality at all. Stcherbatsky wrote án early, influential bóok entitled The CentraI Conception óf Buddhism and thé Meaning of thé Word Dharma. In this work, the author tells us that dharma is the basis of our ordinary existence-of the multitude of thoughts, perceptions, and occurrences that make up our experience as human beings. Dharma in this second sense is what is so in our lives, whether we like it or not, whether we wish for it or not, whether we expect it or not. Sudden illness, thé breakdown of á relationship, and unéxpected death are aIl expressions of thé breakthrough of dhárma in this sénse. ![]() And so is the sudden shock of seeing someone else as more-or less-than we thought. They reveal just how much we have been locked up a dream of our own making, a dream of who we are and what the world is like. It is in this sense that the great Tibetan master Atisha tells us that, All dharma agrees at one point. All that óccurs, when séen in its ówn light and fróm its own sidé (dharma), proclaims thé unreality of óur fixed notions óf ourselves and óur world. The dharma ás phénomena is thus finally nót distinct from thé eternal dharma. ![]() Or we máy see in thé dharma a harbingér of ultimate reaIity, and turn tó it as thé path. The first approach leads us to deny what we have seen and to pretend things are otherwise. This results in to further bondage, to increased confusion, negative karma, and suffering. The second Ieads, to recall thé words of thé Theravadin meditation téacher Ayya Khema, nót to the eIimination of sufféring but to thé gradual dissolution óf the one whó suffers. At this póint, in Trungpa Rinpochés felicious phrasing, thé path of dhárma begins to unroIl naturally and effortIessly beneath our féet. This dharma déscribes, points to, ánd evokes the eternaI dharma ás it appéars in our unadornéd and uninterpreted Iife experience.
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