Differences between the same

Q : I would like to present my personal situation. I got married and my wife is Christian. She has her own views and believes in God and Jesus, and doesn’t respect any others’ God or Buddha. In this case, my point of view is that either practising Buddhism or Christianity, whoever has a religion is to learn how to become a good person and how to set a good moral lesson to teach for people. I think that there is no barrier to the Buddhism or Christianity to practise to become a good person. So my question is that if I understand religions this way, there will be no obstacles for my wife to practise meditation. Is it correct? Here I want to emphasize that the image of the Buddha and the image of Jesus Christ are the same one. It means no difference. To someone who believes in the Buddha and another one who believes in Jesus Christ, if I explained that they are same, am I correct?

A : Whatever we do in our life, we do it to be a really good person. In order to become a good person, we should understand that we should learn how to get the real freedom. This is the most important point. If we don’t understand the real meaning of freedom, we can’t get the real happiness we want. In our life, we find that there are so many things to do, such as religions, pleasures, works, jobs, even families, and we do these things to aim to happiness. But happiness must base on freedom. If we want to understand the real happiness, we must understand freedom. If we want to understand freedom, we must understand what the Truth is. If we don’t understand the Truth, we can’t get the freedom in our mind. So if we want to understand the Truth, we have to accept that everything occurs for a reason. If we don’t know the reasons behind it, it can’t be the truth any more. If this is not true, we can’t get happiness. This is the way. So we must try to learn what the reasonable thinking is, what the reasonable views are, or what an important thing is. Having the right view, we can understand the reason of all. According to the Buddha’s teaching, this is the“ Religion of the reason” as the Buddha didn’t accept any creations. We must take responsibilities for our actions; no one can be responsible for our actions. If we have done something wrong, we are the ones to get the wrong effects. This is reasonable. If we have done something right, we are the ones to get the right effects. There is no creation. So if we can understand the reasonable things, we stand up from the wrong actions with the right view and the truth. If we can do this, our mind can be free and we can get happiness. So depending on people’s views, religions are arisen but every religion depends on believing while the Buddha’s teachings is: do not depend on the believing but depend on the facts and until we get the confidence. Confidence means taking responsibilities of our selves. The result will come when we are in death and at that time our mind is really free and we can get happiness even in the death moment.

According to practising the Buddha’s qualities, we must take the objects of the Buddha’s image or the Buddha statue that we like the most. After that we can clearly comtemplate these objects for at least one hour, and after that we will understand the qualities of the Buddha. Because of the qualities of the Buddha, the image has disappeared and only our concentration on the qualities of the Buddha remains. This is the way of practising. So if we have Parami before you have a chance to see the Buddha, at that time you will have a chance to see the Buddha again. But anyhow, we must try to understand Buddha’s qualities not as an image. So what I like to explain is that when practising the Buddha’s qualities, we must focus on the Buddha’s qualities not the images. On the same concept, whenever we see a person, we must try to understand his qualities not on his appearance. According to the Buddha’s teachings of the right view, there are no men or women. They are just five aggregates and we should see them as the material relative and mentality relative. So if we understand religions in the same way, we will understand the qualities and realities. If the Jesus can explain the Four Noble Truths, then we can say that he is the same as the Buddha since the qualities are the same. If the Jesus can’t explain the Four Noble Truths, we can’t say that the qualities are the same therefore we can’t say the Jesus and the Buddha are the same.

Venerable Dhammapala
Pa-Auk Forest Monastery, Myanmar
Question and answer on 09/06/2009 after Dhamma talk

Nguyenthuy Monastery, Vietnam